A/N: Still looking for Editors!
Struggle For Trost Part IV: The Attack Titan
"You're telling me that thing's a Titan Shifter?! Like me?!" Alto asked incredulously.
"Yes. There are 10 of us." Astell replied
"Where was all this information before?!" Alto mentally screamed at him.
"I'm sorry. I just didn't think it was time for you to know. And it still isn't." Astell said quietly.
"Tch!" Alto gritted his teeth. Their conversation was interrupted by the shattering of glass as Mikasa and Connie carrying Armin crashed into HQ.
"Mikasa!" Jean exclaimed, shocked she was alive.
"Jeez. That was close! I was running on fumes! But we made it!" He cheered
"You guys are all still alive!" Alto came over to them.
"All thanks to Armin. As far as I'm concerned his word is law now." Connie slapped him on the back. "We found this Abnormal that's killing all the other Titans! That's right! This big, beautiful, S.O.B is our ticket out of here! Best part is, it couldn't care less about us!"
"Woah! This is a god damn Titan we're talking about!" Jean said incredulously, several Cadets voiced similar voices of doubt, but Mikasa's calm, composed, voice cut through them all.
"I don't care." She said simply, her black eyes boring holes into the crowd of Cadets, "Titan or not, it's useful. We're going to let it rampage here for as long as possible."
As she said that the Attack Titan swung it's fist into another 10-meter. Sending it reeling back into the side of a house. It roared again, drawing more Titans to it.
"It's not just our best chance, it's our only chance. And I'm not merely talking about Trost, but against the Titans as a whole." As if in response, the Attack Titan grabbed the arm of another 13-meter, and flipped it over, wrestling it to the ground before throwing it on top of two more 3-meter titans squashing them flat. It panted before slamming another titan in the face, sending it flying. It proceeded to stomp two 3 meters flat.
"Alright! We need to take this opportunity to refill our gas and blades!" Alto called to them,
Lift Area
"Courtesy of the Military Police!" Jean trumpeted, carrying a box of what appeared to be muskets. "And covered with a layer of dust." He coughed. He and a few other cadets distributed the muskets around.
"But I mean, is buckshot even what we want? Are any guns aside from cannons effective against Titans?" Jean wondered aloud.
"Better than nothing. Alright. The Rogue Titan has bought us some time, but we still have another problem to deal with. By now about eight 3 - 4 meter titans have occupied the supply room. We need to take those out before we even consider gas and blades." Armin explained, "That's where these come in. First, we lower a group of people via the lift down into the supply room, at the same time eight of our best soldiers will take positions along the rafters. Once all eight are within range, the people in the lift will open fire. Blinding the titans, and now here's the hard part." He inhaled, "The eight in the rafters need to simultaneously strike all eight vital spots. In short, everything rides on this single attack. Eight people need to slay eight titans at the same time in a single blow. The strike needs to be intensely coordinated and in sync. I'll leave that to the eight most physically adept soldiers we have. Mikasa, Reiner, Bertolt, Annie, Christopher, Jean, Sasha, and Connie." He looked around, "I'm willing to be talked out of this. One half baked plan can't be our only hope?" Armin asked desperately.
"You give yourself too little credit." Reiner told him
"We fail. We die. The risk's the same regardless who goes." Annie said offhandedly.
"Still! This shabby strategy can't be it!"
"We're out of time and options for anything else." Alto told him, "I hate to say it, but your strategy is the closest thing to a plan any of us has."
"All we can do now is give it our all!" Marco patted him on the back
"Armin. Relax." Mikasa gently placed her hand on his, "That head has saved Eren and I many times before."
"When?" He began to ask, but was interrupted by a cadet calling that the lift was ready.
"I'll tell you about it later." Mikasa headed for the stairs as Armin got in the lift.
"Still, can we really take down Titans without ODM?" Connie wondered,
"Please. These are only 3 - 4 meters tall. Their weak spots practically make up half their bodies."
"1 meter high and 10 centimeters across." Sasha repeated, like a chant.
"If that's too hard, just shove one of these up their smelly asses. That's another weak spot."
"Woah seriously?!" Connie asked incredulously, Alto rolled his eyes, 'Connie's an idiot.'
"Did I like, miss a day of training or something?" Sasha asked, falling right into the same hole.
"Kiss your mother with that mouth Reiner?" Alto teased,
"You want your last words to be an ass-joke Reiner?" Jean asked
Supply Room
The lift was slowly lowered. "Good, their numbers haven't increased. The Rogue's doing a good job." Marco muttered to himself,
In the rafters, Alto inhaled slowly, 'Just like back home...' He breathed in, suddenly, everything seemed to clear, the blades in his hand didn't feel quite right. By muscle memory, he flipped them backwards, crouching he built up tension to spring like a bullet when the time came.
"Proceeding with operation!" Marco whispered, dozens of rifles cocked and clicked.
A lone titan wandered near the lift, sniffing, it paused. Then it turned toward the lift, suddenly revealing a grotesque grin. A Cadet whimpered, "Stay Calm!" Marco said, voice trembling, "We need to lure them all in!" He said, the other Titans had taken notice of them as well, and began lumbering toward the lift.
