Hello again,
Some people were understandably upset with what happened to Nanaba last time. Just wait for the story to progress and for things to develop further before forming an opinion on the manner. I planned all this out, just gotta wait to see if it pays off. I didn't have Percy spend all that one-on-one time with Nanaba for nothing, after all…
The following chapter won't be from Percy's perspective. It's been a minute since I wrote a scene from a different character's POV, and have yet to dedicate an entire chapter to a different character so far yet. Hopefully, the change in POV freshens things up a little. Plus, I think reading what other characters think of Percy could be fun (if done in moderation).
Lastly, a small trigger warning for those who've faced abuse. If you're already aware of Nanaba's final moments, you know what I'm talking about.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, HOO, or AOT and I'm not profiting off anything.
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Author's note
Narration
Thoughts and Internal Conversations
"Speaking, duh"
Chapter 16: Historia
17 hours after the initial Titan Spotting
Utgard Castle
Christa's POV:
Percy steps up onto the stone wall that rims the roof's edge, standing between Gelgar and Nanaba as if preparing to jump down with them.
He can't be serious… can he?
"Percy, what are you—"
The tower violently shakes, interrupting Nanaba.
"I'm helping," Percy simply answers, eyes focused on the titan horde down below.
"Don't be crazy. You don't have ODM gear." Gelgar refutes.
"I don't need it."
"You'll be grounded, good as dead weight. Be realistic!" Nanaba argues.
"Any titan I can keep busy is one less you two have to worry about. Besides…" Percy turns to Nanaba. "You don't have to worry about me. I'm like Superman, remember?"
'No, just stay here with us,' I want to shout. Instead, I trust Nanaba to convince him.
But to my horror, she relents, turning her attention back to the horde.
"Fine then." She nods. "Let's do this."
"Percy!" I blurt out. "You can't seriously be thinking of going down there!"
"I can't sit back and watch," Percy replies.
"If I have the power to act," he continues, "then it's my responsibility to do so, right?"
No. You don't need to be a hero.
"Maybe so… but, it's suicide without ODM gear!"
Percy, you don't owe anyone anything.
"Don't worry. I've jumped into worse hellholes than this." He smirks.
Please… just stay.
"Besides… didn't you hear?"
He reaches his right hand out towards us, clenching it into a sideways fist. His thumb pops out—the most appalling thumbs up I've ever seen.
"I'm half-god. So watch me perform this miracle."
"Ready?" Nanaba asks.
"Ready." Gelgar nods back.
I open my mouth to protest but all I can utter is a measly "Eep!" as the tower violently shudders and cuts off my voice.
"That tall bastard is mine," Percy announces, pointing that golden-like blade at some target down below.
"Let's go then." Nanaba gulps.
"Right." Gelgar and Percy reply.
"Well then…"
"ATTACK!"
Together, they jump.
I rush to the ledge to find where they plummeted. Throwing my stomach over the rocky ridge, I peer down.
Percy is amazing.
Thrusting that glimmering bronze sword of his as he lands on a titan's head, Percy stabs into a 15-meter's skull. The blow immediately shuts down the titan's motor functions, the titans arms and neck slumping limp.
"*KABOOM*"
The titan falls over, slamming the ground. Percy falls along with it and is thrown from its head by the rough impact and flung a few feet away. Getting back to his feet, Percy quickly gets to work, maneuvering to the back of the 15-meter's neck to go in for the kill.
Without ODM gear and with nothing except the force of gravity and his ingenuity, Percy is able to single-handedly bring down a titan 8 times his size.
Absolutely amazing.
"Christa! What are you doing!"
Someone grabs the back of my shirt, roughly yanking me away from the roof ledge.
"Don't be stupid!" Ymir flips me around, grabbing my shoulders and throwing her face right up to mine. "You're gonna fall."
"But I need to see!" My heart races. What is Percy doing now? How does a man without ODM gear fight such beasts?
"You can do it safely from here, look!"
She spins me around.
Percy is now running away from the tower, so I no longer have to dangerously lean my body and head over the edge to see him. But regaining him in my sights does little to settle my worrying heart.
Because now he's running directly at 4 titans, all of which are lumbering forward to meet with him, staring down at him with crazed grins.
Percy… He is just like a character from the storybooks I read as a kid. A real-life knight in shining armor. A stalwart soldier, with a body like that chiseled from stone and a handsome face that never yields in the face of true terror. A hero, who can shoulder the fate of the entire kingdom on his back and make others believe, without a doubt, that everything will be alright.
If he told me he had once slain a dragon, I wouldn't doubt it for even a minute. Even his full name, Perseus, sounds like a hero from legends.
He's strong. So, so strong. Even now, as he recklessly charges into danger, I can see the fate of our lives—of the entire kingdom's existence, sitting on his shoulders. Yet he doesn't allow the burden to slow him down. Just as he can push a titan back with his bare human strength, he acts as if he doesn't feel the tonnage of humanity's fate resting on him. He's an unbreakable shield, both literally and figuratively, standing between us and the titans. The personification of mankind's heart and will.
