MIKASA, ARMIN, HANGE
DAY 2
TIME: 2330 hours
The three had barely stepped foot outside before spotting the larger threat.
"Hange," Armin said, his voice quivering. "Those people, their gear and outfits- they look like Kenny's squad!"
Mikasa had wrapped her hand securely around Armin's arm, and it looked like she was perhaps stopping Armin from going head-on into the danger. But Armin could feel the weight she pressed on to him, and knew that it was tedious for her to simply remain standing.
"Armin," she said. "We killed Kenny's squad in the cavern. With Rod Reiss, remember?"
Armin nodded and stared at the uniformed enemies. "I know that. But I think it's possible that not all of them were there."
"Any witnesses died that night," Mikasa hummed, leaning more on Armin. "They don't know anything about it."
Armin looked to Hange, who was beginning to notice as well Mikasa's lethargic movements.
"You may be right, Armin. Kenny Ackerman likely had more comrades than we knew of who were aware of his plan for the cavern. They may have been on our tails for a while now, and Eren transforming is a good way to let them know where we are." Hange looked ahead of their two subordinates, and attempted to count just how many enemies there were. "Are the others all still upstairs?"
"Yes." Armin gulped. "Captain Levi was in Eren's room, Hange."
Silence hung in the air as the group thought about what this could mean. It was unwise to be directly next to Eren when he transformed, and considering how the entire room collapsed, and that they hadn't heard from anyone upstairs, there was no way of knowing who was okay.
Hange hummed. "Are you sure the stairs are blocked off? There's no way to get back up?"
Armin shook his head. "The stairs are completely destroyed, sir."
Hange peered at the assailants in the field, and at Eren's titan slowly approaching them. Gunshots erupted all around, but had next to no effect on the titan form as Eren closed in on the group.
Hange fixed their glasses, observing carefully. "Perhaps our two problems will solve themselves!"
Eren swooped his hand across the group, effectively sending them scattering. One unlucky woman was caught in the palm of Eren's hand, and was sent flying with an insurmountable amount of force across the field, and over the cliff's edge.
"They're spreading out," Armin observed. "We need to make sure they don't hurt Eren, Hange! We don't know what their goals are!"
Hange rested a hand on Armin's shoulder. "That's not going to happen, Armin. Put a little faith in me, eh? You have your gun. You know how to use it. Mikasa is hurt, so you need to get somewhere safe. If you climb the watchtower and bring up the ladder, you can shoot from above and get a good hit on anyone with ODM gear before they reach you. In the meantime, I'm going to back Eren up. Sound good?"
Armin paled and nodded furiously. "Yes, sir!"
The three split apart, heading in different directions. The watchtower was far from the current battle ground, and without ODM gear to fight with, it was Armin and Mikasa's best bet to fight and survive in. Hange pulled themselves up the side of the house with their wires, and observed the situation from above.
Eren was certainly delivering a blow to Kenny's squad.
"Sir!" came a voice from across the roof, and Hange nearly jumped out of their skin at the call, but sighed in relief after seeing who the voice belonged to.
"Oi, Jean! Perfect timing!"
Jean used his ODM gear to pull himself towards the piece of undestroyed roof that Hange stood on. "Captain Levi sent me to recover Eren, but I don't think he accounted for intruders."
Hange shook their head, greasy hair bobbing back and forth. "Hmm. That would be rather reckless had you gone anyway. Is Levi alright? Everyone else?"
Jean nodded. "Fine. The Captain is taking Armin's gear. He should be here soon. And he'll probably be pissed that I'm not getting Eren."
Hange tapped their finger to their chin. "Well, getting Eren is still a priority. Getting him away from Kenny's squad, especially. But I'm not sure we should take him out of his titan form with these many opponents.
Jean's face went slack. "You want to keep Eren in the battle?"
Hange shrugged. "We're by far outnumbered. If Eren is removed from his titan, we'll be down out best fighter, plus somebody who will have to protect him after doing so. We stand out best chance if we wait and protect Eren while he fights Kenny's squad."
