A/N: Pleaassee, drop more reviews! Also, we also have an official wiki! I'm looking for character fanart to make, so if there's any artists out there, I'd be glad if you lent me your talents!
Link to wiki: the-official-flare-titan .fandom. com
(Remove the odd spaces, because you know, that's a masking precaution.)
Gaujay: I'm glad to see you're still around! Don't worry, things will take a real twist when it comes to Clash of the Titans!
Traitors Arc: Attack on Utgard
Stohess District
Hitch exploded.
"Are you insane?! What is it with you people and heroics? Don't think I don't know what you did a few days ago. Honestly, going out on your off day to sneak out with the Scout's expedition?!" Hitch facepalmed. "You are either the most heroic or foolish person I've met!"
Alto turned around, "I'm no hero, I'm just an idiot." Without another word, Alto ran for his horse.
"Sorry we took so long~" Hanji climbed up into the wagon where Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were waiting.
"Isn't that a priest from the Order of the Walls?" Armin asked,
"Yep! Nick and I are as thick as thieves! So don't let him bother you too much!"
"Alright! The situation within Wall Rose is currently unclear! But everything up until Ehrmrich is safe! We'll save time by going through there! Move out!" Erwin ordered,
Alto managed to slip out of Stohess with the Scout Regiment, and without further ado, tore off for Southern Wall Rose at breakneck speed. 'Damn it! Damn it!'He couldn't help but wish Rosarie could move faster. Every second was another second he lost. Gruesome images of carnage flashed through his head, and almost all of them centered on Mina.
'Fuck!'
"This asshole knew?!" Eren almost jumped out of his seat,
"Yeah and he's kept his mouth shut the entire time. But now he's coming with us to see the harsh reality of the situation and put those beliefs to the test."
"Like hell! We're doing this backwards! If he knows something he needs to fess the fuck up! What the hell is more important than preventing humanity's demise?!" Eren then recoiled, pain flaring up.
Nick said nothing, but looked down. "You know, there's a more efficient way of getting answers." Levi pulled out a pistol.
"Already tried that." Hanji shrugged, "Nick sure is confident he's going to heaven." She looked toward Nick, "My question is this: What could be so important that he's willing to die for it? And take fifteen million people with him?"
Utgard Castle,
"The place looks like crap. But we can make it work for a night." Evangelica nodded to Petra and Isabel as she surveyed the castle with a torch.
Isabel looked around, "Someone's been here. Probably bandits though."
"Bandits? I really don't want to have to deal with them on top of Titans." Petra sighed,
"Bandits probably took off long ago when they heard Rose got breached." Nanaba shrugged, "So we're fine."
"You guys should check this out!" Gelgar hefted a bottle of booze. "It's vintage!"
"I'd say put it back.. but honestly, I could go for a drink right now." Evangelica sighed,
"No one's getting anything!" Lynne said quickly, "It's contraband anyway,"
"No one's going to know!" Evangelica pleaded, "Unless someone rats us out." She shoots dirty looks to everyone around.
"As much as she's being a wet blanket - Lynne's right, No booze tonight." Ambros chided, "I'll take the first watch." He headed up to the tower.
"You rookies need to rest up anyway." Petra stood, "Everyone see what we can eat tonight. Then we'll set out in the morning."
Isabel had a thoughtful look on her face, "Vintage wine...huh."
Evangelica smacked her on the back of the head, "If I don't get any, you don't either." To which in response Isabel blew a raspberry.
"Um...if none of us found a hole...if there isn't one...where are the Titans coming from?" Historia asked at last.
No one answered her, and all was quiet until Sasha came out of a back room, her arms laden with cans of food. "Hey! Look at all this good stuff I found!"
Mina sighed, "God, dang it. Put the stuff back Sash. We don't have time to eat right now,"
"No time to eat?! I say there's always time to eat!"
"That's just you, you freak." Ymir tacked on.
"Suit yourselves. More for me then!" Sasha left again, assumably to eat her loot.
"Hey. Connie." Historia turned to him, "I heard about what happened...I'm really sorry."
"Yeah...but there weren't any bodies or signs of titans actually eating people so I guess they all survived!"
'Without horses…' Mina added internally.
"There was one odd thing though." Connie said, "That Titan...the one on top of my house...it looked like...my mom."
