"I definitely agree…you should never meet your heroes…how human they seem to be"-Edith M. Brown Diary, 850
Spring 850,
Retake Wall Rose Operation, Trost City District
Thankfully, Edith was able to dislodge herself from the Titan's chest and found a safe enough spot on a rooftop next to Armin, overlooking the street. "Eren…" Armin breathed, watching at what they had done. Eren stood roaring into the sky, the wounds he had acquired earlier that day were quickly healing themselves, at such a rate that even Edith was surprised. Sure with alkahestry on her side, she could heal wounds a faster rate than was considered normal, but this was insane. Regrowing limbs in a matter of seconds? Insane.
"GO! EREN GO!" Armin cheered as he watched his brother hefted the boulder up onto his shoulders and make his way slowly towards the front gate. His thundering steps echoed throughout the district brought everyone to a standstill. The only image that many could see was the large boulder slowly making its way to the front gate, steam pouring off of it as it did so.
"Mikasa!" Edith called as she and Armin came to a rough landing on the rooftop next to part of the elite squad.
"Edith? Armin?" Mikasa murmured, turning to the two.
"We were able to break him out of it somehow. We're set, he's determine to see the mission through to the end. As long as we've got his back while he heads for the wall, victory will be ours!" Armin replied, well aware that the Captain of the elites was listening in.
"DEFEND HIM! TO THE LAST MAN IF THAT'S WHAT IT COMES TO! EREN MUST REACH THE GATE! I DON'T WANT A SINGLE TITAN ANYWHERE NEAR HIM!" Ian ordered, "ACKERMAN, ARLERT! I WANT YOU TWO ON EREN! BROWN YOU'RE WITH ME! DO NOT LET HIM DIE! HOP TO SOLDIERS! THAT'S AN ORDER!"
"YES SIR!" chorused the cadets as they raced off towards their collective stations.
Ian went to launch himself from the roof but froze at the sight before him. "TEAM METABI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he called down to the trio who were running along the ground behind the trio of Titans currently headed towards Eren.
"THESE UGLY SON'S OF BITCHES HAVE LOST ALL INTEREST IN US! WE NEED TO GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO GRAB THEIR ATTENTION!" Metabi replied.
"HEY BIG GUY! OVER HERE!" the group began to taunt.
"YOU WALKING AWAY? OR DO YOU WANNA SHOVE OUR BLADES RIGHT UP YOUR SMELLY ASSES?!" Two of the three Titans turned at that and began to chase Team Metabi back towards the city.
"ALL RIGHT MAKE A BEELINE STRAIGHT FOR THE BUILDINGS!"
"They're insane!" Armin breathed,"Setting foot down there is suicide! If they get cornered somewhere, there'll be nothing they can do!"
"Yeah, they know that" Edith muttered as the group on the rooftops watched on.
"Move out! Let's go Team Metabi!" Ian called, launching from the building closely followed by the others. Edith followed after the elite squad, bringing up the rear and picking off the stragglers that made it through the squad. She was practically enveloped in the steaming Titan blood, the steam fogging up her goggles as played Titans left, right and centre.
I feel like-like I'm about to buckle under the weight…Mikasa, Armin…What are you doing? Get to the rooftops, you'll be killed. Eren thought following in the footsteps of his friends as they led him towards the gate.
'Why? Why throw caution to the wind and venture outside?' Because we're born free, all of us, free. Some don't believe it, some try to take it away, to hell with them! Water like fire, mountains of ice, the whole bit, lay your eyes on that and you'll know what freedom is!
That it's worth fighting for! Fight to live! Risk it all for even a glimmer of real freedom! It doesn't matter what's waiting outside the gate or what comes in! It doesn't matter how cruel the world is or how unjust! Fight! Fight! Fight! FIGHT!
"There's still two ahead of us!" Armin spotted.
"I'll take care of it!" Mikasa called, running forward, but she needn't have bothered. From either side of the Titans, two figures came flying in, one from the left and one from the right.
"OUT OF THE WAY!" called Rico as she took out the left eye of the Titan, causing it to falter slightly before zipping out of reach. Mikasa and Armin drove themselves forward with Mikasa taking out the Titan that Rico had disabled.
"LOOK OUT!" Edith called as she took out the second Titan. She launched her wires into the wall above her and sat a metre or two above the open gate as she watched the two Titans fall.
"GO!" roared Armin in tune with the roar from Eren's Titan as the boulder was shoved into the wall, perfectly blocking out the outside world and more importantly any more Titans.
Edith watched on in disbelief from where she swung up above the gate. He'd done it. Eren had actually done it. The small shockwave that had been produced from dumping the boulder, rocked her in her perch and she was suddenly glad that she had not clung to the wall like a spider as the cracks that now ran up the wall would have certainly meant trouble for her.
"Comrades, your sacrifices weren't…in vain" Rico murmured, tears glistening in her eyes as she shot up the green signal flare, "We have made history, this day belongs to humanity!"
"Definitely green smoke sir. Oh my God! The mission was a success" reported the lieutenant as she lowered the telescope from her eye.
"Deploy all reinforcements, bring the elite squad home" Pixis ordered.
Edith shook herself out of her reverie and let herself fall the short distance from the Wall to Eren's steaming Titan head. Picking her way over to where Armin was trying pull Eren from the carcass. "Mind the stragglers" Rico ordered Mikasa, her back turned to the Wall, "Ackerman, pull back"
"With all due respect, I'm not withdrawing until I recover Eren" Mikasa replied darting forward towards the steaming carcass.
