Chapter 10: Prelude to Chaos
"One step at a time, Carla. It's okay to take your time," Serizawa instructed as he watched her lean against a stone railing within a courtyard.
After weeks of designing the prosthetics for Carla and ensuring that he had all the right materials to construct it, Serizawa moved to building the right mechanism for the joints and began the testing phase. With a comfortable enough socket for Carla to wear, Serizawa proceeded to put the prosthetics on both of her legs and took notes of the progress. Carla was doing fairly decent progress as she was able to move at least a few feet, but still had trouble balancing herself. Using the stone railing to support herself, Carla slowly balances her upper body and takes deep breaths with each step she took.
Several MP officers and recruits watched the scene in front of them during their breaks and were quite surprised at the use of the fake limb constructed by Serizawa. Even the MP Commander, Nile Dok, came by from time to time and was impressed at the sight of the technological miracle and wondered about its many uses for soldiers in the Military.
"I never imagined in my life that I would have to learn to walk again," Carla remarks, "It's a lot more work than I anticipated."
"I'm honestly quite surprised that you're able to wear the prosthetics with ease. I expected it to cause some discomfort for your residual limbs, but you seem perfectly fine."
"Am I really going to wear these for the rest of my life ? Do I have to do anything specific to maintain them ?" Carla asks as she stops to take a break.
"There's a lot that I have to record during your progress to determine certain things, but I'll be taking care of the maintenance in the meantime."
Carla could feel her body ache and decides to sit against the railing, concluding the test for the day. Serizawa asks for assistance from two MP recruits nearby, who came over and helped Carla up.
Before they all head to Carla's room, Nile approaches Serizawa and says to him, "Doctor ? May I speak with you alone for a minute ?"
"Um….of course, Sir," Serizawa replied before turning to Carla, "I'll be in the room later to do a physical check of your legs."
Carla nodded as the MP recruits helped her back to her room. Serizawa then walks along the hall of the courtyard with Nile by his side, curious to know the MP Commander's intentions.
Nile starts the conversation, "Ever since we've taken you both in, I was unsure about what to think of you two."
"Well, how do you feel now ? It seems you've gotten used to us."
"Don't mistake my tolerance for you and Mrs. Jaeger as friendliness, Doctor. I still have suspicions of her knowledge about her husband and the origins of her son's powers."
"Believe me, Commander, she knows absolutely nothing. Carla is just a victim of unfair circumstances, just like her son."
Nile sighs, "I would like to believe that, but there's just no evidence to support her innocence. In all honesty, I do hope that the Survey Corps pull off their expedition."
"Why is that ? Weren't you and your regiment so focused on trying to get their hands on Eren during the trial ? It's hard to believe that you're changing your mind after all of this time."
"You think we want someone as dangerous as him in the Walls ?" Nile argued, "I prefer that he stays out there with people who know what they're doing rather than keep him in here where we might risk the people's lives."
"Then why all the effort to try and get him into your custody ? What was all of that for ?"
"It's because of the King. Apparently, he wants to get his hands on Eren Jaeger for his own reasons, but what would I know ? I'm just following orders."
Serizawa and Nile stopped walking as the former spoke up, "If the King wants Eren, what will happen to Carla ?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe we'll just let her go when the Survey Corps return, but we'll see what happens. On the other hand, I want to know about your plans for the near future. Do you plan on caring for Mrs. Jaeger for a long time ?"
Serizawa hesitated before answering, "No...I wish to return back home to my colleagues soon after I finish dealing with Carla's situation."
"Well, if you're ever interested, I could recommend you to some of the best hospitals in the Inner Walls and you could apply your skills there. After seeing you make an artificial limb for her, I was hoping you could do the same for soldiers who also lost their limbs."
"That's tempting, Commander, but I would rather return home to see my friends again. If you would excuse me, I need to check up on Carla before she can rest for the day," Serizawa told him as he left the Commander by himself.
"Shame. To develop something so advanced and not put it out there for everyone to experience. Maybe I wasn't very convincing enough," Nile remarks as he leaves to continue his duties.
Serizawa heads over to Carla's room and finds the recruits leaving the room before telling them, "Thank you both for taking the time to do this. I hope it wasn't too much trouble for you both."
"It's no issue, Doctor. We're happy to help in any way possible," one of the recruits states as Serizawa enters the room.
"Wow, you're really serious about sucking up to people just to get a promotion, huh ?" the other recruit said.
