Part 83
The Promise Kept

"He's here." Levi grimaced. The ground rumbled beneath both Fury's and his feet as they tucked away behind an enormous pile of rubble to avoid being seen.

Towering past them was Zeke, in his Beast Titan, silencing the fighting momentarily as his presence held respect from the Marleyan military. It gave time for the Jaws Titan to begin its healing, along with the Cart Titan, mounted with turrets, to appear upon the battlefield. Other Scouts in the area then focused their single attention to Zeke, and would start their best efforts to reach his nape whilst he began to fling his Titan's arms around in the process to keep the pursuers at bay.

Leaping out from the rubble, Fury anchored her new 3DMG to another nearby building to help her fellow comrades, leaving Levi staring solemnly at his pocket watch. His attention was soon pulled at the alarming noise of the rapid rattle that then came from the turrets atop the Cart Titan. Felling a handful of Scouts in the process and almost giving the same fate to Jean, had Fury then not been able to swiftly pull him out of the firing line, to which he thanked her for.

Gritting his teeth, Jean then threw a Thunder Spear the Cart Titan's way, only to have the Jaw Titan intercept it and throw it aside.

"Porco. You saved me." The Cart Titan spoke as the namesake had his Jaws Titan settle beside the Cart.

"Same can't be said for our Warhammer." He replied, peering out from the back of his Titan's nape. Muscle tissue connected to his face which held control over his Titan's movements.

The Cart would then growl. "These Eldian's use special equipment that uses Gas in order to function. With the lack of them now among us, I'd say they have had to hide in order to refresh their supplies. In the meantime, that has given our Military time to surround this zone. They don't have the power to withstand all of us now."

"Precisely," Zeke would hum. Clenching rubble in the palms of his Beast's hands, the sudden visual of Fury with Jean caught his attention. "Ah. The Bloodborn. You don't have much time left though, right Levi?"

A violent gust of air then trickled past everyone. In the far distance, out at sea, a bright orange glow began to emit and grow in intensity, causing most to cover their eyes from the searing brightness and disorientation it caused. It soon began to fade, and standing among the devastation of the destruction the summoning caused, was Armin in his Colossal Titan. Who himself had just dealt with the ships nearby who were ready to send hell everyone's way with their mounted guns that were aboard.

"Bertholdt's Titan… Was taken?" The Cart asked aloud, causing Porco to re-enter into the nape of his Jaw Titan.

With the distraction caused, Zeke then released the rubble within his palms, which scattered out before him, and with the intention of it reaching Jean and Fury. "Squad Leader!" Jean cracked. Fury gasped as the pellets of rubble rippled towards them both. He swiftly grabbed her by the waist and pulled them both into a nearby window, only just managing to avoid the assault by Zeke. Though both of them taking some form of injury in the rushed process.

Meanwhile, Levi witnessed this, and his eyes widened upon believing he just saw Jean and Fury, among other comrades, perish by Zeke's onslaught. Which wasn't part of the plan…
Hissing, he withdrew his Cutters and acted on instinct, but a strange part of him in his chest also began to emit a hum of pain, thinking he saw his oldest friend just perish to his greatest enemy. And while both the Cart and the Jaw's were distracted and focused on not only Armin but also the still nearby Eren in his own Titan form, Levi was able to hastily, and painfully, take his weapons across the nape of Zeke's Beast Titan. Shocking his allies upon noticing his hard fall to the ground, where Levi then continued with unpinning a grenade and leaving it there atop Zeke's nape to explode. All witnessed by two children who idolised Zeke as their hero, and now inciting their own want of revenge on their attackers.

The deafening rattle of the Cart's mounted weaponry also fell silent. Sasha, with her expert shooting skills, was able to land a bullet to the men inside the turrets, ceasing their fire upon her comrades. A barrage of Scouts then appeared from the cover they used from Zeke's attack, and threw their Thunder Spears the Cart Titan's way. Their explosions and damaging impact caused the Titan to fall off the building in a blaze of fire and blood, landing in front of the two children who were witnessing this massacre.

"Pieck!" The young girl cried out in a blood curdling echo.

