{1.} At this point, if anyone has any requests or ideas for stories they want me to write – whether it's a one-shot or not then I suggest you tell me. I like to know what others like to read, and what they would like to read. So, if you have any requests or suggestions, then tell me them in the PMs or comments.

{2.} In regards to the villagers from Remnant, the ones that will be shown will be some OCs that I've made. Hopefully, you'll like my OCs, and if you don't, then you'll probably be thrilled to hear that there aren't very many OCs. There's at least the Taylor family. You've already seen Sonny Taylor last chapter, and his daughter Allison has been mentioned.


Ruby Rose


"Ugh..."

Ruby's entire body had been coated with saliva, and not even her Aura could protect her from it. She felt disgusting and her clothes and hair were sloppy, and she didn't even want to think about what state her precious Crescent Rose was in. Ruby could barely lift her eyelids. What was even worse was that the tongue of Eren's Titan was on top of her; flattening her.

Ruby tried lifting herself up, but the saliva and Eren's tongue combined made it difficult to move. She saliva soaked her clothes and still enveloped her body entirely. Eren's tongue was not only heavy, but the underside of it was sticky, which in turn made her sticky. Ruby figured she could settle for trying to crawl out, but a miracle had already happened by the time she had raised her head

Steely grey eyes were the first thing Ruby saw when the weight of Eren's tongue was lifted off her. Mikasa was standing above her, holding Eren's tongue up for Ruby to move. Ruby wiped a bit of soaked hair from her forehead and gazed up at her saviour with widened eyes. The ribbon of Blake's Gambol Shroud was wrapped around Mikasa's abdomen. Mikasa held out one of her hands, offering Ruby a warm smile.

Ruby grabbed Mikasa's hand, letting the girl heave her up. Ruby planted her arms on Mikasa's shoulders, while Mikasa wrapped one arm around Ruby's midriff, one of her hands coming to rest on her side.

They were both tugged back up and caught by Blake, and when they landed, the Faunus helped both girls keep their balance. Ruby hadn't even steadied herself yet when she heard Captain Mitabi shouting at Captain Dietrich.

"Ian, snap out of it! What are you waiting for? Give the order!" Mitabi exclaimed, holding his hands in a grasping motion in front of him. "Hey, it's not like this is your fault! Come on! Look, this plan was doomed from the start! We all get that it wasn't worth a shot! Sure! Whatever! We did the best with what we had! But all we've got left now is going back over the wall!"

Ian didn't budge, but Ruby did see a drop of sweat travel down his face, showing that this was weighing down on him. Without an answer, Captain Mitabi spun on his heel and began walking away. However, he didn't get very far when Ruby skidded in front of him, her arms out wide. He stopped in front of her.

"Eren did not try to protect me just so you could give up on him!" Ruby screamed, before her brows furrowed and she growled at the man, her eyes narrowing. She was well aware of why Eren had eaten her: it was an attempt to protect her. From what, she didn't know, but at least she knew the reason. "If you were in his place, no one would want to leave you behind! So what gives you the right to abandon him?!"

"Stop! Now's not the time." Ian told Ruby, jogging up to where she and Mitabi stood. He turned to Rico and Mitabi: "Team Rico, take out the twelve-metre approaching from behind. Team Mitabi and I will handle the two front-runners."

"Are you nuts?!" Rico stepped forward, her eyes wide.

"In case you've forgotten, I'm the one in charge!" Ian snapped back at her. "Now do as your ordered, soldier! We are not leaving Jaeger defenceless, period! Change of plans! Our job now is to keep the others off him until he can be recovered." the Captain announced, and Ruby's muscles relaxed. "Whether we like it or not, he's still our last best chance. We're not about to abandon him. We're expendable, he isn't. He can't just be replaced."

"Please, don't talk to me about our last best chance!" Rico interrupted, raising her voice. "He's a failure countless soldiers have died because of! Just look at him, Ian! Are you saying you want more of us to die saving that?"

"That's right! Down to the last man! If that's what it takes, so be it!" Ian responded in retaliation. Rico's and Mitabi's jaws dropped.

"Ian, you can't be serious!" Rico yelled again. She was persistent, Ruby would give her that. But that persistence pricked at Ruby's mental annoyance metre.

"What other hope against the Titans do we have? You know something I don't? This is it! This is all we've got and you damn well know it! I am making a judgment call here! If you have a better plan, then speak up! How else are we ever gonna get out from under their feet?! I'm all ears here!" Ian yelled back at her.

"If you're asking me how else we'll defeat the Titans, obviously I have no idea." Rico replied, her expression deadpan with half-lidded eyes.

"See? That's why we can't afford to retreat. Not just yet. We may not know what else is in there, but there's hope. And as long as that's the case, we're gonna fight to the bitter end." Ian gritted his teeth. "Look at us. Always scraping by. Always on the run. Don't you... don't you want it to be over? Don't you wanna make a stand? Well, this is how it's done."

"This is just... this is madness." Rico said, before gritting her teeth and spinning on her heel.

"Hey!" Ian called out to her.