"I was just being polite, Hitch. Besides, the Doctor isn't a part of the Military Police so there's no reason for me to do something like that."
"I guess that makes sense, but whatever. Let's just get out of here before we get more work piled up on us."
"Speaking of which, you still haven't told me where Annie went. How are we supposed to do the work without her ?"
"Geez, stop bugging me about that, Marlowe. You think I care where she goes to do her business ? If she wants to skip out on work and make us do it, then that's on her. There's no way I'm gonna cover her for this long," Hitch complains as she angrily walks away.
Marlowe sighs before following his peer, "Where the heck did you go, Annie ?"
Inside Carla's room, Serizawa looks over to her bed and sees that she managed to remove her prosthetics on her own. Once she makes herself comfortable, Serizawa walks over and begins going over the progress they made that day. As Carla waited, she examined the leg prosthetics and became curious about the mechanism of the joint.
"I'm not very knowledgeable on these types of things, but...the way this works still amazes me," Carla stated, "You told me that this is weight activated ?"
"Yes. In simple terms, the joint would swing freely when you lift up your leg. Once weight is forced down on the joint, it will lock in place and allow you to stand as long as you balance yourself," Serizawa explained as he places his notes down.
Carla places the prosthetics down and lays flat on her bed as Serizawa looks for any signs of physical damage to her leg stumps.
"Fortunately, the socket sleeve has been effective so far. I see nothing wrong from continuous wear, but I suggest leaving it on for no more than two hours," Serizawa pointed out, but he quickly realizes that something else was on Carla's mind.
"Today's the day the Survey Corps started their expedition," Carla remarked, "I hoped to see Eren off, but…..I wonder how he's doing right now."
"I'm sure he's doing his best to master his power with the Scouts. Hopefully, they will have made it to Shiganshina by now."
"Maybe if I sleep for a bit. Eren will be here when I wake up."
"I don't know how long the expeditions last, Carla, but you probably sho-" Serizawa stops as he turns to see Carla closing her eyes and forcing herself to sleep.
He stays silent as he begins pulling the blanket over her body. Serizawa leaves the room and closes the door behind him. He thought back to the time when Eren, Mikasa, and Armin went to training and how Carla showed absolutely no worry while waiting for them, but things were different now. With the fate of Eren hanging in the balance, Carla grew restless and was heavily worried about the success of the expedition. After learning from Nile about how Carla may be released, Serizawa wonders what plans the King has for Eren and how it would affect Carla's mental state. Despite her physical health in decent condition, Carla began showing signs of extreme stress and he believes that there's nothing he can do to lower it. Serizawa feels a slight headache and returns to the courtyard for fresh air. He leans forward on the stone railing and looks up at the open view of the sky, clearing his thoughts and taking deep breaths.
"Hello ?!"
Startled, Serizawa quickly looks around for the voice calling out to him and spots no one in the area. After a moment of thinking, he begins to recognize the voice and begins calling out through his end.
"Miki ? Your powers…" Serizawa thought in his mind.
"I've had a lot of free time lately. I think that I'm getting the hang of it again."
"It's certainly better than using the communicators, but I never expected your powers to return."
"I hate to say it, but whatever Grisha did back then, definitely helped me."
"Speaking of which, you must have important information to tell me, right ?"
"Well, to put it simply, we found Grisha's basement and a powered down machine. However, we need a key to access the machine to see what contents are in it."
Serizawa instantly knew what the key was and replied, "And that led you to Carla, right ? That's why you're contacting me right now ?"
"That's one reason, but the other is quite hard to explain," Miki hesitated, "I'm afraid that you have to come back immediately."
"Immediately ?! I'm not done with Carla yet, just tell Namikawa-"
"They've already sent a ship to pick you up. I'm sorry, but the higher-ups believe that you've wasted enough time looking after her and they decided to bring you back right away."
Serizawa gritted his teeth and slammed his hand on the railing, "She needs me. If I'm gone, she won't be able to handle herself. No one else will know how to handle her situation."
"I'm really sorry, Serizawa, but she's…..no longer of use to us. The last thing we need from her is that key and that's it. I wish we could do something for her. I really do."
Serizawa calmed himself before responding to Miki, "The key is no longer in her possession. She handed it over to her son a month ago, but he should be making his way to Shiganshina right now."
"Understood. It'll be a while for the extraction crew to find a place to land, so you should probably say your goodbyes. I'll notify everyone else about our conversation."