A person who should only exist in fiction.
But to me, it's not his strength or invulnerability that makes him a hero. It's his personality. His good nature.
Percy's greatly troubled, by something in his past, or maybe something that we've done to him. I don't know what happened to him, but I can see it in his eyes. Yet, despite arriving at our outpost in chains, despite the way everyone treats him, he chose to fight for mankind. For us. He didn't need to jump off this tower, he didn't need to protect those villagers. Yet… he chose to do it anyway.
Perseus is exactly who 'Christa' was meant to be.
But for him… It's not an act.
"He's dead!" Connie panics. "He's so dead!"
The closest of the 4 titans Percy is charging towards, another 15-meter class, bends over, opening its hands and reaching at our approaching hero.
Ymir's grip on my shoulder tightens.
I expect Percy to try avoiding the titan's clutches—to duck under or leap out of the way somehow. Instead, he meets the titan's palm head-on, recklessly jumping straight into its hand. Before the titan's fingers wrap around him, Percy swings his sword. The strike tears through the titan's palm, through skin, muscle, bone, and all, slicing the hand directly into two.
A normal soldier doesn't have that type of strength.
Percy's forward momentum carries him through the blood and steam and sends him shooting out the other side.
"No way…" Reiner breathes.
Percy hurdles to the ground with a roll, darting back to his feet just as the titan swipes at him with its other good hand. Narrowly dodging the second attempt, he runs past the titan's ankles, swinging his sword through one of the titan's heels.
The titan stumbles to one knee, but with the other three closing in, Percy takes off to deal with the lone titan on the far right. The other two titans collide with the 15-meter Percy just downed, sending them all into a pile of jumbled bodies.
I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding. Ymir's grip on my shoulder loosens.
I knew it, she does care.
"They're not going to last," Reiner says.
"Huh?" Connie replies.
"Don't say that!" I fire back. "Have faith in our comrades!"
"No Christa, Reiner's right," Ymir speaks, still focused on the fight. "Listen."
Down below, Percy engages his next opponent. The 10-meter cocks its hand behind its shoulder and swings its open hand down at Percy. He screeches to a halt and takes two steps back, narrowly dodging the strike.
"Perseus can't last on foot forever." Reiner continues.
Percy surprises us by jumping on the back of the titan's hand. The titan raises its palm off the ground and up to its mouth. But yet again, Percy dodges its teeth, leaping off its hand and plunging his sword into the 10-meter's shoulder.
That's when I realize the absurd amount of movement one needs to survive without ODM gear.
"He's going to run out of steam. Invincibility or not, eventually he'll get grabbed."
As the titan spins around, trying to reach for the human clinging to its shoulder, Gelgar zips into the fray. Sparingly using his gas, he flies in slow long arcs, swooping in to slice off the nape of a stray 7-meter headed for Percy. As he circles to the back side of the tower, Nanaba comes in next. Spotting the jumbled mess of titans that fell over themselves, she begins picking off the titans Percy indisposed of for her.
"Nanaba and Gelgar are almost out of gas as well. The pressure of their canisters must be throttling on the edge of being unusable. Once they're unable to fly…" Reiner trails off.
Connie gulps.
"So Handy Andy, what's your plan?" Ymir asks Reiner.
"Pray the rest of the regiment gets here," Reiner breathes.
"But… no one knows we're here…" Connie shakes.
"And we can't make a break for it either. Even if our horses didn't run away, I doubt anyone could ride out of this." Reiner sighs, running his uninjured arm through his sweaty blonde hair. "I think our best shot is to hold up here."
I look to Bertolt for help, suggestions, anything. But his expression is just as grim and his lips—tighter than usual.
Is this it? Are we really going to die here, watching our comrades fight and fall before us, powerless, frightened, and weak?
'Christa' shouldn't be having these types of thoughts. I should be reassuring the others. Coming up with a plan. A smile on my face, inspiring hope in others.
A loud boom jolts me from my thoughts.
The titan Percy jumped on falls to the ground, tripping over its own feet. Percy had dug his sword into its flesh to hold on, but its wild collapse flings Percy far.
Percy hits the ground with an unpleasant thud that would have killed a normal person. It shouldn't have hurt him, yet he struggles to rise. Why isn't he getting up? Did he run out of energy like Reiner said he would. He's not… Heroes aren't supposed to lose!
Out from the hazy horizon of dust and steam, a figure approaches.
"PERCY!"
He shudders. Coughing, expelling spit from his mouth. Shakely, he stands…
He still hasn't noticed the titan headed for him.
"PERCY!"
He freezes, hearing my voice, and turns.
But it's far too late.
I try to scream again, yet it feels as if my heart tries to jump out of my throat.