"I think you're right. If we're to stand, this is the only way. Just this once, let's fight a fight that's not just a battle of attrition. Let the bastards taste humanity's wrath." Rico declared with defiance. She carried on walking. "Right; my team will address the twelve-metre Titan coming from the rear."

Mitabi began walking in the opposite direction. "Well, we got the two in front or don't we?"

"Right..." Ian said in response.

Ruby raised her arm to wave at Ian as he followed on behind Mitabi. "Thank you!" She jumped up.

"There's no thanks needed, kid." Ian replied, glancing back at Ruby over his shoulder. "You're free now. Do your thing. Make good use of that skill." he told her. "After all he's tried to do for you, it's only right that you get the chance to do the same for him."

"I will! I promise!" Ruby smiled.

Captain Dietrich nodded and left. Ruby took a moment to observe the area, noting a few Titans lurking around some of the buildings nearby. There was one Titan that was even making it's way up the wall of a building, attempting to climb onto the roof. Another one was leaning against the other side of that same building, aiming for Ian and Mitabi. It reached its hand out to snatch up Mitabi, but Mikasa was already there.

Mikasa swiftly launched herself off of the rooftop and swerved through the air on her wires. She swung herself towards the Titan's nape, slicing out the weak spot in an instant. The Titan collapsed against the building.

Ruby stole a glance at Eren's Titan, and in her gut, she knew something wasn't right. She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes, attempting to determine what it was about him that felt... off? It took a moment for the fact to dawn on her.

The damage he'd sustained wasn't being repaired. His fists were still missing, and so was part of his face. His Titan body should have healed itself by now, shouldn't it?

Ruby was then distracted by another shout from a nearby rooftop. "A thirteen-metre! And from the looks of it, he's about to pounce on Jaeger!"

A Titan – apparently a thirteen-metre – was crawling on the rooftop, several feet away from Ian, Mitabi, and Mikasa.

"Heads up! We've got four more coming through the gate! All of them ten metres, at least!"

"Ruby, what do we do?" Blake turned to her.

Ruby clutched at her head. So many things were going on at once, she couldn't keep up, and it hurt her head to even try. She didn't know what she should answer Blake with, or what would be a good plan. Should she have Blake stay here and have one more hand in helping to protect Eren, or would Blake function better if she was sent out to find and help any other people?

"Do what you think is best. I don't know what will be best for you to in this situation, so I'm leaving you to make that decision yourself." Ruby told the older girl, grabbing Blake's shoulders. She was still loud enough to be heard by Blake, it seemed. Ruby raised her hand when Blake opened her mouth. "If you're going to ask me if I'm sure, yes; I'm sure. You're free. If you want to stay here with me and protect Eren, that's fine. If you want to go and help and save other people as well, I'll be fine with that as well. Just don't do anything... out of your league; please."

Blake's eyes widened, and she turned away, processing what Ruby had said. She spared a second to think before she nodded her head. "Alright," she said with a sigh, "I'll go and see how the others are doing. Jean and his friends would probably want help from one of us sooner or later. I trust you and Mikasa can handle protecting Eren?"

"Yeah. I don't see why we shouldn't be able—"

Ruby cut herself off as the sound of wires alerted her. When she looked to where the noise originated, she found Mikasa high above the Titan, flying behind it with the intent to kill. Mikasa descended upon its nape, slicing its weak spot with such ferocity that Ruby could have sworn she'd seen a blue streak, which came from her swords when she swung them.

The Titan's head laid flat on the ridge of the rooftop, and Mikasa used it as a platform to look over Eren. Ruby could've turned back to Blake and nodded, prompting the Faunus to leave the area.

"Ruby! Do you know where those Titans are coming from?" Mikasa suddenly asked her.

"Huh?" Ruby scratched her head. Her gaze turned to her left, where she found plenty of Titans walking the streets, disinterested in the clusters of Titans at the back of the district. It then occurred to her what Mikasa was talking about. Ruby extended Crescent Rose and stared back up at Mikasa. "No, I don't know!"

"There aren't enough of us to attract this many—!" Mikasa pointed out.

"Unless," Ruby's eyes landed on Eren, "they're after Eren! I don't know why, but they find him a more significant target than the soldiers in the decoy squad!" Ruby ascertained, watching as Mikasa's face paled.

"Mikasa! Ruby!"

Both girls were alerted by the sound of Armin's voice calling their names. Armin was standing on the top part of Eren's back, near his shoulder blades. Since when had he got there?

"Why'd the plan go belly up?!"

"Armin?!" both Mikasa and Ruby asked, surprised to see him. They hadn't even noticed him enter the fray.

"Why on earth is he just slumped here like this?!" Armin inquired again, motioning to Eren with his hand.

"Get away! It's dangerous!" Mikasa hastily warned him, swiping her sword at nothing. "Something went wrong! He lost control and wound up like that! I tried to snap him out of it, but I couldn't get him to respond! He's been out like this for the past few minutes!"

"But the plan—!" Armin tried to voice.