Serizawa slowly walked back to Carla's room and tried to think of a way to say goodbye. He sees a peaceful look on her face and begins feeling guilty about leaving her alone. For the last few years, he was the only company that she had and now he must return to his group for the sake of humanity. Writing a list of instructions on what she must do, Serizawa places it on the drawer next to her bed and sits in a chair, waiting to be picked up by his allies.
Opening her eyes and exiting her meditation stance, Miki turns to see Ozaki, Miki, and the leaders of her group standing by her side in the Surveillance room. She informs everyone of her conversation with Serizawa and begins searching through footage of their drones to find Eren's location.
"Headed to Shiganshina ? Shouldn't they be there by now ?" Ozaki asked.
"Apparently, they had some sort of struggle getting there and Godzilla seems to be involved," Miki speculated, "Their last known location was this forest with eighty meter trees, but the drones saw them retreating back to Wall Rose."
Miyuki added, "Looks like we'll have to infiltrate the Walls again in order to get that key. I'm not sure how we can obtain it without confronting Eren Jaeger first."
"We have no choice," Muasaka stated, "We need to take that key by force and quickly. We're so close to unlocking Grisha's secrets and we've got no time to spare."
"I'm afraid Muasaka's right. We must advance immediately, even if we have to reveal ourselves to the people in the Walls," Namikawa said.
Ozaki sighed, "Well, not like we got a choice. Let's just hur-"
A rapid beeping caught everyone's attention and Miki pulled up a live feed of several Xilien ships entering Earth's atmosphere. Namikawa quickly orders the operation at Shiganshina to cease in order to remain covert under the Xiliens' arrival. They then watched with the intent of finding out what was going on and paid close attention to their enemies' actions.
Across the sea from the island where the Walls resided, the Xilien ships flew close to the water as they quickly made their way to the land in front of them. As they got closer, a glimpse of a technologically advanced establishment was shown in the distance. The ships hovered above it and landed right in the middle where the pilots and crew left their ships to investigate. The whole establishment consisted of Xilien technology, but there were obvious signs of damage done to most of the buildings and there seemed to be no inhabitants in sight.
"It appears Facility 11 has been attacked," one of the Xilien officers stated, "One of the transport ships will remain here and assess the damage. Find out when this attack started and what was the cause of it. The fighter ships will follow my lead to the human settlement where we will proceed with the capture of the Kaiju."
The Xiliens returned to their respective ships, while one transport ship remains, and flew away from the barren city. As they headed towards the Walls, a group of people left their hiding spots and watched the remaining extraterrestrials set up equipment. One of the people leading the group was Porco, who turned to his allies and discussed the situation.
"At least they're not scanning the area for us," he remarked, "If the Xiliens found out Marley's location, we'll have nowhere on this planet to hide."
"Sir, from the direction those ships are flying, do you think they'll spot the boat carrying our troops ?" One of the soldiers asked.
"I don't think so. They all might have made it to Paradis by now. Hopefully, they'll retrieve the Coordinate before the enemy ships report back to their central command. In the meantime, we should head back to Marley and let the superiors know that the truth about this Facility is going to be discovered by the enemy."
"Understood," the soldier said as everyone began packing their supplies and retreating from Facility 11 as quickly as possible.
On the way back to the Karanes District, the Survey Corps had dealt with another heavy loss that resulted in the loss of the escaped Titan Shifters and numerous injured soldiers from the center formation. After the attack from the Colossal Titan swept away most of their horses, Squad Levi and many other soldiers rode on the wagons and had to be checked for any possible wounds. Although no one else from the other formations were hurt in any way, the disappearance of Bertholdt was brought to attention and had Erwin wondering on why he was the only soldier to be missing. Reiner, who was still putting up an act, was being comforted by his comrades and was given generic advice that he had expected them to say.
Levi, who has slight scratches on his face, looks at the current status of his teammates and ensures that they were not in serious conditions. So far, it seems that they have scratches just like him and nothing too bad. Then again, he needed to clean himself after wood chips and dirt covered his entire uniform and made him uncomfortable during the ride back. In the meantime, Levi took his time to remove them from every part of his uniform, tossing the wood chips out of the wagon and wiping the dirt with a white cloth.