Everyone just stared at Connie, until Ymir burst into laughter. "I-I'm sorry but this is just rich. You're mom- a titan? I'm sorry but - the height difference is a bit much don'tcha think! Come on! My expectations were low but holy fuck! This is a whole 'nother level of stupid!"
"Ok! Ok! I get it, it's a stupid idea."
"Nah nah. We gotta talk about this. Think about it, if your mom was a titan then it stands to reason that your old man was too! Unless it was some kind of weird orgy!"
"Leave Connie alone, Ymir." Mina rolled her eyes, "Truth be told: We don't know what titans are, and Eren and whoever the Female is can shift at will. So what's to say that humans can't turn into titans?"
"Oh shut up pigtails." Ymir turned to Mina, "Speaking of...say...what do you think of Christopher?"
Mina flushed red, "W-Wait how'd the conversation turn from Titans to him all of a sudden?"
Reiner looked down thoughtfully, "You know: It really isn't a bad match." He said.
"Huh?!"
"Puh-lease!" Ymir scoffed, "Everyone's seen you fawning over him. I wonder what steamy correspondence you two have been sharing? Be honest: When did it start?"
"Ymir!" Mina was scandalized,
Evangelica headed up to the castle roof. Where Ambros was leaning against the battlements.
"Couldn't sleep?" Ambros said without turning around,
"Nope." Evangelica sighed,
"I like nights like this. They're peaceful, and quiet." Ambros said,
"Personally I like the way the moon reflects off everything. It's beautiful." Evangelica replied.
Neither said anything for a while, until finally Ambros spoke, "Evangelica, what do you think the world would be like without Titans?"
Evangelica looked at him, clearly taken by surprise, "What makes you ask that?"
"Just answer the question."
Evangelica looked out and sighed. "I think a world like that...where soldiers like us don't have to exist...would be paradise." Evangelica looked into Ambros's eyes.
Time seemed to slow down as they began to lean into each other…
Then a roar echoed from down below.
Ehrmich District
Pastor Nick was guided down into the main streets of the district, where he was greeted by a horrifying sight. Thousands of traumatized families flooded into the city.
Levi kicked him in the back, "Get moving. A rolling stone gathers no moss."
"This...is terrible." He mutters
"I'm sorry it isn't the utopia you expected." Levi said sarcastically, "But this is what happens when the walls fall."
Pastor Nick stepped forward in response to a child crying out, but Levi held him back. "No. Take it in holy man." Levi added the last bit sarcastically, "These are the faces of people who lost everything. Coincidentally: they're the same people you and your ilk abandoned. Hard to look at, but if the church had its way this would be all of us. Man, woman, or child it wouldn't matter all of humanity would be shoved down their putrescent gullets."
"Well Pastor Nick? Feeling talkative yet?" Hanji walked up to him. When Nick said nothing, Hanji exploded, "God damn it you good-for-nothing priest! Make up your mind, this isn't some test of faith! There are fifteen million lives riding on your shoulders!"
"Alas...I have no choice. Neither myself or the others who believe can divulge the truth…" Nick said at last,
"Well, thanks alot you fucking glorified monk!" Hanji shouted, she began to turn away when Nick said something else
"I'd help you if I could. I truly would, but a duty as great as this one has been handed down from the sacred will our faith commands us to obey."
"What, like God or something?"
"I can't answer that. But what I can do is provide you with names. Individuals who know things we may understand but poorly."
"One of them you know, someone who - in fact - enlisted with the Scout Regiment this year." The Scouts all gasped, "A girl by the name of Krista Lenz."
"What?" Eren gasped,
"No way!" Armin breathed.
"The other is a boy named Alto Burke." This time, it was Hanji's and Levi's turn to be surprised.
"Hold on: Alto Burke? As in the youngest son of Astell Burke? But he's dead!" Hanji said,
"You better not be feeding us malarkey old man." Levi fingered his pistol
"Alas, he did not die in the fire. You must find these two with all haste, for they are the keys to knowledge we can only barely grasp." Nick sighed, and hung his head, "I have already stepped over the limit of what I can share. You are not the only ones who will be looking for Alto,"
"Wait, but if she's in the 104th Cadet Corps, then she's on the frontlines by now!" Hanji said,
"Then we can't waste any time! We need to move now!" Eren turned around and ran straight into Nifa,
"Ow…" Nifa rubbed her head,
"You're Nifa right?" Eren asked, "When'd you get here?"
