AN: Firs things first, RIP Sasha, my favorite character and our wonderful Potato Girl, knew it was coming but still broke my damn heart watching it animated. Definitely gonna make writing the rest of this fanfic bittersweet but I'm gonna push through it!

Also i'm happy that people are reviewing and thank you to those who did, but to those who left reviews asking me to update on my other stories, please don't do that. I will update when i can but anything pertaining to my others stories i respectfully ask that you keep them there. I deleted the ones who did but if it happens again then i will start moderating the reviews. Thank you and please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 6

Followed by Marco, Calian leans out the while created by the titans just after they were torn to shreds by the rogue titan. He quickly finds the Rogue titan still locked in battle. Calian grimaces slightly as he sees the titan viciously bite deeply into the nape of one of its attackers and ripping it out in a bloody and gory mess. He watches as it throws the steaming body into another titan, stunning it and giving him the opportunity to punch its head clean off. "Heh, guess connie wasn't lyin after all."

He turns to Marco, a grin slowly growing, "we can use it to let us escape!"

Marco smirks slowly as well, hope beginning to grow in his eyes, "Yea… it doesn't seem interested in us. It's just killing the first Titan it sees!"

He was about to announce the same thing to the other cadets but he stops himswlf as he witnesses a rather large group of about 2 dozen titans appearing from the city, all beginning to swarm around the Rogue Titan, who coincidentally is standing near HQ. As the titans begin to swarm, their window of escape is clearly becoming more narrow as time goes on. "Shit! It's puttin up a good fight but it ain't gonna last much longer. And once it goes down then we're all next…"

Marco purses his lips, "We've gotta get rid of all the Titans around headquarters to clear a path for evacuation."

Following his lead Calian unsheathes his blades and yells over his shoulders, "Anyone who's got some fight in them give us an assist! We gotta clear out some titans so we can get a shot at gettin to safety!"

Two more Cadets appear and they all leap out the building, flying like a swarm of bees to the nearest Titan. Marco nods at Calian and he flies by the 10 meter titan, drawing its attention away and allowing Calian to appear over head and deliver a downward slash that kills it before it even get s a chance to react. The other cadets go low and slice the Achilles tendons of the next titan, dropping it to the floor. Marco decides to take the initiative and kills the Titan but he doesn't stop. He reels himself to the next one that's facing away. He prepares to strike it but it suddenly snaps around and catches him. It begins to squeeze and Marco stares fearfully but Calian yells fearlessly as he vaults up and spins in the air up its arm, causing it to lose function. Instead of using his ODM, he stabs his blade down, his momentum slowing while cutting open the titans back and allowing him to do a tight turn in the air where he can stab his other blade deep into its nape, and he fiercely rips the whole section of the neck out.

He drops next to Marco on the adjacent roof, "Are ya ok?"

"Yea," he smiles gratefully at the giant cadet, "Thanks you really saved me by the skin of my teeth."

"I'm sure you'll get plenty of opportunities to return the favor." He smirks.

They continue the battle, working as a unit as they each take down as many titans as possible. With each titan dropping, another pair of Cadets escape from the HQ, making their way to the safety of the wall. All the while the Rogue titan does what it can to defeat any titan that dares come into sight. Though focused on his fight, Calian can't help but observe the mysterious ally. What the hell kinda titan ignores humans and goes after it's own kind? Matter a fact, what kind of titan knows hand to hand combat? He watches as the titan does a 1-2 combo followed by a hook and it grips the back of the dazed titans neck and rips out the nape. Hmmm it'd be easy to chock it up to just abnormal behavior, but… can't help but think that it's gotta be a sign of intelligence! Too deep in thought, he doesn't realize that an abnormal titan has appeared from behind a church and leaps toward him open mouthed. He suddenly sees a shadow upon him and glares wide eyed as the titans gaping mouth is upon him, then suddenly the sound of an ODM grapnel shooting in the air, followed by a slash is heard and it falls ungracefully before him. Dumbfounded, Calian looks up and sees a grinning Sasha standing triumphantly atop its head.

She raises her swords in the air, smiling brightly, "My gas and blades are ready to go! No titan is gonna stop me so easily!" She grins sweetly to Calian, "Didn't think I'd return the favor so quickly but I'm glad I got to!"

Calian can't help but smile in return, "Sasha ya beautiful angel!"

He freezes a moment as he realizes what he just said. The both of them blush madly at his words. Connie unintentionally breaks the awkward moment as he's caught as well by a titan, "Uh! Even geniuses make a mistake, Someone help!"

The pair quickly head to their comrade, Calian cutting off the hand while Sasha goes for the nape. Sasha swings around and Catches Connie before he falls to the ground and lands him to safety. He huffs a few breathes of air and shakily thanks them, "Heh thanks for having my back guys!"

