Thank you so so much to everyone reading this story! It really means the world to me! Now this chapter really goes crazy, and sure it may be unrealistic, but this is my comfort story and I can do what I want haha. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter Four
The Fall of Shiganshina – Part 1

"What does a titan look like?"

Her grandfather went still, his spoonful of soup hovering before his mouth. He changed then, even without moving. The happiness drained from his eyes, and he looked old.

She was only ten, and didn't know any better. They had just covered the brief topic of their history in school, and her curiosity had not been satisfied. The pictures in her books were not detailed; she'd seen fairytales with better drawings.

"Why are you asking?"

Klara shrugged. "The teacher laughed at me when I wanted to know more. He told me not to waste class time with silly questions."

Her grandfather put his spoon down, shaking his head. "Such a shameful thing for a teacher to say. He should embrace the curiosity of youth, not belittle it."

"Will you?"

He sighed, his face strained. "Tell me why you want to know more about them, Klara."

She opened her mouth, but quickly closed it again, recalling her grandfather's lessons about speaking her mind without thinking things through. If it's truly important, it can wait a little longer.

"We live in walls because of titans," she started, staring at the table. "We can't explore the world because of titans. Everything we do is shaped by titans. It's the one thing we shouldn't ignore, but everyone tells me to do that. I don't understand."

"Fear drives people to do all sorts of curious things, Klara, including denying the very thing that they fear is right before them."

"I don't want to live like that."

"Nor should you."

He stood then, walking away from the table and slowly circling the room. Klara watched him touch the chest he kept in the far corner, a long, respectful ceremony that left him looking fragile.

"I will tell you about them, Klara; I will spare you no detail, but in return, you must never ask about them again."

"Opa!" Klara cried, coughing and wheezing as she inhaled the dust that was once her home. She struggled under the weight of a collapsed wall, desperately attempting to crawl from beneath it. "Opa!"

Her grandfather wasn't buried under anything, but he was unconscious on the floor, a gash on his forehead bleeding out around him. A support beam for the roof hovered dangerously over his motionless form.

Screaming behind gritted teeth, Klara lifted with her legs and arms until the wall was off the floor. It cracked from the strain, splitting in half across her body, and freeing her. She scrambled away, rushing to her grandfather; she didn't have time to check on him, instead grabbing under his arms and dragging his body away, the beam falling just as she'd cleared the area.

"Opa, hey, can you look at me?" she asked quietly, grabbing one of her old blouses that had fallen out of a broken dresser. She pressed the cloth against his head, holding tightly in hopes of stopping the bleeding. "I need you to wake up. Look at me."

His dark eyes opened slowly, briefly lit in confusion. "Are they here? Have the titans come?"

"I don't know, Opa."

"That was the gate. It took out the gate."

It was the disbelief in her grandfather's voice that got to her. After everything he had seen and been through, Tristan Durant had made certain to be prepared for any eventuality. He was never surprised, because he had predicted such outcomes, but even he had believed that the wall would remain, and the titans would never reach within.

"We have to go," Klara said, hooking an arm around him. She took one of his hands and pressed it to her blouse. "Here. Hold this."

It was an agonizing journey to the bottom floor. While most of the house remained intact, the shockwave that had coursed through it from the impact of the debris had left the foundation less than stable. The floorboards were beginning to come undone, tripping her up, and the walls groaned as they struggled to hold the frame of the house together. She could have sworn the whole building had tilted, making her footing unsteady.

Eventually, they managed to stumble into the street, the solid ground making her breathe a little easier, though the sensation did not last long.

Their home had been the fortunate one. Many around them had been crushed. The one beside theirs had completely collapsed, the chunk of debris that had taken out her room resting on top of it. People were screaming in the distance, children were crying, neighbors were attempting to extract themselves from the rubble.

Klara could no longer see Mila, but there was a sickening bloodstain where she had once stood.

"Walter!" she called to another one of their neighbors. Their house had been untouched, his wife and sons shaken, but whole. "Walter, I need you to take my grandfather. Evacuate to the inner gate."

"What about you?" the man asked, putting his arm around her grandfather without question.

"I have to stay and help."

"Klara," her grandfather called, attempting to remove himself from Walter's grasp, but the man's grip was too tight. "Please. Come with us. Don't do something foolish."

She ran over and kissed him on the forehead. "That's all I ever do. Now go!"

