Superkoola: I think the Colossal would still be useful even in the modern-day. I mean, the guy is a living FOAB.

Super Comrade: Yes, indeed. And things only seem to be getting worse...


Return to Shiganshina Part III: A Desperate Plan

The Colossal Titan ran its hand across the ground, proceeding to grab buildings in its hand and set them on fire with it's immense steam before scattering them, creating a spread of fire.

"Hey…Eren." Connie said to him, "One of those could be your house. How does it feel to have your roof over your head again." He guffawed loudly, "Get it?!"

"Sasha." Jean sighed.

"On it." Sasha thwacked Connie on the head with a Thunder Spear.

"That joke wasn't very funny at all." Isabel huffed, "Where's big bro…?" She wondered

"Armin!" Alto turned to him, "What now?! He plans to turn Shiganshina into a sea of flames!"

"...Huh?" Armin choked out, and Mikasa placed a hand on his back.

"We follow your orders now." Mikasa told him,

Armin looked around, everyone was focused on him.

"We need to fall back and rally at the Generalleutenant for new orders-"

"We can't do that." Alto said to him "If we retreat now, and the Colossal Titan reaches the wall, then the forces on the other side will be caught between the flames and the Beast Titan, who is undoubtedly throwing rocks by now."

Armin gasped, Alto was right, as usual. Once the houses near the inner gate caught fire…that was it.

"Armin! What are your orders!" Petra shouted panickedly as a piece of debris crashed some meters away from the group.

"Hurry!" Isabel insisted.

"Hey…Alto. You're the ranking officer here. I think…you should take command for a little while." Armin begged him, "I…don't know what to do."

Alto looked at him, then nodded. "Alright, but we'll still be relying on you for a plan. So observe him and determine if he has any weaknesses."

He turned to the group of twenty, "Get on the Titans and head for the river! We need to conserve gas!"

"Ja!" The group responded, hoping on Ymir, Alto, and Eren, they made a break for the river.


"Yet again, another one of Alto's predictions have come true." Erwin said, "They're using the Colossal to trap us in a pincer attack." Erwin looked toward the Beast Titan, "Is this what you wanted…Warchief Zeke?"

As if in response, the Beast Titan scratched his ear lazily.

Erwin jumped down, and approached Levi.

"What's the situation?"

"His throws have - as suspected - leveled most of the houses towards the front. Combined with the Colossal Titan explosion, I estimate we've lost most - if not all - of our veteran forces."

"Not good odds." Levi analyzed. Erwin shook his head,

"Can we retreat to the other side?" Mina asked, already knowing the answer.

"Unfortunately not for two reasons. 1. The Colossal is already coming this way, spreading fire on his path. And 2. We may be able to retreat using ODM gear, but our horses can't." Erwin turned to her,

"Are Alto and Eren alright?!" Mina asked him, Erwin looked at her coldly.

"I have no idea. But the majority of them were caught in the Colossal Titan explosion. We can only hope." He tch'ed, "Alto has been completely right. Their strategy is to slowly crush us with a pincer attack. Right now, our viable forces consist of Mina Karolina, Hauptmann Levi, and the twelve hundred or so new Scout Recruits."

"Erwin, do you have a plan?" Levi asked him, but Erwin could only look to the side.


"We can't let him get closer to the Wall!" Without warning, Alto let out an ear piercing roar. And the Colossal Titan came to a halt.

"Well, you got his attention!" Jean groaned, but gasped as the Colossal Titan resumed its advance.

"Shit! The bastard is ignoring us!"

"I'd do the same. Bertholdt isn't Reiner, he focuses on a series of immediate objectives, rather than a single long-term goal." Alto leveled a glare at him, "We have to tackle him and get a hit in with Thunder Spears!"

"Wait, doesn't his steam make our gear useless though?!" Sasha turned to Alto,

"Until Armin comes up with something, I got no other ideas! Unless you're suddenly a genius now?" Alto asked sarcastically, running alongside Ymir and Eren as they tried to get in front of the Colossal.

"I'll do it." Mikasa slammed two Thunder Spears from the side of her ODM box onto their firing rails. "You guys distract him!"

