"…Someone once said that fear makes companions of us all. But was that companions in hope or misery?"-Edith M. Brown Diary, 850

Spring 850
Cadet HQ, Trost City District

"Captain! Please wait! There's only a handful of us left, sir! If the Titans were to attack here in force, we wouldn't have a chance in hell of holding them off! Please sir! We need you here!" one of the cadets pleaded as he and a few others stood in front of Captain Weilman who was trying to leave the HQ. Himself and a few others, far too scared to risk their lives alongside their fellow cadets were trying to leave than fight against the Titans. Ironic considering only hours before he had told the cadets to lay down their lives and that desertion was punishable by death.

"Out of my way soldier" Weilman ordered, poorly disguised fear written across his face, "I have to get going. My expertise is needed to direct the reinforcements"

"Behind the safety of the inner gate? Am I right?" replied a cadet, calling the captain's bluff.

"…Just what the hell are you implying? They need my help reorganising or would you rather us be overwhelmed due to a logistical nightmare?!"

"But sir! If we lose those supplies-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH! QUESTION MY ORDERS AGAIN, DELAY ME MY DUTIES AND I'LL RUN YOU STRAIGHT THROUGH!" Weilman roared as he held the cadet at knife point, fear clearly written on her face as the two groups reached an impasse.

Upstairs, the remaining supply team sat huddled in groups of three or four, behind poorly crafted barricades mades of office desks. Every now and then a Titan would peer in through the glazed windows and the shattering of glass could be heard.

"There" a cadet stated calmly as he finished prepping the musket in his hands.

"Come on now, that musket's not gonna be enough to stop them" replied the female cadet to his right. The cadet in question didn't bother replying as he deep throated the barrel of the shotgun.

The girl's eyes widened as he realised what he was going to do; with no word of warning the cadet pulled the trigger, spraying his brain matter up onto the book shelf behind him. Screams rang out as their numbers dwindled further.

Edith sat a little ways away from Armin on the adjoining rooftops up on the roof of the bell tower, perched there like a bird as she watched for incoming Titans. She listened to her classmates whimper and moan about what to do next, with a grim expression on her face. Her exhausted form sat hunched over as she fought to keep her eyes on their surroundings.

Shortly after arriving, Armin had isolated himself from the others, leaning up against the wall of the bell tower, feeling somewhat safe with a wall to his back and Edith watching up above him. Not that he made any indication of that as he stared into nothing; the events of the last few hours washing over him whilst Edith had made the rounds earlier to see if anyone needed patching up, most seemed to be okay, just tired and scared.

They had been given the to order to retreat an hour or so earlier, but most of them were either low on fuel or completely empty and they had no chance of refilling, short of stealing the gas from the corpses lining the streets, just as Edith had done. Edith still couldn't believe that while her friends were out here sacrificing themselves, those still inside the HQ had locked themselves away, too scared to do their jobs. Pansies.

"Hey Jean! What are we gonna do?!" Connie demanded, turning to his once tall and overconfident classmate.

"We can't do anything" Jean grumbled, his tone dull with grief and hopelessness, "They finally give us the order to withdraw and we're all out of gas, of course. I can't believe this is how it's gonna end, because of those damned cowards"

"You mean the supply depot? What is going on? Where are they?"

"They all lost their will to fight and I can understand why, but they abandoned their duty to supply us, barricading themselves inside HQ and of course Titans have swarmed the place which means we can't get gas ourselves"

"Why are we waiting? We gotta go, start thinning their numbers so we have a chance! Sitting here on this roof is totally pointless! Eventually the Titans are gonna come for us!…But we don't have much gas left, we'll just waste what little we have left if we try to run and without our mobility, we're completely screwed!" Connie cried as he banged on his empty gas canister as he answered his own questions.

"Your using your head for once Connie, nice going. But I'm just not sure if we've got the numbers needed to pull this thing off. Veterans in the vanguard force have all been wiped out, how exactly do a bunch of rookies pull of a suicide mission like that? I mean let's assume half of our force even survives the initial assault, then what? The supply room is probably crawling with Titans in the three to four metre range. I don't see us accomplishing much in there"

"…It's hopeless"

"Huh, God, what a dull life this turned out to be. I never even got to tell her just how I feel"

Sasha tried to get people moving next, telling everyone that she would happily take point, if only so they could refuel and hash out a new plan of attack. It probably would have worked had the tremble in her voice not been present.

Apart from the Titan blood that had stained her clothes only a few hours earlier, the only injury Edith had acquired was to her prosthetic arm. A couple of the screws had come loose and she had had to tie a bandage tightly around her upper arm to keep the parts in place. Unfortunately, she couldn't bend that far around to fix it properly, though the quick-fix should hold until they got back to HQ. If they got back.

The sudden arrival of Mikasa had many looking up from their trances as the girl rushed over to where Armin sat all glassy-eyed. Mikasa was like a tornado, turning over everything in her path, even if she didn't quite know it yet.