"We've had to shift-tack! All we can do is protect him! He's defenseless! And there's... there's just so many! I don't know how much longer we can keep this up!" Mikasa informed him. She seemed more than desperate, to the point where it disturbed even Ruby.

Armin spun around and stared at the nape of the Titan's neck, which was no doubt hiding Eren's actual body. Armin was about to grab one of his blades, but Ruby immediately leapt over to the blond and grabbed his hand.

"If we're planning stab a blade in there, I may as well be the one to do it." Ruby declared.

"Why you?" Armin nervously asked, confused as to why Ruby would suggest such a thing. "Do you think he'll answer you?"

"I've thought about the possibility that he's in a dream-like state, considering his body hasn't healed yet. I'm only going off my gut here, but my hypothesis is that whatever he's dreaming is distracting him from repairing his wounds, and he's completely forgotten that all of this is going on around him. If he's able to hear me, then it'll probably bring him back to the present." Ruby deduced, talking as the gears in her head spun. At this point, she may as well have spat out anything that made enough sense. "How else would you explain him not waking up or coming to his senses?"

"I'll admit, it may be a hypothesis, but with the way you put it, you have a point." Armin nodded. Ruby could see the gears in Armin's head, spinning ceaselessly behind his eyes. His eyes met Ruby's, and he nodded again. "Alright, I'm with you."

Ruby nodded and raised her Crescent Rose. At the bottom of the shaft was a small spear-like blade, which was red down the center, black in the middle, and had grey lining the outside. She pointed the blade down at the nape.

"From the back of the head to the nape of the neck," Armin revised as Ruby lowered her blade. "One metre high and ten centimetres across..."

"Ruby!" Mikasa called out to her, interrupting Armin.

"We're pulling him out of here!" Ruby answered Mikasa, refusing to look up. She was afraid of what she'd find if she lifted her head. "You just hold off the other Titans as long as you can!" she ordered the other girl.

"When Eren first emerged from this form, it was from the weak spot. I don't know, but something tells me that's a big part of the picture. How these damn things work." Armin ascertained, him and Ruby standing over the weak spot themselves. Ruby raised her Crescent Rose. "It'll be alright... as long as you don't hit the center. You won't kill him, but... well—"

"It is going to hurt."

Ruby knelt down just as she stabbed the blade into a part of the weak spot, piercing all the way through the Titan's skin. Eren's Titan let out a roar, notifying them of the pain that Ruby had caused to Eren's body. The previously comatose Titan went into a wild fit.


Eren Jaeger


Eren felt as if he had just woken up from a nightmare, but found himself in the safe and comfortable sanctity of his own home, back in Shiganshina. Wall Maria hadn't been abandoned, his mother was still alive, and his father was sat at the table reading a newspaper. Even Mikasa was here, helping his mother clean up at the sink.

"Eren! Can you hear me?"

At the sound of his name, Eren looked over his shoulder. There was nothing outside the window except a girl in a red cloak, who was standing on the other side of the glass. She seemed familiar and admittedly very adorable, but he was surprised that he couldn't remember her name. What was her name? And how did she know him? Why couldn't he remember her?

"You've got to pull it together! If you stay like this, we're all going to die!" she yelled, the palms of her hands pressing against the window. "Whatever this body's doing to you, fight it! You're Eren Jaeger! What's this steaming lump of flesh have on you, huh?!"

'What's she talking about? Fight...?' Eren wondered. 'What...? I'm tired...'

"Come on, damn it! Wake up!" Armin's voice cried out. The hands of his childhood friend were pressed against the window now, as he stood beside the girl. "Get out of there!" the boy shouted, banging his fist on the glass. "We need you!"

"Get out of whatever delusion you're in and come back to us!" the girl yelled, also banging her fist on the window. "Eren!"

"Your mom, remember?! Remember what they did to her?! You were bent on avenging her death!" Armin bashed his fist harder against the window. Surprisingly, the window did not break or crack, although he felt as if it should have. "You swore to massacre the Titans!"

"You're not making any sense, Armin." Eren said, even as the strange silver eyes of the girl beside Armin began to water. Her lip twitched as she started punching the window, her knuckles white. Eren attempted to ignore her and instead looked at his mother, who was staring back at him with a softened expression. "Open your eyes. Mom's not dead."

"Eren! Eren, please! You have to push through it!" the girl cried, hiccupping as tears streamed down her face. She paused to wipe her tears away, but she kept on crying regardless. "Listen... I know how it feels to lose a mother. I've been through it myself. I don't know what kind of delusion you're in right now, but you need to wake up, Eren. Come back to the real world." she told him, overwhelming him with her sincerity. "Is your mother there with you, inside your dream?"

"Huh...?" Eren arched a brow, squinting at her over his shoulder. It was starting to play with his temper that he didn't understand what they were trying to tell him. And why. "Been through what before? Didn't you hear me? My mom's not dead – she's right here with me. Can't you see that?"

