Annie and Reiner burst through the door breathing heavily, shock shining in their eyes. Annie was the first one to move out of her stupor screaming out Elizabeth's name and embracing her tightly.
I stood frozen clearly not expecting this from someone like her. She was sobbing as she clung to me.
"Elizabeth." Reiner's voice came out hoarse and tight. "Elizabeth," he repeated, this time it was stronger and strained. His eyes were shut tightly and he was on his knees before me.
"I'm so sorry, Elizabeth!"
"We thought you were dead," Annie whispered.
"Clearly I'm alive," I winced. No going back now. "I just didn't think you two would care this much.
I didn't have to look up at Annie as she backed away bearing a hurt expression. I was so used to being smaller than everyone else. I misjudged the genetics I manufactured when I created Eliza. So looking down on Annie because of how short she is threw me off.
"Why would you think that? You were like my sister. It's only because of you my father…" she choked up. "He's safe because of you. Do you know what happened to Ido? Is he alive?"
I shook my head to her dismay.
"And you Reiner?" I turned to him. "Why are you sorry? You always hated me when we were kids."
He looked up to see my emotionless gaze. He paled and ducked down curling up into a quivering mess.
"I- I never meant—" a sudden dry heave escaped him. "I can still remember those titans," He confessed, his eyes wide and haunted, "We barely escaped. And and… when you didn't show up. M-marcel also abandoned us. I couldn't help but blame myself. It- it was because of me that, M-marcel. Those titans."
He threw his face up screeching through sobs as he threw himself to my feet. "I killed you and Ido! I'm so sorry!"
I wrenched my foot away from his grip then kicked his jaw with all the strength I could muster.
"Get ahold of yourself," I murmured threateningly.
Everyone looked at me shocked. I think somewhere buried in the back of my mind that I was even shocked at what I did.
"What happened to you?" Bertolt asked.
"After you guys left. Our titans were overwhelmed," I began crafting a lie. "My energy was exhausted and my shell was starting to weaken. Ido was the first one to fall by that first 4-metre that emerged. In order to survive, I had to crystallise myself. But my body was so exhausted. I sat motionless in that crystal aware of all the time that was passing by. Of course, I'm going to be different." I narrowed my eyes at them all.
Bertolt gulped at the story. Annie was impossible to decipher, her face was still sorrowful from finding out I was still alive. Reiner, well he was being Reiner. He used to be a lot more fun when we were children. But his dual personality would help him stay in character among the scouts.
"I'm so sorry you had to go through that." I waved Bertolt's apology away. I didn't need pity for a false story nor did I feel the need to play up the theatrics.
I looked out the window. We needed to change things up again. The Warhammer's appearance might have already changed some things despite not using its powers. But there would be questions when Eren and the other 1st contact scouts briefed the Commanders about a titan with a shell.
Trenches had already been dug up in front of the smashed gate to delay the titans that were trickling in but it had taken hours for them to do it. I would be able to use my titan inside the walls without anyone questioning why no one had seen it walk in through there. Annie's titan would also be useful.
Then there was Reiner. His armoured titan appeared out of nowhere the day Shiganshina fell. There shouldn't be any questions if he showed up once again today. They'll chalk it up to the craziness going on and the bizarre characteristics abnormals possess.
"Are you three still loyal to Me and the Mainland?"
All three nodded but I didn't know if I believed them. They did almost abandon their cause after all.
There's only one way to get them to prove it. Something whispered in my head.
"Good. Because I want you to kill as many military soldiers as this place has."
Reiner recoiled. "If that's what you want."
"The less land these people have the more desperate their leaders will get which means that their founder will be drawn out from hiding. It's the only weapon they have that stands a chance against all of these pure titans.
"Annie. I want you to ensure that these titans keep flowing in. You're going to go outside the walls and draw in as many as you can. When you've done that you're going to use your second transformation to lure them across the main wall so that these people won't have anywhere else to go other than the final wall.
"Reiner. I need you to break down the wall so that Annie can accomplish her final task. I've seen these people's weapons. They're all useless against your armour so you won't need to worry about them. After that, you're free to go back to your commander and await further orders.
"Bertolt. You will try and distract their troops. Sabotage their equipment if you can. We need to protect the pure titans. If they're gone they won't have any reason to flee."
"Sabotage their equipment? I hardly think that's necessary. Most of the scouts right now are recruits. Their most competent members left in the morning headed to a town outside the Quinta district."
