Part 24
Reality Hits Hard
"Am I ready?"
Upon horseback with refreshed gas canisters and blades, Fury rode on towards the Forest of Giant Trees. She's spent the last 4 years training in here; finding wandering Titans to practice her manipulation abilities on. Only this time, when she exits the forest, she'll be heading towards the walls instead of the village she became accepted in among its people. Fury found it rather difficult leaving them behind, knowing that she'll probably never see them again. And the woman already felt it within her bones that Hexis would've passed on by now.
Fury only hoped that he did so without regret and without pain. That man has given a lot to Fury. Now, she feels the need to pay him back by perhaps giving humanity a chance. With her notebook close at side, which contained the last 4 years of her life, Fury hurried her horse slightly.
"Would they even let me back? Please… I hope he's still alive."
Suddenly, Fury's horse reared itself from a sudden shock from a nearby call of clear distress.
"Gunther!" Was all Fury heard, coming from the mouth of what sounded like a young man.
"Gunther...?" Fury questioned, calming her mount and opening her ears to pinpoint the sound of distress. Soon being able to hear the echoed sounds of gas being emitted from their canisters, ODM anchors latching onto the threes. "No… Impossible…"
The woman dismounted her horse, latching her own anchors onto nearby tress, propelling herself through the forest. Like a blinding light followed by a gust of strong wind, Fury was pushed back in the air, causing her to take landing upon a tree trunk as the ground below her began to shudder.
"The fuck was the lightning?!" She asked herself, gritting her teeth, making her way forward towards the commotion that was drawing closer to her.
Fury's eyes soon widened, her pupils shrinking as she came into view of a small team of Scouts tearing chunks away from an unusual looking Titan which held feminine attributes and appearances.
"I'll tear out her eyes!" Roared Olou, mimicking Petra as the two assaulted the beast's sight, rendering it blind. It was them. Levi's Squad. But why here? Fury's eyes scanned the area, looking almost desperately to find Levi himself.
"No… Levi, he's not-" Fury asked herself as her ears were soon met with a painful cry of remorse and fear.
"Eld!" Cried Petra, causing Fury to notice the this female Titan had caught the male between her teeth, tearing him in half and almost spat his remains that were in her mouth out. With a bolt of speed, the Titan soon rose to her feet, one eye stretching open as it fixated itself on a fleeing Petra. "Only one eye?! She channelled her energy into one eye, how is that possible?!"
"Petra, pull yourself together!" Olou ordered, manoeuvring from above as a deathly scream soon emitted from Petra's mouth as the female Titan's foot slammed the young girl's petite body against a tree, killing her in an instant.
"What is this?!" Fury called out, drawing her blades in true shock. "That thing is killing with no remorse! Its intelligent! Like the one… Like the one I encountered way back when…"
"Now you die!" Burst Olou, clashing against the Titans suddenly hardened nape, causing the man to falter and question how his blades weren't able to pierce through the skin. Jumping from the ground, the female Titan swung her leg around, bringing it on impact against Olou himself; his body clashing against tree after tree, leaving nothing but stains of his blood upon the bark.
Fury stared on. And as much as she willed for it to be, she couldn't seem to be able to bring any control over this Titan. It was free willed, had a working mind of its own. "That thing… it just… it just wiped out that entire squad without effort…" Fury breathed, looking on as the Titan herself remained in its spot. Was it smiling? "If they couldn't even bring her down… Levi… Where the fuck is Levi?"
Fury's eyes continued to scout nearby. She could only see the three dissembled bodies of Eld, Petra and Olou. What of Gunther? Fury figured this Titan must've killed him too further back in the forest. "Shut up!" Fury then called out. "There was nothing I could do!"
The female Titan raised her head in Fury's direction. "I'll kill you!" Then came the angered below of a young cadet, catapulting down towards the female Titan's direction, his hand lodged in his mouth as he tore through his skin with his own teeth. There it was again, that blinding light followed by the crashing destruction of lightning falling hard from the sky above.
Out of the smoke, another Titan appeared. Roaring, its eyes flared with anger as its clenched fist made contact with the female Titan's face, catapulting her backwards, her fall being forcefully halted by one of the trees.
"Human…?" Fury muttered, clutching on her blades, her deep blue eyes visibly shaking at what she was witnessing. "They're fucking human…" Although Fury wanted to deny it, it made sense to her. The way the female Titan fought, it was with purpose, like she needed to make sure she wasn't exposed. But who was this boy? Who was this normal looking cadet that was able to become a Titan and what seemed to be at the click of the fingers? Fury had no clue if he was the enemy or not, but right now, she knew for certain that this female Titan was most defiantly the enemy.