"Move in!" Alto and Eren slid out onto the street in front of the Colossal Titan, Ymir leapt on Altos shoulder.

'How dare you…look down on me?!' Eren thought to himself angrily, 'All you are…is an overheating oaf!'

Eren let out a loud roar before moving in to tackle the Colossal Titan's right leg, while Alto went for his left, and then Ymir leapt off Alto's shoulder and proceeded to slash wildly at both legs.

The Colossal Titans eyes proceeded to briefly flash, before steam sent the Jaw Titan flying backwards, knocking her out. But the more powerful Flare and Attack Titans held on.

'You're not the only one with a trick up his sleeve!' Alto thought, looking down, he focused and began to spread his hardening from his feet, onto the ground and then up to Bertholdt's feet. It spread like the ground was rapidly freezing over, the hardening held Bertholdt's foot in place.

Suddenly, the Colossal Titan proceeded to lift his right leg - with Eren still hanging onto it - and kicked out, flinging Eren into the top part of the wall above the gate, unconscious.

"Eren!" Alto called out, only for the Colossal to bend down and smack Alto off him with a steaming hand. Sending him crashing through several houses, before long, the three of them were laying unconscious in various positions.


"No…" Mina breathed,

"Only one titan can fling Eren like that…" Levi noted, "The Colossal."


The remaining scouts looked on in horror. Eren lay on his back on top of the wall. Alto lay in a broken heap, his arm slung around a house. Ymir was on her back, her arms splayed awkwardly.

"Eren…" Mikasa said in horror, "He's not moving!"

"Mikasa, he's not dead! None of them are! Focus on the task at hand!" Jean told her, 'Damn it…Alto might've pushed it too far.' Jean noted "But that's what'll happen if we run at him without a plan." Jean muttered,

"All troops! Prepare for an attack!" Jean shouted at them, the Royal Guards and Scouts nodded, readying their Thunder Spears and Anti-Titan ODM gear.

"We have one advantage, he doesn't know about our Thunder Spears yet! Sasha, Connie and I will distract him, the rest of you strike in the opening!"

"Ja!" They responded.

"Oi! You fat moron, I'mma poke your damn eyes out!" Jean shouted on him,

"What happened to your skin huh?! Did it slip off?!" Connie insulted him,

"Grow a pair and cover up you pervert!" Sasha shouted.

Jean could almost swear he saw Bertholdt roll his eyes, 'This is way too obvious of a distraction. But still….we only need one good hit!'

Suddenly, Mikasa came up behind him, and fired her Thunder Spears at his nape. The other seventeen scouts did the same, aiming for various parts of his body such as his ankles, kneepit, and eyes.

Then, his eyes flashed again, and steam poured from every part of his body. One unlucky Scout was nailed by his own thunder spear and it exploded, scattering the bloody debris.

Another Royal Guard was penetrated by shrapnel from a rogue thunder spear in the neck. The man fell limp, and his clothes caught fire as he fell to the ground.

Mikasa's thunder spears were sent flying behind her, and detonated, sending shrapnel into her back. Gasping, she released the ODM trigger, but barely managed to land safely.

The rest of their ODM hooks came loose and they were forced to fall back.

"Guys!" Armin screamed, 'The hot steam even knocked away the Thunder Spears!' He thought worriedly,

Connie coughed, "Damn it…" He rasped, "Breathing in the steam burned my throat…"

"Mikasa!" Armin said as she slid up behind him, "You're bleeding!"

"I'm fine…just a bit of shrapnel." Mikasa looked down, her eyes seeming to lack any hope. "Tell me…is there a way we can fight back? Any at all?"

"Not…one." Armin replied, downcast.

Suddenly, their attention was drawn to a flash of yellow light and a wall being broken through.

The Armored and Warhammer Titans were back.

"Hey…hey." Connie said, "Don't tell me…did Evangelica make multiple Titan bodies?!"

Sure enough, there were not one, but two Warhammer Titans.


More rocks showered the walls above them.

"Commander." Levi turned to him, "If we have no chance of winning, then let's get ready to get out of here. Wake up Eren then find Ymir and Alto. Have them carry as many people out of here as possible. We'll tell the recruits to escape on horseback, they won't have much of a chance, but they'll be a distraction-"

"Hold on, you want us to abandon twelve hundred people, Hauptmann?!" Mina said outraged. "You can't be serious!" Mina turned to him "Generalleutnant! There has to be a way!"