"If she is then I can only assume what you're going through right now is denial. I understand if you don't understand why we're saying she's gone, but in the real world, she is gone." the girl stated, her voice carrying traces of sympathy. Was it for him? If so, why? "You know, you're reminding me of me, back when I was little. When I first got the news that my mom had died while out on a mission, I was in denial. I couldn't accept that she was gone and that I'd never see her again. I naïvely believed that she was going to come back home one day, that she'd surprise us by walking through the door... but she didn't, and as time passed, I realised that she wouldn't. Every so often I would visit the altar just to update her on what had been happening in my life. I guess I was even naïve enough to think she would respond." she informed him, chuckling. She seemed to be mocking her own foolishness and childish ignorance. Her gaze lowered while tears continued to pour down her face. Eren glanced at her over his shoulder, wondering how her story related to him, and why she'd decided to tell him this That didn't apply to him. "Please, don't let yourself be as naïve as me! You'll only end up hurting yourself more! You can't let your grief control you like mine controlled me!"

"I know you're in there! Listen to us!" Armin yelled through the window. "If you don't get a move on, the Titans are going to kill us! It will all end right here!" Armin's punches on the window became more defiant, more determined, and noisier than the last.

"Seriously, what the hell's gotten into you?" Eren asked his blond friend. "What's this 'get a move on' crap? I don't wanna... move anything. This right here's good enough for me." he remarked. His eyes widened. "It's not like I want to be a Scout..."

His mother's head slowly swivelled and she aimed her gaze at Eren over her shoulder. Her expression was one of thankfulness, as if she hadn't wanted Eren to be a Scout in the first place. From what Eren could tell, she was at least content, even happy.

Eren would do anything to keep it that way.


Jean Kirschtein


After the death of their squad leader, Jean, Annie, and Connie were officially on their own. At least three Titans had been chasing them, but two of them had disappeared when Annie split from him and Connie.

One of them had decided to chase Connie and was gaining on him fairly quickly. The Titan itself attempted to scoop up Connie by dragging its hand across the ground, but Connie narrowly managed to dodge it by performing a somersault. With a push from his gas, Connie fired a wire at a nearby wall for some method of support, only to have the hook bounce off of the surface.

Connie stopped in his tracks. "What the—?!"

The Titan raised its hand, bending down as Connie pivoted in place.

No; none of his friends were going to die if he could prevent it.

Jean fired one of his wires at the palm of the Titan's hand, which managed to steal its focus. It ignored Connie and instead decided to aim its sights on Jean himself.

"JEAN!" Connie called out to him in a panic.

"Get up the wall!" Jean ordered him. Instantly after doing so, he swivelled on his heel and began sprinting away from the Titan. He barely managed to avoid being crushed by the Titan's hand, which struck the ground behind him. Jean raced faster down the street. 'I'm sick and tired of people dying because of me!'

Jean heard the Titan move, but halted his sprint when he heard it pause its movements immediately after. When he turned around to see what had happened, Jean found that the Titan wasn't able to fit between the buildings, therefore it could not reach Jean.

Thinking he had a moment to escape to the rooftops, where it would undoubtedly be safer, Jean pressed the triggers on his holders in order to shoot his wires. For some odd reason, the wires didn't fire. Jean tried the triggers again. After a few more attempts, Jean still couldn't get a reaction from his gear.

"You malfunction now?" Jean questioned in disbelief. Of all the times his gear had to be faulty, this was the moment?

However, Jean's luck was apparently getting worse, as another Titan approached him. Jean stared at the Titan from over his shoulder, noting the look of disgust plastered on the Titan's face. Its hand descended upon Jean, prompting Jean to evade the attack and sprint as fast as his legs could take him. The Titan slowly chased after him at a moderate strolling speed, while Jean raced to escape the sight of the new Titan.

"I am not going to die today!"

He figured it would be better to hide rather than run, so he dived through the door of the next house he came to. As soon as he got into the house, he slammed the door behind him and slumped down against it.

"Way to go, dragging everybody down. Great job." he sarcastically mocked himself, a sigh escaping his lips.

The sound of the Titan's footsteps suddenly alerted Jean, and he looked out of the window. The Titan appeared to be patrolling the street. In his peripheral view, Jean noticed the corpse of another soldier whose top half had been crushed by a rock. His gear wasn't damaged, though. In fact, considering the soldier's untimely demise, his gear appeared to be in good condition.

"Maybe I won't die today."


Eren Jaeger


"Eren... please... for me... for Ruby... wake up..." Armin muttered, his shouting turning to begging. The blond ceased trying to produce cracks in the window, and the girl had stopped crying too, but the palms of her hands remained on the window. "Remember when we were kids? All we could talk about was the world outside." he revelled with a smile. Eren's eyes widened as he recalled the memory of Armin approaching him with a book about the outside world. How beautiful the land outside the walls was. "You know, beyond the walls. Frozen tundra that stretches to the skies, sand dunes, oceans, forests. The world my parents wanted to see. I'd always thought you'd outgrown that dream. I was kind of sad it didn't come up anymore. But then I realized you let it go because you didn't want me to join the Scouts."

