The Female Titan

Armin allowed a surprised expression to appear on his face as lightning flashed right before him for the second time this day. He had nursed his suspicions about Annie and Eren following the latter's own transformation, but to see his theory confirmed before his eyes was brilliant, and ironically, thunderous. A massive body of steaming flesh and blood formed around her, encasing her human shape within the vulnerable nape they had all been trained to attack.

And then as suddenly as the transformation had begun, it ended. Annie's form had blonde hair, which sat at the same shoulder length, like when she was human. She turned, glancing back at them, large blue eyes surrounded by a thick ring of exposed flesh. Unlike Eren's form, which was very human and covered in skin, hers had a ghastly beauty that walked a fine line between human and inhuman.

"By the walls," one of the Garrison soldiers muttered. "She has tits."

"Please don't tell General Pixis about her," grumbled another soldier. Armin glanced at her and realized she had been among the small group present when the last batch of cadets returned to Wall Rose. She pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. "He'll be obsessed with her otherwise."

"Did you suspect her?" whispered Mikasa. Armin turned to her, and saw that she was staring at Annie.

"Only once she regrouped with us, and I tried not to harbor suspicions she was like Eren," he admitted. "Though I should've guessed from the moment it seemed obvious she had known about Eren's abilities. You remember that storm, when we found those giant footsteps at the lake's shore?"

"They were training."

Armin was somewhat surprised by the hint of approval in Mikasa's tone, though there was enough jealousy and anger underlining it to make clear she was quite wroth with the fact Eren had kept his training a secret from her. He had a bad feeling that her anger was compounded by the fact Annie was the sole person party to Eren's secret, though that dug too deep into the strange relationship between Eren and his adoptive sister for him to deal with at present.

They watched as Annie skirted Eren's collapsed form, glancing down at him with a frustrated scowl and pursed lips. It was utterly bizarre to see human expressions and emotions on the face of a Titan, but so much had happened on this day that Armin wished to sleep before he began asking questions or thinking deeper about the terrible truths revealed upon this day. For now, he would sit back and watch as someone else saved the day.

She approached the boulder, shifting Eren away from it so she could safely lift the boulder, likely onto her shoulder as did Atlas from the old world myths he had discovered in one of his grandfather's books. Annie flexed her fingers, and then tensed her hands. Shimmering crystal formed over the digits, and with it she suffered no scrapping or bloodying as she lifted the boulder. For a moment, Armin swore she had looked ready to try and pierce the boulder, and he was grateful she hadn't. Doing so would've threatened the integrity of the great stone, even if it could've assisted in the transportation of their makeshift plug.

Annie heaved the boulder up, widening her stance as she squatted slightly. She brought it to rest upon her shimmering shoulders, arms awkwardly shifting to keep it held up. Her blue gaze turned in his direction, then to Eren. There was no need for words, for her intention was clear: Annie was entrusting Eren's fate to him.

Armin breathed out shakily, turning to where Eren's Titan form rested, exposed for any wandering, mindless fiend to stumble upon and sink their large, hungry teeth into. If nothing was done, his friend might very well be ripped out of that body and chewed like any other normal human.

I… I have to wake him. Annie will finish Eren's task, and I will wake him. I will wake him to fight, to live, so that we can see the ocean and claim our freedom.

Annie grimaced inside her Titan form, feeling sweat trickle across her exposed skin. She had known that the boulder would be a clumsy thing to carry, and now more than ever she wished Eren hadn't flubbed his shift. She didn't exactly want to think about what he had done wrong and she wouldn't have a chance to ask him until she was finished. She should've trained him harder, more consistently. She had gone through years of effort before becoming the Female Titan's successor, and months after accepting the power to become accustomed to using it.

That she had to step in and take up his burden, his role in the mission, meant that there had been a failure on her part. She had other ways to solve this problem, but she was being forced to follow a plan devised without her and her unique abilities in mind.

Not that I'll have a chance to train him better, she thought begrudgingly. Their fates were likely doomed after this day, and what little time they would have to speak would be before the gallows. Between her silence the moment he was exposed to the upper echelons and his failure to succeed in the planned mission based around his powers, their chances to live into the future were doubtful. Annie wouldn't hold out hope, like Eren would, that the brass would recognize their accomplishments and grant them their due reward. Marley had never done so with their Eldian soldiers, shifters included. They were animals, little better than cows capable of receiving and executing complex orders.