Calian nods and surveys the carnage. Thankfully no else has died and all the titans seem to finally be defeated. "I think we can finally get to the wall."

They're about to make their move but then the rogue titan suddenly roars in the air. That roar… it sounds different. Wanting to investigate, they all head to where the roar originated from and see the titan, now armless and with many areas of his body seemingly torn off, falls face first to the ground. They all join Jean, Armin, Mikasa, and Annie on the roof as they stay at its steaming body.

Jean shakes his head, "Looks like it gave everything it had." He turns away, "Let's leave while we can, we're lucky the ugly bastard didn't get bored. We'd have been next on the menu."

Damn, it could've really been useful later on.

But everyone catches their breath as they all witness something very strange. A spot in the upper back of the rogue titan, right at the nape opens. And as it opens a figure starts emerge. That… that can't be a person. But it was. It was a slightly disgusting scene to witness as what looked like muscle tissue was connected to the person and he pushes himself off, the tissue snapping away like as if it were never merged. Calians eyes widen, that's—That's Eren!

No one but Mikasa moves as she runs down towards the human. She moves faster than he has ever seen as she gets to her childhood friend and holds him dearly in her arms.

Still not blinking, Calian faces Armin, who's wearing a rather confused expression. "Armin."

The short blonde jumps lightly as he snaps out of his thoughts. "Armin… you said that Eren died… how is he still here? Inside a titan?"

The blonde turns back down to his friends down below. "I-I don't know. The last time I saw him, his arm and leg were missing. He was bleeding badly. I saw him get eaten… How… how is this possible?"

Jean steps beside them, looking down in disbelief. "So… Eren did all this?"

After getting to safety, the Garrison regiment quickly sequestered Eren, and by extension Mikasa and Armin once all parties were debriefed of the shocking events. It caused quite the rumbling with the cadets. Eren? Is a titan? Many were wondering if it was possible, some outright calling the cadets liars, but even those who tried to deny the truth still accepted it within their hearts. And from that, came the overwhelming feeling of fear.

Weilman quickly had his subordinates order the cadets and all other available soldiers to a different area. A man yells to the crowd,

"You trainees will prepare your equipment and remain on standby!"

Calian wordlessly refills his tanks and blades. His heart and mind are in turmoil at the moment. Of course he truly wants to mourn his fallen friends, the wound was still fresh, God I can't believe it's only been 5 hours since this shitshow started. But as he said to himself earlier, now isn't the time to mourn. There's still so much to been done before they can rest easy. Or as easy as you can in a world that's seemingly about to crumble under the titan threat. But what's also adding to his inner conflict, was himself. Once Mikasa had asked him how he broke the blades, he's been thinking back to his performance from the start. Sure, soldiers break their blades at any given time, it's why they're equipped with 3 extra pairs. But it's always after it's been used to it's limits, the blades become dulled, the connecting sections degrade and eventually break. But he and Mikasa knew, the blades he used were fresh, completely virgin to battle. They were at their strongest and yet he broke. And with ease too. The only person he'd ever seen do that, was Mikasa.

Calian looks down at his hands. Since Thomas died in them, he felt something inside him awaken. He can still feel it now, a power that's buzzing under his skin, in every muscle and vein in his body. It's like he was a raging river that finally broke through an oppressive damn. But, how? Why?

Questions for later, he shakes himself out of his train of thought and catches the last bit of Connie's explanation to Christa about the events of the day.

"—and that's how we got ahold of some gas and got out of Trost!" The bald cadet leans back on the crate he's using as a seat, his friends surrounding him as he detailed the events.

Christa looks at him sympathetically, "That sounds terrible. I'm so sorry." She hunches slightly, downcast. "We kept volunteering to help supply you guys, but the situation was so bad—"

"We'd even managed to find some gas we were gonna dole out to you guys, but then everything went to hell." Ymir said.

"Really?" Calian asks, " huh thanks, didn't know ya cared so much."

Ymir rolls her eyes, "just cause I barely tolerate you doesn't mean I wanna see you dead. Tch, I'd break my back trying to carry your over grown corpse."

"That's about the sweetest thing ya ever said to me freckles." He smirks.

She gives him a withering glare. Christa takes a step forward to Connie,

"So does that mean everyone who isn't here is-"

Connie looks away in grief, "yeah." He whispers.

Ymir blinks, "Even Mikasa."

"No," Calian answers, "she's alive same as Armin and… Eren."

Connie shakes his head, "A lot more would've died if it weren't for you Calian. Thank you. I don't think I had a chance to say that before."

He waves away the praise, "Don't mention it."

Ymir is still curious, "If the terrible trio are ok then where the hell are they?"