A fight soon followed between the two Titans and Fury kept close by, watching and almost studying them both without directly interfering, for even she knew her lack of experience in such a matter could get her killed.
The male Titan was in a clear state of anger, his arms flailing around that much that his punches rarely made contact with the female Titan. And the female Titan herself appeared adept in hand to hand combat.
As the two Titans fought against each other, Fury found her gaze set upon the bodies of Levi's squad. She knew those soldiers, though perhaps not well enough to call friends, Fury viewed them as capable fighters. She could still hardly believe that in the span of a few minutes, they'd all been killed in one fell swoop. They weren't dealing with your average Titan and yet Fury wondered if they knew of what she now knew herself; that there was a human inside, controlling the limbs of those monsters.
Fury's gaze then soon darted over the two Titans who had come to a stand still. The male's jaw hung loosely, evidently broken and dislocated from its sockets. Not one mark was evident enough upon the female. Even the deep cuts she received from Levi's squad had already healed. The male Titan began to emit an ear bursting scream, his body writhing as he also appeared to try and heal himself.
"He fights from rage… Just like I once did…" Fury spectated, only to soon have her thoughts cut off as the hardened leg of the female Titan round kicked the male, decapitating the beasts head from its nape in one clean cut.
"Eren, no!" Then came the cry of a young woman, propelling herself towards the scene as Fury thought best to stay out of sight. She watched as the female Titan disconnected her jaw, biting down on the flesh of the male's nape and tore the skin from his body, revealing the young cadet embraced with muscle within. The female Titan then ripped his body from the muscle pinning him to the nape, swallowing his body. To which she then began to run, leaving the emotionally dysfunctional young woman give chase out of anger, screaming for this Eren to be given back.
"She was after you…" Fury scowled, thinking it was best to also follow. If she can prevent this reckless and emotion driven cadet from dying too, then it would be better than seeing more deaths occur. And try as she may, all the concentration in the world wasn't enough for Fury to gain control of the fleeing female Titan, who had surely been brought to her knees as the female cadet hacked away at her joints. "Can I not control a Titan who still as a human in full control of them? What am I saying…? That they were all once like this?!"
"Give him back!" The female cadet roared, about to allow herself to be swallowed by her fear, only to be taken aside by no one other than Levi himself.
"Fall back." He ordered, forcefully taking the angered woman along with him as the female Titan was up and running again, now showing little interest in killing anyone at all. "We need to maintain current distance."
"… No…. Stop, don't go after her!" Fury called out. Her shout emitted loud enough for Levi's eyes to widen, giving him reason to look back on himself whilst he and the cadet followed the female Titan close behind. He didn't want to believe he heard her voice again after 4 years, yet Levi was still unsure for Fury had her jacket hood up, covering her eyes. "Levi!" Fury then called out to him in a begging manner, giving him the answer he found himself asking. It was her. It was Fury.
"Tch…" He muttered, narrowing his eyes, his grey pearls glaring at Fury as she caught up to them both. "Unbelievable…" He then hissed, finding himself not being able to say anything else.
"She's killed too many of our people!" The female cadet barked at Fury. "She's dead!"
"Shut up!" Spat Fury, her own gaze frowned as she then looked back on herself at Levi. "Stop letting your emotions control you! If you give in to them, despair will cripple you!"
"You haven't changed a bit…" Levi called out, though his primary focus needed to be on the female Titan. He fought against Fury's very words. He could barely believe she was back, after 4 years. The male had grieved for her. Convinced himself that Fury would've died and that he'd lost the last of his oldest friends. Now she was back and yet he only felt anger towards her.
"She's slowed down." He then pointed out, giving Fury reason to gaze forward. "That fight with him wore her out. She's got no fight left."
"She bit the entire nape off that other Titan…" Fury revealed. "You don't honestly think he's still alive, right?"
"He's still alive in there!" The cadet hissed.
"Mikasa…" Levi sighed, seeing for himself that she was overrun with personal emotion.
"Listen! This Titan is different, it acts with purpose." Mikasa continued, her eyes focused on the female Titan always. "If she wanted Eren dead, she would've simply crushed him!"
"…She needs him for something?" Fury questioned, giving Mikasa cause to nod her head. "So she could be holding him on her tongue?"
"I suppose it is possible." Levi returned his opinion. Already he could see that Fury had somewhat adapted whilst being out here, yet to learn she hasn't been all on her own. "But it could also be likely that he's already been swallowed. And if so, he's dead."
