-G-
A month had passed since the Cadets had joined the Scouts. They had studied the Scouts' plan to reach Shingonshina extensively, and now, the day had finally come for the 57th recon-mission. Church bells chimed throughout the streets of Trost as the Scout Regiment, all on horseback, stood before the shining, silver, futuristic gate that lead into Wall Maria. Gigan swooped overhead and then hovered just over the city with a smile on his face as he looked down upon the Scouts with pride.
Mikasa was waiting with the people in her squad with a determined look on her face when she suddenly felt a gentle tug on her cape. She looked down curiously and saw the little girl that she saved back during the Trost incident standing below her. The girl started hopping in place while showing her a drawing she made of her beating up Dimo Reeves. Mikasa smiled seeing it and saluted the girl, which she returned with a bright smile on her face before her mother pulled her away. Mikasa then looked back up and saw Sasha smiling at her.
"You know, you can be adorable sometimes, Mika," Sasha said, making Mikasa frantically hide her increasing blush with her scarf.
"D-do you really think so?" Mikasa muttered.
"What was that?"
"NOTHING!" She exclaimed. "Also, what did I tell you about nicknames?!"
"S-SORRY!" Sasha raised up her hands as a bead of sweat formed on her forehead.
"HEY! PAY ATTENTION, GREENHORNS!" Oruo shouted, drawing their attention back to the gate as it began to open with a pneumatic hiss.
The ground rumbled as the gate rose and revealed the outer walls to them. Upon the gate fully opening, Erwin called for them all to move and they began to ride out of the gate. As they began to ride, they noticed an abnormal titan approaching. The support squad was about to move in to attack when suddenly, a thin, concentrated blast of Gigan's beam completely incinerated it. Eren looked up to see Gigan wave at them before he flew ahead of them. Eren gave Gigan a quick smile before addressing Oruo, who was riding right next to him.
"Be straight with me," he said. "Do you think my friends really have a shot at taking down a titan?"
"I should certainly hope so! Because otherwise, what have they been training for?" He then looked Eren in the eyes. "But listen, prepared or not, you're all Scouts now, so you'd better be ready to choke back those fears and be ready to-"
And then a sudden bump made him bite his tongue.
As the scouts rode off, Erwin held out his arm and ordered the scouts to go into long-range formation. And with that, the squads each split off into their own separate group in the formation. Very soon after they went into formation, however, Erwin saw red smoke signals being shot up into the air, signifying that a titan had been spotted. In response, Erwin shot off an acoustic round out of his flair gun. And just like that, Gigan, who was high above them, picked up on the signal and immediately swooped down, quickly locating and dispatching the titan with ease.
{WOOOO!} Gigan cheered as he flew back up into the air. {Now THAT felt good!}
Pelops giggled. "I concur. That did feel quite cathartic."
Gigan was about to take back off into the clouds when Pelops suddenly alerted Gigan to another titan that was currently chasing Sasha nearby where they were flying. Gigan nodded and zipped over to find Sasha being chased by an abnormal that was crawling at her on all fours. However, one beam was all that was needed to stop the titan dead in its tracks. He gave a nod to the grateful potato lover before guiding her back to her group.
Just as Gigan departed from Sash, the girl's instincts began going nuts, screaming that she was being watched by something. She quickened her horse's pace as the feeling grew more and more oppressive. However, the further along she got, the stronger that feeling became, as she passed by small clusters of trees, any one of which could act as the perfect hiding spot for a titan to ambush her, and at one point, she swore she could hear something breathing in one of the tree clusters she passed by. Mikasa noticed Sasha's distress and moved within earshot of her.
"Sasha!" She called, causing her to tell in surprise. "Remember what I told you back in Trost! Fear and panic are unbecoming of a soldier!"
"I'm sorry, Mikasa! I just…" Sasha looked at the trees before continuing. "I feel like we're being watched."
-A-
As Armin rode on his horse, he pondered about how few smoke signals there had been. Granted, Gigan has substantially culled the Titan population the night before, but he would have guessed that there would have been more smoke signals than this. However, he suddenly saw a black signal in the distance and realized that a titan was ignoring the outliers and going for the more densely packed center ranks, which could only mean that an abnormal was approaching. His suspicions were proven correct when Dieter Ness and Luke Siss rode out of a nearby forest with an abnormal hot on their tails.
Eventually, they spread apart and the titan got between both of them. Ness eventually drew his blades, preparing to go for the ankle, which was the only part he'd be able to hit out on the planes. However, before he could jump off of his horse, Gigan swooped down, grabbed the titan with his tail claw, and dragged it along the ground, before chucking it forwards and firing a missile at it, destroying it utterly.
"Show off…" Siss muttered.
"HEY, COME ON! NO KILL STEALING!" Ness jokingly wined.
Gigan chuckled in response, then prepared to take off again when he suddenly stopped. The men below him were confused by his sudden halt, so they also looked up in the same direction, and their eyes widened as they saw a massive, dark figure with enormous wings that blocked the sun. Armin clenched the handle of his horse's lead with all his might. Every fiber of his being urged him to run away as he gazed upon this creature up in the sky. Siss and Ness meanwhile had no idea what they were even looking at, nor what its intentions were, however one look at Gigan's face told them that Gigan knew exactly what they were looking at.
Gigan scowled as he looked up at Battra, the two's glowing eyes locking with eachother. Gigan revved up his chainsaw hands, awaiting Battra to come down and try to smite him for his transgressions, but… nothing happened. No matter how long Gigan waited for Battra to make a move, he never did. And this made his angered scowl turn into a cocky smirk.