Fury then emerged on the building, along with both Jean and Sasha, who supported her as she had gained injury from Zeke's pellets to her torso, causing some of her blood to absorb into her uniform. "We have to end it…" She would cough and earn gritted teeth from Jean, as a young boy looked up to them with his arms spread out in an attempt to beg them not to kill the Cart Titan. Sasha herself, holding her gun, lowering it and no longer aiming it their way out of pity for them. Though the three of them halted in what needed to be done, Scouts nearby did not, and began hurtling their way towards them with killing intent.

One bullet suddenly tore through one of them. Jean noticed that a soldier with the children was still willing to try and protect the Cart. "Fall back!" He ordered aloud, not wanting to risk another death.

Above them hovered an air blimp, which had been guided in through the lighting which was placed by Sasha and Conny. Conny then came over to them along with Isaah, noticing the injuries upon Jean and Fury. "Ay - Squad Leader!" He would cry out. Rushing over to Fury to bring her arm up over his head and rest along his shoulders so she could lean better.

"I'm alright, shithead…" Fury would cough again. A small trickle of blood running out of her mouth and down the side of her chin. "We need… to get up to the blimp." She would then order. "We're done here. Mikasa can bring Eren to us at this point."

"But what about the Cart Titan? And the Jaw's?" Conny would ask. "That thing healed pretty quick after Eren shattered it to use it to obtain the Warhammer."

"Conny..." Fury pleaded, though silently through her pained expression. And he saw this. Sighing, he would agree losing more of his comrades' lives was not worth it right now. Levi dealt with Zeke, and that's all that mattered. Fury then looked up at the blimp which was now hovering directly above them all. "Armin and Hange should be up there still. Let's go."

"You heard the Squad Leader!" Jean called out. "Let's go!" Despite his own injury, Jean himself then also helped Isaah in bringing Fury up to the blimp above them. Aboard was already the likes of Floch, with Armin and Hange still at the front.

Whilst situating Fury onto a nearby seat so that she could rest, with Floch and Isaah having her alter her uniform so that Isaah could tend to her wound at the side of her torso, Jean peered his head out of the Blimp just as Conny helped Sasha up and into it with relief of his own.
Eyes widened upon the sudden appearance of Reiner in his Armoured Titan, who had been begged to be called upon by nearby screaming children to save them.

Eren, also still being down there in his Titan, now stood face to face with Reiner too, noticing how weak he still was after his earlier expression of wanting Eren to kill him before the death of Willy. He didn't wait around. And Eren charged towards Reiner, grabbing his face and pushed him back into a nearby building. Towering over him, Eren then began to repeatedly punch Reiner in the face with his crystallised fists until there was nothing left that would be recognisable. The Armoured Titan was just simply not fighting back.

Eren, in his human form, then rose from the nape of his Titan, staring down at the beaten Reiner as Mikasa landed next to him. "We're both the same, Reiner." Eren would monologue. "I can't kill you. And you can't kill me. Or maybe I can't kill you right now because I'm all out of energy and can't shift anymore. Either way, do you understand how I felt now? The day you broke those walls and caused my mother to be eaten? The pain, the revenge I wanted… Everything seems so pointless, with the things I have to do now."

Mikasa placed her hand upon Eren's shoulder. "Let's go home." He nodded, allowing her to carry him up to the blimp also, leaving Reiner to watch the retreat. His Titan body wanted to get back up and react, but the lack of will to do so caused Reiner to remain there, defeated.

"You look like you've just come out of a pile of shit." Levi addressed as Armin, with a disdained view, helped Eren and Mikasa aboard the blimp as it would now turn and begin its way back to Paradis. With him was a limbless Zeke, along with a towering soldier stood by him. Levi himself was yet to learn that Fury and the others were safe in the blimp compartment behind him. Levi then grabbed Eren by his shirt and slammed him into the metal framing, causing him to then slouch to the floor. Mikasa tried to react, and yet, Armin stopped her. Both knowing that Eren forced this night to happen. And had caused so many unneeded deaths too. "It's been about 2 years, Eren. You remind me of the filth I used to deal with down in the Underground."