She remembered something Eren had once told her. Something, upon her reflection of life in Marley, that suddenly resonated with her in a manner it never had. "I want to see the ocean. We weren't meant to live behind these walls like cattle. We… we're supposed to be free, not trapped as we are."

Annie took a slow, calming breath. She would not be like cattle. Marley wanted the Eldians to be slaves, playthings to use as they wished—or dead. Eren desired freedom, life, and she wanted to fight for it by his side.

Damn Marley, she thought. Damn Marley and their plans to hell. I am a Paradisian, now.

Armin watched as the Garrison soldiers, after several long seconds of hesitation and bickering, departed. They followed in Annie's wake, continuing on with their original mission to escort Eren to the breach, the boulder in tow. That it was Annie and not Eren must not matter to them, or they wanted to be close enough to take her into custody once she finished Eren's task.

He glanced at Mikasa, whose gaze unevenly shifted between Eren and Annie. He understood she was worried, but a divided mind would get them killed, regardless of ability.

"Mikasa," he called out, loud enough to spook her from her thoughts. "We need to help Eren. Annie can handle herself. Plus, she has the other soldiers."

"I know," Mikasa said, on the verge of growling. "I don't trust her, though."

"But Eren does."

Whatever protest Mikasa might have was held back. She nodded, swift and curt, as if Eren's judgment was superior to anyone else's. Armin didn't doubt for a second that she still had her doubts about whatever there was between Annie and Eren. The more he dared to think about it, the clearer it became that Annie had known for some time about Eren's powers.

A year? Two, maybe? Eren wasn't that straightforward about when he acquired it. That, of course, assumes he knows.

Armin sighed. He shook his head, clearing it of unnecessary thoughts, and dashed over to the roof's edge. He fired off a tether, watching it spike into the flesh near Eren's nape. Despite what he had seen earlier that day, he couldn't say with full confidence where he'd need to cut to excise Eren. There was a burning certainty in his gut that he couldn't allow Eren to shift again, once removed from his Titan form and returned to safety. Annie had been concerned while heading out that he was beginning to suspect there was only so much they could do before the Titan aspect of their powers threatened their very humanity.

Based on what I saw earlier, Eren's body is roughly in the same position as the nape we were trained to cut. Judging from that, I only need to slice around it and create a hole roughly his size.

I hope his limbs heal back, or else he will live a maimed life.

Armin shifted around the nap until he was in a position he would confident would allow him to cut around Eren's head and shoulders. He fired a tether into the flesh to each side of him, holding him into position for the likely long process of cutting his friend out.

Hissing gas drew his attention. Armin glanced over and watched as Mikasa sailed his way. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and her brow was furrowed enough he could tell she wasn't angry. What she was feeling, though, Armin wasn't sure. He didn't know Mikasa as well as he should, especially since she had lingered around him more than Eren during the final year of training.

Another thing I can throw at the feet of the strange relationship between Eren and Annie.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked plainly.

Armin opened his mouth to reply, and then paused, hesitating. He couldn't name what he was waiting for or why he was hesitating. He blinked, considering what held his hand from cutting into the Titan before him, and dread crept into his heart at the idea of harming, maiming, and even killing Eren.

This is the same Eren who kept secrets from Mikasa and I, and…and he's still the same Eren who always defended me from bullies. Even after Mikasa began to live with the Jaegers, he continued to defend me from anyone who looked down on me for my beliefs, from the people who called me a heretic and an apostate. We share the same dream, to go beyond the walls and see the ocean—a lake of salt water so great no merchant could ever boil it down.

He always believed in my dream, and shared it with me. I can't…

I can't…

I can't let him down!

A courage he hadn't known was within him bloomed to life with roaring fury. Armin drew a razor-thin blade, shining in the orange evening light. With a roar, he plunged his blade into the Titan's flesh. Steam billowed out, hot and sticky. Blood followed, boiling away into bitter, metallic vapors that clouded his vision and filled his mouth. He turned his head aside, coughing, and began to lengthen his incision.