"Hold.." Marco breathed, "Steady..." The titans were closing in, one was barely two yards from his face. "Steady..." It was closing in, the gap decreased by a yard. "Hold it.." The lift was completely surrounded, the titans were mere feet away from the ends of their rifles. Their eyes suddenly seemed large, and all seeing. "Ready..." Armin's finger curled around the trigger slowly squeezing. The titan finally paused, inches from the barrel of Marco's rifle.
"FIRE!" Marco roared as dozens of synchronized shots were fired. Simultaneously blinding all eight titans. Alto sprang into action first, barely a blur he leaped down on his titan, which was ironically the same titan which attempted to eat Mina. He twirled as he sliced it's nape out, landing crouched beside it's steaming corpse. He heard several other thuds as the others dropped their own titans.
"I got mine! What about you guys?!" Mikasa asked, Reiner nodded. But then someone, Alto wasn't sure who, called, "Sasha and Connie missed!"
'Shit! Leave it to the dumbest in the 104th to screw things up!' He turned around,
"I...uh.." Sasha stammered, paralyzed with fear as the titan bore down on hear, "I'm sorry...for sneaking up on you like that," She slowly backed up tears of fear spilling down her cheeks. The titan lunged, and Sasha screamed, scrambling out of the way before it caught her, spinning around, Alto sliced both Achilles tendons of the titan, throwing it off balance and causing it to fall as Mikasa finished it off with a slash to the nape.
Annie flipped off a support column, slicing the nape of the Titan that attacked Connie. Connie was backed up against another column, "Uh...thanks." Connie stammered awkwardly.
"MIIKAASSAAA!" Sasha instantly crawled to the other girl, "You saved me!"
"Are you alright?" Mikasa asked, Sasha nodded
"Thanks to you!" She said gratefully,
"Then get up!" Mikasa snapped.
"I owe you one." Connie said,
"No problem." Annie replied
Alto sighed, "Alright! Refill your gas and blades and let's get out of this dump!" The ODM was carted via the lift. Marco nearly passed out and had to be caught by Armin.
"Alright! We may just survive after all!" "No more Titans coming inside either!" "All thanks to that Berserker Titan out there!"
"I caved in front of the whole gang." Sasha wailed, "How can I ever face them again!?"
"Hey! Hey! There's plenty of time to sneer at you later! Right now, lets get the hell out of here!"
"You know, you should talk to your friend." Astell advised.
"Really? You mean Jean?" Alto asked,
"Yes. He's going through a hard time right now. He's realizing what it means to be a leader in this world. It's not an easy task."
"What do you mean?"
"There's many kinds of leaders. There's people like Nile Dok and Captain Woerman, petty men who can't see past their own fear, personal gain, and paranoia. There's people like me, and Erwin, we lock away our own feelings and emotions and climb over mountains of bodies to reach our goals. And then every once in a while, there are leaders like your friend Armin and Jean. People who somehow manage to live in the best of all worlds. They manage to show empathy towards their followers without going insane, like I would've, and yet are capable of making the hardest decisions in a heartbeat. They're the kinds of leaders most people want to be, but very few ever become." As seemingly always, Astell was right. Jean had made the decision to lead them to HQ, despite knowing it'd cost them lives. Many lives.
"I'll think about that." Alto replied,
"Everyone ready?! Let's get out of here!" Jean called to them, he was greeted by dozens of cheers.
"Lets move!" "Scale the wall!" Armin ran out, and saw Mikasa and Alto standing together on top of the roof of HQ. Not moving
"Mikasa?!" Armin followed them.
"We have to move you two!" Armin followed their gaze.
"That Titan..." Mikasa began.
"They're cannibalizing it!?" Armin watched in horror as the Titans devoured the Attack. "I guess it can't regenerate..." Armin said sadly,
"I was hoping we could somehow bring it back. It could've helped us break free from this situation." Mikasa said,
Alto could only think one thing 'Someone was in there!'
"I agree." Bertolt, Annie, Reiner, and Jean all approached the trio. "It's too valuable for us to just leave it there. We need to clear the ones clinging to it for now!"
"Are you insane?! We can finally leave and you're suggesting we jump out of the frying pan and into the fire and risk our necks for a Titan?!" Jean asked incredulously
"And what if there's a chance that Titan could become our ally?" Annie retorted. "It'd be more powerful than any weapon mankind could field right now."
"Ally?!" Jean looked at them as if they were insane. "Are you serious?!" Suddenly, a familiar Titan came into view,
"Crap! That's the abnormal that ate Thomas!" Armin turned to see it. As if the Attack heard this, it roared, throwing off it's assailants. With only two clinging to it's arms, it made steady progress as the other two ripped it's arms off, it bit into the abnormal's nape. The cadets looked on in horror as it swung the abnormal with it's teeth, slamming it into a Titan on the ground before throwing it into another 14 meter. Unleashing one final roar, it collapsed on the ground.
"What was that about saving the Rogue?" Jean asked,
"No...it isn't done yet! Look!" Alto pointed towards its nape, where an excessive amount of steam was pouring from. A figure could be seen.
A figure Mikasa recognized all too well.
"No..." She grappled towards it, and began to run,
"Mikasa!" Armin yelled but she didn't hear, she kept running, fearing that, if she stopped, even for a moment, it'd disappear. Climbing it's steaming head, she gripped the person. And when the smoke cleared, Alto finally understood her reaction.
The Attack Titan was none other than Eren Jaeger.