"Armin!" Mikasa called as she came to a stop in front of her friend, "Armin, are you okay? You're not hurt are you? Where's Eren? Armin?"

"They were…the cadets of squad 34…Thomas Wagner, Mark Tiers, Billy Schversky and Eren Jeager…these brave four…upheld their duties, they died valiantly in the field of battle" Armin cried, his head bowed unable to look the others in the eye as he relayed the oral report. Edith turned her head away as she listened to the crowd below worry about whether they would die just like squad 34 had.

"…I'm so sorry Mikasa" Armin sobbed, "It should've been me that died, not Eren…I-I couldn't do a thing…I'm worthless"

"…Armin, calm yourself we haven't got time for you to get emotional right now. On your feet" Mikasa replied as she pulled Armin up and turned to the others, thinking aloud as she went. "Marco, if we eliminate or bypass the Titans at HQ we can then refuel our gear, allowing us to get back over the wall. Is that assessment correct?"

"Well, I guess so, sure. But there's just too many of them out there. Even with you on point" Marco replied as he watched Mikasa pace up and down the rooftops.

"I can do it"

"What?"

"I'm strong, real strong. None of you come close, hear me? I am a warrior. Know this, I have the power to slay all of the Titans that block our path, even if I have to do it alone. As far as I'm concerned, I am surrounded by a bunch of unskilled cowardly worms. You disappoint me, you can just sit here and twiddle your thumbs and watch how it's done"

The protests that sprung up from the group were summarily ignored as Mikasa lowered the blades she had raised in the air and turned her back on the group, before launching off the rooftop towards HQ. "If I can't beat them then I die, but, if I win I live and the only way to win is to fight!"

"Y'know I was expecting something more motivational, her way with words was kind of a let down" Jean grumbled, "I blame everything about this on you, Eren…HEY DON'T JUST STAND THERE! WE WERE TAUGHT NOT LET OUR COMRADES FIGHT ALONE, 'LESS YOU'RE A COWARD IN WHICH CASE STAY OUTTA MY WAY!" Jean called as he and Connie launched themselves after Mikasa.

Edith waited atop the bell tower until she was sure that every last one of her class mates had left before she fell foward, letting gravity take control and she launched her wires out if front of her, as she followed them down the path they were carving through the Titans towards HQ.

"HURRY UP FOLLOW MIKASA! AVOID LANDING IF YOU CAN AND GET TO HQ BEFORE YOU RUN OUT OF GAS!" Jean called out to the others. Edith ducked and dove through the carnage left in Mikasa's wake, pulling up next to Connie as Mikasa flew overhead.

"Woah! Mikasa's a badass! How is she going so fast?" Connie breathed as he watched her soar above him.

Edith glanced up at the girl to see that despite her words of wisdom earlier, Mikasa was clearly just as scared as the rest of them, maybe more so if the way she was using her gas. She looked like she was going to lose altitude at any second, her fear clouding her judgement as she used far more gas than she needed.

"MIKASA!" Armin called out as he quickly swung over to where Mikasa had fallen from the sky.

"JEAN! EDITH! TAKE THE OTHERS TO HQ! I'M GOING AFTER ARMIN!" Connie called as he flew after the duo.

"I'LL GO WITH YO-" Jean started.

"DON'T BE STUPID! THERE ARE STILL TITANS EVERYWHERE, YOU GOTTA HELP THER OTHERS!"

"GOT IT! DON'T DIE!" Edith called as she took point, slicing through the nape of a nine metre Titan and used the recoil of her taut wires to launch back up into the air, high above the grabby hands that had appeared in her place only seconds ago.

"Shit!" cursed Edith as she watched a couple of her classmates fall prey to the Titans behind them, they seemed to be coming out of the woodwork now. Maybe they knew what they were trying to do?

A few moments later, Edith stumbled into a landing next to Jean on a rooftop closer to HQ as she and the few left in their squad had gathered around them. They had lost over half of their classmates just to get to this point and they weren't even there yet. They were situated close enough that they could see a better picture of what they were dealing with, but too far for them to make it on foot.

"It's no use, we're not getting anywhere near headquarters. Unless of course we don't mind dying" Jean grumbled as he looked out towards the building in question, where the sounds of thundering footsteps and faint screams could be heard.

"Shit. He's out of gas" Edith cursed as she looked down in the street below where a cadet, Tom, stood paralysed with overwhelming terror now that he'd run out of gas and was surrounded by two Titans cornering him. Edith made to launch forward when Jean grabbed onto her elbow, stopping her from moving, his grip rather firm as he unconsciously tightened his grip in fear of what might happen.

Edith went to ask what was going on when a couple of the others flew overhead and tried to rescue Tom, only to be summarily eaten as well. Their fear-riddled bodies probably attracting the Titans to them as they were crushed between boulder-sized incisors. Edith could only pray that Connie and Armin were having better luck on their end.