Update: Edited the Chapters Winter Training & The Last Spark (Just the conversation between Rod and Astell)
A/N: Still looking for an Editing Team! (Refer to Chapter 14 for my contact Info)
TheMist33: She'll get action in the second part of the Trost Arc!
Asesino321: Glad to hear that!
Elsoem: No, not at all! (Also no offense but you sound like one of those people who hates on Mikasa's S4 Art Style ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
Struggle For Trost Part III: Small Blade
Mikasa roused from her unconsciousness, 'How long have I been out?' she wondered hazily. She raised her broken blade above her face, 'Again?' She thought. 'This again...' She got up off the cover of the stall she landed on, barely getting four steps before she collapsed on her knees. 'How many times...must I revisit this pain?' She wondered. 'Do I have to start all over...without him?' An image of Eren flashed in her mind.
Thump. Thump. Giant footsteps steadily approached her, a Titan was coming. It didn't matter, with out Eren, life was pointless. She had nothing, anything she gained would be snatched away.
Jean watched as his comrades were eaten alive by the Titans, "Damn! It's no use! We can't even come close to HQ!" He looked down, one cadet was desperately trying to activate his gasless ODM, only to be plucked off by two 3-meters. Another cadet was violently snatched out of the air by a 7-meter. 'Am...I really cut out for this?' He wondered.
Alto landed beside him, "Jean. Snap out of it." Alto gripped his shoulder, "You didn't ask to be a leader. But you are, and now the fate of all the cadets here are in your hands." He looked at him, "So what will you do Jean? Continue shaking? Or man up?"
Mikasa dropped her blade, 'The world...is cruel...and yet...it's beautiful at the same time. I've lived a nice life.' she looked up and closed her eyes, feeling the rain. 'Goodbye...everyone.'
Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
Mikasa took action, in a flash, she sliced off the Titans hand, and backflipped. The Titan slammed her stump, Mikasa swiftly but barely dodged it. 'Why?' She wondered, 'Why do I resist?' she asked herself. 'I gave up!' The titan swung it's arm back around slamming it in front of Mikasa sending her flying. She rolled into a boulder of rubble. She slowly but painfully got up, 'Why am I getting up?' She couldn't comprehend it, 'After all there's no point in living anymore...' suddenly another 15-meter titan climbed over the rubble of a building.
Memories flashed through her head, the day in the cabin when Eren rescued her, him gasping "Fight! Fight!" Alto ratting out Sasha for farting. Her sparring match with Annie. Armin excitedly showing her a book. The two Titans converged on Mikasa, suddenly Mikasa's eyes brightened, 'If I die...all these memories memories of you die with me! I'm so sorry Eren...I swear...I'll never give up again! I'll do...whatever it takes to live!' As the sun shined down on the battle, Mikasa unleashes a loud warcry right as the 15 meter titan behind her squarely cracked the other Titan across the jaw sending it flying back a good 20 meters from Mikasa and splattering it's blood against the wall. The force of the impact sent Mikasa several feet up in the air.
"Wh...what just happened?" She wondered. Looking up, she saw the titan standing confidently in the sunlight before it unleashed an earsplitting roar before agressively stomping on the other Titans nape, finishing it off. This defied everything Mikasa ever learned about Titans. Not even abnormals attacked their own kind. But the Titan...had not only destroyed the other, but it was completely ignoring her.
'Please...Mikasa be okay!' Armin silently pleaded. Turning his head, he saw Mikasa on the ground, banking he landed beside her and swept her off the ground. Landing smoothly on a rooftop. "Mikasa! Are you alright!?" He asked. Before Mikasa could respond, Connie slid up next to Armin.
"You two okay?!" He asked. Mikasa and Armin nodded. Right then, the 15 meter that had saved Mikasa, and another, likely normal, 15 meter approached each other.
"Oh shit! Just our luck, two 15 meters!" Connie swore.
"No...the more human looking one is...different." Mikasa said. Just then, a steaming titan skeleton caught Armin's eye. But by the look of it, it looked as if the bones had been mercilessly broken, no soldier could do that.
The two Titans roared at each other before the rogue 15 meter took up a fighting stance. Causing the trio's eyes to widen in shock. The other titan roared again and charged at it wildly. The rogue wasted no time, it instantly reacted by swinging it's left fist into the other's head, shearing it clean off the titan and sending it flying into a tower. The titan collapsed, it's limbs twitching until the rogue brutally slammed its foot into the nape. The rogue's left hand, wounded by the impact, instantly healed.
"It...finished it off." Armin said incredulously, "It knew exactly where the weak spot was!"
"Who gives a crap! We need to be long gone before it comes after us!"
"No. It didn't react to us. Any other titan would've been on top of us by now. Not to mention it could've easily finished off Mikasa."
"It also seemed to know Hand-to-hand combat as well. What is it?"
"Just chalk it up as an abnormal and lets get out of here! Hell, they're always a nasty surprise..." Connie said to them
"Wait! But Mikasa is out of gas!" Armin noted
"What?! Is that true?! But Mikasa we need you!" Connie exclaimed
"The answer is obvious." Taking out his gas tanks, he used them to fill Mikasas
"There. That should be enough. It's not much...but it'll do. I reloaded your blades as well." He picked up Mikasa's broken blade. "Just leave me this one. I'd rather this be my end than being eaten alive again."