Then, Gelgar swoops in, felling the titan before it gets to Percy. While the life leaves its dull eyes, its momentum sends it into Percy, smothering him into the ground.
I… Christa needs to be helping them. I need to do something.
A wave of passion numbs my thinking. I reach down, pick up a rock, and chuck it off the tower with all my might.
The stone doesn't even land halfway towards the titan I was aiming at.
"Quit it, Christa!" Ymir yells, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from the roof's edge once more. "You'll fall! This tower could crumble at any moment!"
"They're fighting in our place!" I cry.
The tower shudders. A massive 15-meter titan made it to the base of the tower and has begun pounding its fists into its walls. Seeing the threat, Nanaba fires off her gas and swoops in, swiftly dealing a killing blow. The titan falls over, colliding into one of Utgard's smaller towers.
The ground shakes as the structure collapses, burying the fat titan under a mountain of stone.
"Nanaba, Gelgar, Percy—they're fighting in our place!" I reiterate. "And Henning and Lynne already gave their lives for ours!"
"So what?! And what do you plan on doing about it, sweet cheeks? Huh!?"
My face heats up at Ymir's vulgar remark.
"If I… If I had a weapon—"
"You'd what?!" Ymir spits.
"I'd die with them!" I shout in her face.
Ymir scowls.
"I can't believe you're still saying things like that."
"Huh?"
"Don't use their deaths! The others aren't risking their lives so you'd have an excuse to throw yours away. Stop acting like some hero!"
"That's not… That's not what I—"
"Guys…"
Frustrated at being interrupted, I whip my head at Connie. But I freeze, seeing the desolate look on his face.
"Gelgar ran out of gas. They got him."
I throw myself back to the ledge.
Like a pack of wolves feasting on a small deer, a group of titans lay huddled around where Gelgar must have landed.
He's gone.
Nanaba's still fighting, flying around with renewed resolve, but Percy is still trapped under that 7-meter that landed on top of him, another smaller titan gnawing on his shoulder as he struggles to free himself.
"Damn it!" Connie shouts, pounding his fist on the roof's rocky lip. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
"Connie!" I cry.
He stops pounding his fist and sits down, throwing his face into his hands.
"How long do we have to wait until the tower falls and we're all eaten alive? Is there nothing we can do?"
Ymir faces away.
"I just wanted it… to have meaning. We weren't even able to locate the hole in Wall Rose for the others…"
"Hey, C-Connie?" I ask.
He looks up.
"Do y-you still have that knife?"
"Yeah…" He digs under his shirt and pulls it out. "Here."
Connie offers it over to me but Ymir snatches it out of his hand first.
"And what are you planning on doing with it?" Ymir asks.
"I-If… If I'm going to die, I'm going to fight and die alongside the others!"
"Damn it, Christa!" Ymir shouts. "You're not like Connie or the Scouts. They don't want to die, and all you want to do is die in a way that makes you seem like some hero."
"Th-That's not…"
Connie stands up.
"Yeah? And what are you going to do?" He asks Ymir.
"I'm…"
Ymir's pupils shrink, the nervous shake in her hands making her seem like some cornered animal.
"I'm going to fight instead."
"Ymir… What are you planning?" Reiner asks.
"Who knows? I don't even know myself…"
"Ymir…" I whisper.
A shriek pierces the air. Nanaba! Connie acts first, rushing back to the roof's ledge. I turn my heels to join him.
Ymir grabs my hand, jolting me to a stop.
"Christa…" She starts.
"Nanaba ran out of gas!" Connie cries, leaning over the rim of the roof and looking down below.
"You've probably forgotten all about it now…" Ymir continues.
"AAHHHH!" Nanaba screams.
"NANABA!" Percy roars.
Connie grimaces, turning his eyes away from whatever is happening. Ymir pulls my arm again, bringing me closer to my face, trying to keep my attention on her.
"Remember the promise we made? On that snowy mountain?"
I blink.
Of course, I remember. How could I forget? But what does that have to do—
"I have no right to tell you how to live your life… But seeing you live your life like some martyr—like your life has no purpose or meaning—pisses me off!"
"YMIR!" Percy roars.
"DADDY!" Nanaba cries. "STOP IT!"
"Christa! Listen to me!" Ymir yanks my arm again as my attention drifts back to Nanaba and Percy.
Behind us, the sun slowly rises over the horizon. The clouds shift to purple and pink hues while Ymir's face bathes in an apricot glow.
"I want you… to live a life you can be proud of."
Ymir pushes my hand towards my chest and lets go, walking to the opposite side of the tower.
"Ymir, what are you—"
"I'M SORRY, I WON'T DO IT AGAIN!" Nanaba cries. "DAD, PLEASE!"
"YMIR!" Percy roars once more, his voice strained and cracking.
"Remember our promise, Christa," Ymir repeats, testing the sharpness of the knife.
Then, she takes off.
