"It appears a hair-trigger temper, is the one factor all Titan shifters share…Eren and Reiner especially so"-Edith M. Brown Diary, 850
"Seven Scouts camped at the ruins of Utgard Castle for the night…The Scouts found themselves overtaken by a Titan horde, their chances for survival were low. But when all seemed lost, one of their own made a shocking transformation…The main force of the Scout Regiment swooped in and engaged the enemy, the Titan assault fell before their blades. However, standing on the wreckage of battle, Eren and the others bore witness to another heartbreaking confession…"-Trials of a Rookie, Armin Arlert
Spring 850
Walltop, Wall Rose
Rain had set in by the time the Scout Regiment had made it back to Wall Rose where they quickly set about hauling their supplies and injured up onto the Wall. "That's it! Bring it up slowly!" called Moblit, as he and others watched over the slow process of bringing up the injured, "Steady the ropes, please!"
"What's the verdict? How bad a shape is Ymir in?" Eren asked as his gaze followed Ymir's body.
"…Well, she's missing an arm and a leg and her insides are scrambled. If she was normal, she'd be a goner" Edith replied watching over Eren's shoulder.
"Normal huh?"
A grunt off to the side caught Eren's attention, pulling him away from where Ymir lay. Peering over at the noise, he saw that Reiner was struggling to climb up the Wall with one good arm. "Here, grab my hand" Eren offered.
"Thanks" Reiner grunted, as Eren hauled him up.
Off to the side, Krista stood in front of a pile of wooden crates where Ryan's bandaged form sat hunched, watching the conversation like a cat would a toy. Unlike her usual quiet disposition, Krista was outright begging Hanji to listen to her pleas. "Please! You've gotta believe me!" Krista begged with her hands clasped to her chest, "I'm telling the truth! Ymir could've run away any time she wanted and she chose to stay and fight the Titans to save our lives! She had nothing to gain from putting herself on the line like that. Doesn't that speak loyalties about where her loyalties lie?"
"Krista, anyone with a brain can see how much Ymir cares for you" Ryan spoke up softly, directing his gaze to the upset blonde, "Hell, everyone knows she'd do literally anything for you, no questions asked. In this instance, it just happened that she turned into a Titan to protect you. Sure she cares for the rest of us, but not to the same lengths as she does you. I mean, if the rescue at Utagrd was anything to go by…But surely you can see how this might affect everyone else? Whose to say what she would do if she thought that you were in danger because of her connection with you? What would she do? Would she do it again?"
Ryan hung his head once more, turning his gaze back to his clasped hands as he continued to think aloud. "I know you care for her, and she you. But the world doesn't revolve around you two; there are more than just you two in this equation. Surely you can understand that?"
There was a beat of silence as the two women before mulled over his words, Hanji clearly & analytically and Krista with a sour expression, her emotions bubbling near the surface. "She should have told us before, yes" Krista retorted after a moment, "She had no right to keep her power a secret and it's hard to look past how much humankind might've gained from what she's been keeping to herself. But I think…I think she was just worried about what people might do to her"
Krista paused, mulling over her next words before she spoke again, "Clearly her priorities have changed now. This isn't nearly as complicated as it looks, no one is closer to Ymir than me and there's no question in my mind about whose side she's on"
"Is that so?" Hanji questioned, "Well, under the circumstances, it certainly behooves us to be friendly. Her priorities aside, I wager what she can teach us about the enemy is beyond measure, probably. Even so, you say this isn't even as complicated as it looks, but from where I'm standing the world gets more complicated by the hour" She peered off to the side, watching the medic team set Ymir's prone body down as she healed.
"Oh uh, Historia Reiss? Was that what you said your name was?" Hanji said. Ryan perked up at the question, he too curious about the sudden name change.
"I did, that's correct" Krista admitted.
"Isn't Reiss the name of a noble family?" Ryan asked, latching on to the familiar name.
"Yes, it is" Krista bowed her head and crossed her arms as she replied; turning slightly away from the two next to her.
"Huh…Historia, nice ta meet'cha!" Hanji greeted, placing her hand on the blonde's shoulder.