Calian glares at no one and bites his tongue. "Ok so you're not gonna talk," She calls out Jean who's chugging his water, "Hey Jean, where's your crush?"

Jean growls and wipes his mouth roughly on his sleeve, "We can't tell you. We've been slapped with a confidentiality order."

"A confidentiality order?"

"What the hell?"

"Don't worry, ya'll find out soon. This secret in particular, no way it'll stay under wraps for too long."

Jean nods worriedly, "The news is gonna spread across humanity like wildfire. Assuming humanity lasts long enough, anyway."

Calian decides he'd rather not go down that rabbit hole and begins wandering aimlessly through the crowd. Without thinking he finds himself near Sasha, Marco and Daz. Who's having another one of his breakdowns. I really wanna try and like the guy but come on, why'd ya even try to be a soldier if ya gonna freak out for every little thing. Hell how'd he even survive today?

Daz is clutching his hair roughly as he screams, "It's over! We can't keep fighting and fighting until we're all eaten!"

Calian rolls his eyes and is thankful that Marco is trying to talk some sense into Daz, "Quit it Daz! Pull yourself together! We're all scared, okay?! It's not just you!" he turns to the redhead near them, "Look at Sasha!" Said hunter jumps slightly, "Even after what she's seen, she remains a proper soldier!"

Suddenly she screams in pain, holding her stomach. Calian instinctively rushes towards her, "Oh my stomach aches! Please cart me away with the wounded!"

Calian gives her a deadpan look and whispers to her, "Seriously?"

She looks at him sheepishly but continues to groan. "If it's just a stomach ache I'm sure I can find you some indigestion pills somewhere here."

Her eyes widen fearfully, "uh uh no that's ok!"

Daz takes everyone's momentary distraction as a chance to take out his sword, "let me die! I just wanna die!"

Marco quickly restrains his arm, "No! Stop it!"

Calian just shakes his head and he glances at Sasha. "Ya know, a stomach ache ain't exactly the best excuse to use to get carted outta here."

She looks away in shame, "Y-you must think I'm a coward."

"Nah. Daz, definitely. But you? Nah."

She looks at him curiously, "What makes you say that?"

"Ya saved me didn't ya? Ya didn't even hesitate, I wasn't even in the titans hand for 5 seconds before ya killed it. And they told me how ya tried to rouse everyone into fighting before Mikasa got there. That takes guts."

"But but, I surrendered to a Titan!"

"And ya got back up and kept fighting. And while we all were twiddling our thumbs, You're the only one that stepped in and saved Samuels life. Ya got a lot of strength to ya. It's one of the things I admire most about ya."

She blushes a little at the praise he gives her and thoughtfully remembers everything that had happened. And yet, "But do I have enough strength in me?"

Calian looks down at his hands again, remembering the strength that flows through his body, "That's something ya gotta figure out yourself. But I want ya to know, whatever ya choose, stayin here or leavin. I ain't judgin and I ain't changin opinions about ya either."

That statement fills her with relief and warmth, a smile blooming as she looks up at the tall figure. A feeling bubbling in her chest that also makes her heart flutter slightly. She's confused as to what this feeling as and is unaware that the boy beside her is feeling the same thing.

All the soldiers align themselves in front of the gate leading to Trost. Pixis was announced to have arrived and with a twist, it was said that he had concocted a plan to secure Trost. Most of the Soldeirs were stunned,

"Retake Trost?! Are they kidding!?"

"Someone up top's lost their marbles, how'd they expect us to shore up the hole?"

"Is the brass that out of touch? It's a damn suicide mission!"

"Lost cause no doubt, defending wall Rose is the only real option here."

Unfortunately, Calian was still stuck next to Daz who's having another one of his fits.

"Back into that hell again? No! I don't wanna die!" he clutches his head and screams, "Let me see my family!"

One of the staff officers notice and starts to head his way, Calian rolls his head and nudges Daz, "Don't be so loud or else you'll get punished."

But the officer was already upon him, "You there! I heard that, do you intend to abandon your duty?!"

Desperate and completely panicking, Daz replies, "Yes I do! There's nothing to be gained from this pointless act of mass suicide!"

This angers the officer and he clutches his sword, "What do you take humanity for!? It's within my Authority to execute you on the spot, you know!"

Daz goes to unsheathe his sword but Calian stops him before he makes anything worse for him, "What the hell are you doin?! Takin your sword out to a higher ranked officer is punishable by death!"

Wide eyed, Daz turns his attention to Calian as he struggles in his iron grip to move his sword but to no avail. "That's fine by me! It's a hundred times better than getting eaten by titans! I refuse to go back into that hellhole!"

Still not able to break Calians grip he yells at the officer, "Kill me! If you're gonna execute me, just do it already!"