Eren, who has grown exhausted from using his powers twice, laid within the wagon where Thomas was stationed and kept a close eye on him. Mikasa rode her horse alongside the wagon and followed its pace, displaying a troubled look at Eren. She was sad knowing that the failure of the expedition will result in Eren and Carla being turned over to the Military Police, leaving her and Armin all by themselves. Despite having her parents being killed by human traffickers, Mikasa knew that she wouldn't have learned to fight against the unjustness of life without Eren's aid and she would not have found motherly love again without Carla. The Jaeger family provided so much for her and yet, Mikasa felt like she could have done more for them.
Nothing else much had happened during the trip back to the Karanes District, but there was definitely dramatic tensions between the Scouts and the citizens. Although there were happy reunions between family members, Erwin was faced with another wave of complaints from the people about the Survey Corps' uselessness and inability to bring anything back. The recruits felt unease at the backlash and tried to avoid the gaze of the crowd, but the veterans saw it as a normal routine.
As everyone returns to the castle base in Wall Rose, Erwin receives a letter stating that they must deliver Eren to Mitras within a few days or face treason for defying the King. Before sending a response of any kind, Erwin decided to come up with one more plan and he knew exactly where to start. After gathering information from every member of the Survey Corps about when Bertholdt had gone missing, most of them explained how it had happened around the same time the Colossal Titan appeared. Erwin pulls up a file containing Bertholdt's information and finds that he resides in the same village with two other soldiers, Annie and Reiner. With three people originating from the same place and three Titan Shifters working in correlation with each other, Erwin confidently believes that they are the exact same people. After reviewing the letter and seeing that multiple Military Police Units will be escorting Eren to the Capital, Erwin and Hange try to locate Annie's position in the formation while Levi and Mike were tasked on keeping an eye on Reiner.
In the meantime, Minilla was still on the search for Annie and Bertholdt outside of Wall Rose. He manages to find the evaporating body of Annie's Female Titan, but realizes that he would have to rely on his eyes for the time being. Minilla slowly sweeps his tail across the land, clearing the trees to draw out the two Titan Shifters. Unknown to the Kaiju, Bertholdt was carrying Annie on his back and running towards Shiganshina. After using his 3DMG to escape Minilla's field of view, the gas canisters had gone empty and forced him to run on foot. Once he was sure that Minilla did not see him and Annie, Bertholdt quickly places Annie down and switches out his gas with her own. He proceeds to carry her on his back again and grapples to the gates of Shiganshina before realizing that there were people there. Worried that they might be enemies, Bertholdt decides to scale Wall Maria instead and hops to the other side. Finally out of danger, Bertholdt places Annie near a tree so that she can regain her strength while he figures out what to do next.
"That was such a close call," he said to himself, "Though, the next time we fight, Godzilla will surely take me down."
He checks the remaining gas on his 3DMG and finds it to be half-full. Bertholdt knew that it wouldn't be enough to return to Wall Rose, especially if Minilla was scouting the area. However, he turned his attention towards the people in Shiganshina and wondered who they were. The uniforms they wore were drastically different from the Military and looked nothing like the ones from where he came from. With these thoughts keeping him busy, Annie slowly wakes up from her exhaustion and sees Bertholdt tinkering with his 3DMG. She gets up from the tree and looks at the surroundings.
"Where's the big guy ?" she asked Bertholdt, who was surprised that she was already awake.
"Uhh...he's on the other side of the Wall."
"Wait, that Wall ?" Is this Wall Maria ?" Annie guessed based on the direction of the sun.
"Yeah. Godzilla basically blocked the path to Wall Rose, so this was the best I could come up with."
"Thanks for saving me, Bertholdt," Annie praises him as she sits back down, "But we failed getting Eren and our cover's probably been blown by now. It's only a matter of time before they get to Reiner."
"We just didn't expect Godzilla to show up. If he hadn't, you would have definitely captured Eren and we would have moved on to our other plan."
Bertholdt turns to notice Annie crying and walks over to comfort her, "What's the matter, Annie ?"
She sniffs before replying, "I've never been so scared in my life. To be chased by something that big, even in my Titan form. I thought I would never get the chance to see my father again."
"You made it, though. Even if the mission failed, you still lived, right ?"
"If the mission was successful, we could have gone home early. We wouldn't have to spend another minute in this place," Annie argued, "At this point, I'm not sure what else we can do."