{What's the matter, Batty?} Gigan taunted, {Aren't you gonna come down and teach me a lesson? I mean, you just saw me defending the humans outside of "their territory"}
Battra stayed silent for only a moment before answering, [I will not.]
{What? Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now! Could it be that…} Gigan's smirk then stretched into a far more sinister grin. {You're afraid of me?}
[You didn't let me finish, Gigan,] Battra said. [I will not, but they will.]
{They?}
Suddenly, Battra unleashed a roar that reverberated across the island. Gigan's eye widened as he realized what that was. That was no ordinary roar. That was an alpha call.
[I told you I would make you pay if you ever broke our deal, Gigan! Now, this is goodbye.]
With that, Battra slowly turned around and began to fly away. Gigan was about to go after him when Pelops suddenly appeared on his HUD.
"GIGAN, KAIJU ARE APPROACHING!" He said frantically.
{Where are they?}
"EVERYWHERE!"
-E-
"Eren! EREN!"
Eren gasped softly before looking to his left and seeing Petra next to him with a concerned look on her face.
"I can tell by the look on your face that something happened," Petra said. "Mind clueing us in on what it was?"
"I… I think I just overheard a conversation Gigan was having with Battra," Eren said.
"Who's Battra?"
"He's that monster Hange and I told you all about."
"The one that's apparently controlling all these other monsters out in the world?"
"That's the one."
Petra nodded, "So, what did they say?"
"Something about their deal being broken, and Battra referencing… 'them'? I kind of overheard them while they were in the middle of it."
"So, how come you looked so spooked then?"
"Well… I think I know what Battra meant by 'them,' but I really hope I'm wrong."
Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted when a lookout was approaching them at high speeds, screaming his message to them as he approached.
"CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN! THE RIGHT-WING FODDERS HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY WIPED OUT!" He screamed.
'The right-wing?' Eren thought, his eyes wide with fear. 'That's where Mikasa and Armin were stationed!' He began to worry but calmed down when he remembered that they weren't with the fodders. They were more toward the center, so they wouldn't be picked off that quickly.
"Alright. Petra, relay the message to Erwin that the titans have broken through!" Levi said.
"Sir-" Petra was then suddenly interrupted by the messenger.
"IT WASN'T BY TITANS!"
"WHAT!?" Everyone shouted in shock.
"Then what was it?" Levi asked.
"A GIANT SPIDER! L-LIKE THE ONE FROM TROST! A-A-AND A SWARM OF P-PRAYING MANTISES, EACH OF THEM AT LEAST 15-METERS!"
Eren's voice shook as he realized that his suspicions were correct and that Battra had summoned more monsters. However, before any of them could contemplate this further, they all heard a loud buzzing above them. The messenger then began screaming as he pointed up at the source of the buzzing. The Levi squad looked up in the direction he was pointing, and saw a swarm of giant praying mantises just above them. Drool dripped from their gaping maws as they gnashed their teeth at them. Everyone struggled to process what they were seeing, however, Levi was the first to act.
"EVERYONE STAY CLOSE, AND KEEP MOVING!" Levi ordered. "WE CAN'T LET THESE THINGS GET TO THE KID!"
The mantises screamed and began swooping down as the Levi squad +1 veered out of the way of the swarm, which began chasing after them, each of them letting out ear-splitting screeches as they flew close behind them, occasionally snapping their jaws at the horses, which terrified them and caused them to flee faster. The squad counted their blessing that while these things were fast, they didn't seem very smart, and they were able to easily lead them into running into trees and such. However, unlike a titan, which would be stunned long enough to escape, when the mantises crashed into trees, they were able to quickly shrug it off and continue their chase.
"CAPTAIN, THEY'RE GAINING ON US!" Gunther screamed.
"I'M AWARE!" Levi shouted back.
"YOUR ORDERS, SIR!?"
Before Levi could answer, they suddenly looked up and saw black smoke signals coming from all around them. In addition, various roars and cries of unknown abominations could be heard growing closer and closer, along with the galloping of horses, as everyone simultaneously broke formation so that they could regroup in the center.
As everyone gathered back together, Eren saw that a large chunk of the regiment had been wiped out. And as the ground began to shake, Eren realized the true scale of the threat that Gigan had warned him of.
-G-
Gigan flew over the Scouts as a stampede of Kaiju began approaching them.
{Okay, Pelops, what are we looking at?}
"Region scans indicate signs of singular instances of Baragon, Sea Baragon, Methuselah, and Male Muto, and multiple instances of Kamacuras, Kumonga, Zilla, Gezora, Titan, Giant Condor, Gezora, Ebirah, Juvenile Zilla, and Kamacuras Larva."
{How are we in terms of casualties?}
"A large percentage of Scouts have been killed, however, thanks to you, most of them still remain."
{Alright, give me turret blueprints. I'm going in!}
Gigan dove down into the crowd of monsters chasing after the scouts, blocking their path, as he immediately began hacking his way through all of them. Eren looked back at him, however, Gigan simply roared as the monsters began to swarm him. Eren clenched his eyes shut and kept riding with the scouts while Gigan activated a bright red force field made of charged particles that burned the smaller kaiju on him and knocked off the larger ones.
The two Baragons attempted to pierce the shield with their horns, but the shield wouldn't budge, as Gigan fired a barrage of missiles from his hands, knocking the Baragons away. However, as he was trying to focus on dispatching the Baragons, Varan and Hokmuto disrupted his systems, and then the ground collapsed beneath him, with several Zillas and Kumongas rising from the sinkhole and dogpiling him. Gigan roared and screeched as he tried to fight his way through the seemingly endless hoard of monsters as they all began climbing into the pit to dogpile him.