"Ymir, wait!" I cry.
I throw my arms out in vain to stop her, but she rushes past.
"NO!"
Ymir runs past and leaps off.
I rush over to the edge of the roof to throw my head over the side. But instead of being greeted by Ymir's plummeting body—
A great flash of light, seemingly brighter than the sun itself, and a rush of hot air meets my face. Dust flies into my eyes. I raise my hands to shield my face and to rub away the stinging irritation.
"RRRAAAAAWWWRRRR!"
I clear the dust from my eyes. Whatever that blinding light was is now gone.
The titans down below are clumped in three locations. At the base of the tower, reaching up towards me with terrifying monstrous grins, surrounding Percy, who's being held above the heads of the smaller classes stuck in clutches of a 15-meter, and around Nanaba.
The titans around Nanaba—their behavior is all off. A small abnormal, a 5-meter class, is jumping titan-to-titan, and seems to be… fighting the others? With its sharp fingernails, it gorges out eyes and slashes at the other titans limbs, trying to make its way to Nanaba. Realization strikes me when it bites off one of the titans' napes.
It's more than an abnormal—it has intelligence! And that light! Isn't that like…
Is that Ymir?!
"I-Is this real?" Connie shakes in disbelief. "Ymir is a titan too?"
Nanaba continues to cry in agony while the abnormal titan (Ymir) works on thinning out the crowd surrounding her, using the titans' heads as stepping stones to traverse across the horde.
Ymir… she said we were alike. That our backgrounds were somewhat similar. Is this the secret that she was hiding? Was she born a titan and cast out as I was, being the bastard child of some noble lord?
"Ymir…" I whisper. The pain you must've felt. To wish you'd never been born. To feel as if the world hates you for existing. You should've—we should have talked about it.
A clawed hand suddenly grabs the roof's edge next to me, throwing me off my feet. Reiner and Bertolt jump back while Connie freezes in place. Black jagged fingernails, longer than my head, scrap the roof's stones until it gets a firm grip. Then, its disproportionately large head rises into view.
Long shaggy dark hair, revolting bangs dangling in front of the titan's face. Small eyes, all black but with tiny white pupils. Pointed ears, like an elf's, and a witch-like nose. Most terrifying of all, a set of sharp teeth lining its red gummy jaw. Teeth that aren't like any human or titan. The teeth of a predator.
Ymir.
The titan moves. Reiner and Bertolt stiffen, ready to make a break for it. Its other hand rises over the roof's edge, blood dripping between its cupped fingers. Gently moving and setting its hand on the floor beside me, in Ymir's palm lies Nanaba.
I jump to my feet.
"Connie!"
"U-Uhh, right!" He stammers.
We run over, grab hold of Nanaba, and place her on the stone floor. As soon as we free her from Ymir's palm, she dips back below, off to re-engage the horde.
"Put pressure on it!"
"I'm trying!"
"I'll be a good girl, daddy. I promise." Nanaba whispers, teetering on the edge of consciousness.
Connie and I press our hands down on her thigh, but it's not enough. Her leg is still bleeding.
"Reiner, Bertolt, help!" I cry, looking over my shoulder for their help.
To my frustration, they're just standing there, not responding at all.
"Th-That titan is… the one who…" Reiner stammers, completely dazed.
"... from that day…" Bertolt adds, equally stunned.
"Connie, keep pressure on it."
"Wait!" He yells.
I let go and rush over to Bertolt. My hands fly to his waist, fumbling at his pants.
"Hey! What are you—"
"You weren't responding!" I yell back, working to unfasten his belt.
"Christa, hurry!" Connie calls.
"Watch where you're touching!" Bertolt yelps.
"Sorry!"
I unfasten his belt shackle and pull, yanking the strip of leather free from Bertolt's trousers. Leaving him wrestling to keep his pants from falling, I rush back to Connie.
Back at Nanaba, we immediately get to work. Connie slightly lifts Nanaba's stump of a leg, enough for me to slide the leather underneath. Making sure the belt is positioned well over the open wound, I loop the belt through its shackle. Next comes the hardest part.
"AHHHH!"
Nanaba thrashes as I tighten the belt, reigniting the pain she must've felt when she lost her leg.
"Shhhh. You're ok. You're ok."
"Father…" She incoherently garbles.
"Christa."
Struggling to tie the belt in place, Reiner calls out to me.
"Move."
He takes Bertolt's belt out of my hand with his one good arm and pushes me aside. Placing his foot on Nanaba's leg, he yanks the belt with all his might. The leather digs into Nanaba's thigh, a gush of liquid and loose flesh spurting out from her stump as the belt seemingly presses down to the bone.
A person can only handle so much. Nanaba immediately passes out in pain.
"Reiner!"
"You weren't tightening it hard enough." He explains, bending over and fastening the leather tightly in place.
"That was uncalled for! You could have been—"
"She was going to bleed out!" Reiner yells.