Berthold tried to cheer her up, but found no words to support himself. Although he has feelings for her, Bertholdt never knew what to say to Annie and often felt like he would only push her away if he said the wrong things. Filled with hopelessness, Bertholdt distances himself from Annie and allows her to be alone since he did not want to bother her further. However, a thought came across his mind and led him to believe that what he was doing felt wrong. Gathering whatever courage he had, Bertholdt returned to Annie and sat by her side. Annie was taken by surprise at his action and felt like he was messing up her personal space, but she didn't say anything to him. She was usually the loner of the trio and often acted on her own accord, but for the first time, Annie felt lonely and wished for her father's loving embrace. Instead, all she got was Bertholdt's company and it made her feel happy knowing that she didn't have to deal with the failure of the mission alone. As the Sun slowly sets on the horizon, both Bertholdt and Annie remain silent and clear the thought of their mission as they relax for the first time in a while. Their moment of peace was interrupted when they spotted the group of Xilien ships flying towards their direction. They both quickly got on their feet and watched as the ships flew over Wall Maria. Bertholdt carries Annie again and grapples up the Wall to see what was going to transpire.
In the distance, Minilla notices that something was wrong and looks up at the sky to find the Xilien ships hovering above him. The whole spectacle could be seen by Bertholdt, Annie, and even the Mutant soldiers stationed at Shiganshina. Minilla roars at the ships to see if he would get any response and watches as three of them begin firing surges of electricity. Minilla grunted in pain and quickly retaliated by firing his Atomic Breath in a sweeping motion, destroying several of the ships. With only five left, the Xiliens scattered their ships around the Kaiju and continued firing electric attacks to subdue him. Not wanting to hit the Walls, Minilla rushes to the Forest of Giant Trees and uses it as cover while firing his Atomic Breath in the air. The Xilien ships effortlessly dodge the ranged attack and move in on Minilla, who rips a tree from the ground and swings it before letting go. The tree spins in the air and destroys two more ships in the process until it lands back down on the ground.
"This Kaiju is larger than expected," an Xilien pilot stated, "I need to take time to scan his body in the database before bringing him into the ship."
"We just need a distraction," an Xilien officer suggested, "Contact the Fighters and tell them to create a ring of fire around the Kaiju."
The pilot nodded and proceeded to give the order to the other two ships while continuously dodging Minilla's Atomic Breath. The Fighters hover above the trees and fire individual bolts of electricity at the entire area, eventually creating large scale fires that produce massive amounts of smoke. Minilla swung his tail to extinguish the fire as quickly as possible, but the attacks from the Fighters kept on distracting him. Between enduring the electric attacks and having his vision obscured from the smoke, Minilla managed to hold his ground and ran out of the forest. Once he was in the open area, Minilla looked back at the burning forest and prepared to destroy the Fighters. However, they emerged from above the smoke and flew towards the main transport ship where a beam of light emanated from its front.
"Full body scan completed," the Xilien pilot pointed out, "Activating Molecular Disintegration of the target."
Just as Minilla readied his Atomic Breath, he felt his body in pain and watched his body break down into smaller pieces. The beam of light began pulling those small pieces of himself into the Xilien ship until there was nothing left. Everyone in the sidelines were in shock to see Minilla disappear in a flash of light by the extraterrestrial ships. Bertholdt and Annie, despite being surprised, saw it as an opportunity to return to Wall Rose, but decided to save their strength first. The Mutants in Shiganshina quickly hide their operations, hoping that the Xiliens do not spot them. The humans of the Walls, however, missed the entire event and were oblivious to the fact that their most powerful ally had been taken away. The Xiliens then retreated to the atmosphere to discuss their next move as the day came to an end.
As Eren slowly wakes from his slumber, he finds himself back at the castle base with Mikasa sitting beside him. She was leaning on a chair with her eyes closed and her arms crossed. Eren slowly gets up from the bed and sits on the edge while rubbing his eyes. He then gets off the bed and softly shakes Mikasa to wake her up.
"Hey. Tired of waiting for me to wake up ?" he asked her.
Mikasa blinks a few times before replying, "Eren. I thought you would have been in a coma for a few days just like the first time you discovered your powers, but I'm glad you're awake already."
"I can't believe it's already night. What happened while I was out ?"
"We received word that you must be escorted to Mitras as soon as possible," Mikasa sadly explained, "Which means….both you and Mom will be handed over to the Military Police."
Eren sighs, "Then there's nothing else we can do. We blew our only shot on capturing the bastards responsible for the breaches."
"No, Eren. Commander Erwin believes there's still one more thing we can do. Come with me," Mikasa states as she grabs his hand and leads him to the lower levels of the base.