Bertolt gulped as I shot him a fierce look.
"I didn't ask for your input, Bertolt. I gave you an order I expect you to follow."
He hung his head in defeat. No one else dared contradict me. But before they left to do as they were told, Annie gave me one last look.
"Annie," I called her back, letting Reiner leave instead.
She stopped at the door and awaited what I had to say like the good little soldier she was.
"Don't let them study the titans. We can't have them learn anything about us," I ordered.
She gave me a nod. "It's good to have you back, sister."
Armin waved goodbye to Mikasa. He had a bad feeling about this day. Then again, if you don't have a bad feeling about being sent out to face down the titans, humanity's greatest enemy then you could only be one of two things. Stupid or you're the angry angsty teenage Eren Yaeger.
His stomach flopped. Mikasa made him promise to look after Eren since he was going to be in his squad. She didn't want him to get into any trouble with his short temper. There was no way he was going to be able to keep that promise. All he could do was just pray their squad could stumble onto some massive luck.
Something was bugging him, however. Specifically, the disappearance of Eliza. She was nowhere to be found this morning and the only thing that Ymir could offer was that she had to do something important in Trost. Yet here they were, a couple of hours into the invasion and she remained missing.
"Come on, Armin, it's time to go," one of the girls in his squad cheerily said. It made Armin sick. How could one be so cheerful about this?
"R-right," he breathed out shakily.
This unit was assigned the outermost area of the district. They were to use the walls of Trost in order to make their way to the entrance of the district and focus their efforts on the choking point of the invasion. This would be an easier job for them since they would have multiple buildings in addition to the wall to use their ODM gear on.
The vanguard, the elite soldiers with the most skill to dispatch titans, were sent to the middle of the district where they would pick off the majority of titans before they could get to the area where most refugees were awaiting evacuations.
Armin and his unit were at the foot of the wall before he turned, needing to talk to Jean before they left. Eren didn't mind this brief detour and waited for his friend causing the rest of the group to wait as well.
"Jean. Have you heard anything about Eliza yet?"
Jean turned to Armin and scoffed. He was mildly amused that even when they were being sent out to their deaths, this little boy was still worried about a girl.
"Why do you care? Shouldn't you be more worried about keeping your angsty brat alive?"
"She's my friend too. We spent a lot of time together prior to joining the scouts. I just want to make sure she's okay. Ymir told me that the last time she saw her she was told that Eliza was going to… Trost," Armin looked at the walls separating them from the chaos with worry.
"Then you know as much as I do. I would tell you to ask Marco about where she is since he was awfully touchy about this subject when we were warned about the breach. But his group was already sent to their assigned region."
"Is something… wrong?" Armin noticed an edge to Jean's voice.
Jean recoiled. His face twisted and he tried so hard not to cry out but in the end, his fear gained the best of him.
"We were so close! Many of us already chose the regiments we were going to incorporate in. But now they rolled back their decisions. They're sending us out to die, man." Jean was descending into hysterics.
Armin didn't know what to do. He knew the fear Jean was experiencing. It was the same feeling that was causing him to doubt his resolve in joining the scouts alongside his friends. But Jean had a better survival rate than him. He would at least make a difference before dying. Armin? He might as well be the first one to die before he imposed the same fate on his friends out of his failure to be a fighter.
"Why did the titans have to break through today of all days? I was so close."
Armin leaned down to Jean's huddled body and offered a hand.
"Don't do this. You have a better chance at living than me at least." Jean looked up at him wide-eyed. "The only reason I even made it into the top 10 was because I'm smart. But you, you ranked #4 in the class. You're on par with Mikasa, Reiner, and Annie. You're smart enough to know what to do. Your fear tells you when to give up. And your skills make sure that you can defend yourself and everyone around you. You have more of a chance to live through this mess than I do."
Jean was surprised to see Armin's smile being interrupted by frightened quivers.
"No." Armin jumped as Jean accepted Armin's hand. "Don't ever say this to your friend, if you do I'll deny it. But, between the three of you… you can accomplish great things. Your intelligence is too great to lose and it can guide Mikasa's prowess and keep that fool of yours' bravado in check and useful.
"I'll keep an eye out for Eliza. And when she shows up I'll make sure that she'll be safe to the best of my ability."