"Look around! Your boyfriend is getting his ass beat by the Colossal Titan. Eren is an unconscious heap. And all we have left is you, me, and the recruits!"

"Levi." Erwin asked, "What would you do?"

"I'd go after the Beast Titan." He replied,

Mina gasped, "But you wouldn't even get close-"

"Maybe not. But it'll add to the legitimacy of the recruits' escape. Maybe keep Marley occupied a little longer. We can rebuild our army, you'll live to fight another day." Levi looked down at his hand, "At this point, it's the best-case scenario."

"Yes, that's true…" Erwin began,

"If we had no way to counterattack."


"No way…" Jean said, "She formed two new bodies?!"

"But how?! We finished them both!" One of the Royal Guards said

"Wait." Armin stepped forward, "Look at their feet."

They gasped as they finally noticed it, a long cable ran from their right feet and into the rubble.

"I think they survived by somehow shifting their center from their napes into other places, but Evangelica somehow moved hers outside her body. Thus the need for a cable, if we follow it, then we can find where she's hiding."

"And Reiner?"

"We need to simultaneously destroy his brain and the nape completely. Leaving nothing to chance. How many Thunder Spears do we have left?"

The group - now down to eighteen - checked their stocks.

"I think we might have about ten." Petra noted, Armin nodded,

"It'll have to do." Armin said, "Three for Reiner, three for Evangelica, and four for Bertholdt."

They nodded, "Alright, Sasha and Jean. You two need to hit your Thunder Spears into both sides of Reiner's Jaw, that way Mikasa can fire down his throat and cause an explosion, hopefully destroying the nape - and his body - from the inside. Isabel and Petra will use their thunder spears to destroy the cables attaching the Warhammer Titans to Evangelica. Then Ambros will follow them and destroy her center."

Ambros shifted uncomfortably, he was to…kill Evangelica?

'At the end of the day…all we had was a beautiful dream.'

Evangelica's last words to him echoed in his ears. Was that all they had, was their love…just a dream?

No, he refused to believe that. He wanted - no, needed - to hear her say that she loved him.

"Ja!" Ambros saluted, "I will kill the Warhammer Titan!"


"We have a way…to fight back?!" Mina said elatedly,

"You bastard, why didn't you mention this before?!" Levi asked him,

"Because, in order to win, the recruits and I have to die." Erwin said grimly,

Levi and Mina's faces fell with horror.

"I must lead these recruits to their deaths. If I am not at the front of the vanguard of this final attack, then none of them will have the courage, and as such, I will be the first to die as well."

"Commander, you can't be serious-"

"It's alright Karolina." Erwin said, "I've…ordered so many to their deaths. I have no right to deny my own. Ever since Historia's speech that day…my goal to become a scout has been satisfied. I wanted…so desperately to prove my father right. That there were humans beyond the wall, and now that I know not only that, but the truth behind the Titans as well…I believe I can accept this outcome." Erwin smiled at them. "I'm at peace…with my death."

"Hey, hey hey." Levi said, "You can't be serious, now that you know what you wanted to, that's it? You just…let go?!"

Mina's face darkened with contemplativeness.

"You bastard, you're using this as a glorified method of suicide!" Levi shouted at him,

Erwin looked down, smiling sadly, "Maybe so, but still, I'm happy that those within the walls will have a better chance as a result of my sacrifice."

Mina kneeled down before him, "Where do we fit into this?" She didn't look up at the commander, he was just…too peaceful. As if he was already dead, and she knew that if she looked at him, she would begin to cry, and beg him to find another way.

Even though she knew there wasn't.

"Mina, you'll take the left flank, Levi will take the right-"

"Hold on, you want me to go after him with only my ODM gear?!" Levi asked incredulously, "He's in the middle of a field. Neither I nor Mina can get to them."

"That's where you're wrong." Erwin said, "There happens to be a line of objects at just the right height for your approach. Use them to approach unseen…and assassinate those sons of bitches!"


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