Eren and Mikasa reach the basement floor where Erwin, Squad Levi, Armin, Hange, Mike, and several other recruits sit around a large table with documents displayed in front of them. Eren and Mikasa sat next to each other on one side of the table and allowed Erwin to start the discussion.
"Now that you're awake, Eren, I believe we should catch you up to speed on what we've been talking about," Erwin said.
"You really think we got one more shot at finding the Shifters, Commander ?"
"I do. I believe that we've found out their true identities. All three of them."
"You have ?!" Eren asked with a shocked expression, "Are you sure ?!"
Hange added, "Just to be clear. Their identities are only a possibility, but the information we found may support our suspicions. However, we fear that you might not take this gently."
"Take what gently ?" Eren asks as he looks at his friends' faces, which were filled with disbelief.
Erwin cleared his throat and began explaining everything he and everyone else had learned. Eren learns about various things from the Survey Corps leaders, such as Bertholdt's disappearance at the same time the Colossal Titan appears and his connection to Reiner and Annie. Erwin also talks about how Annie was missing from her unit when he and Hange went to search for her in her designated station and how she was gone right around the Scouts' departure. Since the Colossal Titan and the Female Titan were last seen being pursued by Minilla, it justifies both Bertholdt's and Annie's disappearance from their respective Military branches. This eventually leads to Reiner being the only possible person to be the Armored Titan and a plan was being concocted to trap him.
In order for the plan to work, Reiner needed to be placed outside of dense populations and be confined to spaces that would prevent his transformation. The plan originally involved bringing Reiner to an underground tunnel on the way to Mitras, but after learning about how Shifters can use partial transformations to their advantage, it could allow Reiner to escape. Therefore, the only way to completely immobilize him was to throw him into the well that Hange uses to experiment on Eren. It was a straightforward plan, but the only issue was that the well is placed in a flat land that would prevent the Scouts from using the 3DMG.
Before Erwin concluded the discussion, he noticed that Eren was in a state of disturbance. He asks everyone to rest for the night in order to prepare for the execution of the plan, but he remains behind with Eren, who slumped in his chair.
"I understand that it's too much for you to bear, considering you and the three of them were in the 104th Training Corps together," Erwin pointed out, "But you must realize that if they are who we think they are, then they are our enemies and they must be dealt with. Whatever bond you had with them, I suggest you bury it."
Eren was silent for a moment until he spoke up, "I'm going to head to bed, Commander."
Erwin watches Eren get up from his chair and walk away. Seeing that Eren might cause problems for tomorrow's plan, Erwin decides to create a contingency by having him placed in a different location than Reiner. Meanwhile, Eren returns to his room and stands in the middle, staring at the window in front of him. Feeling betrayed, Eren bursts out of his room and heads straight for Reiner with the intent to kill. Just as he exits his room, Mikasa comes from behind and restrains him, bringing him back into his room.
"M-mikasa ! What the hell are you doing ?!"
"I know what you're going to do, Eren ! I'm not going to let you ruin the plan !" Mikasa argued as she tossed him onto the bed.
"Didn't the plan involve the element of surprise ?! We can catch him off guard right now !"
Mikasa tries to pin him down and explains to him, "But you'll put everyone at risk ! Just wait until we get Reiner to the right spot tomorrow !"
"It's his and Bertholdt's fault that Mom lost her legs ! Don't you give a crap about that, Mikasa ?!"
"We're doing this for Mom ! If you provoke Reiner before we get the chance to do anything, I'll lose you and Mom to the Military Police ! Please calm down !"
Eren stops struggling, but breathes heavily as he talks back to her, "Fine. Could you at least get off of me ?"
Mikasa releases her grip on Eren, allowing him to sit upright on the bed, before saying, "I know it hurts to see some of our friends as enemies, but you shouldn't lose your composure like always. Can you at least focus on the consequences this time ?"
"I know this isn't anything like the bullies when we were little, but I'm not going to sit back and stay calm about this when they took away our home and traumatized Mom !"
Mikasa watches him hardened his fists and questions him, "Are you so insistent about wanting to kill on Mom's behalf ? Her feelings will be hurt if she knew that you're willing to go that far."
"Everything I do is always too much for her, Mikasa," Eren explains as he lays on the bed in frustration, "But….Reiner and Bertholdt pretended to sympathize with me when they were the problem. They probably acted like friends just to get to me and I'm…..really fucking pissed at them !"
