Part 58
Desperate Measures
"Shit!" Levi thought to himself, as he led his squad through the crystal cave; further progressing towards the falling debris of Rod's shifting Titan, in order to retrieve Eren and Historia. Conny and Jean held on to the injured Hanji. "Has to be a way around all this crap… If we had some gunpowder left… Fuck, I don't know. Even the explosion from that could make this cave fall on top of us all. And waiting for us on the other side is no doubt to be Kenny and what's left of his squad."
Another wave of raw power swept through the caverns, immense lightning appearing down the narrow halls. "Eren!" Mikasa called out, which only earned her a distained look from Fury as they all clung to walls; hoping to avoid being caught up in the blistering mess.
"Levi, this place is going to collapse!" Fury called out, her hair sweeping across her face as her hues were widened.
"Wait, Captain! Up there!" Armin informed, pointing at a newly made exit from the crumbling crystal around them.
Levi nodded his head, standing up from being knelt and facing his desperate squad. "Get Hanji to the surface, now!" He ordered. "Get the hell out of here!"
"What about you?!" Fury barked back.
Mikasa would then interrupt. "I'm not leaving without Eren!"
"Forget it! Historia!" Cried Eren from within the next chamber as the blonde behind him and continued to work on unchaining him, despite her father's Titan progressively beginning to destroy everything around them. "Since your father is a Reiss, just let him eat me!"
"Hell no!" Historia barked, trying yet another key on the chain that held many of them. "I'm your ally! I can't be the good girl anymore. And I don't want to be a God either. But… when I see people breaking around me, saying they're not good enough to live in this world, I wanna tell them all that it's not true! No matter what, I want to help them all!"
As the key clicked, opening another of Eren's lock, Rod's Titan emitted another gust of steam. Historia not being able to keep a hold of Eren, was caught within it, threatening to slam her into the crystal wall behind her.
"Historia!" Eren cried out, his eyes widening to see that Mikasa was embracing the young girl, preventing her body from contacting the wall. Levi also anchoring behind Eren, who was now pulling on the last of his chains, Fury also joining the two of them
"You okay?!" Fury called out to Historia, kneeling down beside her, though still having to shout their words due to the deafening steam whirling around them.
"Fury!" Historia responded with clear relief.
"Forget about me! Captain, don't take the risk!" Eren begged as Mikasa had thrown the keys to Levi himself, who began working an opening the final lock.
"Eren, stop being a damn princess for one minute!" Fury called over to the boy, which seemed to halter his cries of despair.
"He's loose!" Levi informed, pulling both himself and Eren towards where Mikasa and Historia were huddled against the wall. Yet in front of them was nothing but the growth of a Titan of gigantic proportions.
"That's gotta be bigger than the Colossal…" Mikasa muttered as they all watched on.
"Get further back!" Fury called out, her eyes noticing the debris above them threatening to fall on to them all.
"Now there's no way out!" Historia cried, as she clutched her arms around Mikasa. Fury herself looked over to Levi, and he back at her. No words needed to be said between them for them to both understand that they could die at this moment.
"Should I… Transform?" Eren thought to himself, though his façade still showed his hopelessness and doubt. "No… There's no way my Titan could withstand all of this debris." His topless body then collapsed to the ledge they all stood upon, tears falling violently from his eyes. "Everyone… I'm so sorry. I've been nothing but useless to you all. I see that now. How can someone as weak as me be of any hope to humanity?"
"So what do you want us to do? Sit here and do nothing?" Historia asked Eren. But he couldn't bear to look at any of them. His gaze shifted slightly as his watery hues spotted a small bottle of blue liquid. Though his focus upon it was soon removed when out of all of them, it was Fury who then knelt down next to Eren as she placed her hand atop his shoulder.
"I know I've done nothing but belittle you since we met…" She began. Seeing him look so broken, not even she liked seeing someone in such a state. "But you're stronger than you think. Stronger than me. I can't control something that big. Even if he hasn't got full control of that Ogre, I don't think I'd be able to make it budge at all. You need to start believing in yourself. You as your own person might not be special, but your abilities are. So why are you letting doubt hold you back, shithead?"