Not waiting to see them off, Klara bolted back inside the house, listening uneasily as the building continued to creak under pressure. She ran over to her grandfather's chest, flinging it open to reveal his old ODM gear. He never told her, but she knew he would take it out in the dead of night and clean it, a ceremony that put his mind at ease and helped him get to sleep.

Klara strapped the pieces on as quickly as she could, trusting her hands to remember the process that had been drilled into her since her mind had gone completely blank. Soon, she felt the familiar weight on her hips from the housing boxes for the blades and the winch on her back.

She tapped on the gas cylinders, hearing the beautiful sound of a full tank. Her grandfather was truly always prepared.

Running back outside, Klara immediately grappled onto a nearby house, swinging onto the roof with ease.

Where would Matteo and Luka have gone?

She'd grown up in Shiganshina, and suddenly she couldn't remember where anything was.

A crashing noise behind her grabbed Klara's attention, and she turned around in time to watch her home collapse.

Klara took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. A house did not matter. It was only wood and stone and things. What mattered were those who lived within its walls. Her grandfather was safe. They would be fine.

She opened her eyes again and never looked back.

Klara made her way toward the gates, and the source of most of the screams. She grappled across city streets, ignoring the sick sensation in the pit of her stomach. They'd trained in trees, prepared for fighting titans in a world devoid of people. She knew that using the gear in the cities was possible, but having to do so in her hometown…

Swinging onto the local church steeple, Klara tried to take in everything around her. Even though she was still fairly far from the wall, it was clear that the gate was gone, and part of the wall attached to it. Their fears really had come true.

As she sat there, Klara became aware of the ground shaking. It was not a consistent sensation, more like beats or…

Footsteps.

She looked down and came face to face with a titan.

It was just lower than where she stood, gazing up at her with eyes nearly the size of her body, soulless, disturbing things that glowed a bright blue. A mouth full of teeth smiled up at her, stained red with blood. It growled at her, like an animal, excited to have finally caught its prey.

All the stories her grandfather had told her, as disturbing and detailed as they had been, did nothing against seeing one up close for the first time. Klara wasn't afraid of the titans in her mind, but staring at the very real one before her now, she found herself terrified.

Slowly, its hand reached up and began to grab at her. Klara watched it, rooted to the spot, body frozen in fear. She didn't want to die, but she didn't want to move. Surely it couldn't reach her there. She could just stay there, forever, alive.

How? How can we possibly defeat something like that? Why did I ever think that I could?

A scream in the distance caught her attention. Another titan had grabbed someone, a young woman, who twisted in its grasp, fighting and beating it with her fists. She struggled against it until the titan bit her head off, her blood gushing onto its hands.

Klara shut her eyes, feeling tears well under her eyelids.

Why is this happening? This shouldn't be happening.

Why am I so useless?

Her eyes opened.

The titan reached for her again, only to find its hand severed at the wrist when Klara drove her blades through it. It screamed in pain, steam pouring from the stump that remained, but was quickly silenced when she spun around in the air, slicing the section of the nape she'd been taught to hit.

Immediately, the titan collapsed onto the ground, dead. Steam began to rise from every inch of its body, deteriorating beneath her feet as she walked across it.

"Useless," she mumbled.

Another scream caught her attention, and Klara was gone, swinging across the buildings without hesitation. She had a duty to see through to the end.

She caught a group of people running away from another titan, ten meters at least, and propelled herself toward them, burning through gas in order to catch up. Her blades sliced through its nape as well, bringing it down just as easily as the last one.

Continuing through the air, Klara landed on the roof on the other side. She turned back to the people, who were watching the titan's corpse with wide-eyed expressions.

"Get to the inner gate!" she shouted at them, pointing a blade in its direction. "Go!"

Klara continued through the city, passing whole sections entirely caved in upon themselves, scores of bodies strewn across the streets, and fires already beginning to rage out of control as the population fled their home. Even as she witnessed it all, she couldn't bring herself to believe it. This was the place she grew up in, the home she always had to return to. These were her neighbors, her friends, the friendly faces she passed every day, and now they were gone.

If I'd gotten here one day later…

She landed on a rooftop, forcing herself to stop thinking about it. This was not the time for what-ifs. She was here now, and there was something she could do about it.

There were dozens of titans moving across the streets, their heads just visible over the rooflines, but Klara knew there would be smaller ones amongst them. She'd never seen so many in one place before. That day she'd been on top of the wall, there had only been the one, and the soldier who had been up there explained they never saw more than five at a time.

Where did they come from? Did that large titan bring them here?