"Thank you" Krista breathed before saluting and making her way over to where Ymir lay.
Hanji then turned to Ryan, observing the young man's tired hunched form as he absentmindedly fiddle with his fingers in thought. Out of the soldiers stuck at Utagrd Castle, he was one of the least wounded with only the small cut on his forehead (now hidden behind a pink flowery bandaid) being his most serious.
"Ryan, what do you know about Edith's past?" Hanji asked, seemingly out of the blue. Her thoughts drifted back to Pastor Nick's advice about the young woman and the unexplainable anger Edith held for the Pastor. Hanji was eager to pry her brain open and take a peek at whatever secrets lay inside. But she needed proof first.
"Eddie? She doesn't really talk about her childhood much" Ryan replied, surprised by the sudden turn of events. He leant back against the crates at his back as he continued, "I mean she's mentioned Eight Mile a couple of times, plus a few siblings here and there but other than that…"
"Nothing unusual? Anything that stood out?"
"Uh…she likes the dark? I'm not sure what you want me to say…Is Eddie in trouble?"
"…Don't worry about it. Just thinking"
"Okay…"
"How's she doing?" Hanji asked standing over the group gathered around Ymir. Edith knelt of Ymir's right whilst Krista sat across from her, on Ymir's left. At the head of the group, Moblit stood hovering over them.
"Comatose, but stable" Edith replied "The bleeding's stopped though steam seems to be coming out over wounds"
"The best course of action is taking her back to Trost where the poor girl can get proper medical care. She's in your hands"
"Consider it done"
"Right then, on with our mission: finding the hole and patching it up" Hanji left Krista and Edith to watch over Ymir as she and Moblit made their way further down the Wall.
"Ah! Son of a bitch!" Reiner hissed, clutching to his wounded arm as pain pinged through it.
"You okay over there, Reiner?" Eren asked over his shoulder as he hauled Armin up onto the Walltop.
"Not by a long shot" Reiner replied, holding his head in his hands as Bertolt rose and glanced over at his friend, "Titan almost gnawed my arm off…It's pathetic! All I could think was…this is how I go"
"Hm…What else are you supposed to think at a time like that? You're only human"
"Don't you get it?!" It almost seemed like Reiner was having a breakdown; Bertolt couldn't help but feel alarmed at the sudden change in his friend. "This was my second time! Ugh! Armin, remember? Go on, tell 'em how Annie nearly crushed me like an insect"
"Yeah…" Armin breathed from where he knelt trying to catch his breath.
"That's twice I've nearly died now. What are the chance I'll survive a third time? This is what it really means to…what it is to be a soldier. Your spirit breaks, and the body follows…But no good whining about it now. Least not until we can plug up the Wall" And the calm mask Reiner usually wore was back in place, bringing Bertolt relief as he turned back to his task but kept an ear out for Reiner's conversation.
"That's true, you two have been driven far enough away from your home town as it is" Eren agreed as Reiner dropped his hand from his face, "This is it, this is where we draw the line"
"T-truer words were never spoken! Home! Let's go!" Bertolt stuttered as he detected an underlying message within Eren's words and making both he & Reiner unsettled at the insinuation. "We've been here long enough! Compared to everything else we've had to go through, the rest is easy!" Bertolt grinned, kneeling down in front of Reiner.
"You're right" Reiner breathed, the two teens continuing their conversation unaware of how little sense they were making to the others. It sounds like they're talking desertion! Armin thought as he watched the two interact. "We don't have much further to go before it's done!"
"What are you guys talking about?" Eren asked, confused beyond belief.
"Thanks, I needed that" Connie breathed as Mikasa hauled him up onto the Wall; Sasha hovered behind them.
"Are you injured?" questioned Mikasa.
"Nah, I'm okay. But Reiner's wounded and Ymir's sure seen better days" The girls followed his gaze over to where Ymir lay surrounded by Moblit, Edith and Krista.
"Who would have ever pegged her for a Titan?" Sasha murmured clasping tight to the clasp of her cloak. "Are they-?"
"Sasha!" Mikasa cut off.