Mikasa aided him, guiding his cut as they worked to slice fast enough to combat its healing reflex. They needed to remove Eren before his Titan's body could be restored. Some of the flesh near where he had begun released soft hisses. They peered over as fleshly stitches connected, weaved, and bound together.

"I should have been cutting," Mikasa decided. "I'm better at it."

Armin wasn't about to correct her. With swift, deep cuts, Mikasa sliced away enough flesh that they could draw back the tanned skin to reveal Eren, strung to the Titan like a puppet by bloody strands of red flesh. It was a grotesque sight, yet Armin's gut was unmoved. He was almost fascinated by the sight of his best friend bound to this strange, powerful form. He remembered those moments earlier in the day, when Eren had leaned back out of his Titan form, splitting the flesh while still stuck to it, and spoke to them.

"Let's get him out of there."

Mikasa was quick to drop down into the open wound, uncaring as she pulled Eren back. The flesh bound to his face stretched, only snapping once he was brought to a sitting position. There were long, pink lines across his cheeks as they'd seen earlier, but they were deeper, with severe red dots along his cheekbones that followed the curve of his eyes.

Armin looked around. "We should hurry, before a Titan shows up."

Mikasa nodded. With a flick of her blade, she severed the final ties between Eren and the Titan. He slumped to the side, unconscious from whatever strain his failed shift had caused him. Armin rose stiffly, preparing to head for a nearby rooftop, as Mikasa slung their friend over her shoulder.

The ground rumbled. It came not from the direction of Annie, but from the direction he had crossed to come to Eren's aid. They both turned, watching as a Titan, six meters tall, emerged from a side alley, its jaw almost comically open.

"Take Eren," Mikasa said, shoving their unconscious friend toward Armin. He quickly raised his arms to avoid dropping Eren, nearly stabbing his friend by accident. "I'll handle it."

And without another comment, she shot up into the air, leaving him alone. With nothing else to do, he returned to the rooftops.

He was alone but for his best friend, slung over his shoulders, unconscious and drained of his fiery energy. Armin could only be thankful that there was nothing else wrong but the deep lines down his face that had yet to begin steaming shut.

Annie was more than thankful for the more esoteric forms and trickier kicks her father had taught her years ago. They were unwieldy to use, given the boulder upon her shoulder, but they were easier to use while stuck in her current predicament. She remembered the old Eldian tale of Atlas, who bore the world upon his shoulders as punishment for crimes he had committed due to his personal weakness. Whatever crime she had committed to be left as the sole one to take upon this task of sealing the breach, Annie was more than sorry for having committed it.

Though once I tell Eren the truth…the truth about Marley and Eldia, about what happened on that day five years ago…he'll hate me. I know he will. He will hate me more than he'll hate Reiner and Bertholdt, those traitors who willingly breached the walls.

She forced away thoughts of her fellow Titan shifters. A distracted mind meant death for one like her. If she lost track of her mission, the purpose behind shifting in the first place, it could all come falling apart. It wasn't the literal vision of her body collapsing that would come to pass, but it would be her mind in danger of slipping away into a dream, tortured subconsciously by what her feral body would do. Marley had experimented on the capacity of the human form within a Titan body following the Great War, and knew that a shifter who lost track of their purpose for too long would be consumed by their power and turn into a mindless beast.

She adjusted the boulder upon her shoulders. This was her task, one she had taken up on Eren's behalf. It had to be done, or else Trost be lost for the Paradisians. Reiner would eventually strike, just as they had at Shiganshina. But if with her actions this day it could be stopped, then she would be fine with it.

He had been unfazed by what they did five years past. She had not, and Bertholdt stuck between them. The years had only drawn the two boys together, and thus away from her.

Annie pressed on, heading for the broad road that led up to the newest breach and the bright light certainly coming through it. Evening had come and stayed, lingering over the world as it stained the sky with oranges and reds, streaking brightly across the sky. The world glowed with color, reflecting off the white stone of the streets and the white plaster upon the buildings. That she could recognize said color in her Titan form was a pleasant surprise, even if it risked distracting her from her mission. Only the Beast Titan was supposed to see color while in a Titan's body. Most shifters only saw the world in shades of grey. Their minds might put hints of color onto what they saw, but it wasn't real. She suspected it was the stress of the boulder, the stress of going against the mission she had been sent to Paradis in the first place to complete, that caused her to see those colors.