Eren widened his eyes. Not only was this the first time for Fury to speak to him with little no aggression, but he could see that even she was putting some of her hope into him.
"I know we keep doing this to you, Eren." Levi muttered, though his own gaze was fixed in front of him. "But it's you who needs to make the choice."
Gritting his teeth, Eren grabbed the container of blue liquid next to him and began to sprint forward. Shoving the glass into his mouth, his teeth crunching down onto the material, shattering into glass fragments as his tongue consumed the liquid flowing out of it. A spark of lightning now appearing before them all, Eren began to shift into his Titan. But this was a new shift. Growths of crystal vines began to grow outward from his Titan. It was becoming the pillar to creating a fresh layer of crystal within the cave, to halter the debris. Crystallising anything that had fallen from the surface. Levi and the rest took their cover under Eren's Titan as it roared its frustration. More crystal vines growing around him to make a shield of sort whilst Rod's Titan then rose out and onto the surface. It began to destroy everything around its vicinity from the moulting steam emitted from its fleshly body. The mass of it only being able to begin dragging itself towards the walls.
"Eren!" Mikasa called out, slamming her cutter around the growth of crystal around Eren's nape. "Eren!" Her own frustration was then able to break the crystal away, in turn, it then released Eren from the nape of his Titan. His breathing was unsteady as he then laid within the arms of Mikasa herself.
"So this is what Hanji calls Hardening." Levi huffed, wiping away the blood of a small cut he had obtained on his arm. "Even after getting out, the new crystal is still standing strong. Damn impressive…"
"The… container…" Eren realised, sitting up. "The label on the glass read 'armour'. Consuming it, and already being a Titan, must have given me the Hardening ability."
"The construction you've made is quite shit…" Levi continued. "But I'm betting this was how the walls were built too. So in other words… If I was a betting man, I'm guessing we might be able to plug up the hole in Wall Maria now. A lot of us died on the way to get you back. But for as fucked up as this has all been, look at the position we're in now."
Eren, thus far, could only nod in agreement. "Reclaiming Wall Maria might also get me closer to the basement too. But… I still can't believe that my own father… was a Titan."
Fury then wanted to interrupt his thoughts. "To be honest, I thought you sitting around and crying like a toddler was going to get us all killed. You looked like some snotty-nosed kid that was sitting in its own shit for too long. Proved my judgment wrong, Eren."
"Was that supposed to be some sort of an apology for the way you speak to him?" Mikasa hissed. However, Fury could only shrug her shoulders. Outright saying she was sorry was a rare thing for anybody to hear from.
"Best I can do, I'm afraid."
"I'm worried how much my father has destroyed on the surface." Historia spoke. "He must be heading towards the walls, but on the way there, aren't there some villages with people still living in them?"
"Shit… Isaah!" Fury thought, clutching her head.
"Now what's wrong with you?" Levi asked as he was sorting out his ODM gear.
"The village. Where we were all held up to avoid the MP's. I have to go there." Levi said nothing in return. His head tilted slightly. "The kid… Isaah. I just need to see if he's managed to get away from this mess."
"A kid?" Eren stuttered, slowly getting to his feet.
"There's no time!" Mikasa barked, holding onto Eren still herself.
"She's right, Fury." Levi spoke in a calm manner. And just as Fury was about to retaliate, he continued to speak. "So you go. You're more than capable. The rest of us need to go and stop this big-ass Titan. But if you find him, don't bring him straight back to the walls. Come back here with the brat. I'll rendezvous with you. If I don't, simplest way of putting it is that we couldn't stop that Turkey."
Fury nodded. Her gratitude was obvious through her body language. Before she used her ODM to exit through the gaping hole above them, where dawn could be seen rising, she halted just next to Levi. Shoulder to shoulder, as they were more or less the same height.
"… Thank you." She then whispered to him. Her anchors then attaching to nearby crystal to pull her up and out of the cave.
And a part of Levi wanted to look back and watch her go, just as he did when she left for 4 years. But he had a duty to withhold. And his dirty squad around him needed their orders. They would need to meet up with the others and then make their way back to the walls to fight off the Titan that now threatened to destroy everything.