While Gigan was fending off the larger threats, however, the Scouts still had the matter of the Titans to deal with, as well as a pack of Dynonichous-like Baby Zillas, each of which was slightly faster than the horses. There was even a skinless abnormal that had an oddly feminine body who constantly tried to grab at Eren specifically before falling behind in the crowd of titans once again. Normally, this situation would be considered an utter failure, and they would all be returning to Trost by now. However, in this case, the situation was so dire that they couldn't retreat back home, or else they would fall right into the clutches of the monsters, or even worse, wind up luring them towards the people, who would surely be killed.
Eren clenched his fists tightly as they continued to speed down the path toward Shingonshina. After stabbing one of the Baby Zillas in the face with an ODM blade, Eren finally said what was on his mind.
"CAPTAIN! DOES THIS SITUATION QUALIFY AS MY LIFE BEING IN MORTAL DANGER!?"
Petra, Eld, Gunther, and Oruo's eyes widened as Eren asked him that while both he and Levi recalled the deal Eren made with them: Eren was not permitted to transform into a titan unless his life was in mortal danger. With a heavy sigh, Levi turned to look at Eren.
"At this point, it's too big of a risk to try and fight them head-on!" Levi said, "Just keep your eyes forward!"
Eren nodded and continued to follow them, however, the Female titan grew irritated upon overhearing this. Eren turning into a titan would have made all this so much easier. As she contemplated this, however, she flinched when she suddenly felt a baby Zilla climb on top of her and leap off of her to get ahead of the Scouts. She then saw several other Baby Zillas doing the same, leaping off of the heads of titans in order to cut the Scouts off. However, the scouts were able to counter this by slashing at them as they intercepted them. Even still, they ended up losing a few people to the baby Zillas regardless.
Sasha almost became one of those people as she was surrounded by three of them, however, Mikasa jumped off of her horse and used her ODM gear to cut two of them down, then lift Sasha over to her horse just as the third Baby Zilla killed and began consuming the one Sasha was on. Reiner Braun attempted to fend off three of them as they tried to bump him off of his horse. While swinging at one of them, he ended up with its jaws clamped around his forearm like a beartrap, threatening to bite right through it. Thankfully for him, Bertholdt was there to decapitate the creature, allowing Reiner to break free with his arm still attached to his body.
As they continued to try and outrun the stampede, they were soon cut off by a fully grown Zilla emerging from underground and slamming her claw down in front of them. The Scouts veered out of the way and rode around it as she began to rise from underground, knocking away several of the titans in the process.
Eventually, the Scouts saw the Shingonshina gate growing closer and closer, but they could also hear the nearly 100-meter-tall Zilla approaching them, quickly picking up speed. She began to unhinge her jaws as she approached them, baring her sharp teeth at them, preparing to devour all of them. However, just as she was about to reach them, another Zilla suddenly burst out of the ground and bit into her neck.
Blood filled the maw of the second Zilla as she snapped the neck of her sister in her jaws, before barreling through the titans and Baby Zillas and approaching the pit where Gigan was slowly rising, missiles, spikes, and lasers flying everywhere as he rose from the pit. The scouts looked back in shock as they continued to ride.
"So, like… I'm not the only one who saw that, right?" Connie asked, everyone else confirming that he wasn't crazy.
A wide smile stretched across Eren's face as he realized that Armin was right. There really were other monsters on their side. Armin meanwhile was utterly speechless, unable to comprehend what was happening. However, the Scouts didn't have time to worry about that, as they were reaching the gate to Shingonshina. The Gate automatically opened for them, then closed just as quickly before the monsters could enter.
Gigan howled with all his might as he decapitated Sea Baragon while plunging his tail claw into the head of Hokmuto, and incinerating an approaching swarm of Kamacuras. He then grunted loudly as he felt a Black Widdow Kumonga jump onto his back and began stabbing at his chassis with its legs. However, the spider was quickly knocked off by a powerful blast of what appeared to be green fire.
Gigan turned around and found his savior in the form of what appeared to be a Zilla, but rather than having dark gray skin with dark blue dorsal spines like her sisters, this Zilla bore dark purple skin, with a lighter shade coloring her underbelly, and her dorsal spines were cyan in color. She also seemed substantially stronger than her sisters. What surprised Gigan most of all though, was that her dorsal spines would sometimes glow green as she fired a green beam of Atomic Breath from her mouth. This unusually colored and substantially more powerful Zilla proceeded to headbutt Baragon away from Gigan before he could attack, then pressed herself against Gigan's back.
[Pleased to meet you,] she said. [My name is Isabella Tatopoulos.]
{Gigan,} he replied. {Any particular reason why you're not trying to dismantle me right now?}
[It's a long story,] she said as she kicked a Kumonga in the face. [For now, let's just leave it at 'I don't follow any alpha, and I have personal reasons to protect humans,' okay?]
{Good enough for me. Right now, I could use the help.}
[Good, now enough talk, time to kick some ass.]
Gigan slashed through a hoard of Kumongas, blocking their web sprays with his force field, then blasted them with his eye beam. Baragon eventually tried to charge in and tackle him, only to get yet another kick to the face, followed by a blast that erupted from the sole of Gigan's foot.
Meanwhile, Isabella jumped onto Methuselah's back and began clawing into it, but his thick hide allowed him to resist her flurry of attacks. Realizing this, she attempted to get under the tanky kaiju and flip him over, only to be smacked aside. Methuselah then charged at Isabella, attempting to skewer her with his horns, however, she was able to hold him back and then unleash her atomic breath right in his face, stunning him and burning his flesh severely. He recoiled in pain and stumbled backward, allowing Isabella to regain her footing and blast him again, knocking him over. She then leaped up to pounce on him, only to be suddenly tackled by Varan, who began biting and scratching her.