"Are we all on the same page?" Hanji asked joining the trio with Ryan and Moblit hot on her heels, "We'll decide what to do with Ymir later, oh and Connie? Chin up, we'll order a squad to investigate your village but for now, stay focused. We want our energy on the task at hand, clear?" Hanji placed a hand on Connie's shoulder in comfort.
"Crystal" Connie chirped.
"It's troubling, you'd expect to see the area to be teeming with Titans" Hanji looked out over the land between Rose and Maria; her attention soon being caught by the approaching squads.
"Hannes?" Mikasa asked, the group joining Hanji on the Wall's edge.
"Is that the Garrison's advanced squad? Tell me they've located the breach" said Hanji.
"Wall's…perfectly fine" Hannes grunted to the group of Scouts in front of him whilst he clung tight to the Wall's edge.
"What?" Eren breathed bending down to help pull Hannes up onto the Wall.
"Spent all night trying to find out where they're getting in. But between Trost and Krolva district there's nothing, no hole anywhere"
"That's impossible!" Hanji exclaimed.
"We ran into a search party from Krolva and retraced their steps; not a single Titan on the way here either"
"But we know for a fact that there were Titans on this side of Wall Rose" Armin protested.
"C'me on, how much have you had to drink? Seriously?" Eren commented.
"Why you little-! Wait a minute, hold on what are you kids even doing here?" Hannes replied. That shut the Shiganshina trio up real quick.
"If there's no breach, then I guess we have to change tactics" Hanji mused, "We head back to Trost immediately" The surrounding Scouts moved to do as ordered, gathering all their gear for the trip back.
"You'd be smart to keep your guard up" Hannes warned the trio, "We'll go on ahead of you" He then turned and leapt off of the Wall, reuniting with his squad.
"How can there be no hole in the Wall?" Eren whispered.
"Excellent question, nothing like this has happened in five years. Why now, all of a sudden?" Armin mused as he, Sasha and Mikasa moved to join the others.
"Feels like everything is spiralling out of control" Sasha agreed.
"What if there's a species of Titan we haven't seen yet? Like ones that know how to dig?" Hanji wondered.
"That would definitely make their entry point hard to find" Moblit agreed.
"We can hypothesis later, our first concern is Ymir"
"Titans being a close second, even with the horses"
Eren made to move after them but was stopped by Reiner and Bertolt. "Eren, we should talk. You got a moment?" Reiner asked.
"Sure, I guess" Eren replied, turning to the duo.
"Five years ago, we compromised Wall Maria and launched an attack on humanity. I'm the Armoured Titan, he's the Colossal"
"What are you talking about?"
"Why are you telling him? Reiner! No! Stop!" Bertolt protested, shaking the blonde's arm. Not that it did much, Reiner just ignored him and ploughed on.
"We were on a mission, our goal was to ensure mankind's extinction. But now, there's no need for that. Eren, if you want the Walls to remain standing it's simple, just come with Bertolt and I. Did you understand?"
"Understand? What the fuck is there to understand?" Eren exclaimed.
"Listen to me! I need you to do exactly as I say"
"Lifts are required to transport materials across the Walls. Various mechanisms have been employed to not only make assembly and usage convenient, but also creates easy adaptability to emergencies…They are extremely lightweight"-Public Information: Lifts
Dark clouds and misty rain had set in by the time Eren had seemingly wrapped his head around the idea that the two comrades before him were in fact the same Titans that had taken everything from him and started it all.
"Look, I know this is sudden but we have to go" Reiner pleaded.
"Right now?" Eren demanded, "Where would you take me?"
"I can't tell you, not yet anyway. Just…think of it as our hometown, okay? So what's it going to be? Not a bad deal, right? Chance to avert a major crisis"
"…I'm not so sure. You expect to believe that after all that you expect me to skip off into the sunset with you?" Eren sassed, well aware of how much he sounded like Edith just then. Damn, she's rubbing off on me.
"You guys, get a move on!" Armin called having glanced back at the trio behind them, "We're heading out"
Dammit! I didn't want to believe what I was hearing yesterday. Eren thought staring up at the grey clouds with his crossed arms, as his thoughts drifted back to the conversation in the Ehrmich stables 12 hours earlier.
