Part 66
Evolution
(Happy New Year, everyone! I hope your 2020 is well so far! And here's to latest chapter of the new year as well. I have big aims to reach this year for this fanfiction. With full confidence, I say this time next year, things should be coming to an end. Will Fury survive? Who knows! But you have all
given me so much support and positivity to keep writing her story.
We hit our milestone of over 10k views! It may be a small number to some big SnK fics out there, but for me, it definitely helped me maintain my muse.
Uploads will continue to be monthly, with the odd break here and there!
I hope you all continue to have a fantastic year, and please, don't be afraid to leave a review! I love reading what you all have to say or speculate.
-JaydeChan.)
"We did it!" Exclaimed Jean, raising his hands to proclaim his victory fanfare as they all focused on Reiner, who had almost been removed from the shell of his Titan due to the onslaught of Thunder Spears.
"Head blown right off! Huh… As if he was such a pain in the ass for us. Serves you right! Scum!"
Jean moved to look down at his friends, Conny and Sasha, in hopes they too would revel in his shared victory speech. That excitement soon deflated upon seeing both of his friends whimpering and sobbing. It angered Jean. For him, how could they still see Reiner as a friend to be cried over?
"What are you both wailing for?!" He would ask but with no reply.
"Don't think it's over just yet!" Interrupted Hange, barking her orders as she stood next to both Mikasa, Moblit and Fury. "Prepare the equipment!" She walked on, with Moblit following closely.
Mikasa moved her sight to Armin, who stared on at the seemingly lifeless Reiner. Fury keeping eyes on them.
"Armin...?" Mikasa spoke gently, placing her hand atop his shoulder, feeling his body shuddering.
"It's not like we were given the chance to negotiate…" Armin muttered. "And it's us dealing with such little information. We don't have what it takes to capture someone who can so easily turn into a Titan."
Everyone's thoughts became haltered. The shattering movement came from Reiner has his Titan raised its head, startling all as his jaw dropped to emit a deafening roar. Eren, in his Titan, was left dumbfounded as even those on the other side of the wall heard the echo of Reiner's call.
From afar, a single barrel was thrown by the Beast Titan. Containing Bertholdt, who was now coming to Reiner's aid.
"Everyone get away from him!" Hange ordered, each soldier going in their own direction to put distance between themselves and the ensuing danger. "The Colossal Titan is coming our way!"
Fury looked up, the barrel still mid-air, her teeth gritted. "Even at this distance, there's no way this can be avoided!"
Emerging from the barrel came Bertholdt himself, and instead of transforming, he anchored his ODM to a nearby structure. Seeing his comrade, his friend, unmoving and armour shattered by Thunder Spears had altered Bertholdt's plan to nuke the surrounding area.
All watched as Bertholdt landed on Reiner's Titan. All wondering what it was he was saying to him.
"I think our mission objective just came falling into our hands!" Fury barked out aloud. "The plan follows as this: Levi Squad is to protect Eren under Armin's command. The rest of us need to be on point to take down the targets. I can't offer much help using my Bloodborn abilities, not against those who remain in full control, but I'll-"
"Please wait!" Armin interrupted. "This is our final chance to negotiate!"
Before speaking against it, Armin moved towards Bertholdt, though remained at enough distance to keep himself safe should his words fail him. "Bertholdt!" He called out, to gain the threats attention. The rest behind him, including Eren, all wanted to know what was going through Armin's mind.
"Let's talk this over!"
"If I agree to talk, would you all agree to give up and accept death?!" Came the roar of Bertholdt's reply. "We only want two things! Eren and Fury, and the demise of humanity! That's the harsh truth of this reality, Armin! Your fates have already been decided!"
"Who has enough power to even decide that?!" Armin asked in a stunned aura.
And Bertholdt would answer him almost immediately. "I did! You all die right here this day!"
Armin winced. "Unfortunate… I was hoping I wouldn't have to hear Annie's screams anymore! The only one who can save her from the savages in the Military Police is you and no one else! At this rate, she'll end up as fodder for livestock!"
"Fine by me!" Bertholdt hissed, manoeuvring closer to Armin at this point, which prompted Mikasa to go to her friend. "Don't move. I thought you wanted to talk? Did you think the mention of Annie would make me lose my cool again? That since I'm the weak and timid Bertholdt, you could bring my guard down?"
Movement then came from Eren, who gained the stomp of Fury's boot upon his shoulder as she was currently clinging onto his Titan's hair. "Don't you dare, shithead." She hissed. "You've got little chances against the big guy. You're not fighting, not yet anyway."