Isabella tried to pry Varan off of her, but he had sunk his fangs too deep into her shoulder for her to escape his vice-like bite. Soon, however, she was rescued by Gigan, who fired his beam down upon the flying amphibian, scorching his flesh severely and making him howl in agony. Isabella took advantage of this by grabbing him by the jaws and ripping his head in two. She panted loudly and then looked up and smiled at Gigan.
[I guess this makes us even?] She said.
{Hey, that's just what partners are for.}
Gigan then landed back down and switched to his nano-metal spray hands, shooting out small puffs of Nano-metal clouds which then expanded into massive double mazer turrets which each fired at the surrounding monsters, dispersing the crowd and allowing Gigan and Isabella to continue to thin the numbers. However, even with the two working side by side, the monsters just kept coming. Gigan tried to even the odds by summoning even more mazer turrets with his Nano-Metal spray hands, however, these turrets were dismantled by the Kumongas, who blocked up the blasters with their webbing, allowing Baragon and Methuselah to smash them to bits.
[Isn't there some way we can lure them out of here?!] Isabella asked as she shook off a bunch of abnormal titans crawling all over her.
{I have an O.R.C.A. built into me, but it won't help,} Gigan replied as he shotgun blasted multiple Giant Condors. {We can't get them out of here without also creating an opening for them to waltz right back in!}
[What if we used your Nano-Metal to block them out again?] Isabella asked as she tail-whipped a Zilla in the face.
{Wait… that could work!} Gigan exclaimed, before taking to the skies again. {Quick, cover your ears!}
[Don't have to. The O.R.C.A. simulates an alpha call, and as we already established, I don't respond to those!]
{How do you know about that?}
[Again, long story, no time, just go!]
Gigan nodded and activated his built-in O.R.C.A. A low, rumbling hum reverberated from his chest and he began soaring through the air, with all the monsters following him baring all the Abnormal Titans, which Isabella quickly dispatched before following Gigan. The two reached the wall after a short amount of time, and Gigan silently apologized to the humans for what he was about to do before he and Isabella blasted a massive hole into the wall, which Gigan then lead all the Kaiju through, heading towards the ocean.
While Isabella stayed behind to guard the gap, she noticed that on both sides of the hole, massive, skinless humanoids stood within the cracked walls like sentinels. Curious, she approached the titan, crouched down, and gently poked it with her claw. The sudden prod caused the titan to suddenly awaken and the section of the wall began to crumble around it, revealing its full form. Isabella jumped back in surprise, but fairly easily dispatched the much smaller monster.
As steam billowed off of the titan's corpse, she crouched down next to it and observed it, wondering why a titan would be inside the walls. While she was distracted by the wall titan, though, the feminine abnormal, who was able to ignore the O.R.C.A., snuck past them and eventually reached Shingonshina's gate, where she took a knee as steam began to billow out of the back of her neck.
Meanwhile, Gigan had reached the ocean, and made sure all the Kaiju were there and accounted for. After doing a headcount, he slowly turned to leave, but then he thought back to what happened to the Scouts he wasn't fast enough to save. All the people that were crushed, burned, devoured, and more. Why did they have to die, while their killers get to live? Gigan slowly turned around and began powering up his eye beam…
"Gigan…" Pelops growled like an angry parent.
{What?!} Gigan groaned like a rebellious teenager.
"Don't give me that, mister!" Pelops scolded. "You needed Isabella's help to deal with all these monsters, and even then you two couldn't kill all of them! Plus, if you attack them, it will break them out of the effects of the O.R.C.A.! Just leave them, it's not worth the trouble."
{But they-}
"Gigan, listen to me," he interrupted. "You are not a god. You have limits just like everyone and everything else. Today, you have hit that limit, and you were lucky to get out of it alive. Don't try to push your luck, just leave them be."
Gigan snarled and continued to change his beam, but ultimately conceded and turned away, returning to the walls so that he could mend them.
-E-
The sun began setting on this hectic day, as the Scouts settled down within Shingonshina. Outside of a long abandoned stable, the Scouts' horses were all standing together, lined up outside with water and food troughs in front of them. Ness was brushing his horse's mane to soothe her while trying to shake off the mortal terror he felt when the Scouts were being chased down by the kaiju stampede. Never before in his life had he ever experienced anything like this, and even after facing off against so many titans and losing some close friends to them, nothing could have prepared him for the horrors he had experienced today.
Meanwhile, inside an abandoned building nearby, the rest of the Scouts were recovering from the attack. Many of the wounded were being treated, and the rest were eating their rations and trying to relax their nerves. Moblit Berner stood in the corner and chugged an entire bottle of hard whiskey in an attempt to repress his lingering terror, but doing little to ease his nerves. Krista Lens was going around, attending to the wounded. She took a knee next to Reiner Braun and poured some medicine onto his wounded arm, which had been in the vice-like jaws of a baby Zilla previously. Ymir watched Krista clean his wound with a hint of jealousy, but she repressed it for the time being.
Eren, Armin, Sasha, and Mikasa were sitting together, as usual, Mikasa sitting down next to Sasha and placing a hand on her shoulder while she was trembling with fear. Sasha ran her fingers through her hair and quietly muttered to herself, before Mikasa opened her mouth to give Sasha some more of her "advice," when suddenly Sasha jumped up and hugged her, tears streaming down her cheeks. Mikasa sighed softly and hugged her tenderly as Sasha sobbed softly over her shoulder.
"You're welcome…" Mikasa whispered into her ear.
While the two hugged each other, Eren and Armin were talking about their recent experience, Eren surprisingly happy about it all.
"Isn't this great, Armin?" Eren asked while patting him on the back. "You were right! Gigan wasn't the only one! We really do have a chance against the monsters!"
