Super Comrade: Unfortunately we won't be seeing much of the exterior Shiganshina crew this chapter...
Music:
1. Apple Seed『Bertholdt Transformation Theme』
Return to Shiganshina Part II: Confidence
The Armored Titan slumped, it's nape armor practically vaporized, and a gaping hole of flesh where the nape was.
"Did we…kill him?" Connie wondered,
Sasha let out a small sob,
"Hey!" Jean shook her, "We had to, get over it!"
"I know…but…" Sasha said quietly, suddenly, Reiner unleashes one final roar, before his partially decapitated body emerges from the crater of his nape, and leans out, limp.
"Shit! He's still partially alive!" Jean shouted, readying another Thunder Spear
"Reload Spears!" Alto ordered, and the Scouts and Royal Guardsmen nodded, slamming the spears stored on the sides of their blade boxes into the rails.
'It's been a while since Reiner transformed…is he alright?' Bertholdt wondered from the back of the Cart Titan.
"This is it." Evangelica sipped a cup of coffee. "One way or another."
"Indeed." Alexander nodded, "The Kaiserreich is too dangerous now. If we don't stop them here, then we're facing another Great Titan War."
"What…happened in the months I was out?" Annie asked,
"Zeke, Pieck, and Alexander arrived on the island, and we all tried to capture Eren and failed. The island went through a civil war in which you woke up in the middle of." Evangelica shrugged, "Just another day for the Marleyan Warrior Korps."
The group of them laughed mirthlessly at their small joke, then faded into silence.
"I'm glad you're okay…Annie." Bertholdt said,
Annie clutched her knees closer to her, and watched the fire.
"The Survey Corps is approaching." Pieck yelled up at them from her Titan,
"It seems our brief respite has come to an untimely conclusion." He kicked out the fire, "We should go."
Zeke walked away and Annie helped him down, but the other warriors remained.
"Bertholdt…" Evangelica went up to him, "We'll be counting on you. If Alex is right, and the Eldian Kaiserreich does have new weapons. You'll be our trump card."
He gulped, and Evangelica stared straight into his eyes, "Can we trust you?"
Bertholdt steeled himself, "Yes." He said with unwavering confidence.
Evangelica smiled, "Thought so. After this, we're going to make you confess to Annie."
"Hold on! What is this?!" Bertholdt flushed red,
"I mean, you guys have so much in common! You're both war criminals-"
"You're the one who actually slept with someone on the island!" Bertholdt retorted.
Evangelica blushed, but looked distant. "I want to save him…" She whispered, "Ambros, I mean. I want to save him from this."
Reiner and Bertholdt looked at her, and nodded. "We'll save him, all of us. Then we'll go home." Reiner pats Evangelica on the back with his fist, Bertholdt does the same to Reiner, and Evangelica does the same to Bertholdt, then they proceed to leave for their positions…
Suddenly, a loud roar came from Shiganshina, and Bertholdt readied himself for what was to come next.
"Bertholdt." Pieck asked him, "Are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." Bertholdt nodded, 'I'll prove they can rely on me.'
As soon as he said that, Zeke picked him up, and threw him into Shiganshina.
For a few moments, Bertholdt felt absolutely weightless, but he ignored the wonderful sensation and looked out of the holes poked in the barrel.
And gasped as he saw the scene below him.
Evangelica's head was nearly blown off completely, the Warhammer was face down and her nape a ruined mess.
Reiner was slumped against a building with his head down, his nape a similarly ruined mess. His armor was shattered in several places, with steaming explosion marks.
"Tch!" Bertholdt leapt out of the barrel and used his ODM to approach Evangelica.
"I'm not sure you can hear me, but you better be away from all this, or else…" Bertholdt stood up, and moved to Reiner.
"Reiner, I need you to lie down. Flat on your back, if you can't, then prepare for the worst…" He patted his friend on the back.
The Scouts, about to lay down a second barrage, scattered as they saw Bertholdt.
"Watch yourselves!" Hanji shouted.
They landed on the nearby roofs of houses, and pulled out their Anti-Personnel Gear.
"We should launch a barrage while we're still able-" Hanji began, but Armin cut her off.
"Wait, I want to ask about his true motives. Why is he serving Marley?"
"Armin?" Hanji asked with confusion, but he just rushed on ahead.
"Bertholdt!" Armin shouted, "Stop right there!"
Bertholdt, to his surprise, listened and landed on a nearby rooftop adjacent to Armin's.
"Bertholdt! Can we talk?!" Armin asked.
'This is it…' Bertholdt said he knew both parties we're just doing this to buy time. Armin was trying to have the Eldian Army encircle him, and he was trying to buy time for Reiner and Evangelica to get themselves to safety.
"If I agreed to talk, would you all agree to die?!"
Bertholdt, even from a distance, could see the rising horror on Armin's face.