Was this a planned attack?

Lost in her thoughts, Klara didn't notice the sudden behemoth beside her until its hand nearly slammed into her. She jumped at the last second, avoiding being hit as she grappled away.

She shook her head; she needed to stop getting distracted or it would get her killed. There would be plenty of time later to figure out what had gone wrong. For right now, she had to work on getting people to safety, and that meant eliminating as many titans as she could before they got deeper into the city.

The titan reached for her again. Klara shot her grapples into its arm and swung underneath its reach. Using the momentum to swing upward, she spung back around and tore into its nape with her blades. As the titan collapsed onto the building, Klara ran up its body and hopped back onto the roof.

She ejected her blades, finding them already dull, and grabbed a new set from the storage devices. She'd have to be more careful going forward. A resupply was going to be doubtful.

Every block deeper into the city she went, Klara found herself growing more and more desperate. She hadn't seen a single Garrison soldier since earlier that afternoon. Where were the city's defenders? Was she all alone?

"Someone, help us, please!"

Klara looked down from her latest perch to see a woman waving her arms. She dropped down into the street and ran over to her.

"You need to get out of here!"

"I can't! Please, my husband. He's trapped in the house. Please."

The house had collapsed upon itself, the walls for the bottom floor buckling and nearly splitting in two. It left the front door partly destroyed, and blocked by a large beam that had fallen in front of it. On the other side, she could see the terrified eyes of an older man staring back at her, blood dripping down his forehead. For a moment, she saw her grandfather.

"Alright, help me with this," Klara said, bracing her shoulder underneath the beam. The woman placed both hands under it and together they attempted to shove the wood out of the way. She could feel it wiggling under their combined strength, but it would not fully budge, not to a point that the man could crawl out of the house.

The foundation crumbled a little more; the rest of the house would not remain standing much longer.

"Just leave me," the man inside pleaded. "Please, just get my wife to safety."

"I think I get to choose whether or not I leave!" his wife shouted back, pulling uselessly at the wood. "I'm not going anywhere without you!"

"I don't want you to die for me!"

"Have you ever considered I don't want to live without you!"

"We have time!" Klara shouted above them. "Give us a chance!"

That quieted him for a bit as the two of them continued to struggle with the wooden beam. It moved a little further than the last time. Perhaps with a little more leverage, they could get him free and…

The ground began to shake.

No.

A titan turned the corner, its hauntingly wide smile overtaking most of its features. Klara watched its eyes turn in their direction.

She moved out from under the beam, only to hear the house begin to creak a little further. With every step the titan took, the house began to crumble a little more, and that one beam might have been the only saving grace. Klara quickly retook her position and began to push harder.

"What is that?" she heard the man ask. "Is it one of them? Oh God…"

Klara felt a hand grip her as she continued to push against the beam. "Please, just leave me here! Please, just go! Get my wife out! Save her! You can't let us both die just save her!"

"I'm not letting anyone die!" Klara shouted, pushing her full strength into the beam. Still, it would not budge completely.

"Please…please…"

The woman was crying, begging with her husband. They'd both broken down into hysterics. Klara felt inevitability weighing down on her shoulders. There was a decision to be made, but she did not want to be the one to make it.

Klara pushed on the beam again. "Come on!"

She was tired, and without the extra help from the woman, it was growing more useless. The rumbles were growing louder, the house was shaking apart faster. She was running out of time.

Please…please…

The titan took another step closer.

"I won't let it take you," the woman cried. She stood then and ran out into the street, waving her arms at the titan. "Take me! Just take me!"

"What are you doing? Get back here!" Klara cried, still pushing against the beam. "Help me lift this!"

"Just get him out!" the woman shouted back.

"Don't let her die!" her husband shouted beside her. "I know you can save her. There is no hope for me. Please, just get her away from here. Don't let my wife die!"

Why?

Why me?

Why is this decision up to me?

Why?

Shouting, Klara released the beam and ran toward the titan. She stayed low to the ground, grappling onto the lower level of a nearby buildings in order to swing around the ankles of the titan, narrowly avoiding its grasp. Her blades took out both ankles, causing it to fall to the ground with a groan.

Quickly, she jumped on top of its body and ran down to the neck, dealing the killing blow. Blood shot up from the nape, covering her face and hands. The sensation was hot, scalding, but the blood quickly dissipated into steam.

Klara leapt off the titan, running back to the house, only to halt in her tracks at the sight.