"I don't mind…" Eren huffed. His attitude almost caused Levi himself to slip.

"Either way," Levi sighed with aggravation, and a pain to his chest he was trying to hide, in thinking Zeke had killed the likes of Jean and Fury. "The plan was a success. We have both of you here. And the threat from Marley in regards to Willy has been dealt with. But did you plan for your own comrades to die this day, Eren?"

In the compartment next to them, cheering was then heard as the likes of Floch exhilarated the scouts aboard with a speech of succeeding. Conny wrapped his arms around both Jean and Sasha, smiling widely and glad they were both still alive.
Isaah sat with Fury, making sure her wound was securely bandaged, and she even gave a smile to him. A smile of pride in how far he's come, though silently more relieved that he was also alive.

A nice breeze trickled through her hair, as the blimps door still remained wide open, welcoming in more surviving Scouts here and there. Her eyes then peered over to it, noticing a smaller figure climbing aboard; her heart hoping it was Levi, only for them to widen upon seeing a small female child aiming a long-barrelled rifle towards a crowd of her comrades.
The trigger was pulled. Everything fell silent as one single body plummeted to the floor with a hole in their chest. Blood quickly painted the foundation beneath them.

"Sasha!" Conny cried out.

The young girl swiftly reloaded her weaponry, intent on firing again. Only this time, her own eyes landed over onto the wounded Fury. A part of her wanting to finish what one of her allies had caused the woman to obtain.

"No!" Isaah echoed, literally pulling Fury off of her chair and throwing her to the ground just as the trigger pulled a second time. Fury stared up at Isaah, who managed to momentarily stay up on his own two feet, as Floch and a crowd of other Scouts then hustled over to the girl, surrounding her and ripping the rifle away from her as the boy in which Jean remembered trying to protect the Cart Titan earlier then also climbed aboard. Wanting to protect his friend, he pushed past the Scouts, who were now severely beating them both.

Isaah's own body then fell to the wooden flooring. Fury, stunned, could only watch as it did so. The cries next to her from Conny asking Sasha to hold on, and Jean calling someone over with medical knowledge to deal with her bullet wound. Grimacing from all points of pain, Fury, still silent, dragged herself over to Isaah, who was face down.

"Shithead..?" Fury softly called out. No answer. She asked again. Nothing. Her hand hovered over his body, shaking as it then landed on him to then swiftly turn him over and onto his back. His head resting on her lap as the bullet wound was in the same place as Sasha's. "Shut up!" Fury then cried out with its aim at everyone in a current state of panic. The bustling and violent noise surrounding her became overbearing as Floch then dragged the beaten children behind him. "Isaah?" She then softly asked again.

The boy opened one eye, still able to even crack a small smile as Fury stroked his hair to offer comfort. "Told you…" He coughed. "I promised to… keep you safe."

"Stop it." Fury muttered. "You're gonna be alright." And a part of her even believed that as the medic that attended Sasha then hurried over to Isaah. Noting at how much blood had already been lost from him.

"Say the word, Squad Leader, and I'll throw these brats off this blimp to their own deaths!" Floch barked, holding both of them by the hair as they wriggled.

"Don't you think there's been enough death here tonight?!" Jean argued, as Conny stood to enter the other room to inform the likes of Mikasa and Armin of the situation.

"How did they get up here?" Fury calmly asked, though her eyes remained fixated on Isaah as his own were closed, but soft breathing was still there.

"Might have been from Lobov's ODM…" Jean informed. "He's the only one who isn't back yet."

Fury, though finding it difficult, looked over at the two children. Her eyes narrowed when landing upon the young girl. And yet couldn't bring herself to order punishment. She was tired. Tired of all the fighting and all the deaths surrounding her. Fury suddenly grasped at her head. "Your fault!" She heard an echoed voice yell at her. Now wasn't the time for her demons to get involved. "Take them both to Hange. She can deal with them…"

Floch nodded, as he began to drag both with him. Along the way, and pushing past him, ran in Mikasa and Armin, who knelt near to Sasha. Both holding a hand each as she clung to her life. The view of such emotion causing Floch to halter momentarily to somewhat force both of the kids to see what they had just caused.