I glance down at her leg, noticing the flow of blood finally trickling to a halt.
"Nanaba's not in the clear. We don't have anything to dress or shut the wound. She's going to die if we don't get her to a doctor."
Reiner stands up.
"Connie, roll Nanaba on her side. Make sure she stays breathing."
"Uhhh, right!" Connie answers, immediately getting to work, rolling Nanaba on her side.
"W-what should we do now?" I ask.
Bertolt walks over to our group as Reiner tries to think up a plan.
"We—"
He immediately gets interrupted as the tower shakes. A heavy thud sounds behind me. We all turn.
It's Ymir.
"Y-Ymir!" I call.
Her head slightly tilts in response.
"Go grab Percy too!"
Ymir opens her terrifying jaw.
"CCCANNTT."
"Ahhh! S-She can speak!?" Connie stammers.
"W-why not?!" I respond to her raspy titan voice.
"GONE."
What?
"EATEN."
And on that, she leaves.
"Did she say Percy w-was… eaten?"
The others hesitantly nod.
"He can't… Percy isn't gone."
"Christa." Reiner firmly speaks.
"No, Percy's not supposed to be able to get hurt, right? Maybe… Maybe Ymir just couldn't find him."
"Or m-maybe the titan d-didn't chew?" Connie suggests.
"... Armin claimed he w-witnessed Eren getting swallowed by a titan r-right in front of him. So maybe he's not…"
"Christa." Reiner repeats. "Did you know?"
"Huh?"
"Did you know that Ymir was a titan?"
"No… I had no idea."
A strong memory emerges in my mind. The night the 104th was celebrating our ODM gear flight training. Ymir learned I never tasted alcohol before, so she grabbed a tankard of wine, bent back my head, and force-fed me the wine while Sasha tried to save me.
"We were so close…"
Another memory, gossiping with the other girls in our cabin about what boys everyone liked. Ymir would always insist that she only had eyes for me, no matter how much the other girls pushed and prodded her.
This whole time, Ymir had been trying to teach me how to live my life with my own purpose. By my own decisions.
"How? How could this be?"
"Ymir knew. She knew some of the secrets of this world, and yet… I never suspected a thing." Reiner looks down as if blaming himself.
"Yeah…" Bertolt voices in agreement.
"She should have told us and contributed to the Corps. Like Eren did." Reiner says.
"Maybe she didn't… because she couldn't," Bertolt suggests.
"But hey! Do you even think she knew about it?" Connie asks. "I mean, Eren's a titan too, but he didn't know until it happened."
Another memory. This time, a vivid memory from our snowy mountain training.
"I'll tell you… only because it's you." Ymir speaks, walking away from me and into the snow after I confronted her about how she was able to get Daz down that cliff.
"But you have to promise me… when I reveal my secret…"
"RRRAAAAAWWWRRRR!"
Down below, Ymir roars at the horde of titans in opposition. She leaps off the tower, bites the nape of a 10-meter, slashes the face of a 12-meter, then leaps back to the safety of Utgard's tallest structure.
"...that you'll go back to living by your old name."
"But Ymir… It seems like she was aware all along," Bertolt whispers, responding to Connie's comment.
"So what?!" I fire back. "Are you saying Ymir's an enemy of mankind?"
"No, Christa. He isn't." Connie explains. "But you gotta admit… that's one hell of a power to hide."
Of course, it is. I… I know that.
"Who knows what she may have been thinking…" Connie finishes.
"Perseus knew as well." Bertolt suddenly speaks.
"What?" Reiner gasps.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Percy, he cried out Ymir's name." Bertolt continues. "Before she transformed. When Nanaba got grabbed."
He turns to Reiner.
"Y-You heard him, right?"
"Yeah…" Reiner softly agrees.
"But—Ymir only just met him!"
"Yeah, it doesn't make sense," Reiner agrees.
We pause, watching Ymir leap from head to head, doing her best to keep out of the horde's clutches while trying to keep the titans away from the tower.
Why…
"Ymir's not the type to talk about herself," Connie says, turning to me. "She's always following Christa, yet…"
Ymir… I don't understand. Why would you tell a man you've only just met? Why would you tell him your secret but not me? Am I not good enough for you? Is it because… is it because I'm an imposter? Could you not trust me because I couldn't even live by my own name? Or maybe… maybe you saw the same thing in Percy that I see…
A hero who could save us all.
"Whether Ymir told Perseus or he found out on his own doesn't matter. It's troubling that we weren't informed…" Reiner trails off.
"I wonder… What is Ymir's goal in all of this?" Bertolt asks.