"No, I... just..." Eren could hardly speak. The memories were flooding into his mind. He rose to his feet, disregarding the blanket that was previously wrapped around him. As the blanket dropped to the floor, his mother, father, and Mikasa stared at him from over their shoulders.

"Tell me, honestly; even though your first step beyond the walls meant the difference between a warm part and Hell on earth, even though it meant risking your life, gambling against the possibility of dying like my parents... why? Why throw caution to the wind and venture outside?"

Eren slowly turned around, his eyes locking with Armin's. Everything came back to him. His Titan abilities. His mother's death. Ruby. Weiss. Blake. Yang. The fall of Wall Maria. The operation to retake Trost. The three years he spent as a trainee in the military.

His dream to be a Scout.

"What kind of question is that?" Eren asked. "Don't play dumb; you know damn well why."

His heart clenched with the determination he was so well-known for, and the delusion he was in began to burn away.

"Because... the world beyond the wall is my birth right!"

An explosion blasted him out of the delusion and into reality.


Ruby Rose


Eren's Titan shook back to life with an ear-piercing roar. Well, Ruby thought it was a roar. Though to be honest, it sounded more like an angry screech that would leave any person with a sore throat.

Armin managed to backflip onto one of the rooftops to the right of them. The ground shook, and so did Eren. Ruby knew it would be best to get to a safer place, but she couldn't seem to pull the blade out of where she'd stabbed it in. In fact, it wouldn't be out of the question to say that her weapon had gotten stuck in the flesh. With a roll of her eyes, Ruby growled in frustration.

"Ruby! It's dangerous on there!" Armin warned her.

"I know, but my weapon's stuck! I can't leave just leave my sweetheart Crescent Rose behind!" Ruby told him, turning to look at him over her shoulder. "But nevermind me! All that matters is that you managed to get through to him!" Ruby smiled at the blond boy. She didn't mind if the story about her mother would stick with Eren or not. She had just wanted to make a point about losing a dearly beloved mother like he had done, but she didn't intend to get so emotional about it. She had assumed she'd grown up so much and had managed to accept her mother's fate to the point where talking about it wouldn't make her cry anymore. There would surely be some people who'd want to know the who, what, how, and why.

"What will you do? Don't tell me you're just going to stay there!" Armin questioned, his eyes widened as he stared at her incredulously.

"I'll find a way out of my predicament! Don't worry, I'll be fine!" Ruby blinked her remaining tears away and gave Armin a wide grin. "Besides, if I didn't do something insane now, then there's no way I would be able to call myself Ruby Rose! So go and do your own thing, and I'll do mine, alright?"

Armin's features contorted into a troubled expression, but he otherwise nodded. "Alright. Just don't do anything too reckless. Eren can't carry the boulder and defend you when you put yourself in danger—!"

Armin suddenly cut himself off, staring in horror at something near Ruby. Ruby herself arched a brow before she felt something tug Crescent Rose out of Eren's nape and lift her up with it too. When Ruby was able to see what it was, her expression became deadpan. Eren had his mouth open and dangled Ruby above it by her scythe. He let go of her scythe, giving Ruby the chance to clip her weapon back onto her belt as she fell, before landing on the underside of Eren's tongue.

Once Eren's tongue covered her again, Ruby crawled towards his teeth, sticking her head out from under the tongue. There was a gap in-between the teeth for her to see through, and she assumed that others would be able to hear her if she shouted loud enough.

"Ruby! Are you okay in there?!" Armin bellowed outside.

"Yeah, I'm fine! He did this earlier!" Ruby peeked her head between the gap. "At this point, I've already gotten used to it!"

"Which part of his mouth are you in?"

"I'm underneath his tongue." Ruby deadpanned, releasing a sigh from her lips shortly thereafter. "Like I said, though, I'll be fine! I'll provide support and backup from here! I can still give orders as a team leader! Now go!"

"If you say so!" Armin nodded, though he sounded uneasy. He spun on his heel and fired his wires, exiting the area as soon as Eren picked up the boulder. Ruby could feel the tension growing in the muscles of Eren's Titan whilst he hoisted the boulder over his head, settling it on his shoulder blades.

Once he began his trek toward the gate, the plan was officially back in action.


Blake Belladonna


Blake's eyes darted around her surroundings, cautiously eyeing the five Titans closing in on her. There were too many for her liking, but she couldn't find it in herself to expend more energy fighting Titans that didn't have their sights on anyone other than herself.

She could easily escape them without a trace, depending on how many she was facing, and whether or not there were any windows open. However, she couldn't find a window in sight. The five Titans came from five different directions, and a few more were approaching them, closing off any room for even so much as an attempt at escape.

Blake gritted her teeth. Her chances of getting attacked by more than one of the Titans was better than good. Her own acrobatic and manoeuvring capabilities were good too, but she doubted they were good enough to get her out of this situation.

She'd have to put her Semblance to work and run away. Again.

Letting a sigh escape her lips, Blake steadied herself into a defensive stance. She kicked her senses into overdrive.

Any slight movement...

Any sound of an incoming attack...