"You have every right to be mad at them, but I'm worried about what Mom would think of seeing you like this," she lays next to him, "If you really are going to kill Reiner, you should let us get whatever information from him first. After that, I'll be by your side when you confront Bertholdt and Annie."
"Whatever reason they're doing this. Whether it's to eliminate all of humanity, or for some other selfish reason, I'll give them hell. With them out of the way, maybe Mom can finally be free from the Military Police."
"We'll see how tomorrow goes. Hopefully, it'll be more successful than the expedition."
Eren sighs as he turns to look at her, "I'm sorry for...lashing out again. When I think about it, the last time I got this angry was during the trial and Mom had to slap me in front of everyone. If she hadn't, I would have ruined everything. Just like right now."
"I'm glad that I was able to stop you then, Eren, but I'll always be on your side. Even if Mom wants me to keep you in check, I'll keep fighting alongside you as long as I get to be with you."
The last sentence felt familiar to Eren, as if he remembers Mikasa saying something similar to him during the Battle of Trost. After transforming for the first time, he had trouble recalling certain things that happened prior and decided to move on. However, he begins to recollect specific words that Mikasa told him and pieces them together to find out what she said.
"...You gave me a new purpose…..never gonna give up on you…..I…...Love you, Eren."
Eren begins asking himself about whether that really happened, or if it was something else, but he didn't want to talk to Mikasa about it until the time was right. For now, he decided to think of nothing and relaxed with her for the time being. They both stared at the ceiling and slowly fell asleep.
Within the Mitras capital where the local Military Police station was located, three Mutant soldiers surveyed from the rooftops in search of Serizawa. They managed to find him waiting inside Carla's room and proceeded with the extraction process. Hiding in the shadows and sneaking past the MP officers, they easily made their way through the station's hallways and reached the courtyard where they planned an escape route before continuing.
At the same time, Serizawa waited in anticipation for his allies to pick him up. He waited the whole day for them to come and wondered why they took so long to arrive. All day long, Serizawa tried to gather the courage to tell Carla that he was leaving, but he was extremely nervous to do so. Suddenly, he hears the door to the room open and sees one of the Mutant soldiers walking in.
The Mutant whispered, "Dr. Serizawa, we're here to return you back to base. I suggest we make haste before any suspicions are raised."
Though he was expecting them to come, Serizawa was still surprised at their sudden arrival and replied, "Um…..of course. Let me get my things first."
The Mutant nodded before closing the door, prompting Serizawa to gather his things in his briefcase without waking Carla up. He looked at her one last time before leaving the room, unaware that he accidentally pushed one of the prosthetics placed by her bed. Just as Serizawa slowly closes the door, the prosthetic drops and makes a noise loud enough to wake Carla up. She sits upright on her bed and goes to pick up the fallen item until she notices something out of the ordinary. Carla finds every one of Serizawa's tools and documents missing from the room and turns to hear footsteps from outside of her room, causing her to believe that some of the MP officers probably stole his stuff. She puts on both of her prosthetics and tries to leave the room as best as she can.
As the Mutant soldiers made their way to the courtyard with Serizawa following them, they explained the situation about the Xiliens attacking Minilla and taking him away before heading to the atmosphere.
"We won't be able to fly back to base unless we're sure that they're gone for good," one of them explained, "We'll have to stay by the ship and wait for new orders."
"That's understandable," Serizawa reassured, "I guess we can't do anything for a while unless we give our positions away."
Another Mutant added, "Not to mention that Godzilla's gone. We might actually have to use those mechs sooner than expected."
"The mechs are already operational ?!," the third Mutant asked, "Damn, I wanted to pilot one of those for a while. I chose the wrong assignment."
"Sorry, man. They're probably selecting volunteers right now."
They immediately stopped talking when they reached the entrance to the courtyard. Using the open space above the area as an escape point, one of the Mutants easily jumps to the top of the building and analyzes a route back to the ship. Before the others followed along, they became startled when a voice called out to them from the direction they came. Serizawa widens his eye when he sees Carla leaning on a wall in front of him and the Mutants, forcing him to give his briefcase to them before approaching her.
"Uh…..Carla…." he stuttered, "I...um….I…."
"Serizawa, where are you going ?"
He sighs heavily before continuing, "I have to…..go back. To my friends. There's a serious problem that I have to help them with and….I….I….didn't know how to say...goodbye."