The woman had returned to her home and collapsed on the ground, her hands clinging to the arm of her husband. It was the only part of him that wasn't covered in rubble as the rest of the house have caved in on top of him.

"You could have saved him," the woman mumbled, her hands turning his fingers over in their grasp. She turned to her with tears streaming down her face and utter hatred in her eyes. "Why didn't you save him?!"

"You would have died," Klara lamely offered. "I couldn't lift the beam, but I could save you."

"I didn't want you to! I wanted you to save him!"

"And he wanted me to save you!"

"What does it matter now? He's dead. I'm dead."

The woman lowered her head, crying into his hand. Klara watched for a moment, unwilling to disturb what she was witnessing, but there was a voice pressing her forward in the back of her mind. She needed to keep moving. They both did.

Klara reached forward, putting her hand on the woman's shoulder. "Please, let me get you to the gate."

In an instant, the woman was on her feet, slapping Klara across her face. She fell from the impact, stunned and speechless, holding her cheek with her hand. Tears fell from her eyes from the painful hit.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The woman went back to her mourning, and Klara watched her.

Why am I so useless?

Slowly, she stood, heartbroken and tired. "Please consider leaving."

She left then, unable to bring herself to force the woman to safety; she was running away. There was nothing more to it.

The city was growing quieter. Had all the people evacuated or were they all dead?

Klara landed on a rooftop, but tripped as her foot caught a loose tile. She landed hard on her legs and arms, and just stayed there, her mind blank and her heart heavy.

This wasn't what she trained for. She was supposed to leave the gates and take on titans in the open world, not fight them in the streets of her home. She was supposed to kill them to save lives, not get people killed because she had no other choice. This wasn't supposed to happen. They weren't supposed to be here. This wasn't supposed to be her burden.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Rapid footfalls caught Klara's attention, and she looked up to see four Garrison soldiers running down the street. The sight of them fleeing while the city around them collapsed ignited something in her, a fire, a rage that burned away the guilt that ate at her. She may have failed, but at least she tried.

Klara jumped from the rooftop and landed in the street before them.

"Where are you going?" she asked with a voice that was not her own. It was deeper, full of indignation; it terrified some part of her.

"We're leaving, Cadet, and you should too!" the leader shouted, gesturing at her to move out of the way. He was an ugly little man, the kind who let power get the best of them.

"There are still civilians in the city. They need to be evacuated."

"Anyone who is left is dead or dying."

"You don't know that."

"And I suppose you do, Cadet!?" the man shouted. He moved to grab her, and forcibly remove her from his path. "Get out of my way and evacuate. That's an order."

As soon as his hand made contact with her, Klara grabbed his arm and kicked his legs out from underneath him. When he hit the ground, she flipped him over so he was lying on his stomach, her knee resting on his back with his arm pinned behind him.

"Did you even try to save anyone?!" she demanded before looking up at the other three. "Did you?!"

The other soldiers managed to at least look ashamed.

"No," the youngest of the group admitted. He was a tall boy with short, blonde hair. "We didn't."

Klara released the man then, and stood aside.

"I'll have you hanged for this, Cadet!" he shouted at her, rubbing his arm. "Disobeying a direct order. Assaulting an officer. I am a captain, and I'll-"

Klara unsheathed her blades again. She didn't point them at the man, just kept them loosely at her side, but it was enough to quiet him.

"You are not a captain. You're a coward, and I do not take orders from the likes of you."

She walked away down the street then, grappling onto a nearby building. While she did not feel much better about the whole situation, she had at least stopped feeling sorry for herself, and was ready to do what she could for those left in the city. At least she was trying, and it meant more than what most of the soldiers had clearly done.

What she did not expect was to hear the sound of others behind her.

Klara turned to see the other three Garrison soldiers had joined her, the youngest one leading them.

"You're right," he admitted, hanging his head low. "We should be saving people. Tell us what to do."

She blinked. These were soldiers who had been in service longer than her. The other two were clearly older, but they, too, were deferring to her judgment. Surely someone else was better for-

No. She did not have time to think like that.

"What are your names?"

"Isak Ahlberg," the youngest replied.

"Caleb Weber."

"Karter Becker."

Klara nodded. "We need to stem the flow of titans and give the civilians a chance to escape. There are too many coming through the gate now for just the four of us to be effective. We'll need to move closer to the inner gate, and keep them from being overwhelmed. If they shut that gate, everyone within is as good as dead."

"Are we even enough for that?" Caleb asked.