"I didn't expect to be right…" Armin muttered.
"What was that?"
"Ah- I said… y-yeah! This is great!" Armin chuckled awkwardly while Eren gave him a suspicious look. Armin quickly changed the subject to relieve the awkward aura he was giving off.
"So, why did you ask Captain Levi if your life was in danger?" Armin asked
"It's part of his duty when keeping watch over me," he answered. "I'm not allowed to transform unless my life is in jeopardy. But in this case, I wasn't allowed to, probably because he worried that I would be killed if I tried to fight them."
"I see. By the way, did you learn anything new about your powers?"
"Well, we learned one thing. A week before you guys joined, we found out that I can't transform unless I have a specific goal in mind, like when I wanted to fight the Kumonga, or save you guys from the cannons."
"W-wait, what's a 'Kumonga'?"
"Oh yeah, Gigan told us that that's the name of the giant spiders."
While they were talking, one of the higher-ups called out to the scouts and told everyone who was able to come with him, because Erwin had an announcement to make. The majority of the scouts followed him, with a few people staying behind. Namely, Krista and Marco elected to stay behind to treat the severely wounded. As the Scouts followed the leader, with Hange and Mike also leading them, Eren noticed Mikasa reach out for Sasha's hand, but nervously pull it away at the last second. He smiled as he saw this, happy in knowing that she really wouldn't have to worry about him anymore.
Erwin stood before them in the town center, standing in front of the destroyed town center fountain. The wind blew through the air, making his cape flow to one side as he addressed the scouts with his arms folded behind his back.
"It should go without saying that today's attack was an unforeseen and catastrophic turn of events," he began. "Hundreds of good men and women died fighting against horrors that we have never seen before. Horrors that, as it stands, we are ill-equipped to fight against. However, let it never be said that today was a failure. Far from it."
The crowd began muttering amongst eachother in confusion before Erwin continued.
"Despite the drastic loss of life, and despite all odds being against us, we have succeeded in reaching Shingonshina district, a feat worth celebrating," he said, lifting the spirits of the Scouts. "Our work is far from over, but for now, we rest. Just south of here, we found multiple inns that we will be able to utilize as makeshift barracks for tonight. Petra Rall, Eld Jinn, and Oruo Bozard shall show you all to your sleeping quarters. Dismissed." Erwin ended his announcement with a salute, to which the scouts returned before being escorted to their quarters.
-A-
It was late at night. Everything was silent, and everyone in Shingonshina was sound asleep, even captain Levi. Everyone except for Reiner and Bertholdt. The two snuck through the abandoned streets of Shingonshina until they reached the patched gate, where they saw Annie waiting for them, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed.
"Took you two long enough," she said.
"We had to make sure everyone was asleep first," Bertholdt replied.
Annie nodded. "I'm guessing plans have changed?"
"Right," Reiner replied. "Now that there are more kaiju on the island than just Titans, we're gonna have to speed things up."
"So what do you suggest we do?" Annie asked.
"They're about to reach the cellar. If they get to it, then they'll have access to whatever information Grisha had. We need to make sure they don't get down there. So, while we're approaching the cellar, we need you to make a distraction in your titan form. Once we get whatever's down there, we'll set off a smoke signal, and then you grab Eren and come to us. Then Bert will transform and we can get out of here."
Annie pinched her brow. "Okay, two problems with that. One: What happens if someone catches you? Especially Mikasa or Levi. And two: Even if this plan worked, where would we go? Gigan and that weird super Zilla would be able to catch us, assuming we don't just get eaten out there!"
As the group continued to discuss their plan and work out the kinks in it, a hooded figure watched from above. Suddenly, the three heard ODM gear shoot off as the figure in Scout garb blasted off toward the other scouts.
"I thought you said everyone was asleep," Annie said condescendingly.
"Oh, shut up, Annie," Reiner groaned.
"We don't have ODM," Bertholdt said. "We'll never be able to catch up with him!"
"Not as humans we won't," Annie said as she stepped in front of them and bit her hand.
As the figure zoomed through the air, he heard lightning clap down behind him. He looked back and saw the Female Titan charging out of a cloud of smoke at high speed, the ground rumbling beneath her as she charged after him. Reiner and Bertholdt meanwhile began running through the streets to find a place to hide and come up with a plan. As the Female titan chased the cloaked man, he suddenly pulled a flair gun out, loaded it, and then covered his ear as he raised it up into the air and fired it. The flair produced a noise so loud that it awoke all the Scouts several miles away.
Upon awakening, Sasha was the first to notice the ground shaking, and informed everyone in her inn that somehow, a 15-meter-Titan had gotten inside Shingonshina and was rapidly approaching. As such, her Inn was the first to arm themselves and get into a fighting formation, with the other two soon to follow. They eventually saw the hooded Scout turn the corner and approach them, with Annie crashing into a building before recovering and chasing after him. However, once she saw that the Scouts were waiting for her, she turned around and fled in the opposite direction, with several scouts giving chase while Levi came down to check on the hooded Scout. He pulled the hood back, only to reveal that it was none other than Erwin Smith. Levi wasn't all that surprised to see him, as Erwin grappled to the top of a nearby roof to tell Hange, Mike, and Levi about what he had discovered.
Meanwhile, Jean, Eren, Armin, Mikasa, Sasha, Petra, Oruo, Eld, and Gunther were all chasing after Annie. She looked back and noticed Eren in the group of people chasing her, and her eyes narrowed before she turned and began trying to juke them. Armin noticed her change in facial expression, but couldn't be sure of what it meant just yet. As the group continued to chase after Annie, she kept maneuvering around the city. Eventually, the group had to stop and come up with a different strategy, lest they run out of fuel. Jean, Eld, and Sasha continued to follow her to keep her distracted, while the rest began coming up with a plan.