Spring 850
Stables, Ehrmich District
12 Hours Earlier
"Hm" Hanji hummed reading over the report that Sasha had just delivered.
"Captain? Is something wrong?" Eren asked.
"Huh?" Hanji looked up from the papers in her hand, "Oh, uh, well, I was finally able to get my hands on the background report on Annie Leonhart"
"Annie?"
"Yeah. It took longer than I was hoping for, the paper trail's a bit of a catastrophe at the moment. Bureaucracy, huh? Anyway, according there were two other cadets in the 104th Cadet Corps who hailed from the same region. I have their names: one Reiner Braun and Bertolt Hoover"
The gathered rookies couldn't believe what they were hearing, Reiner and Bertolt as Titans? Those two were about as far from Titans as you could get, what with Reiner being a big teddy bear and Bertolt barely saying boo to a ghost.
"Not much survives in the way of records" Hanji continued, "And thanks to the chaos five years ago, what we have on them is unreliable. However we do know that during the long-range scouting formation, their unit was given false intel; they were among those who were intentionally misled into thinking that Eren was in the right wing"
"Wait a minute, that was the section Annie attacked!" Edith gasped in realisation.
"What? What does that mean?" Sasha asked.
"Well it's entirely possible that they told Annie where they thought Eren was" Armin added on, following the same thought as Edith.
"Huh? Why would they do that?"
"Where are you going with this Armin? You can't just accuse-!" Eren interjected only to be cut off by Hanji.
"I totally agree, coincidence doesn't establish relationship. Baring that in mind, I'm curious to know how the three interacted while in training. What can you tell me?" Hanji stated.
"I knew Bertolt and Reiner were from the same region as Annie, but I never saw them act friendly" Armin admitted.
"Same with me, you'd never catch them shooting the breeze and when they did talk it was pretty curt. Plus it's not like Annie was very social to begin with" added Eren.
"Yeah at meals she always seemed to prefer eating by herself" Said Sasha.
"I've got nothing expect maybe that-" Mikasa started only to be cut off by Eren.
"Guys, what are we doing? These are our comrades we're talking about. Yeah, sure Bertolt never has a lot to say and Reiner's like everyone's big brother, y'know? You really think he's capable of lying to us?"
"Eren does have a point" Armin admitted, "Think about it, Reiner fought the Female Titan with everything he had and almost got himself squeezed to a bloody pulp in the process"
"What's the matter?" Eren asked when Armin let out a small gasp, his eyes widening as he continued.
"He pushed free of her grip at the last minute. Afterwards though, Annie changed her course, in fact she ran straight to where you were. I…I mentioned that you might've been rear of the centre rank. But there's no way she could of heard me, she wasn't in earshot at the time"
"You've gotta be kidding"
"Do you recall if he seemed unusually interested in Eren's location?" Hanji asked, watching on as Armin's eyes widen further in realisation.
"Oh no…I only brought up his position in the first place…because Reiner asked where I thought Eren might be" Armin breathed "Something else, once he broke free, the Female Titan stood there staring at her palm as if transfixed by something that he had carved onto it with his blades. Maybe Reiner…"
"…What is wrong with you people? The man's been with us from the beginning…" Eren tried.
"Well, so was Annie and look what happened there" Edith reasoned.
"But that's-"
"Enough!" Hanji cut in, "All of you, listen up. If we cross paths with the pair in question, don't give them any indication of what we have discussed and under NO circumstances are you to broach the topic of Annie Leonhart in their company. Before we can ascertain whether they're co-conspirators, we must find, lure and contain them underground. That's the plan, are we clear?"
"Clear!" Chorused the gathered Scouts.
"You're just tired, that's it, right?" Eren excused, clasping onto Reiner's shoulder almost as if he were trying to convince the blonde of his own words. "'Help me out here, Bertolt. You're nerves are shot, you don't know what you're saying"
"Huh, yeah, it's the battle fatigue talking!" Bertolt grasped onto the excuse that Eren had so unknowingly given to them.