The tower shudders from a charging 10-meter titan that misses Ymir and barrels straight into the lower floor of the tower. Ymir ignores it, jumping and gashing out the eyes of a 10-meter before quickly leaping to a bald 7-meter, tearing into its nape with her jagged teeth. A 12-meter grabs hold of Ymir's left arm before she can make it back to the tower, but with her right hand, Ymir slashes through its wrist and frees herself. She springs off the corpse of the 7-meter she just killed, reaching for the safety of the tower. But before she makes it out of reach, a small 5-meter grabs hold of her leg, pulling Ymir back to Earth.
"YMIR!"
Another titan immediately pounces, pulling Ymir's shaggy black hair and biting down on her titan's right forearm. Her other arm gets grabbed as well.
"RRRAAAAAWWWRRRR!"
Roaring in frustration, she struggles. Positioning her jaws into the proper position, she snaps at the arm grabbing her left wrist.
Freeing that hand, she swings her claws into the face of the titan gorging on her right forearm until it lets go. Completely freed, she jumps for the tower—
A large 12-meter grabs her right ankle before Ymir can escape. Left gripping onto the tower for dear life, she tries kicking the titan's hold free with her other leg. But after two kicks, a different 12-meter steps in and grabs hold of that ankle as well.
The two large stone bricks Ymir's hands cling onto begin to crack, slowly but surely slipping out of place as the 12-meters tug on her legs. Ymir looks up at us.
She looks at me.
And lets go.
"What?!"
Ymir lands back in the swarm, using every limb to keep the gnawing mouths surrounding her at bay. She lets out another roar, attracting more titans away from the tower and towards her.
"She's—why!?" Connie yells. "Is she worried about the tower falling?"
"She has to be!" My heart rate increases, realizing the opportunity I have to defend her.
"If Ymir wanted to, she could have used this power of hers to escape all on her own. And yet, she's not doing that. She's not doing that at all! It's us! She's risking her life to protect us!"
A 10-meter grabs Ymir's hair and tugs her head back. She hisses, desperately swinging her right hand behind her pack to free her head and those deadly teeth of hers.
"But why?"
Another old memory pops into my head. An old one, from our Boot Camp days. Ymir was making fun of Sasha for hiding her accent and I was defending her. Ymir butts into me, using her taller frame to quite literally bump me out of the conversation.
"Why?"
Another flashback. A simple one of Ymir slinging her arm around me, pulling me in close as she spits off in laughter. I can't pinpoint the time or location, but I can tell this memory happened sometime after I had gotten used to her weird clingy nature.
Why?
A fiery wave of passion—no, of anger surges in my chest.
How dare she!?
"Ymir!" I cry.
I climb up onto the small rocky ridge lining the roof, standing tall so she can see me.
"Hey!" Connie yells.
"Don't you dare die, Ymir! Not in a place like this!"
Connie latches his arms around my hips, trying to pull me back to safety.
"Don't pretend like you're good, you idiot!" I push my hand into Connie's face to stop him from pulling me down.
Still struggling in the horde of titans, Ymir tilts her head up at me.
"You wanna go out in a blaze of glory? Die like some saint? Are you stupid?!"
For as long as we've known each other, she's been scolding me for wanting to die for the right cause. To die like a hero.
"We both know you're rotten to the core! It's too late for you to try and get into heaven!"
You hypocrite. You gain nothing from throwing your life away.
"Live for yourself, goddammit! And if you're gonna die protecting this tower, then forget about it!" I inhale a huge breath.
"HEY!" Connie cries, tightening his hold.
"TEAR IT DOWN!"
Ymir snaps out of it and starts to fight back. She rips her arms free, slashes the arms grabbing her feet, and jumps back to the tower. But when she makes it to the tower, instead of protecting it she begins tearing out its bricks.
"YES!"
Ymir circles around the tower, one by one, pulling out massive stone chunks as she goes. It doesn't take long for the already damaged and weathered old tower to start leaning over, its integral foundation finally giving in to all the stress.
"H-hey! She's really tearing it down!" Reiner cries as he struggles to keep his balance.
"Keep it up, Ymir!" I scream, my hands flying into the air in victory.
Suddenly Ymir appears before us, joining us on the roof's edge.
"WANT TO LIVVVE…" she speaks in her raspy titan voice.
My heart pounds in my chest as I stare into her cold inhuman titan eyes.
"GRRAB ON."
I jump into her hair first, making sure to wrap her black locks around my wrist to get a tight grip. Reiner joins shortly after, grabbing a thick bundle of hair and wrapping it around his one good forearm. Connie and Bertolt work together to pick up Nanaba, Connie taking Nanaba's injured side while Bertolt takes the other, struggling to carry Nanaba over and while keeping his pants on straight.
Settled nicely in her hair, Ymir moves to the opposite side of the tower as the structure begins tipping over. Below us, the titan horde stares blankly upwards, unaware of the imminent danger.
The tower collapses over them, crushing skulls and bodies alike.
Ymir jumps before our section of the tower hits the ground, likely negating most of the impact. But the fall is still rough. Dirt, dust, and debris fill the air, clouding our eyes and filling our lungs, while the world around us violently quakes, the tower's downfall likely being felt and heard for miles all around.