There was an understanding between the two of them now. Armin and Jean stood hand in hand with firm grips cradling a fierceness in their eyes.
Armin returned to Eren's side and their unit finally began their trek to the entrance of Trost by scaling up the walls. Their journey would be aided by 3 horses that had been elevated onto the walls. There was no way they would be able to get there on foot fast enough to do their job and they needed to save their ODM fuel in order to use it to dispatch the titans.
6 people were in their unit and there were 3 horses. Armin and Eren shared one. Thomas Wagner and Nac Tias were on another. And the ones riding the last one were Mylius and Mina, two cadets that were nervously talking to keep their minds off of the situation.
Along the way, the group ended up spotting a few abnormals trying to climb the base of the wall instead of entering through the easy route like the rest of the normal titans. But other than that, there were no incidents.
"How many do you think died?" Eren questioned his friend.
Armin looked at the devastated state the district was in. Titans roamed the streets destroying everything in sight if it meant that they could get to their prey.
There had to be hundreds of victims that suffered the fate of devourment. But looking at the swarm of survivors that were gathering at the inner entrance of the district, Armin knew that the casualties could result in the entire population of the district being lost if the Armoured decided to appear right now.
"This is it," Armin announced.
The unit dismounted and tied their horses to the ropes of the wall. Titans kept coming through the breach. Some fell into the trenches dug to slow them down. Others walked over their trapped brethren using them as bridges into the city.
This bottleneck would serve in favour of the scouts. However, they were terrified save for Eren who was radiating fury. This might spell disaster for their operation as emotions can blind people.
"We got this," Eren reassured them before jumping off. "Mina, Thomas, with me. Armin, you got the other side with the others."
"Eren wait!" Armin tried to grab his friend but missed and watched as he jumped off to the outside of Trost.
He breathed in deep, building his composure. Nic and Mylius both glanced at him and nodded. They were going to dispatch the titans trapped in the trenches. They are the easiest to dispose of and would free up space to trap more titans in.
Mylius was the first to acquire his first Titan kill. Armin hooked his anchors into a Titan and propelled himself towards the nape, slicing it with his swords. He was the second one to confirm a kill.
Armin floated up into the air a bit more confident than when he started and anchored onto another Titan. This time however was different. The Titan turned around upon feeling the attack and snapped his jaws inches away from Armin's feet.
He unhooked from the Titan immediately and soared uncontrollably into the base of the wall.
Gasping, trying to recover his breath, Armin noticed a metallic gleam on the ground. It was a knife he noticed as he picked it up. It looked familiar as well but he couldn't think straight from the impact he took.
All of a sudden, Eren's group came in yelling like maniacs save for Armin's friend.
"Run! There's too many! We got swarmed!" Mina cried.
"No! Hold the line. I got this son of a bitch," Eren roared.
Mina shook her head at Armin. "He's crazy, he still hasn't even gotten his first kill. Come on, we need to get out of here," Mina squealed in horror as Eren was knocked several yards away from the gate and was followed up by titans spilling through moving erratically.
Armin sat there watching, terrified of the creatures as they bounded toward the buildings in search of the cadets that were making noise.
"Armin! What are you doing there! Get up, man." The order came from Thomas. But Armin was too stunned to even hear the warning. He couldn't even see that a Titan took an interest in him.
The Titan calmly swayed side to side as he made his way towards him. Thomas knew that Armin was in no condition to escape, however, instead of running away, he attempted to dispatch the enemy.
Thomas flew by the nape, scraping the tips of his swords across the skin and failing to cut out its life. The bearded Titan wasn't even bothered by the attempt on its life.
Thomas tried again. He hooked onto the front shoulders of the giant, planning to swing around in an arc to reach the nape again. This time he would be close enough to rip it out with the circular momentum.
Armin noticed the mistake first. His eyes flew wide and he reached out trying to produce the warning before tragedy struck. Mina and the others watched the first casualty in their cadet corps as well. Mina howled, Eren hollered in anger, and Mylius dropped his weapons.
Thomas came in too close to the Titan's face. All the Bearded Titan had to do was snap his jaws forward.
Giant teeth closed shut immediately lopping off part of Thomas' head from the side. A few lucky fingers avoided the inside of the Titan's mouth along with the left foot which flew along with Thomas' face.
The group watched in horror as the face donned a horrified expression. Its lips still quivered.