Gritting his teeth in rage the officer takes out the blade, "Fine, I'll do it myself!"

Thankfully everyone stops and stands at attention when Pixis, from high atop the wall clears his throat and bellows, "ATTENTION!"

His booming voice carries through the sky, quieting the agitated crowd. Calian waits a second before he lets go of Daz, not exactly fond of the coward but still unwilling to see anyone else die needlessly today.

"I will now explain to you the details of the Trost Recovery Operation! The Objective is to seal the hole in the demolished gate!"

Calian raises an eyebrow and says to himself, "This oughta be interesting."

He notices Sasha slowly step up next to him on his left, sporting a fearful look on her face. His chest tightens as he sees her distress and without thinking, he slowly leans his hands towards hers, a somewhat difficult task given their height difference. But when she feels his warm fingers touch hers gently, she takes his hand, squeezing tightly. The feeling is so reassuring that she feels like she can breath again. The warmth from his calloused but gentle hand comforts her in a way she didn't think possible. With newfound strength she listens as Pixis gives his explanation.

"As for how the task will be done, first allow me to introduce you to someone." Eren steps forward saluting the crowd, is face tight with determination. "This is Cadet Eren Yaeger. He is the successful result of our top-secret titan transformation experiments! He is able to fabricate a Titan's body and control it at will!"

The massive teen crosses his arms, That… doesn't sound right. He surveys the reaction of his fellow soldiers, some are still fearful while many are intrigued. I see what he's doin. Heh whatever gets these guys to fight for ya. Smart.

"In titan form, he will lift the giant rock near the front gate, carry it to the wrecked gate and seal the hole! You're duty is to protect him while he does that!"

The effect is instant as many soldiers finally feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

"He's going to pick up that humongous rock? Is that really possible?"

"Has humankind finally surmounted the titans!?"

But of course, Daz had to ruin everything again. "Lies! All this talk about a human weapon is nothing but lies! We're not disposable blades you know!"

Others begin to share the same sentiment. He can even feel Sasha beginning to tremble. Their eyes meet, hers wide with fear at having to do battle with those monsters. He squeezes her hand lightly, trying to provide whatever comfort he can for her. She squeezes back as if she was holding on for dear life.

"This is not how I'm going out! Good luck to the rest of ya!" The officers spat on the ground and turns his back.

Many soldiers begin to follow suit, none having any faith in such an eccentric plan.

"Me too!"

"Count me out, too!"

The same officer who scolded Daz is now watching in raged bewilderment, "Wait! Don't make me execute you!" he threatens.

But it falls to deaf ears as the scruffy soldier rips his arm away from his hands, "I'm going to spend humanity's final moments with my family!"

Ian leans towards Rico and whispers, "This isn't good."

"Indeed," she replies gravely, "We'll lose all order if we don't do something."

Weilman, though completely terrified is outraged. Not because the soldiers were deserting them, but because with the depleted numbers, his chances of surviving without going into battle himself is dropping quickly. He snarls and pulls out his blade, "Traitors! I'll kill you where you stand!" he begins running towards them, sword raised and ready to strike down. "Desertion is answerable by death!"

Many gasp in fright at the sudden thought of death until Pixis stops everyone cold with his next announcement. "Anyone wishing to leave will by my personal order not be charged with treason!"

Weilman stops dumbfounded and looks back at the superior officer, wondering if he truly heard that correctly. "Those who succumb to their fear of the titans have no business being here! Those who want their parents, siblings, and loved ones to experience the terror of the Titans first hand should also leave!"

That is what truly gives everyone pause. One soldier immediately imagines the titans breaking through the wall, his daughter crying out for him as it tries to devour her. I can't let that happen. My daughter… she's all I have!

Another soldier drops his face into his hands, "no… not my family…"

Now that he has gained momentum, Pixis does not hold back as he continues, "If Wall Rose is compromised, Humankind will not be able to survive!"

Sasha gasps besides Calian as she remembers what her father had said 3 years ago. Make no mistake sasha, Trouble is comin sooner or later, and when it does, there'll be no beggin for help from the people you turned your back on. If it means the difference between bein a part of something larger than myself scrapin by on my own, I say screw tradition. What about you? Are you brave enough to take that step?

She slowly looks up to Calian, "I'm scared too, but…" she pushes down her fear and here eyes harden with determination, "We can't just run away!"

The tall cadet grins proudly at the redhead and they both now listen intently to their commanding officer, ready to give their all for humanity.

"We cannot afford to die any further inside. I kindly ask you," Pixis holds out his arms, "please die here!"

There was more but this chapter was getting too long so i decided to split it in half, the next chapter should be up by either tonight or tomorrow so stay tuned!