"We'll be something. That's all we can hope for at this point."

The three Garrison soldiers looked at each other and nodded.

"We'll pair off. Caleb and Karter, you go together. Isak with me. Take titans together. Keep each other alive. We're useless dead."

Isak brandished a blade. "I didn't plan on dying today."

She almost smiled.

The four moved out, making their way toward the inner gate. They did their best to ignore the destruction around them, knowing they would never make it out if they stopped at every house to look for survivors. Those who could flee on foot had to come first.

In order to allow for the heavy traffic that traveled through the gate on a daily basis, the roadway toward it was wider than others. Sometimes, market stalls would set up in the middle in an attempt to attract the curious eye, but for the most part it was simply a large gathering place of people. Reunions between family and friends, children seeing their fathers come back from the fields. On festival days, it would turn into a dancing promenade. Now it was nearly empty, with only a couple scattered titans heading toward the gates.

"Remember, the weak spot is at the nape!" Klara shouted as the group split up. "Don't make a move until you're certain it's safe!"

She began to run along the rooftops alongside the titan, a seven meter with longer hair than most. Her gas supply was running low, and she needed to conserve as much as she could.

Once she finally passed the titan, she dove to the side with a shout, slicing her blades across its eyes. Completely blinded, the titan was unable to do anything as Isak came around its back and cut into its nape, killing it.

She found Isak staring at his hands when she landed.

"I've never killed a titan before. I had always wondered what it was like…"

"You'll have plenty more opportunities," Klara replied, watching as Karter and Caleb took down their titan. "So, try not to think on it."

Just as she spoke the words, another titan came into view. It was a small one, no taller than four meters, but it moved with a reckless speed, ignorant of all around it. The Garrison soldiers stationed at the gate fired their cannons at it, but to no avail.

"Isak!" Klara shouted, running toward the soldier. "Give me a boost!"

The boy did not hesitate, cupping his hands together for Klara to place her boot into. He tossed her upward and, with the aid of her gas propulsion, Klara was airborne. She used the remainder of her gas to get as close to the titan as possible before it ran past her. As soon as it did, she fired her grapples into its back, retracting the lines until she was right on top of it, cutting into its neck and dropping it to the ground right in front of the Garrison line.

"Don't close the gate!" she shouted as she skidded to a halt right in front of their commander. "We still have time!"

"Still have time?!" the man squeaked as she walked through the lines. "That titan nearly got through!"

"It was an abnormal. They won't all be that way. We have to keep the gate open and make sure we get as many people out as we can," Klara replied, looking around for a cannister. "Is there anywhere I can refill? I spent all of my gas killing that last one."

"That last one?" someone behind her echoed. "How many has she killed?"

"She's just a cadet. What is she doing?"

"How is she so calm?"

"Here," an older soldier said, kneeling before her and undoing the cannisters on his gear. "I'm a coward and I'm willing to admit it. I won't be going out there. These are better off with you."

Klara nodded her thanks, exchanging with him.

"Do you really think the four of you can kill all of those titans?" the commander asked her.

"No," she admitted, standing again. "But we'll keep them off of you as long as we can. Please, just keep the gate open."

"And when do you suggest we shut it, since you're clearly in charge here."

Klara shrugged. "When we die."

The silence that followed was heavy, and their gazes piercing. She began to walk away then, ready to head back out. Only one titan had showed up since she changed out her cannisters, and it had been taken care of by Caleb and Karter.

"Hey!" the commander shouted. "What's your name?"

"Klara Lange."

"Your grandfather was brought through here. He said to keep an eye out for you. Claimed you'd be doing something stupid."

She actually grinned when she turned back to him. "He was right."

The four soldiers fought hard for the next few minutes. All in all, ten titans had fallen to their combined efforts, and the gate was kept open for that much longer. Though not many civilians were passing through, she'd seen a few make their way to safety, and that was more than enough for her.

"We can't keep this up much longer," Isak admitted, lying on the rooftop for a breather. "We're all low on gas, and our blades are dulling fast."

"You can always exchange with the other Garrison troops. They won't be coming out here any time soon," Klara replied, gesturing toward the gate with her head. "Go on. I'll cover for you, then we'll let the others go."

Isak nodded, getting up and heading toward the gate. She watched him, then signaled to the others on the other side of the plaza. They were running dangerously low as well.

Klara caught another titan moving through the city toward them, and brandished her blades in preparation. But just as she was about to go take care of it, something small caught her eye.