Carla was unsure about how to feel at the moment, but she felt sad and angry at the same time. Although she knew that Serizawa would have to leave one day, it felt odd to see him leaving so suddenly with soldiers that she was unfamiliar with. It was already hard enough dealing with the fact that her son can turn into a Titan and she was hoping that a close friend like Serizawa could help her get through it, but there was obviously nothing she could do to stop him from leaving.
"I...don't know what you're dealing with, but it's not my business to say anything," Carla murmured, "You've already fulfilled your promise of helping me walk again and I'm not going to force you to stay if you don't want to."
"I really wish I could, Carla. There's just so much about your artificial limbs that I still need to work on and I can finally help you return to a normal life once I get back."
"I see. I'm just supposed to wait again, right ? I waited for my husband, I waited for my son, and now I have to wait for you as well. I'm constantly waiting for the people I care about to return to me and for what ? A normal life that I'm clearly never getting back after so many strange events that have been occurring."
Serizawa went silent as she continued.
"You've already completed your job of looking after me. I'll follow the instructions you gave and I'll take care of my own until Eren gets back."
"I really don't know what to say, Carla, but I'm sorry," Serizawa apologizes, "Someone like you shouldn't have to go through this sort of thing."
"I never thought I would have to go through two near death experiences in my life, but I did. In the end, I'm still alive. At this point, I don't really care much about what happens to me, so you should just...go."
Serizawa slowly walks back to the Mutants as Carla returns to her room emotionlessly. The Mutants jumped into the opening of the courtyard with Serizawa on one of their backs and proceeded to return to their ship. However, Serizawa looks back one more time before following his Mutant allies across the Capital. Carla lays back in her bed and becomes depressive enough to go back to sleep.
With the Forest of Giant Trees nearly burned to the ground, its ashes flew with the winds and scattered all over the land between Trost and Shiganshina. Bertholdt and Annie walked back to Wall Rose with empty gas canisters in their 3DMG. They decided not to use their transformation in order to save their stamina for later use and avoided heading towards the Karanes District because of the Scouts. Their only hope was to lay low in another District and devise a plan to rescue Reiner from the Scouts, in case they might have discovered the truth.
They both made their way towards the Krolva District, but around halfway, they managed to spot a group of people at the edge of Wall Rose. Unaware of who they are, Bertholdt and Annie quickly hid behind a small hill and tried to observe the mysterious group from a distance. A large figure lands behind the duo and startles them, prompting them both to prepare to transform. At first glance, they believed that it was a random Titan until a blonde bearded man jumped off from its back. With one good look at the man, Bertholdt and Annie immediately lowered their guard and became surprised.
"It's been a while, hasn't it ?" the man asked, "You took five years and even with the Power of the Titans, you four still haven't retrieved the Coordinate yet."
"Zeke ?! I didn't expect you and other reinforcements to come," Bertholdt said.
"That's because time is running out. From the looks of it, the Xiliens have returned and our only hope of defending our people is still outside of our grasp."
"We ran into some complications," Annie explained, "Not only has a Kaiju been interfering with us, but there's a person with the Power of the Titans that exists within these Walls as well."
Zeke raised an eyebrow, "Is that so ? Hmmm….I'll let it slide this one time since a Kaiju was involved, but I expect that person to be dealt with when you face them again. Understood ?"
"Yes," Bertholdt and Annie said in unison.
"Now then, I believe you two have some explaining to do while we set up for tomorrow's small operation."
The two Titan Shifters explained everything to Zeke, such as Reiner still in the Wall's Military and the death of Marcel. Annie even brought up the fact that the King of the Walls is a fake and that the Coordinate may possibly be in the hands of someone else, or in the hands of Eren Jaeger. Although Zeke seemed intrigued about Eren, he was also curious about his connection to Minilla, the Kaiju that has been roaming the Walls and attacking the Titans. Afterwards, Zeke explains his plan to turn a certain village inside Wall Rose into Titans, hoping to draw the Xiliens attention to the Walls and bringing enough chaos to distract both sides.
Another chapter done, even if it's shorter than recent chapters, but it basically just wraps up the 57th expedition arc and sets up the Clash of the Titans arc (Sorry to those who enjoyed the Stohess Battle in AOT, but I'm skipping it). Anyways, I'm gonna get straight to the point and say that the Monsterverse MechaGodzilla is officially the winner. No spoilers (Hopefully), but the next few chapters will begin having more Kaijus and you may be surprised at who's going to appear first. This is basically the turning point of the story and I took some time to plan out the later chapters so that I can post them a lot faster. Thank you all for taking the time to read this far and enjoying my fanfic.