Any smell that could tell her if there were any more Titans nearby...

She'd sense it all.

The arm of the Titan in front of her barely twitched before she leapt into the air, narrowly evading the hand of the Titan beside it. With the sound of the slow movement of another Titan, Blake immediately tossed the blade of her Gambol Shroud at the eye of the Titan in front of her. She combined her Shadow Semblance and the Fire Dust in the cartridge that Weiss had left her with, only leaving behind an explosive, lava-like statue of herself.

A precaution, to be honest. Hopefully, she'd do some damage to the Titans if any one of them hit it. Not to mention she was able to propel herself from it.

Once landing on the head of the approximate fifteen-metre she aimed for, Blake's eyes once again scoured her surroundings for any movement or incoming attacks.

In her peripheral view, a hand aimed to smack her off of the Titan's head. She left behind another shadow of herself, reappearing a couple of feet away, on a nearby rooftop just behind the Titan furthest away from the circle. The hand instead hit the Titan's head and decapitated it. The Titan's detached head flew into the shadow-statue made of Fire Dust. The nearby area exploded and damaged the first wave of Titans.

Sprinting along the rooftops, Blake aimed to get away from the scene. The fireworks would surely attract a lot of attention.

"What the hell's going on up there?!"

"What caused that explosion?"

"It must be one of those girls!"

"I knew they were nuts! If they're going to do something as reckless as that, then we'd just be better off without them!"

"Why do I get the feeling some of these soldiers are prejudicial towards us?" Blake arched a brow, making a note of the way they spoke of Blake and her other three teammates. The way some of them were towards Blake and her teammates felt very familiar. "I wonder what crawled up their pants and died."

The specific train of thought was short-lived, though, as her eyes caught Jean sprinting out of a house and kneeling beside another unfortunate soldier that had been crushed to death with a rock. Upon approaching Jean, Blake realised that Jean was attempting to take the dead soldier's gear. Jean himself did not have any gear on his person, either. Blake paused, confused.

Had something happened to his gear?

"If I wait for the all clear, I'll never make it out alive." Jean said to himself, pulling on the leather straps that kept the gear attached to the soldier's corpse. "I've gotta do something!"

"JEAN!" Blake's bow twitched at the faint sound of Connie's shout.

"Damnit!" Jean grunted, tightening his grip as he pulled harder on the straps. "Come on! Work with me here!"

Blake tensed when the sound of a Titan's footfalls echoed behind her, accompanied by the vibrations of the street, caused by the sheer size of its feet and the way it stumbled through the street. Blake shared a moment of eye contact with it from the corner of her eye, but didn't react quick enough.

Its large hand caught her in its grasp, its fingers enveloping her torso. On instinct, Blake opened her mouth and released a defiant scream – not of fear, but as a primal need to do so. With limited options, Blake readied the Fire Dust in her Gambol Shroud again and slipped through the Titan's hand, using another shadow-statue made of Fire Dust in her place.

Blake landed with a roll in the street below. It took her a moment to regain her balance, briefly shaken by what one would have classed as a near-death experience. However, she was given no time to relax, as she was then alerted by the sound of an explosion. Staring over her shoulder at the source of the explosion, Blake found that the Titan had attempted to eat the self-made statue of herself, which ultimately caused an explosion.

The Titan's face was missing and smoke arose from the damage it had sustained. One of its hands was also missing, as was the entirety of its jaw.

"Blake, Jean! Look out!" Marco shouted. The sound of his gas snapped Blake's gaze towards him, and she couldn't help but stare when he zipped past what remained of the Titan's face, landing several feet away from Blake.

"Marco?!" Jean called out in disbelief. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Once Marco landed, he stepped back to regain his balance, before beginning a sprint in the opposite direction. The Titan's eyes – or rather, what remained of them – followed Marco, and it eventually turned around. Even without a mouth to use for killing, the Titan still followed Marco, oblivious to the fact he was leading it away from Jean.

"Marco!" Blake yelled at him, putting one foot forward. "Just get to safety! It won't be eating anyone anytime soon, so just avoid its grasp and get to where it can't reach you!" Blake advised. Once she paused her shouting, all she could do was hope Marco had heard her.

Blake's attention was again diverted by the sound of Jean grunting. Looking back over her shoulder, Blake found that Jean had successfully removed the gear from the corpse and was proceeding to attach it to his person. Once doing so, Jean took off in a sprint.

Blake followed Jean as he turned a corner into another street. Another Titan was up ahead. It wasn't a particularly tall Titan: with fully functional gear, one would be able to fly above its head and run.

Apparently Jean had the same idea.

He fired his new wires at the up, the hooks piercing the edges of rooftops that were out of view. Gas was released from his gear and he flew into the air, propelling himself over the Titan's shoulder. Unfortunately, his gas gave out and his wires withdrew themselves, causing him to perform an accidental somersault and fall to the ground behind the Titan.