"This is Kenny?"
"Not Kenny," Hange corrected. "No. These are the crumbs of his squadron that we never cleaned up. But I suppose there's no time like the present."
Jean gripped his blade handles. "Do they all have guns?"
Hange nodded. "It's safe to assume so. What we need to do is take advantage of the dark and stay out of their line of sight. There's nowhere to use out ODM gear except the house, the treeline, and Eren's titan, so with our blades we'll be on the ground. There should be guns in the room Levi was using. We might be able to use those to our advantage. But we also can't leave Eren undefended for too long, considering Kenny's squad can use ODM gear the same as us."
Cursing his awful position, Jean readied his hands on his ODM gear. "I can defend Eren, Hange. Captain Levi wanted me to in the first place. You should be able to meet up with him soon, though. Sasha and Connie are with him."
Hange clasped their hands together. "Sounds like a plan, then. Do us all a favour and don't get killed, alright, Jean! What a shame that would be."
Jean sighed and aimed his gear at Eren's titan in the distance. More people had told him not to die today than in his entire life, all in the name to protect a certain suicidal blockhead.
Damn you, Jaeger, thought Jean as he propelled himself through the air, aiming to land on Eren's shoulder. Below, a couple of Kenny's squad looked up at the buzzing of the wires, but no shots were fired at his quick moving figure before he landed without grace on the hard skin of Eren's titan.
"Okay, idiot," he muttered. "I'm here to protect your stupid nape."
A deafening roar sounded from Eren's titan, and Jean was expecting for him to commence another attack on the squad below, only to be met with Eren's hand swatting him off his shoulder.
"Fuck!" Jean yelled. He leapt from the shoulder, just as Eren's hand flattened against it. From the sudden attack, Jean had been caught off guard and now dangled from the wires of his gear from just below Eren's ear. "What the fuck, Eren!"
With Jean now gone from Eren's shoulder, the titan didn't seem to pay him any mind as he approached another one of Kenny's squad from the ground. Jean watched, from quite a shitty angle, as Eren's fingers wrapped around the torso of the assailant, picking them off the ground and paying no mind to how tight his grip was. Then, Jean watched in horror as Eren swallowed them whole.
What the fuck? What the fuck? Jean's mind raced as he connected the dots on the situation. Eren had batted him away, after Jean had stated he was here to help, then continued to eat somebody. Eren wasn't listening to Jean, and had just consumed a person. Like a pure titan would have.
Jean's head filled with heat. Oh, they were in trouble.
Is this what Hange meant by fighting Kenny's squad? Giving permission to kill them in the most brutal way possible?
Jean's thoughts were interrupted by the whoosh of a bullet flying past his right side. Beneath him, one of Kenny's squad was promptly reloading their gun after having just used it trying to shoot Jean.
Clenching his teeth, Jean soared back up Eren's titan, but this time, he grabbed onto Eren's brown locks instead of landing on his shoulder. To Jean's surprise, the hair wasn't disgustingly dirty. It concealed him from the people below, and made for an awkward angle to shoot at from the ground. Right now, he was placing all his luck on Eren not noticing the slight tug on his hair from Jean holding on for dear life.
This would be fine for now. He was following orders, wasn't he? Levi had sent him after Eren, and Hange had told him to keep Eren in action and protect him if need be. Oh, and also not to die.
Fuck the higher ups and their contradictory orders. Jean just wanted to swing his blades around in his room.
Eren's titan roared again, and Jean had to slouch and cover his ears from the proximity. He felt it as Eren ducked down once again, bearing chaos over Kenny's brash followers. For now, he would stay where he was, guarding Eren's nape, trying to ignore the sounds of death coming from the ground.
LEVI, SASHA, CONNIE, HANGE
DAY 2
TIME: 2340 hours
Levi sent Sasha and Connie to equip their ODM gear, and once everybody was ready, they regrouped in the roofless, half blown-in corridor. The three followed their wires to the rooftop, where in the distance, the dark figure of a titan moved irregularly.