"I suggest we split up and surround her," Gunther said. "Then she'll have nowhere to turn, and we can all go in for the kill."
"Hold on, that might not be a good idea," Armin replied.
"And just who gave you the authority to speak up, runt?" Oruo said as he shoved his face up in Armin's. "You'd better have a good reason to question the judgment of the Levi squa-"
A sudden smack to the back of the head caused Oruo to bite his tongue in the middle of speaking.
"Could you not be such a jackass for five minutes?" Petra groaned, before turning to Armin with a more inquisitive look on her face. "What makes you think that's a bad idea, Armin?"
"W-well, it's not so much that it's a bad idea on paper, but more that I think that's what she wants us to do," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"I noticed that while we were chasing her, she turned around, and her expression changed. It was only then that she started moving in seemingly random patterns," he explained. "I think she might be trying to get to one of us in particular."
Petra placed a finger on her chin as she recalled the moment Armin was talking about. "Now that you mention it, I saw that too."
"Yeah, me too," Eren said. "But who do you think it is?"
"I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, it would probably be you."
"M-me?!" Eren's eyes widened before Mikasa chimed in.
"He has a point. I remember her being in the crowd of titans, and I noticed that she was specifically trying to grab you whenever she got close," she said.
"So, what do we do then?" Mikasa asked.
"I have an idea. It might sound dumb, but it's the best I've got," Armin said. "We go with Gunther's idea, but we make sure to keep our hoods on and don't say a word. If she is trying to capture Eren, she likely won't risk killing him accidentally if she can't tell who's who."
"That's a really good idea, Armin," Gunther said.
"Frankly, I'd say it's brilliant!" Petra applauded.
Oruo scoffed. "I could have come up with that, honestly."
"And yet you didn't because…?" Petra eyed Oruo with an eyebrow raised as Oruo began making up some vague, nonsensical explanation.
Eren patted Armin on the back and smiled at him. "Way to go, Armin," he said.
After discussing who would be where everyone blasted off to their positions.
Meanwhile, Jean gritted his teeth in frustration as Annie rounded yet another corner. Eld attempted to cut her off and slice out her eyes, only for Annie to duck underneath him and roll out of the way, before hopping back to her feet and continuing to flee. However, while running, five smoke signals suddenly appeared around her, two to her left, two to her right, and one in front of her. Then, five scouts jumped out of the smoke, all veiled in their cloaks as they jumped toward her. Annie tried to grab at them so that she could check who was who, but she was having a hard time catching any of them, and the only one she could grab shredded right through her hand. Eventually, she saw two of them reach her eyes and cut them out, causing her to wail in pain as steam billowed out of both.
Annie tried to run, but Gunther and Armin proceeded to cut out the Achilles heels, bringing her to the ground, then Oruo and Petra shredded her shoulders, and Mikasa took out her Elbows. With all means of defending herself gone, Eren swooped down to deal the finishing blow to her naip, only for his blades to shatter on impact, as a blue crystal had formed around it. Eren gasped in shock before landing on a nearby building.
"EREN! WHAT HAPPENED!?" Petra called, making Armin tense up.
"MA'AM, THE FEMALE TITAN HAS SOME SORT OF ARMOR AROUND HER NAIP!" He called back to her.
"WHAT!?" Jean shouted. "THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! SHE DIDN'T HAVE ARMOR THERE WHILE WE WERE CHASING HER!"
While the Scouts tried to figure out what to do next, Annie suddenly raised her arm and snatched Eren right off of the roof he was on top of. Armin screamed while Mikasa tried to go in and rescue him, only for Annie to harden the back of her hand, preventing Mikasa from cutting it. Mikasa was shocked by this, but then looked up and saw that Annie had already regenerated one eye.
Annie tried to grab Mikasa, but before she could, Eren managed to pull one arm out of her grip and sink his teeth into his hand, causing him to explode out of her grip and transform into a titan. Annie stood up and got into a combative stance which Armin, Jean, Sasha, and especially Mikasa all found hauntingly familiar, while Eren lifted up a wooden beam to use as a weapon. After a momentary standoff, Eren was the first to strike, swinging the beam with all his might, which Annie blocked by hardening her arm and covering her face, causing it to break on impact. Eren, unphased, rammed the splintered end into her stomach and charged forwards, causing her to crash into a nearby house.
The group then saw Erwin and Levi land next to them while Hange's crew began setting up nets and STCWs (Special Target Capture Weapons). Erwin came to them with news about what he had discovered about the Female Titan, and it wasn't good.
"While spying on Reiner and Bertholdt as they snuck out of their Inn, I have discovered that Annie Leonheart is the Female Titan," Erwin said. Armin's heart sank at that news. "Furthermore, I have reason to believe that Bertholdt and Reiner are the Armored and Colossal Titans. Which ones each of them are, I am currently unsure."
Armin nervously looked back at Eren and Annie as they continued to duke it out. Eren grabbed Annie by the legs and threw her into an old church, causing it to crumble instantly, and then ran up to her to continue beating on her, but as soon as he approached her, he received a hardened kick to the face which caused him to stumble into a nearby house.
-E-
Annie prepared to attack Eren again, only to suddenly have her shoulder sliced by Mina and Mylius, who both landed next to Eren as he climbed out of the rubble. Mina and Mylius then climbed onto his shoulders while Eren took a battle stance.
"What's the plan, big guy?" Mina asked.
"Go… for… limbs…" Eren replied.
"Gotcha," Mylius replied. The two then hopped off and zipped towards Annie while Eren charged at her and socked her right in the jaw.