"Jean!" Blake shouted as she dashed over to him, skidding on her knees until she ended up beside him. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"Just a rough landing! I'm fine!" Jean answered, staring at Blake from the corner of his eye. He dragged his arm across the ground, holding the handle of his sword near his face. He pressed the trigger on the handle, but he had trouble doing so, as the trigger was – for lack of a better word – stiff. "You've gotta be kidding me! Why is the trigger so stiff?!" he asked himself, once more attempting to press the trigger, but still with no result.

As the Titan drew closer, Blake figured that she couldn't carry Jean away and help the other soldiers fight the Titans at the same time. Still, she grabbed Jean by his arm and heaved him up off the ground.

"JEAN!"

As soon as she heard Connie's voice, the boy in question leapt from one of the rooftops, directly aiming for the side of the Titan's head. Blake was terrified of witnessing another tragedy, so she closed her eyes in an attempt to stop herself from seeing whatever she assumed would happen.

Yet... what she heard wasn't the sound of him being eaten alive. It was the sound of pain, as if Connie had just hit the Titan with his own body. Blake opened one eye in time to see Connie's knee slam against the side of the Titan's forehead before Connie flew onto the other rooftop across from the one he had just jumped from. Blake opened her eyes fully and blinked rapidly when she heard a rather loud "OW!" come from Connie as he landed on the rooftop and spared a moment to look down at Jean and Blake.

"What are you, insane?!" Jean immediately yelled at Connie.

Connie rubbed the back of his head with his forearm before replying with, "What are you waiting for?! Get out of there!" and narrowly evaded the hand of the Titan, which came crashing down with the intent to squash him.

"You heard him! Let's go!" Blake tightened her grip on Jean's arm and ran as fast as her legs could take her.


Ruby Rose


Ruby knew that Eren couldn't rush this. If he did, his own balance would be history, and he would fall, taking the boulder with him. Everything was going well so far too, it seemed. Ruby just hoped that he could keep this up for long enough to reach the gate.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby noticed Armin regroup with the elite squad, beginning to tell them everything.

"Eren came out of it! We're set! He's determined to see the mission through to the end!" Armin informed them, appearing to gain hope with every step Eren made. "As long as we've got his back while he's heading for the wall, victory will be ours!"

"Defend them!" Ian ordered, his shouts capturing the attention of all of the soldiers around him. "To the last man if that's what it comes to! Eren must reach the gate! I don't want a single Titan anywhere near him!"

Eren was slowly approaching the gate just as more Titans came strolling through the hole in the wall. There were about five of them, and they all had their focus on Eren. Ruby could see three men on the ground, sprinting up behind the Titans as if they were trying to gain their attention. The leading Titan at the front was almost near Eren, but was stopped in its path by something that one of the men had said, and instead turned their attention to the men behind them.

It turned out that the three men were Mitabi and two of his soldiers.

Team Mitabi had turned around and were sprinting away from the Titans that were now following them, trying to lead them away from Eren so that he could carry on.

Blake leapt down from the top of Wall Rose – why had she even been up there? – and onto the pavement. Armin and Mikasa followed on behind Blake, helping her lead Eren to the gate.

"You're almost there! As long as you can keep going, you've got this!" Ruby encouraged him as they arrived at the bridge that led directly to the gate, where one Titan was still blocking it. "Blake!" Ruby called out to her teammate, who already knew what to do.

"Got it!" Blake responded, holding her katana in one hand and her sheath in the other.

She threw the katana at the shoulder of the Titan and swerved around the side of it, swinging through the air as she held onto the ribbon attached to the hilt. Rolling onto the shoulder of the Titan, Blake immediately picked up her katana and stabbed it into the top part of the beginning of the weak spot on her side, digging the sheath into the lower part as well. Blake ran across the nape of its neck, dragging her blades through the weak spot until they reached the other side of it. The Titan dropped to the ground, dead, as a chunk of flesh slipped out of the back of its neck. Blake kicked herself off of its shoulder and landed with a roll on the side of the bridge, out of Eren's way.

"The path's clear! Keep moving!" she yelled.

Eren walked over the dead Titan's body and was only a few metres from the gate.

"GO!" Armin and Ruby screamed in unison, their voices prompting Eren to push his strength into overdrive as he let out a defiant scream.

Eren moved the boulder over his head and pushed it forward, lodging the boulder into the wall with such ferocity that smoke and steam arose from the edges of the now sealed breach. Still, the boulder stuck perfectly.

Everything was quiet once the boulder was finally put in place. Ruby had tears in her eyes at the mission's success, as did Armin.

The plan had succeeded. It was humanity's victory.

Finally.

However, the silent celebration didn't last long, before Eren lost his footing and collapsed, his knees pummelling towards the ground as if in slow motion.

"EREN!" Ruby called out to him, though received no response. Ruby pushed open his teeth and leapt out of Eren's open mouth, reaching out to grab his hand to slow his fall, but she missed. Due to Eren's size, he was falling too hard and too fast for her, and even if she would have used her Speed Semblance, she didn't have a chance to concentrate in order to use it. This continual drawback to her Semblance had happened on many occasions prior, and only served to remind her that she needed to train more with it.