"It's okay, you're okay. If you were the Armoured Titan, what's the endgame here? We wouldn't having this conversation in the first place! What did you expect me to do? Say yes? Go with you just cause you asked politely?"
"Right, not thinking straight, am I?" Reiner muttered, staring off into space with a crazed look on his face, "Barely know what I'm saying; must've gone off the deep end"
"C'me on, let's go" Eren turned to follow the others, hiding his face in the neck of his cloak as the wind picked up and took the ragged red Wall flag with it. The sudden noise caught the attention of everyone still remaining on the Walltop, their gazes snapping back to where the flag had stood only moments before. But it wasn't really the flag they were paying attention to. No, it was the ever-increasing conversation between the trio at the back.
"That's the problem, I've been here too long for my own good. Three years of this madness, surrounded by idiots. We were kids! What did we know about anything? Why'd there have to be people like this? Why? Why did I let myself devolve into such a half-ass piece of shit? It's too late now!" Reiner snapped, pulling sling off from around his neck, letting the dirty cloth fall to the ground by his feet.
"I'll be damned if I know what's right anymore! Who cares? It is what it is, there's no choice but to face what I've done" Steam billowed from the open wound on his arm plain as day, for all to see, "As a warrior! No road left but the one that leads to the end!"
"Reiner?! Right now? Here?! Are we doing this?!" Bertolt demanded angrily.
"Yes" Reiner hissed, "Right here, right now. WE SETTLE THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!" Reiner charged at Eren only to be stopped by Mikasa who had suddenly appeared behind Eren with her blades raised. Slicing first through Reiner's hands and then through Bertolt's neck, she stood atop Bertolt, intending to kill him.
"EREN! GET OUTTA HERE!" Mikasa roared, baring her blade down to finish Bertolt off only for Reiner to knock her off and straight over the edge. Thankfully she was able to latch on with her ODM gear, but her nerves were shot. She had left Eren up there alone, whatever happened next would be on her incompetence.
"BERTOLT!" Reiner cried, turning to his friend who lay gurgling and clutching to his heavily bleeding neck.
"EREN! RUN!" Armin cried, leading the charge back towards the group as Titan light lit up Reiner and Bertolt, shooting high into the sky.
The shockwave that was emitted from the transformation sent everyone and everything flying into the air. Crates, gear and Scouts alike flew off of the Wall; it was only through sheer luck and determination that many held on. In a fit of panic, Edith had leapt over Ymir's form, bracing the two against the raging hot steam coming from the Colossal.
Where Reiner and Bertolt had stood only moments before the Armoured and Colossal Titan now stood. Well, not so much stood as enveloped, in the Colossal's case. Despite Eren's best efforts, the Armoured quickly gripped him tight, picking him up like he was a doll. At the same time Bertolt reached forth to grab Ymir.
"YMIR!" Krista cried following the large Titan's hand towards her friend. At the cry, Edith looked up in time to see the large hand growing closer. Thinking quickly, she straddled the larger brunette trying her best to keep the both of them grounded whilst still being mindful of Ymir's injuries; as she swiped upwards with her transformed prosthetic. The bladed arm sliced through the palm of the hand like butter, making the hand retreat quickly, before slamming down next to the pair, only just grazing Edith's prosthetic arm. Edith let out a wailing cry of pain at the sensation; even though it was only a graze, it was still enough to rip the metal limb from her body. Clutching tight to her bleeding lump of a shoulder, she didn't even see the hand coming back at another angle and swiping the two of them up in a tight grip until it was too late.
Tears streamed down Eren's face as he was forcefully taken by the Armoured; struggling on the tight grip around his waist, he couldn't help but think of all the times he had interacted with Reiner and Bertolt. "I'm going to return to the homeland that was taken from me" Reiner declared, "I will do it, no matter what!"
Bertolt, Reiner…Damn you! YOU TRAITORS! Eren bit down hard on his hand, his own transformation enveloping him quickly, tearing off Reiner's arm in the process. With a roar of anger, Eren let his emotions take control, promising pain and so much more.