Annie stumbled but cracked her jaw back into place. She tried hardening her ankles and knees so that they couldn't be cut by Mina, who was zipping around them, only for Eren to knee her in the gut while Mylius tried going for her naip, only to achieve the same results that Eren did. Annie then managed to fend Eren off by hardening her fists and growing spikes out of her knuckles, before punching Eren repeatedly until his titan was too mangled to keep holding onto her. Annie then pummeled Eren's face until it was left a steaming pulp.
She then reached down, about to rip Eren's head off and grab him out of his naip, but suddenly she was attacked by Armin, Mina, and Mylius, who all tried to cut her down to size together. Thoroughly done with all of them at this point, Annie proceeded to roundhouse kick Mina out of the sky, crippling her, before finishing her off by stomping on her. Mylius, enraged, tried to cut through the front of her neck, only to be smashed with a clap, and finally, she grabbed Armin, unhinged her jaws, and swallowed him whole.
Eren had watched the whole thing, but with his body unable to move, all he could do was watch as she devoured his childhood best friend. His hands shook violently as he watched her run away, until his eyes rolled into the back of its head as it began to rise from the rubble.
-e-
8 years ago…
"Eren! Check this out!" Armin called as he ran up to Eren, who turned his head to the side and saw him running towards him.
Eren noticed that Armin had a large book in his hands. He stopped in front of him and then knelt down in front of him.
"What's with all that shouting?" Eren complained.
"Sorry! It's just that I found a book my grandpa keeps hidden away," Armin said. "It's about the outside world! Can you believe it?"
"I really hope this is your idea of a joke! Stuff about the outside is illegal!"
"Trust me, you'll change your mind once you know what's out there!" Armin interrupted. "For example, this book says that the world is covered with salty water so deep you can't reach the bottom! There's a name for it too! It's called 'the ocean'!"
"Like salty for real?" Armin nodded, prompting Eren to scoff. "Come on, if something as valuable as salt was just floating around in the water, merchants would have scooped it all out ages ago."
"That's the thing! It never runs out! It's just that big!" Armin then opened the book, showing Eren various pictures taken inside of it. "And there's so much more than salt! There's water that burns like fire, fields of ice, giant rocks that take days to climb, vast expanses of sand! Imagine how huge the outside world must be!"
Eren smiled as he looked down at all the pictures in the book. "It does sound really neat," he said as he thought of what it would be like to venture through all of that, and what else could be out there waiting to be explored.
"Okay, you need to promise on your life not to tell anyone this," Armin pleaded quietly. "But… my parents are gonna sneak out of the walls tonight."
Eren's eyes widened with excitement. "They'll know what it's like firsthand!"
"Hey, Eren?"
Eren looked into Armin's eyes.
"We should do this ourselves one day," he said. "We can have adventures, just like the guy who wrote this book."
A bright smile stretched across Eren's face and he nodded, his cheeks reddening slightly. "I'd like that."
-E-
Today…
"Kill… I'll kill you… I'll kill all of you… every last one…"
Eren's body suddenly began heating up more and more. Molten cracks formed all over him, and steam billowed off of his body. Eren began screaming in abject fury, startling the female titan as he began charging toward her. She hardened her naip once again as she tried to run away, but howled in agony as his arm burst through her torso, causing all of her internal fluids, as well as the unconscious Armin, to flow out of her.
Eren then lifted her over his head, shoved his other arm into her, and effortlessly ripped her in half. He roared and chucked the legs to the side in a fit of rage, before looking down at Annie as she desperately tried to crawl away. She hardened her entire back so that Eren couldn't hurt her, but then felt the hardening collapse as Eren stomped on her back, then kneeled down and punch the back of her neck, shattering it with one hit.
Scouts crowded around Eren from the rooftops as they watched him rip the female titan to pieces, before eventually grabbing Annie out of her naip and lifting her up to his face. He noticed tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared at him with wide tear-filled eyes. She seemed remorseful. Like she was silently apologizing for everything that she had done and begging for her life.
But where was this remorse when she crushed Mina? Where were these tears when she turned Mylius into a red stain on her hands? No. She didn't deserve forgiveness. She deserved exactly what she did to Armin to be done to her tenfold. He lifted her up to his mouth, and bit her in half, swallowing both halves of her.
Everyone watching this was simultaneously shocked and terrified, their eyes widening further when Eren suddenly went limp as a massive blast of steam erupted from his body, engulfing the entire area. Eren's titan then collapsed as everyone saw her body fall out of the back of the neck.
When the steam cleared, the Scouts saw what they assumed to be Eren lying face down, completely unconscious. Mikasa scrambled down to check on her while Sasha went to wake up Armin. Upon waking up, Armin saw the evaporating titan body and ran to go see if Eren was okay, but was dumbfounded when he saw how much she had changed.
Eren slowly opened her eyes and saw Armin, Mikasa, and Sasha all standing over her, all in various states of shock. Mikasa's hands trembling, Armin's voice shaking, and Sasha's jaw hanging open. Eren asked them what was wrong in a voice that wasn't familiar to them, but wasn't unfamiliar either, before Sasha ran to find a piece of broken glass, and came back with one clear enough to show people's reflections. Eren's eyes squinted a bit before widening as she looked at her reflection, finding the face of not the boy she had grown familiar with… but a girl with the same eye color, hair color, and skin color as the boy who was usually in the mirror, but with changes in features that were clearly indicating that something had changed drastically.
"W-wha- I- how did- I ca-" Eren tried again and again to start a sentence, but she couldn't get a single word out.