Mikasa bent down, plucking it out of Armin's hands she threw it away.
"W-why?" Armin watched the blade fall
"Armin." Mikasa placed her hands gently on his. "I won't leave you here.
Sunlight poured in on a room crowded with injured soldiers. Yet it seemed to focus on one in particular. A girl with black hair, dressed in a white hospital shirt. She groaned lightly as she came awake. 'Where am I?' she wondered. She looked around, and saw other soldiers in various states of minor injury as well.
Franz and Hanna came in. "Ah. Mina!" Hanna threw a hug around the girl. "You're awake!"
"How'd I get here?" She asked,
"Actually, uh, Christopher rescued you." Franz admitted. "We just got you over the wall."
Mina looked up at them "Is he-" She looked at their faces, "He came back right?"
"Most of the Cadets got stuck over the wall. We barely made it ourselves." Hanna hung her head.
Mina looked down, if they were stuck over the wall then...Mina didn't want to think about it. "Thanks." She said quietly
"I'm sorry...if it helps. I think he cared about you. Alot." Franz said quietly.
It didn't.
"B-but you can't carry me and fly-" Armin started but Connie just grabbed him. 'No! I'll just get you killed!'
"Come on!" Connie said, Armin looked back at the rogue titan,
"Wait!" Armin yanked his hand out of Connie's, "I have a suggestion. But you're not going to like it. You two are the only way this can be done. So hear me out."
"What do you got Armin?" Connie asked
"We use that rogue to our advantage. We steer him toward HQ and get him to clear the titans there!" Armin said.
"Woah woah! We don't even know what it is. How do you expect to steer it?!" Connie asked incredulously.
"My guess is that it's fighting on instinct. If we take out the Titans near it, it'll just look for more. We kill all the titans in a path to HQ!"
"We can't take such a chance on a guess!"
"But if it works we could eliminate all the Titans at HQ in one fell swoop!"
"It's worth a shot." Mikasa interjected.
"Huh?!" Connie looked at her as if she'd gone mad. "Are you nuts?!"
"It's better to take a chance than sit around and wait for death. We go with Armin's suggestion."
"You want us to fight titans. With a titan?!"
"Yes." The simple assuredness Mikasa said it with caused Connie to falter.
"Alright. If we fail, I'm blaming it on you Armin." Connie smiled.
"But if we succeed, everyone lives." Armin grinned back.
"At the end of the day, it all comes down to resolve." Mikasa ran back toward the Rogue, followed by Armin and then Connie.
"Well Jean?" Alto asked impatiently.
"You're right...this is perfect!" Jean turned to the rest of them, "Make a break for HQ while we have the chance!" Jean ran for HQ, followed by Marco, Alto, and Sasha. 'Now's our only chance! If we run out of gas we're dead anyway.' Jean looked up, "Everyone Charge!" He leapt across a gap between buildings. He sliced a titan's finger as a 12 meter reached out to grab his leg. He then zoomed past a cluster of 3 titans all grasping for the flying cadets.
Marco landed beside Jean, "Thanks! You helped us get out of there!"
"Huh?"
"It's all thanks to you!"
"Like I said before! You're a good leader Jean!"
"I wouldn't be so sure!" Jean lept over a titan's hand, and stuck his ODM into the side of HQ, and he braced himself as he came crashing through the window and rolled into the door. Following him was Alto, Reiner, Marco, Annie, Bertoldt, Sasha, and a few other trainee corp cadets.
"How many of us made it?" Jean asked, 'How many bodies did I fly over?' he wondered. 'How many died on my orders?' He wondered. He turned, and saw two supply soldiers huddled under a desk.
"You're...with the supply team right?" He asked,
"Yes." The boy said fearfully. In a flash, Jean grabbed him, and slammed him against the wall.
"Jean stop!" Alto grabbed him before he could continue,
"YOU ASSHOLES!" Jean yelled at him, "These are the cowards who abandoned us! People died because of you!"
"The titans overran the supply room!" The girl with him wailed "There was nothing we could do!"
"It's your job to deal with it anyway!" Jean retorted. Suddenly, a roar came, followed by a kind of whistling sound.
"Shit hit the fucking deck!" Alto screamed, tossing Jean down. A Titan crashed it's head through the wall,
"Run!" "It's gonna kill us!" "Where's Mikasa?!" "She ran out of gas!" "Forget about her! She's dead!"
Alto scrambled up, pulling a shell shocked Jean along side him, he stopped in front of a section of a wall, or rather, a gap in the wall. Where two titans peered in, grotesque grins on their faces.
Suddenly, a massive fist slammed into one of the titans, throwing it into the other. Suddenly, sunlight shone through as the two were thrown off HQ.
"What?!" Jean yelped as the Rogue titan proceeded to roar at the titans clustering around Headquarters. As if it was challenging them, daring them to take them on
"Mein gott..." Astell muttered in a language unknown to Alto. "That's really it."
"That's really what?" Alto asked,
"I've only seen it via memories. But thats definitely it. It's the Attack Titan!"