"Isaah too?!" Armin spoke, looking over Fury's way, but the only answer was silence. Until the sobbing from Mikasa grew louder upon feeling the limp relaxation of Sasha's body. She died. And Mikasa, who Sasha was a best friend to, cried into the palms of her own hands from the grief she now harboured.

"Did I let you down…?" Isaah asked Fury with crackles to his voice.

Fury cleared her throat. Shaking her head swiftly to remove her hair from her face. "Stop being stupid…" The boy smiled. It was the best answer he was gonna get, even now, in regards to it being a yes or a no. But his fear began to arise as the people around him became more distant to hear and no longer could he see Fury so clearly.

"Aya?" He called out. The medic next to him shaking their head in regards to his wound being too deep to stop the bleeding without proper surgery. "Where are you all?!"

Her bottom lip trembled as Fury lifted Isaah closer to her, kissing his head and trying to give him comfort. "I'm so sorry…" She would whisper to him, even now, just like with Isabel and Farlan, fighting back the tears and yet so full of grief and pain. "Please don't leave me all alone…" Fury went on to silently beg. But his body fell limp. The life left him and the blood seemingly stopped leaving his wound as his heart no longer beat in order to have it exit. "No... No, Isaah, stop it!" She cried out, cradling him tightly. And her tears now fell. She didn't care anymore. If people saw her weak or not. Kenny's imprinted morals were the last thing she wanted to maintain right now. "Please!" Fury called out as her emotional state caused her eyes to become bloodshot. A warning to everyone what was happening. But before anyone could calm her, everyone apart from Armin and Mikasa fell to their knees in pain.

Bodies twitching as the muscular essences were being unwillingly controlled by Fury from her emotional state. "Squad Leader!" Armin called out, and yet a part of him couldn't fight too much from his own grief.

Mikasa's call came next. "Fury!" Though the cry of pain coming from Jean had her eyes land over on him out of fear and worry.

"This needs to stop happening!" Fury cried out, rocking back and forth with Isaah's lifeless body in her arms. "I don't care anymore. I don't care!" The cries of pain worsened from everyone.

The nearby door flung open and Levi entered the room, seeing the situation for himself, as even the people with him like Hange had been affected by this. His eyes locked onto Fury. Pushing people aside, swiftly, he was there beside her. And from seeing the death of Isaah, now understood why this was happening. "Oi!" He called out. "Will you stop it already?!" It was a relief for both of them, now gaining clarification that they were alive and Fury herself took in a fresh breath of air upon seeing Levi; however, her clinging to Isaah continued.

"Look at what Eren has done!" She sobbed aloud to Levi, who frantically looked around to everyone in pain.

"I know…" He acknowledged. His hand landed gently atop of her own. And even though her shoulders still shuddered from sobbing, everyone began to move of their own free will again. "I know." He would repeat..

"Isabel. Farlan. Hexis. Erwin. Now Isaah. Who's next? You?!" Fury directed at Levi. But he could not give her an answer. For giving his honest truth now wasn't the time. The Captain also took a quick glance over at the lifeless Sasha, and sighed. Then hearing the confused and weakened noises from the two children Floch had by him. What a mess… "I've let them all down… I've let everyone down…"

Fury then nestled her face into the clothed chest of Isaah. His uniform absorbed her tears, just as her own absorbed the blood she had from her own wound. Regret began to swallow her. And confusion. She didn't understand why he was so willing to take that bullet meant for her. The selfless act was pure, even in a time with all the fighting. He always preached that there was good in people. And so did Hexis. But Fury was only now seeing that it seemed to be that death was only capable of proving that. And more deaths was something she could no longer mentally take.
Questioning herself. Such as should she have ever allowed Isaah to join the Scouts? Should she have just not cared about anyone in that village the day Rod Reiss's Titan destroyed it? Should she just not care at all?

With her tears, Fury only proved to herself that she did care, and now that care has to bury another person she loved to rest.

/ songs that helped with this chapter :

Searching - MitiS
Found - MitiS
Bloom-MitiS