Thankfully, with her fast acting, Ruby managed to extend Crescent Rose again, and fired a few rounds under her to stop herself from falling so quickly along with him. Meanwhile, Eren's knees collided with the ground, causing a cracking sound to erupt from his kneecaps. Ruby flinched.

Ruby's feet made contact with the ground just as Crescent Rose transformed into its compacted storage form and clipped back onto the back of her belt again. But as soon as her boots made contact with the stone ground, Ruby rushed over to Eren's knees and raised her head to look up at his face. Eren's Titan form was exhausted and defeated after that mission, but he needed to be freed from that Titan body now. The skin of the Titan had started to boil over and evaporate with the heat. They had to minimise the damage his decaying Titan body did to him.

"Armin, Mikasa! We need to get Eren out of here!" Ruby shouted at them. Turning to the two of them, Ruby motioned for them to follow her. "Mikasa, you're on guard with me!"

Mikasa nodded in response, accompanying Ruby as Rico regrouped with them. She had already sent out her last smoke signal, which was yellow.

In only a couple of seconds, Armin had reached the weak spot of Eren's quickly decaying Titan form, and had begun the process of tearing Eren away from the flesh. Armin grunted as his arms enveloped Eren's body, which was burning with intense heat even though he wasn't on fire. Then again, who said it was necessary to be engulfed in flames in order to burn? And although Armin tried to pull Eren out of the weak spot, Eren was still fused to the carcass, which gave Armin a hard time with the effort.

"Armin! How's he doing?" Mikasa yelled up at him.

"He's unconscious and scorching to the touch!" Armin responded, desperation clear in his voice.

Mikasa and Ruby shared a knowing look and regrouped with Armin.

"He's fused to the carcass! I can't pull him out!" Armin tried to pull Eren out again, but his efforts were futile.

"Then we cut the carcass off him." Ruby declared, swinging her scythe at the flesh that kept Eren attached to his Titan corpse. Armin fell back with a not-so-manly screech and landed on the ground below.

Armin was still holding Eren when a shadow loomed over the group. Ruby and Mikasa hopped down to join him, while Armin raised his head to look up, and saw two Titans nearing their location. There were too many people.

"Ruby! Armin!" Blake raced over to them, skidding to a halt in front of them, holding up her katana and sheath.

But just when Blake was about to move, a wire struck the neck of one Titan, before a small figure with a green cloak spun down from the sky, spinning his two blades as he sliced out a chunk of its weak spot in record time. Ruby almost went dizzy as her eyes followed him when he advanced on the remaining Titan, swirling through the air towards it with speed that Ruby hadn't seen any other soldier use as of yet. He swiftly took out the Titan with little effort, and the last Titan fell face-first on the ground in front of them. Blake had to backflip to the back of the group in order to avoid getting crushed by the Titan's corpse.

The figure landed on the Titan's back, giving Ruby and the others a clear view of the emblem on his cape. Eren's head rose up to see the figure and he gazed through half-lidded eyes at the emblem with what Ruby perceived to be either familiarity or recognition, or at least a combination of the two. The mystery man turned his head and glared at the group over his shoulder.

"Pay attention, kiddos. This is the part where you explain to me exactly what it is I'm looking at."


QUESTIONS

Akuma-Heika asked:
What infection would catch, and spread, that fast? Even discounting Yang's superimmune system from her aura, it would take time for a disease to spread in her system enough for her body to be producing a fever, not the hour or two at most since she was eaten...even if you allow for diseases not encountered by their immune systems. {For chapter 5}
What Yang has is not a disease, nor an infection. In fact, it's only influenza - or the flu, to put it simply. Any one of the girls of Team RWBY could have caught at least the flu from being inside a Titan's stomach, what with all those mutilated corpses and blood and the overwhelming chance to contract something from all of the bacteria in there. The fever and fatigue were just starters; a warning sign, if you will.
^So I managed to rewrite the story a bit to make more sense. Yang no longer has one of the fastest cases of anyone I know getting influenza, but instead she is simply suddenly ill from the trauma and shock of being in the Titan's stomach, and you'll find out why it had more of a lasting effect on her than it did on Eren in the next few chapters. If you read or know the story of 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde', then there's a part of it where when Jekyll transforms back from Hyde in front of his best friend Lanyon, and Lanyon becomes ill and eventually dies from the shock of it. Yang's case is something similar to that with the corpses she saw, except it's combined with a bit of PTSD, and Yang won't die like Lanyon did. Also, with Yang's case, I'm mainly going off one or two 'Haikyuu!' fanfics I've been reading where Hinata gets injured or hurt badly and Kageyama has slight PTSD because he witnessed it happen. Granted, I'm also going off of what happened with Yang in RWBY Volume 4 and how she recovered, but those fanfics are also my guides for this. Also, thanks for telling me about the Titans not having digestive tracks and therefore not having stomach acid. Really explains why Eren didn't also burn up when he was eaten and ended up in the Titan's stomach. But Ruby, Weiss, and Blake don't know this yet, but they will be told soon. Anyway, thanks for your input!