With that sudden nutrition, the Titan was motivated to burst into a sprint.
"No no no," Mina repeated the same words over and over in shock. Not thinking about anything else, she escaped, deciding to climb the wall and leave her friends behind. The jokes and light atmosphere from a while ago had been ruined by this dark reality.
Armin was finally on the move. He fumbled with his gear trying to get into the air like his comrades. Click! Click! Only to realise that it jammed — probably from the collision with the wall.
The light from the sun faded from his skin and he looked up in horror to see that the bearded titan was already at his feet. It leaned forward with an enthusiastic grin stretching out its fingers toward him.
"NO! ARMIN!" Eren screamed.
Armin fell limp as he was picked up from the neck of his shirt. His breathing elevated and he stopped thinking clearly.
Eren shot out his cables onto the Titan's nose and cheek as Armin was dropped onto its tongue. Air hissed as Eren jettisoned himself toward his friend.
"Armin! Don't give up," he ordered.
Everything happened in a single second. Eren managed to kick his friend out of the deadly jaws. The Titan bit down, snapping someone's arm. Mylius and Nic faced off against their own attackers.
Eren was trapped in a flesh cage. He was bleeding out and missing his arm. He didn't have the strength to deny the opening jaws from closing up again, but he wasn't ready to give up.
"Armin. Do you remember that book we used to read as little kids? The lakes of salt, sand, and fire it talked about? The frozen hills that reached up to the moon?" Eren grunted through the building pressure of the Titan's jaw.
All Armin could do was stare up at his doomed friend. His mind was spinning berating himself for the weakness he posed on his friends. It should be him up there in Eren's place, he thought to himself.
"We're going to see that one day. I promise you. We will be free and we will be able to visit all of those places just like your parents wanted to do."
"EREN!" Armin poured out his soul as his face was splattered with the blood of his friend.
"Nac! Get Armin out of here! I got you guys covered!" Mylius barked the order.
Nac could hear the fear and uncertainty in his friend's voice. But whether or not he would admit it, he knew that he followed that order because he wanted to live. He jumped at the opportunity to be the one to survive. But at least his atonement would be the rescue of a fellow comrade.
Hours earlier
"I don't like this," Ymir murmured.
She was set in Mikasa's group and they were already being deployed. Ymir at least wanted to stay until Eliza returned so that she could know if she was alright but it didn't seem like that was going to happen. Mikasa was just as thrilled as Ymir too about being sent out.
"Where are you going?" Ymir glared at Mikasa; she had seen Ymir trying to shuffle away quietly.
"I can't leave. Not yet. I need to know that Eliza's alright. And she hasn't come back."
"Honestly, I forgot how close you are to her," Mikasa confessed. "You've been spending a lot of time with Krista."
The tone was almost accusatory. Ymir continued her glaring. She didn't know anything about the orders she's been given. It didn't matter how much time she spent with the girl. Her heart belonged to Eliza.
Krista was nothing more than a friend. Ymir knew about the feelings she was harbouring and it made her increasingly uncomfortable.
"So what's your point?"
"My point is to let it go. Help me instead protect Eren in the meantime."
"No," Ymir shook her head. "I'm not helping you with your problem child when I have my own."
"Problem what? You promised. Remember our deal," Mikasa reminded her.
"What good is that deal if I trade Eliza's safety for Eren's?"
Mikasa suddenly unsheathed her blades, startling everyone in the area and turning their attention to the two girls. However, Ymir stood unflinchingly at the show.
"You want to look for Eliza? Fine. But how are you going to find her? Do you know where to start looking? Are you going to be able alone?"
Ymir flexed her fists. Sure she could wade through titans all by herself. But she can't transform. Eliza told her not to and if she did she would become a target to the scouts. Even to Mikasa.
"As long as Eliza wasn't anywhere near the district's entrance she'll be fine."
"I can't promise that," Ymir muttered under her breath.
"Come on. Think it through while we do our mission."
A/N I'm so sorry for disappearing on you guys for like a month? Maybe a little more. But things have been crazy. This chapter was also going to be a lot longer but I decided to cut it just so I can squeeze out an update. I'm losing steam. I've found that it's best to update when new episodes of AoT are coming out because that's when more people are reading fanfiction. But I'm not sure if I can keep up. Especially since I'm already working on a new fanfiction as well. I don't know why I'm doing that though since I won't be able to post it until I finish this story first.