A child had burst out onto the street, desperately attempting to outrun the titan.

"Caleb! Karter! On me!"

She dived off the building and made a beeline for the child, expending as much of her gas as she could to reach them. Klara managed to scoop them up in time, swinging upward to get onto the next building, but as she did so, she saw the titan out of the corner of her eye reach out for them.

Karter crossed into her vision, cutting the titan's arm off at the wrist, while Caleb went around the back and attacked the titan's nape.

Though she hadn't known them very long, Klara was quick to trust the soldiers that had come with her, and she was glad that she had.

"Hey, you're alright," Klara said, attempting to sound as sweet as possible despite the situation. "You're safe now."

The child in her arms, a little boy with brown hair and the brightest blue eyes, looked up at her with so much emotion, it nearly floored Klara. He was crying, his clothes were torn, and there was a scrape on his arm. He couldn't have been older than five.

"Are you alone? Do you know where your parents are?"

His little face scrunched up, and he was crying again, burying his face in her jacket.

Klara put her arms tightly around him, and held the boy against her as he sobbed.

How many children were going to be alone after today?

How many never got the chance to make it this far?

The ground began to shake, harder than before, and Klara prepared for a larger titan. But when she turned around, she was faced with something entirely unexpected.

"What is that?" she heard Karter whisper.

It was indeed a titan, but rather than skin, it was covered in plates. Like armor, they enveloped its entire body, save for certain gaps where muscle-like tissue replaced it. Though it had hair like other titans, its eyes were smaller, yellow, and glowing.

And they turned toward her.

Klara felt so small then.

"Close the gate," she whispered, hearing the fear return to her voice. "Close the gate!"

She turned away then, grappling as well as she could with the child in her arms. Karter and Caleb joined her, shouting the same things. In the distance, she could just make out the brick slab making its way down.

A loud rumbling came from behind her, and Klara turned to see the titan barreling towards the gate at a dangerous speed, every step it took digging into the street and the earth beneath it, send brick and other rubble flying across the space.

Soon, the titan overtook her, and a burst of hot air blew Klara off course, pulling out her anchors and sending her into a spin across the buildings.

Klara did what she could to stabilize, using up the remainder of her gas to keep from hitting the ground too hard. When she ran out, she tucked the child as close as she could, keeping her left hand tightly around his head, while she shoved the right one out, absorbing the impact with her arm and two legs. Despite the pain, she kept it up as they tumbled, eventually coming to a halt in the middle of an alleyway.

She laid there a while, tucking in her legs and arms as the pain exploded across her joints; she either broke nothing or everything. It was hard to tell.

Slowly, her eyes opened, finding bright blue looking back at her. "Are you okay?"

The child nodded, and Klara sighed in relief.

She let the child stand on his own, while she attempted to just sit up.

"When we get out of here," she groaned, using the nearby wall of a building to stand while the boy held her hand and 'helped.' "Don't think I'll be leaving my bed for at least a week. How about you?"

He nodded once.

Klara tested her gear a few times, checking to make sure she was truly out of gas before sighing. She took the boy's hand and began to walk down the alleyway, hoping that one of the others would find them.

If they're alive, she thought. That titan must have taken out the second gate.

And if that was the case, there was nothing standing between the titans and the interior of Wall Maria. It was open farmland on the other side, save for a handful of buildings. Their gear would be utterly useless out there. They didn't even have horses.

If only the Survey Corps had remained…

But what could they have done? There was no way to plug up the hole. They would have died, and for what? The titans still got inside. The armored one was unlikely to have the same weaknesses as the others. It was made to fight against them.

It can't have been a coincidence. Two extremely abnormal titans showing up on the same day to destroy the gates? It had to be planned.

But how could titans plan anything? Their only instinct was to eat humans, and it overrode every other function, including survival.

What was happening?

They came upon a partially destroyed wall that had buried a stand beneath rubble. Klara almost kept walking by it, but she saw a familiar pair of boots sticking out from the bricks. Terror seized her heart, and Klara released the boy's hand as she ran over.

She began to dig through the bricks, unearthing one and causing a new avalanche every time. Eventually, she found an arm, and felt her stomach drop as she saw the familiar training corps patch.

No. No no no. There were others. We weren't alone. Please no. No.

But when she finally unearthed the body, Klara was struck with those green eyes.

Those beautiful, lifeless eyes.

Luka.

A thousand and one things happened. I hope it all made sense. Erwin Smith returns next chapter! Until then!