"He's alive!" Mikasa argued, her gaze darkening as Fury kept an eye on her. She'd noticed how quick this Mikasa was to get angry over those she cared for. Yet Fury could only see that she too used to be that way. Did she have any right to tell the girl to not care? "If you had just done your damn job and protected him like you were supposed to, we wouldn't be having this debate!"
"Ah, makes sense now." Levi responded, putting aside his distaste at her outburst against his own duties. "He's a childhood friend, right?"
"Can you two stop with this pointless bickering and focus on narrowing our options here!" Fury demanded. She was still yet to understand why this Eren seemed so important, despite the fact he seemed to be fighting as a Titan on their side. "You need to forget about taking her down! I've seen what she's capable of doing, we're in the dark too much when it comes down to being able to take her out!"
"No, we need to act on the assumption that Eren may still be alive." Levi ordered, pulling out his Cutters. "Focus only on retrieving him before she exits the forest, leaving us not being able to use our ODM. Mikasa, find a way to keep her distracted. Fury, I want you and I to focus on the cutting."
Both females nodding with what needed to be done, Mikasa swooped down below to the female Titan's feet, allowing herself to be bait as humanity's strongest and the last Bloodborn prepared to fight alongside each other for what must've been the first true time. They both nodded at each other, still in sync after all these years, as they held no need to even pass a word back and forth.
Levi spun one of his cutters back on itself, holding it the way he's always felt comfortable wielding them and Fury fixed her eyes upon the known weak spots that all Titans possess.
With a burst of speed, the female Titan threw her arm back towards the two fighters, causing Fury to lower herself and allow Levi to gain enough momentum to hack his way up her arm to which led him to her eyes as he pierced them both; leaving her blind yet again.
Both flipping backwards in the air, what soon followed was a flurry of quick burst attacks alongside each other. Levi slashing at the female Titan's arms, causing them to drop to her sides as the tendons that held her arms in place were picked apart. Whereas Fury focused her attacks at the Titan's legs, causing the beast to fall to the ground with a limp body.
"They're fast!" Mikasa called out, watching in an awe like manner as Fury and Levi continued to rein a flurry of attacks on the motionless beast. "She can't even react! Her skin can't harden in time!"
As Fury and Levi both retreated shortly to gaze upon what damage they've caused, the female Titan's body leaned forward slightly as her hand that was once covering her nape to protect it fell to her side.
"Her nape!" Fury called out, almost allowing her own reasons for wanting to kill this Titan take over. "Now's our chance!"
The woman pushed away from a tree in which she was hooked upon, diving down towards the nape.
"No, don't do it!" Levi called out to her, his eyes widening as he noticed the nape area of the Titan hardening in a crystal matter as her arm raised itself to slam Fury aside. In an almost panicked manner, Levi propelled after her, pushing her aside with his boot as his other foot came into a hard impact with the female Titan's hand, causing Levi to grit his teeth in pain as he felt his connecting muscles in his foot tear from the bone. With one final push from Levi himself, he tore his cutters through the jaws of the female Titan, which soon revealed Eren to be consumed in a cocoon like sack.
"Levi!" Fury called out in worry as she latched herself to a tree and watched on as Levi himself retrieved Eren from the gaping mouth, taking himself towards the two females ahead of him.
"Got him!" He called out, taking a knee on a nearby branch as he clutched his pained leg.
"Eren…" Mikasa muttered. Any anger she once harboured suddenly vanishing at seeing Eren safe. Now she really did remind Fury of herself the day she apparently threatened Erwin when he had Levi pinned down.
"He's alright…" Levi barked, glaring over at Fury who felt bad enough as it was for causing Levi to sustain an injury. "Disgusting, but alright."
"Are you okay?" Fury then asked, barely even caring about the matted boy Levi held in his arms.
"What did I say about trying to take her down?!" He scolded, causing Fury to go in on herself for she knew he was right. "Now come on! We have this brat, don't screw this up more by making it personal, you hear me?!"
"But… I just…" Keeping the boy by his side, Levi took off using the remaining gas in his canisters, having Mikasa hurriedly follow swiftly behind him, her eyes fixated on Eren, now leaving Fury to gaze over at the lifeless female Titan.
Oh she was far from dead but it wasn't the day to make it so. Fury just screwed up big time and her being back and clearly caused bitterness to grow for Levi. Yet, she found herself being relieved that he was still alive. He hadn't changed at all in her eyes, though why would he need too?
Right now, Fury needed to focus on the reality. And the reality of things is that she was back. Not only that, but if Erwin was still alive, she knew she was in for some serious interrogation.