Bertholdt then etched a step closer to Armin once again. "I know what you're doing. Just buying time, right? Letting your friends surround me. Distracting me whilst others go off to finish Reiner. You're shaking so much, that you can't do anything yourself."
"If you knew that much, why did you come to talk?"
Bertholdt stumbled himself into thinking of his answer. "I… wanted to know. To know whether, if I faced you guys, I'd start begging for forgiveness again. And yet… it seems like I'm fine now. You may have been comrades at once to me, but I've always intended on killing you."
"Why?!" Armin expressed with a withered facade. "Because… you all think we're devils? Because you think someone like Fury, a Bloodborn, is nothing but a stain to people?!"
"No. No one has done anything wrong. And no one is a devil or a stain either. But you all just have to die. That's how things need to be…"
The world slowed. Mikasa lifted herself with raised cutters behind Bertholdt, swift in swinging one towards him, though he was quick to parry. Her other blade in a hasted movement came for him, managing to slice the top of his ear off just as his head lowered from the ensuing swing.
His leg raised, kicking Mikasa away from him as she then stumbled back onto the rooftop. Bertholdt's eyes enraged, he raised his own cutter in Armin's direction, intent on killing, until Mikasa was then able to fling her cutter at him, knocking his own from his grasp. Without a weapon, Bertholdt anchored his escape with Mikasa then tugging back on Armin's jacket.
"Don't chase!" She practically begged. "There's no telling when he'll transform now. If we don't keep a reasonable distance, he'll gain what he wants from us dying to him."
"Maybe he won't just yet." Armin surmised. "Reiner's on the verge of death, so if he did, he'd be killing him too. Perhaps we can take Reiner has a hostage, and fight him with swords instead of powers."
"Seems like he has some sort of plan though." Mikasa would counter. "I… was that really Bertholdt just now…? He seems like a different person entirely."
Gasps were emitted. All watched in fear as Bertholdt boosted himself up into the air with the majority of the soldiers, including Hange and Moblit, near to Reiner's now recovering Titan. Panic set in, all still too close and to be caught up in the explosion as the shift occurred. The colossal giant falling from a steady height up, crashing hard onto its feet within the district, the wave of the explosion tearing down houses like they were nothing but paper cards.
Eren, only just being able to cover himself behind a distant building, with everybody clinging onto him as the explosion even reached them.
"Is everyone alive?!" Fury called out as the blast wave had passed them. She had come under so much sudden fear that her eyes had shifted to their bloodshot state, only this time, they were able to remain without her actually doing anything.
"Are you?!" Jean coughed, helping Conny and Sasha, who were dangling from Eren.
"… I'm alright." Fury breathed, her bloodshot gaze then peeking out in the direction of Bertholdt's summoned Colossal. Though she couldn't help but take a gander up to the top of the wall either, where she knew Erwin must have just witnessed everything.
"Mikasa! Armin!" Jean would then call out as the two approached the rest with Eren still thankfully in calm control of his own Titan. "You two okay?!"
"We're fine." Mikasa answered. "Where's Hange Squad?"
"Too close to Bertholdt…" Armin faintly surmised.
"Are you saying the only one's to survive are us here?" Sasha fretted as the thundering onslaught of Bertholdt's Colossal began. Buildings and homes crushing under his heavy step, his arms swiping at other things before him, leaving nothing but rubble and fire surrounding him.
"Armin." Fury called calmly. "What now? You want us to all stand here and wait for him to kill us too?"
"You're in command." Mikasa conveying what Fury should've said. "We follow you now."
"R-Retreat?" He suggested, though not fully confident if that was the answer he should have given. "Go to Erwin for new orders?"
"Hang on!" Jean hissed. "It'll be a disaster if we allow Bertholdt to get near the wall where everyone else is! If the houses in the inner district remain on fire, they'll all become sandwiched between said fire and the Beast Titan."
"So we all have no choice but to end Bertholdt from this side." Fury spoke out, frowning deeply, as all she truly cared for were wither stood on that wall, or were fighting beyond it. Not only that but she had Isaah tucked away in Sina.
"Hurry up with the orders, Armin!" Conny exclaimed, as the falling debris was hitting closer to them all.
However, with a threat so large, Armin faltered in his thoughts. He remained numb and speechless. Under this amount of pressure, he was unable to stand in as command and bark orders. But he knew if something wasn't planned soon, then blood will truly be upon his hands.