Levi cursed himself for letting his guard down. After Trost, Eren was kept underground at night because his powers were unpredictable. Nothing had changed since then- they were in an unstable situation, but failed to take precautions. Levi was a Captain, but he didn't even have his gear on. He was the one in charge and had to send a new recruit to go after Eren instead of doing it himself.
"Sir," Sasha said, her voice wavering as she stared off into the night. "There are people down on the ground around Eren."
Levi frowned. "Is it Armin and Mikasa?"
Sasha shook her head as she pointed to the site that held her gaze. "No, sir. There's at least ten, and maybe more behind Eren."
As if to confirm Sasha's observation, a gunshot popped in the distance. As Levi's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could make out movements of ODM gear being used.
Levi's hands tightened around his blades. Who did he know that used vertical maneuvering gear, and guns?
A zipping behind the three Survey Corps members had them spinning around, blades drawn, only to face a despondent Hange. "Levi, if you haven't noticed by now, we've got Kenny's squad surrounding Eren at the moment."
Levi still peered at Eren's titan in the distance. "I know. I just sent Jean over to get things under control with Eren."
Great. So, not only had Levi sent Jean away because he was the only one prepared, but he sent him into an active artillery fight with no backup. Fuck, he was really on fire tonight.
"I searched the cabin for guns," Hange said, and Levi could tell they were actually quite out of breath. "Nothing. The only one I had I gave to Armin and Mikasa for defense."
So, Armin and Mikasa were safe. That was one question answered.
"It's cloudy out, sir," Sasha said, eyes unpeeled from Eren's titan and the tiny figures of Kenny's squad on the ground beneath. "We might be able to avoid their range of fire since it's so dark out, and get Eren back."
"Captain," Connie inquired. "If we can't fight fair, then why won't Eren just come back here so we can run away?"
Levi's chest sunk, and he and Hange made eye contact. They both knew that Eren might not exactly be negotiable right now.
Hange spoke first. "I'm assuming Eren unintentionally transformed. Levi, were there improvements to his health? Any at all?"
"No,' Levi deadpanned. "He wasn't even awake."
Hange turned to Sasha and Connie. "Meaning, we don't know if Eren is even consciously controlling his titan. It's likely that he's being led by pure instinct. Right now, our best shot would be to provide backup for Jean, and make a break for it with Eren back to the village."
Levi scoffed. "The village isn't going to stop them from shooting to kill."
"There is a local military base," Hange persuaded. "We can collect them and fight."
"Wait," Connie interrupted, then saluted, remembering that he'd just interrupted a conversation between his two superior officers. Hange looked interested, but Levi was barely keeping an admonishment on the tip of his tongue. "Sirs. Don't we need to stay together? Even if we get Jean and Eren, where are Armin and Mikasa?"
"Mikasa was injured," Hange said, holding a thumb to their chin in thought. "I sent Armin armed with the gun to get to safety. If everything went well, they should be up the watchtower. Any one of us could use our gear to get them safely down if we're low on time."
"We're already low on time," Levi said. He wasn't about to waste another second if it meant Jean or Eren were going to pay the price for his incompetence. "Connie. Sasha. I want you both to go to the stable and ready some horses. We don't need food, just enough supplies to get us through the night. You'll take our cloaks with you."
Levi was already removing his green cloak and dropping it into Connie's hands. "Sir?"
"They don't seem to be wearing cloaks," Levi said. "Hange and I will try to recover Eren and Jean and then meet you at the stables, where we'll all leave for the village. If we get recognised after joining the chaos, then we're shit out of luck. Wings of Freedom are a god damn bullseye these days. That's why you get to carry our cloaks. Now get a move on, brats."
Sasha and Connie both saluted, Connie as best he could with his hands full, and swung off the roof with singing wires and a puff of gas. Levi glanced to Hange. "Ready, four-eyes?"
Hange grinned. "Race you to the deranged titan!"
With that as their only warning, Hange leapt off the roof once again, not giving Levi the chance to opt out of their bet, and soon, they were in the thick of the fight.