When Ymir finally hits the ground as well, we all lose our grips, and like fleas jumping ship from a stray dog before it takes a dip in a river, the impact sends us flying out of her hair and in different directions.
I sit up. Hacking my lungs out, I wave my hand in front of my face. I don't know where the others landed, but I can hear them coughing nearby.
As soon as the filth in the air disperses enough, I open my eyes.
The first thing I see is Nanaba, painted gray in soot, sprawled out in front of me. I immediately rush to her side. Turning her over, I press my hands to her neck.
…
… bump bump…
Tears prickle my eyes. How is she still hanging on?
Gently, I move her injured leg. With Bertolt's belt still fastened around her stump, I breathe a sigh of relief. The makeshift tourniquet didn't shift in our rough landing. The blood flow is still stemmed.
"I can't believe it... " Connie coughs.
"You wanted to pin those titans under the tower?" Bertolt asks, helping Reiner to his feet.
"Talk about a crazy plan…" Reiner wheezes.
"Ymir…" I grin. My heart momentarily flutters, delighted that she listened to me.
"Did anyone see where my pants went?" Bertolt asks, his light blue boxers embarrassingly on full display.
With one holding on to Ymir's hair and the other on Nanaba, poor Bertolt had nothing left to hold up his pants. They must've flown off in our fall.
"There they are!" Connie points.
Some 30 meters away, caught on the corner of a brick, and flapping proudly in the wind, are Bertolt's brown trousers. How they got all the way over there, none of us could say.
Before Bertolt can take a step forward to retrieve his clothing, the stone pile shifts. The brick Bertolt's pants are caught on tumbles down the mound.
"What?!"
"The titans—they're getting up!" Connie cries.
The trousers catch the wind and fly away, and rising out of the rubble emerges a steaming 10-meter titan.
"Hey ugly!" Connie yells at Ymir. "Hurry up and go finish the job!"
Ymir dashes off, running towards the threat on all fours. Before it can retaliate, she swings around on its back and bites out its nape. However, as the titan falls, another 7-meter emerges from the rubble in front of her.
"YMIR!"
Behind her, a hand rockets out of the debris and grabs hold of Ymir's hair. Standing on its feet, the 12-meter picks Ymir up and smashes her head into the rocks. All around Ymir, titans begin to rise.
None of them got killed by the tower.
"This l-looks bad," Connie stammers, looking on in horror.
The titans swarm Ymir. Disorientated from her head blow, she can't even raise a hand to fight back. Blood, steam, and flesh fly in the air as the titans rip, tear, and consume Ymir's titan body.
"Ymir... she's… being eaten alive…" Connie whispers.
"No… It can't… This can't…" I take off, sliding down the uneven slope of rubble and towards the feeding frenzy.
"Christa!" Connie yells after me.
"Ymir, wait!"
A 15-meter tears Ymir's left leg clean off her body while another bites right into her skull, striking further panic in my heart.
"There's something I still need to tell you!"
You can't die! Because I…
"I still—I still haven't told you my real name!" I scream.
I keep running. Tears blur my eyesight. I can't react fast enough when a face larger than my entire body peaks around a nearby pile of rubble.
"CHRISTA!" The others cry.
It's directly in my path. I won't make it to Ymir. I can't dodge it.
"Wait… I still haven't…"
The titan raises its hands, fingers blocking the sun as they reach out to me.
I still haven't told you my name.
But then, the titan's hand freezes, pausing mere feet away from me.
"Huh?"
Its stomach bursts open.
A wave of stomach juices and blood pours out from its open innards, covering the nearby stones in a steaming mushy mess. And riding the wave, the parasite that was dwelling within the titan's belly.
"Eww! Eww! Eww! *PTOO!* Eww!"
"P-P-PERCY!?"
It's him. It's really him.
Bathed head to toe in the titan's innard liquids and blood, is him. Spitting from the mouth as the liquids run down his matted hair and over his eyes and face, Percy heatedly shakes his wrist, trying to wring off the yucky substance.
The titan's stomach begins stitching itself back together. Getting ahold of itself, it moves its hands towards Percy.
"LOOK—"
With gunk still coating his eyelids, Percy blindly swings his bronze sword, severing the offending fingers.
"I am NOT going through that again." He brings his hand up to his face, wipes, and opens his eyes.
Percy leaps forward, tumbling between the titan's legs as it tries reaching for him with its other arm. Slicing at its ankles like he's done before, the titan falls to its knees.
And just like that, he kills it. On his own. Without the help of ODM, with a single blade, completely unaffected by the smoldering titan blood and stomach acid covering his entire being. Once again, he proves to me that he's just like one of those legendary knights from the stories of old.
Percy is amazing.
He stumbles towards us, still spitting at the mouth, wiping his face, and wringing his wrists.