"ARMIN! HOW IS HE?" she called up.
"UNCONSCIOUS AND SCORCHING TO THE TOUCH!" he replied, his arms were hooked under Eren's armpits and he was trying to pull him free, with not much success.
"Here, let me try" Edith stated as she knelt down and took Armin's place. With both hands locked around his chest and her feet planted on either side of him, with an almighty heave she began to pull him from the carcass.
"There we go" Edith muttered when she felt the carcass give way a little.
"We need to get him up the Wall" Armin stated as the trio were joined by Mikasa and Rico.
"I know, but he's fused to the carcass" Edith replied.
"Then we cut" Rico stated.
"Wait! We don't know what that might do!" Mikasa protested.
"Mikasa, he regrew and arm and a leg. I think he'll be fine" Edith replied.
Rico ignored the protests from Armin & Mikasa and instead turned to Edith "Ready?" Edith merely nodded and prepped herself to pull once more.
When steel meet flesh, Edith gave an almighty heave and pulled Eren from the nape and tumbled to the ground, cradling Eren's limp body to her. It took her a few moments to regain the breath knocked out of her from the fall, but was soon up and checking Eren over for any injuries he may have incurred. Armin soon joined the two on the ground, cradling his brother in his arms as Edith continued to check him over.
Whilst this was going on, two Titans had made their way towards the gate with one goal in mind and now that Eren was vulnerable it was the perfect time to strike. "EDITH! ARMIN!" Mikasa called as she prepped herself to attack the two stragglers. Down below, Eren cracked his eyes open at his sister's call and stared over Edith's shoulder and up at the two incoming Titans. The need to do something washed over him, but his exhaustion kept him from doing so.
But it didn't matter, as if called forth, the two Titans were shot down where they stood. The figure almost looked like a blur they were moving so fast, their movements graceful as they carved out flesh from the napes of the Titans.
Edith finally looked over her shoulder, having deemed Eren relatively okay (his healing factor was amazing) to see that the two Titans that had been heading for them had fallen in their tracks and a Scout stood atop the closest one, their back turned to them.
"Mikasa?" Armin breathed as the person in question joined the trio on the ground, surprising Armin.
"Who's that?" Mikasa asked.
"The wings…of freedom" Eren murmured catching sight of the logo emblazoned on the back of the green cloak. As if he had heard their mutterings, the figure turned and look over his shoulder down at them.
"Pay attention kiddos, this is the part where you explain what exactly it is I'm looking at"
"Afterward, thanks to the co-ordinate efforts of the Scout Regiment and the Garrison Regiment's core of engineers…Wall Rose once again stood as a strong structure against the Titan hordes. It was a full day's work dispatching the Titans who remained corralled within Trost's perimeter, during which the wall-mounted canons fired ceaselessly.
Most of the Titans nearest the Wall were wiped out by explosive shells, the few that remained once the smoke cleared were summarily cut down by the Survey Corps…During the so-called 'Clean-up Operation' two Titans, a four metre and a seven metre were captured alive and successfully restrained. However, all told 207 people were either dead or missing, 897 were counted among the injured. So while the reclamation of Trost represented the first true victory in its war against the Titans, too many soldiers had fallen for celebration to be in order…"-The Fall of Rose, Armin Arlert
The lukewarm water from the shower cascaded down Edith's exhausted body, the dried blood falling from her once matted hair and running down the drain. Despite the temperature of the water, the shower did wonders for her stiff muscles.
Her thoughts turned to the events that had followed the closure of Wall Rose. After checking Eren over, she had been ordered to hand Eren over to the Military Police, who in turn placed him under arrest. Funny how they turn up at just the right times, isn't it? Next she had returned to Trost HQ, to find that the Civilian doctors had finally been granted safe passage to begin the clean-up operation with the help of the cadets.
Thankfully, that meant that as a field medic she was able to skip out on the clean-up and properly rest for the first time in a couple of days. A couple of the older field medics who had been fit enough to serve, went to help with the clean-up operation, whilst the others remained here at HQ to rest and recuperate.
I could almost fall asleep right here. A quick rap on the bathroom door let her know that probably wasn't the best idea, the Trost HQ only had so many working showers and hot water was a luxury even here. Pulling herself from her thoughts, she shut off the shower and shrugged on the clean uniform that sat on the bench in the middle of the room.
Towelling herself off, she didn't really care about the fact that this was a shared bathroom. It was set up like the ones back up the cadet boot camp, where a set of communal showers lined one side of the wall and a row of lockers sat along the opposing wall. Benches ran up the centre of the room for people to place their dry things on, away from the wet floors.
A few of the showers were occupied by some of the older female medics, as they took advantage of what free time they had been granted to bathe and relax for a moment or two. After dumping her dirty towel in the hamper by the door, Edith made her way to barracks that had been set aside for the medics. It looked like it had been an infirmary once, with the beds all lined up in rows with crisp white sheets.
Barefoot, Edith padded quietly, weaving her way around the beds that lined the room and towards the free bed that she had saved for herself earlier.
Moving her ODM gear to sit under the bed, next to her boots, she folded her cadet jacket and placed it to the side before falling into bed. With the crisp white sheets pulled up over her head, and her damp braid poking out from underneath the sheets, she welcomed the blackness of sleep with open arms, taking advantage of the rest period she had been given.