Mikasa held her hand as she began hyperventilating while Armin got behind her and rubbed her shoulders gently. However, while they were trying to calm Eren down, Sasha suddenly placed her head on the ground and listened carefully. Her eyes widened as she realized that there was something else coming, but before she could say what, a thunderclap caught them all by surprise. They all looked up and saw the Colossal Titan rising from the ground nearby, steam billowing off of his body with a look of intense hatred plastered on his face. Everyone was horrified to see that the Colossal Titan was seemingly larger than before. Instead of 60-meters-tall like before, the Colossal Titan now stood at a towering 200-meters-tall. Additionally, the Armored Titan had appeared just down the street, baring an equally angry expression.
The trio carried Eren onto a nearby rooftop while the scouts mobilized on the Armored and Colossal Titan. Eren tried to join the fight, but found that she was too exhausted to transform again, and she didn't know why. That's when Levi and his squad landed next to him.
"Who's the new girl?" He asked. "Shingonshina is supposed to be uninhabited."
"She's not new," Armin said. "As crazy as it seems… this is Eren!"
Levi raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"I believe this was caused by him- well, her eating Annie," Mikasa said, causing Eren's eyes to widen in shock.
Eren had no recollection of eating Annie… until she remembered the last few minutes before waking up. She remembered the Female Titan killing Mina and Mylius, then her eating Mikasa, which caused her to snap and go into a berserk state, and then she tore apart the Female Titan and saw that Annie was controlling it… and then she ate her. Eren placed a hand over her eye and began trembling as these memories came back to her. Tears welled up in her eyes as the weight of all of this finally came crashing down onto her. Her quiet sobbing drowned out the discussion Levi, the squad, and Armin were having, and her mental distress prevented her from feeling the warmth of Mikasa trying to comfort her.
However, as she tried to comprehend all of this, the Armored Titan began approaching them, the ground rumbling with each step he took. Levi immediately drew his blades and readied himself for battle.
"Arlert, Gunther, Braus, make sure the brat is safe," he ordered. "The rest of you are with me!" He then looked down at Eren. "And you, pull yourself together. We're going to get through this." With that, Levi and the others took off, with Armin, Gunther and Sasha taking her somewhere safer.
-B-
Earlier…
Reiner and Bertholdt had finally regained their ODM Gear, and we're now able to get to a better vantage point to observe Annie. Upon arriving, they found that she had just defeated Eren and was about to take his head off, when she started being pestered by the scouts.
"W-we need to help her!" Bertholdt said, but Reiner held him back.
"No need, she's got this under control," he said. "Look."
Bertholdt looked back and saw Annie masterfully dispatch one of them with a single kick, sending the scout tumbling to the ground. Now unable to get back up, she was finished off by a titan-sized stomp. Bertholdt sighed in relief as Annie proceeded to take out the other two with ease.
"See? What did I tell you? She's a natural!" Reiner said. "Now come on, we need to find that cellar."
However, before the two could leave, they were stopped in their tracks by a bone-chilling howl that echoed across the city. The entire Scout regiment had arrived on the scene at this point, and they, as well as Bertholdt and Reiner, were looking at a scene straight out of a horror film, where Eren had entered a state never before seen by any titan shifter before him and was using it to absolutely eviscerate Annie. Bertholdt and Reiner watched in terror as their friend and ally was being torn to shreds by the titan. Then, to their even greater horror, they watched as Eren tore Annie out of her titan before she had time to crystalize herself, and devoured her whole.
Bertholdt fell to his knees. He didn't know what to do now. Annie, the girl he had fallen in love with over the course of these past several years, was dead. He wanted to scream, to cry, to do something, anything, but he couldn't.
Eventually, the scouts found them. Connie, Nac, Ness, Ymir, Krista, Marco, and more had them all surrounded. Connie was in denial, begging them to tell him that there was some misunderstanding and that Erwin didn't actually see them. Marco was trying his best to understand why they would do what they did. Ness demanded that they surrender right now. But Bertholdt didn't care. He only had one thing he could say, and with all his might, he said it.
"ANNIEEEEE!" Bertholdt screamed, tears streaming down his face as he sank his teeth deep into his hands.
The Scouts scattered as a massive explosion engulfed Bertholdt, and from the smoke arose the Colossal Titan, now no longer held back by Bertholdt's weak will and inhibitions. With nothing left to lose, Bertholdt unleashed the full height and power that the Colossal Titan was able to achieve.
As the Scouts began to close in on the titan, he unleashed a roar so loud that it caused a massive shockwave that rippled through the city, decimating any houses in its path. The scouts that went in to fight him soon found themselves scattering for their lives every time the Colossal Titan opened his mouth. The rage Bertholdt felt could not be contained, and from within his titan, he would just continue to scream and scream and scream, and with each holler of emotional agony, the Colossal Titan would unleash another sonic cry that would rumble the entire island.
-Author's notes-
I had a lot of fun writing both this and the next episode. Also, in the middle of writing it, I ended up taking a drastically different turn. This chapter was originally going to just be the Female Titan Arc, but Kamacuras and Baragon were messing everything up, and eventually a regular Zilla appeared to fight Bertholdt. However, this I feel makes for a much more unique experience.
Anyway, time for reviews
Alph4Scorpion180: "Really enjoying your chapters! Can't wait for the next one!"
Thank you so much for the kind words.
Godzillaboy2021: "This leviathan at the end sounds like Shin Godzilla. He's the only incarnation with humanoid minions on the end of his tail."
You're right to assume that, however this isn't just Shin Godzilla, but a version of Godzilla that can be considered Shin Godzilla's "8th form" of sorts. Yes, I said 8th form.
Guest account: "Oh Battra done fucked up Godzilla's awake and he be pissed"
And for a reason. The two share some history in this series.