She ignored him, "Here! I have an urgent message for Commander Erwin who then told me to give this to you, Section Commander Hanji!"
Hanji picked up the letter, "Okay then...good work. Eren! Mikasa! Armin! Let's roll!"
Ambros and Evangelica were thrown apart. "What the hell?!" Ambros ran to the edge, where Titans had somehow managed to swarm them within seconds.
"Shit!" Ambros ran downstairs where everyone was. "All of you! To the tower immediately!" He bellowed, "We got Titans!"
"You've got to be kidding…" Isabel moaned, Petra just looked down, her mouth in a shocked O. The cadets swarmed up,
"How many are there…? It's like all the Titans we should've seen have gathered here…" Henning said.
"What the hell? How can they move?!" Mina wondered,
"More importantly: The fuck is that?!" Connie pointed, "It's got to be a titan: but have you ever seen one that big?! It has to be at least 17 meters tall! And it has fur!"
Ymir looked at Reiner, Bertolt, and Evangelica, who were all frozen, affixed with an unreadable emotion.
"Hold on, is it...it's headed for the wall!" Connie noticed,
"Gee thanks Captain Obvious!" Ymir smacked him
"Evangelica! Snap out of it!" Ambros shook her from behind
"Huh? Right!" She shook her head, "Eight soldiers and a bunch of Cadets…not good odds." Evangelica drew her blades, "But we've been through worse! Let's go!" The soldiers lept off the tower in rapid succession. Evangelica dived down to 15 meter. Cutting out it's eyes before grappling around and slicing out it's nape.
"Damn it! I've earned the right to get trashed! You freaks are between me and that beautiful bottle of booze!"
Isabel dived to the ground before quickly deploying her cables to the side, and flinged herself back up. Sticking her blades above her head she gashed a titans face and used the blades as handles to flip over backwards on the Titans nape before cutting out.
"Go to hell." Ambros said coldly as he sliced a Titans finger's off as it reached for him. He then orbited around it's neck and shot for it's nape, cutting it out and killing the Titan.
Nanaba dived headfirst off the tower, shooting a cable out to the side she reeled herself towards a Titans nape and cut it out. The Titan fell backwards, crushing several smaller ones attempting to breach the doors of the castle.
Lynne dived down, and chopped the nape out of one of the smaller titans attempting to still go for the door. But when she looked up, the door was already shattered. "Shit! Titans are in the castle already!"
"I'll go see how far they've gotten!" Reiner grabbed a torch off the wall. "You guys grab anything you can use as weapons!"
"Why does Reiner always have to play hero?!"
"It's a bad habit of his! Come on!" Bertholdt ran down with Connie.
Reiner walked down slowly to a non-lit area of the castle, 'No titans yet...and the door isn't breached either.' He walked towards it…'Still…' He opened the door, and blinked.
A grinning 3-meter Titan stared right at him. It's face broke into a bigger smile as it opened its mouth.
Reiner quickly shut the door and screamed: "They're here! They're inside! Bring something quickly!"
An arm shattered the door, grasping for Reiner,
'Is...this it? Is this how I die?'
"Are your other hobbies so boring that playing with rocks is somehow fun for you now?" Levi asked Hanji.
"This is no ordinary rock. This is a piece that chipped off Annie's titan."
"It didn't dissolve?!" Armin leaned forward,
"I know! And you won't believe this: but when I analyzed a fragment of the wall, they're almost the exact same composition and texture! In short: we're hemmed in by a barricade of enormous Titans, and if my theory is correct the surface of the wall is constructed by consolidated Titan skin."
"No way…" Mikasa breathed,
"Think about it. There is no record of the walls actually being built. And they're much harder than any material that we can mine or appeared overnight just in time for the Titan apocalypse. For all intents and purposes: the Order of Walls may be right, the walls are a work of god!"
"Wait. So if they're made of titans that means we can use it to plug Wall Rose! And even the hole in Shiganshina! I mean - we've already seen Annie and the Other Titan utilize hardening to an extent!" Armin realized,
"Bingo!" Hanji said, "But the real question is this...do you think you can do it Eren?"
Eren hesitated, but right as he was about to speak, Levi interrupted him, "What he thinks is not an issue. He either will, or he won't."
Bertoldt, Evangelica, and Reiner watched in open-mouthed horror as their friend was snatched by a 3-meter titan that emerged from the ground.