"We only want two things! Your Titan Shifters, and everyone else inside the Walls to die! That's the harsh truth of it Armin! It's all been decided already!"
"Who decided that?! Your Marleyan overlords?!" Armin shouted back. "Are you just going to follow orders for the rest of your life?!"
"I'm sorry, but that's how it has to be! You don't understand…you never could understand what would happen!"
"Then help us understand!"
"I wish I could Armin…I really wish that." Bertholdt said, head down.
Armin gritted his teeth in frustration, turning away he began to leave, only for Bertholdt to quickly grapple over to him and block him, pistol in hand.
1. "I bet you came here thinking you could break me again. That I was still the pathetic little Bertholdt you knew in 847."
Eren began to move forward, but Alto shook his head.
"No, if he transforms…we're all done for."
Eren gave him a side-eye, but retreated anyway. 'Damn it…why Armin?!'
"I know this a ruse Armin. You're trying to surround me with soldiers while the others finish off Reiner and Evangelica." Bertholdt looked at the unsteady blade in Armin's hand. "I can tell I'm right. I bet you came here thinking you could break me again. That I was still the pathetic little Bertholdt you knew in 847."
"Then why come here at all?!" Armin asked
"Because…I had to know if you were right." Bertholdt said, "If I would break as you hoped. If all my confidence was a lie I'd deluded myself into believing. But it seems not." Bertholdt raised his sword with a wistful look, "You'll always be my precious comrades, right up until the moment I kill you."
"Is that because…do you really believe we're the Spawn of the Devil?!"
"No, despite what they trained us to believe, I don't think that anymore. You're people, people who never wronged us, but at the end of the day, this is war." He raised his gun,
"And you all have to die."
Bertholdt aimed it right at Armin, but in a flash, Mikasa was upon him. She attempted to slice him through the neck and take off his head, but with his free left hand, he quickly drew an ODM blade and blocked it, the blades grated against each other, creating small sparks.
Mikasa quickly moved in and attempted to finish Bertholdt off with her other blade, but he tilted his head just in time, only losing his right ear.
Bertholdt retaliated with a spin kick to the side, only for Mikasa to block it with her arm, but the force still sent her staggering back a few paces.
Bertholdt then tried to go for Armin with the gun still in hand, but he quickly had to pause to parry a thrown steel blade from Mikasa.
Realizing he was no longer capable of winning this fight, he jumped off the roof and jetted away.
Several Royal Guards and Scouts prepared to move in on Reiner.
"Quickly!" An RG shouted, "While he's crippled!"
They jetted towards where Reiner was, but instead of being slanted against the house. He was lying face-up with his nape protected by the ground.
"He's upwards now?!"
"Shit! He's still semi-conscious!"
1- 'This…is a very strange feeling.' Bertholdt wondered, 'Is this how people like Alto and Evangelica feel? It's as if I can see everything. And I'm not trembling or fearful either. No…I can accept however this ends. No one is in the wrong here. We're all fighting for something we believe in. There's just…nothing to be done.'
"Because…the world…" Bertholdt muttered to himself, his rapidly healing ear covered in blood "Is just that cruel!"
"He's going up!" Hanji shouted, "No! That means-"
"Hanji!" Moblit reached for her.
"We need to run!" But it felt like no one heard her as she felt a hand on her back and everything went white, then faded into dark. 1x
Levi Squad and a few of the Royal Guards watched in horror as the explosion engulfed central Shiganshina.
Suddenly, there was the sound of two sets of ODM Gear as Mikasa and Armin came up to them.
"Mikasa! Armin!" Jean coughed out, "You guys are okay!"
"Yes. But…" Armin cast a gaze to the side
"But what?" Petra asked worriedly,
"Most of the Royal Guards and Scouts…we're caught in the explosion." Mikasa said, "Right now, it's just us."
Alto gasped, nearly nine hundred men had been whittled down to a mere twenty? He looked around, it was him, Petra, Eren, Isabel, Mikasa, Jean, Ambros, Ymir, and an additional seven Royal Guards and five Scouts.
"Even…" Isabel's voice cracked, "Even Hanji Squad?"
Mikasa closed her eyes, and nodded.
Suddenly, loud cracks could be heard, a mix of flame and things being crushed by the newly materialized Colossal Titan.
Evangelica remained in a seemingly stasis-like state. Her hair floating within the cold blue of the crystal buried underneath what was once a house. However, she was fully conscious, and aware of what had just happened…
Slowly but surely, skin and bone began to cover the half-formed organs of Reiner's head, destroyed by the Thunder Spears. His eyes popped out of the half-finished bone of the skull, surrounded by grotesque patches of skin, he was only semi-conscious…
"That means the only ones that survived the explosion…" Ymir began in her Jaw Titan
"...are the ones presently here." Armin finished.
Official Wiki Link
the-official-flare-titan .fandom. com