Otherwise, it meant something else the Marleyans had told her was the truth was proven wrong. If seeing color as a Titan, if the Paradisians being human, were both true, then what other lies had they told her? Why did they deserve her loyalty?

Focus, Leonhardt, she mentally growled. Worry about it later. You have a mission to finish.

She stepped onto the wide thoroughfare that connected the two main gates of Trost. She still had a distance of one hundred and thirty meters to cross, based upon the narrow alley just ahead of her. She had spotted the light from the breach from elsewhere, but it was different, now that she could stare directly into it.

The boulder was thankfully large enough. Clearly someone had been able to determine the size of the previous breaches and worked to ensure something would be ready in case of an attack on Trost.

Between her and the breach, though, were a dozen Titans. Most were in the five to seven-meter range, though a couple of fifteens were in close enough proximity they were bound to become her problem. Annie didn't doubt her ability to handle most of the shorter ones, but the tall fiends would give her grief and trouble, due to the boulder upon her shoulders.

A zipping sound caught her attention, and she glanced over as one of the Garrison soldiers landed on the nearest rooftop. "You focus on reaching the breach!" he bellowed. "We'll clear the path forward!"

With a weak lean of her human head, Annie pulled back from her Titan form. The man grimaced at the sight of her. She kept her face stern and serious, grim as the moment was. "The fifteen-meter-class Titans will give me trouble. Focus on them. I can kill the little ones if they dare approach me."

The man scowled, lips pursed so tight they'd gone white, but after several seconds he nodded and zipped away to repeat her advice. Annie hoped, as she leaned back into the steaming hot body, they would at least consider her words, if not follow them with the dedication they had already shown.

Else, Trost might truly be lost. Else, she might be lost. Else, Paradis would fall as Marley desired, the plans to destroy all in search of the King and his Power fulfilled in its bloodiest manner possible.

She could reveal more of her powers, but she was wary of that. Better to keep a trick in reserve until it is truly needed than to show off all she could do.

Annie started for the breach. She lengthened her stride as much as possible. With every step, she crossed some six meters. But it was only six meters with each step she took, closing the distance as one might whittle away a block of wood, a sliver at a time.

The smaller Titans moved in her direction, most stumbling and waddling. Silvery crystal came to life along her shins and the top of her feet. The coating wouldn't interfere with her strides, though she would be less flexible than she might otherwise be.

One of them broke away from the pack, its too wide mouth stretching too far open. Annie snarled, pausing to adjust her stance. The moment it came within her range, she lashed out with a swift blow. Her foot cut through the mouth, severing the head in two. As the section cut away flew out into Trost, she stepped forward and crushed what remained of its head and neck with the heel of that very foot that had made the cut.

Annie pressed forward, marching onward towards the breach. Whenever a Titan stepped into her path, she cut it down with a swift kick and pressed forward. The Garrison soldiers did their job, cutting down those Titans that posed the greatest threat to her efforts to move forward, onward towards the breach. Whether or not they retained their numbers was something she tried to not think of, for her focus had to remain upon the breach.

Time was immaterial during her march, and yet Annie reached the breach both faster and slower than she had hoped. Her shoulders and arms shifted awkwardly as she lowered down into a squat. With a roar that would make Eren proud, she slammed the boulder into place, sealing Trost from the Titans beyond Wall Rose. Were she not afraid of the response, she would have sealed it boulder into the wall with her hardening powers.

Instead, she stepped back, away from her work. It was done. Annie had saved the city and the Paradisians behind their walls. It might be a temporary victory, but she felt pride and remorse in equal measure. She had played a role in the Fall of Shiganshina, and knew whom the culprits for this assault upon the walls were.

A hissing sound caught her attention, but she was a moment too late. Razor sharp blades cut into flesh, and Annie's human form was exposed as large, meaty chunks were sent flying with explosive violence. She pulled her head back, the strands connecting her to the Titan separating with small pops.

Standing above her was a short man, his black hair undercut. He wore a white cravat and had the green cloak of the Survey Corps around his shoulders.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do, brat."

Annie opened her mouth, and said only what she needed to.

More than one life hung in the balance.

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.

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END OF PART I