"RUN!" He screamed as the titan closed it's jaws on the boy.
'No...not today!' Reiner dived out of the way as the arm swung around.
"Reiner!" Bertoldt jabbed a pitch-fork straight into the Titans face, Reiner stood up and helped push it back through the door.
"Reiner! Incoming!" Historia, Ymir, and Mina all hauled a cannon to the top of the steps.
"Do you have powder and a cannonball?!"
"Like hell we were that lucky! Move you idiot!" The trio of girls quickly pushed it down as Bertoldt and Reiner moved out of the way. The cannon rolled down the stairs and flung itself into the titans face, creating a wreckage it was trapped in.
"Well that worked out." Ymir walked down,
"Yeah...it isn't getting up from that." Reiner said,
"Neither is that cannon. All we have now is that knife." Mina pointed at a knife Connie had.
"For now we should probably retreat upstairs." Historia said,
"Right…" Connie turned his back to the door, right as another 3 meter titan came from behind him.
Petra cut through the nape of another Titan. 'Alright! I just wish Oluo and the others were here…' Her face darkened,
"Oi! Petra!" Evangelica landed next to her, "No time to get sentimental!"
"Right. Sorry!" Petra springboarded off the castle and went for another Titan, she sliced it's arm into pieces as it reached for her before making her way to it's nape and cutting it out.
"Connie!" Reiner knocked him out of the way right as the Titan chopped down, instead of Connie however, it bit into Reiner's arm.
"Reiner!" Historia moved forward, but Ymir stopped her.
Reiner threw the Titan over his back in a fireman's carry and walked up the stairs towards a window.
"Reiner...don't tell me you plan to jump out the window with it!" Connie said incredulously.
"We don't have any other options do we?!" He continued walking
"Connie! Your knife!" Mina grabbed it out of his hand, "Reiner! I can slice open it's jaw!"
"Hurry!" he said quickly as Mina immediately set to work, within a minute, it's jaw finally dropped off Reiner's arm, and Reiner quickly pulled it out.
But it only turned back around.
Alto tore off ahead of the Scout Regiment formation, and when he was far enough. He dismounted his horse, 'I'm begging you. Let Mina be alive...please!' He had no idea why he specifically wanted her. He just did.
He inhaled, and bit into his hand.
'Mina...live!'
'Mina...live!' Something inside Mina snapped, with a battlecry, she kicked the Titan in the face, sending it sailing out the tower towards the ground.
"Damn girl!" Ymir slapped her on the back, "Well done."
"Still. We won't be lucky enough to kill another Titan." Connie said,
"I agree."
Reiner winced as Historia poured alcohol to clean his wound. "Sorry! But I think it's broken…"
"Just my luck…"
"We'll need a splint and bandage." Without hesitation, Historia ripped a piece of her skirt.
A red-haired girl helped Reiner up, "It's probably broken. Here, let me help with that."
Reiner wiped his eyes, but winced as the girl flexed it. "Yeah...we'll need a splint and bandage." Without hesitation, the girl ripped a piece of her skirt for him, and wrapped it around his arm.
'Gotta marry her.'
"Uh, Reiner?" Historia said, "Sorry...all I have is this cloth…"
"No. It helps." He said.
"Hey, Historia. You know I did cut myself-"
"Spit on it." Connie cut her off. Connie smiled tensely, "It seems like I'm getting saved by everybody. Even Annie pitched in…"
"Don't worry about it. It's what us soldiers do."
Connie turned to Bertholdt, "Has he always been like this?"
"No…" Bertoldt looked away, "In the past...he was more of a warrior."
"That's mostly it for the big ones!" Ambros called.
"We may actually survive this mess after all!" Evangelica laughed nervously.
"Henning and I will check on the recruits!" Lynne called and she zipped up.
Suddenly, they all heard a sickening whistle. "What the heck-" Ambros began as the stables exploded in a crowd of debris.
"What the hell?! Our horses!" Isabel screamed as she desperately dodged flying rocks. Soon after another whistle was heard, and a giant boulder impacted the top of the tower. Lynne and Henning came tumbling down and their ODM flew apart. They were dead before they hit the ground.
"There's most likely one place they'll be. An old fortress used by the Scout Regiment" Astell explained.
"It's some distance Southwest of here. We ride with all haste to Utgard Castle!"