"Nanaba!" He cries, spotting our lone leader. Percy pushes forward with shaky steps, clearly exhausted.
I step in front of his path.
"Stay away from her!"
Percy flinches, looking hurt.
"I don't want you to get that stuff on her," I speak with more care. "She's fine."
"But her leg—"
"She's still breathing. She's alive."
Percy looks me up and down as if checking to see if I had lost any limbs as well, then turns his gaze towards the others.
"Where the hell are your pants?" He asks Bertolt.
"Percy, Ymir's in trouble!" I point him towards the horde.
Recognizing the situation, he takes a step forward…
And falls to his knees.
"I…" He struggles to stand. Panting from exertion.
"I can't…"
Then, a mechanical whistling noise sounds through the air. A figure flies overhead, landing atop a segment of Utgard's wall, right next to us. I look up.
"Christa, everyone. You've fought hard."
The blue and white Wings of Freedom waver in the wind, off the back of her green cloak.
"But we've got this now."
The Scout turns her head, facing us.
"Leave the rest to us."
"Mikasa!" I cry.
A dozen Scouts fly over her. Picking their targets, they consecutively kill off the titans nearest to us.
The air fills with the sound of whirling gears and hisses of gas as more Scouts join the fray, beating back the titans emerging from the ruins.
I feel as if I might start bawling in joy.
"Have the others disperse and cover the area!" An order rings out. "The rest of us will attack where the titans are gathering!"
Mikasa jumps off the wall, joining the other Scouts as they work their way to Ymir, killing off the titans piled on top of her.
Bertolt, Reiner, and Connie run off, calling out Eren's name. With the path in front of me being cleared of its danger, I head the other way. Forward.
Ymir… Please be ok…
"I'm sorry…" Percy whispers as I step to his side.
I pause, glancing down at my kneeling savior. Still covered in steaming blood, he keeps his head lowered; dirty bangs concealing his eyes and half his face from my view.
"... I'm sorry…" He repeats, his bronze sword quivering in his hands. "... that I couldn't protect everyone…"
I choke on my own words.
"You did everything you could."
I continue forward.
Hange and a few others ride out in front of me, dismounting their steeds and sliding down the crater of dead titan corpses towards Ymir's half-eaten titan body.
"Titan shifters reside in the nape. Help me cut her out!" Hange orders, pulling out her blades.
I hold my breath, watching them work.
And rush forward once they pull her out.
The medical team immediately gets to work, dragging Ymir away from the body of her titan and applying tourniquets to her missing right arm and leg. But Ymir's stomach is a bitten mess, and she's already deathly pale.
I've never seen her look so weak.
The others disperse, allowing me to approach. Hange doesn't intervene when I put my hand behind her head to stabilize her neck.
Crudely detached tendrils of titan flesh still stick to her neck, slowly dissipating into nothing but steam. A weird spider web-like pattern of burn marks stretches across either side of her face, running from her forehead, over her eyes, and down to her jaw. The signs of a titan shifter who has just emerged from their avatar… or so I've been told.
While the others whisper about her, Ymir softly stirs in my arms.
"Ymir…"
She opens her eyes. Staring up at me with those dark gray pearls of hers.
A tear drops off my cheeks, landing on her bloody shirt.
"My real name…is Historia."
Ymir closes her eyes. A soft smile adorns her lips as she tenderly drifts to sleep.
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This chapter was 6.9k words long.
A little explanation about Historia. Since she's in that 'Christa' phase, pretending to be that storybook persona of a 'model' girl, I figured she would be pretty infatuated by Percy. Not as a love interest, but for what Percy represents in Historia's mind; a fairytale hero, whom she has been trying to be. Despite the way I'm writing it, with both characters throwing their feelings at one another, I don't have any intention of making them an established pair. I can see how that may confuse many since most fanfics are so straightforward with love interests (and yeah, they'd make a helluva good pairing), but yeah. Both are pretty desperate to be accepted by society and others, so I can see them latching on to each other for support.
I have a pretty awesome plan for Percy and Historia waaaaayyy down the road. Hope to get there one day.
Anyway, the day I posted the last chapter, we lost a real legend. Technoblade was genuinely a really good person, and I was a huge fan of his work. Followed his bedwars win streak and became a permanent viewer after that first Minecraft Monday. His videos and livestreams influenced my writing a lot. The character 'Annabelle' was actually inspired by the 'Technoblade' personality Alex had created, with his character being influenced and spurred by the 'voices' (his viewers) in his head, and I have concrete plans to quote Sun Tzu in the far future.
It's really fucking weird, mourning the passing of someone whose name and face I didn't even know. But I think that shows how special Techno (and other online content creators) really are.
If you didn't know who Technoblade was and you have time to spare, go check out his life's work on YouTube. I'll be referencing some of his famous one-liners in the future.
Till next time,
-Unbred
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Originally Published on 8/1/2022