"…Y'know Ymir had this huge plan that she going to sweep Krista/Historia off of her feet and whisk her away into this romantic wonderland where she'd propose…to her beau-down on one knee and everything…Guess that's gone out the window now that the shit has hit the fan"-Edith M. Brown Diary, 850
Spring 850
Titan Territory, Wall Maria
The Scouts thundered towards the Titans forest with a roaring war cry, their numbers much smaller than when they had left. The smaller Titans that currently occupied the edges of the forest were a worry at first, but were soon disregarded in favour of the familiar strike of Titan light lighting up the centre of the forest and everything else within the vicinity.
"Huh? That light…" Mikasa looked up.
"You saw it too, huh?" Armin kept pace with her, "It's coming from the forest! I think someone's transforming into a Titan!"
Further ahead, at the front of the pack, Erwin had taken notice of the light was well. "We're out of time" He muttered as he led the group closer to the forest's edge, "SOLDIERS DISPERSE!" He ordered, splitting the group in half, one going right and the other going left. "THE ENEMY HAS ASSUMED TITAN FORM! FIND THE HOSTAGES AND GET THEM OUTTA THERE!"
As the group skirted the edges of the Titan forest, large hands came flying out as they picked off those who got too close. Easy pickings really. "BATTLE IS NOT OUR OBJECTIVE! LOCATE, RECOVER AND RETREAT!" Erwin emphasised pushing the squads on passed their already lost comrades.
"Round up the horses" Hannes ordered, taking lead of his squadron.
"Right away sir!" Replied Smith as Hannes, Mikasa, Armin and Ryan flew up into the canopy along with the other squads.
"FIRST THING WE DO IS PINPOINT THE ENEMY AND THEN TELL THE OTHERS!" Hannes called over his shoulder, the order more directed at the hot-headed Mikasa than anyone else. "…THEY'RE FLEEING THROUGH THE WOODS SO STAY SHARP! BREAK!" And with that the quartet split up, heading in different directions as they searched for Edith and Eren.
Edith, Eren where are you? Ryan thought as he flew towards the South end of the forest. His thoughts were soon cut off by the bellowing roar of a Titan however, one that sounded very close in fact. That's a Titan! And it's close!
Zooming through the forest at breakneck speeds, Ryan soon came upon a scene he'd rather not have. Connie and his squad had paused in their pursuit when they had discovered Ymir in her Titan form clinging to the side of a large tree.
"…She's one of the people they took!" Connie called from next to Ymir, halting their superiors from killing her. When he was certain that they weren't going to attack, Connie turned on Ymir. "…What the hell happened? Where is everybody else? Is Eren okay? What about Edith? Or Bertolt and Reiner?" Ymir seemingly ignored him as she continued to look for something…or someone.
Ryan was soon joined by Jean, Mikasa and Armin who had obviously changed course when they had heard the roar, much like he had done. "So this is Ymir…" Armin breathed.
"Did she assume Titan form to take on Reiner and escape?" Mikasa suggested.
"YMIR! WHAT'S THE DEAL? DID YOU MANAGE TO GET AWAY FROM THEM? WHAT DIRECTION DID THEY GO?" Jean demanded.
"GIVE US SOMETHING TO GO ON! ANYTHING!" Sasha added, having appeared as well. And yet no reply was given in any form.
"SAY SOMETHING ALREADY! C'ME ON UGLY! WE'RE KINDA IN A RUSH!" Connie stomped on Ymir's head in a fit of anger, but Ymir ignored him still.
"Is she keeping an eye out for Reiner?" Armin mused. "Why…why is she looking at us one by one?"
"Do you think she's…looking for something?" Ryan threw out there. They soon got there answer.
"YMIR!" Historia cried coming into the clearing, "THERE YOU ARE! THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE ALL RIGHT!"
Ymir, who had been ignoring the rest of them for the better half of five minutes, suddenly snapped her head in Historia's direction before launching herself off of the tree and straight towards the blonde with jaws open wide.
"Wha-?"
"What…?"
"Did she just…? Ymir what are you doing?" The cadets breathed out comments of shock as they watched Ymir effectively eat Historia and take off through the forest like a monkey on a mission.
"Don't just stand there! Move your asses!" Jean ordered, taking the lead in the pursuit of Ymir & Historia with Armin, Ryan& Mikasa right on his tail.
"Shit! She's fast!" Ryan cursed.
"We're loosing her!" Cried Jean as Ymir pulled ahead.
"Why would she do that?" Question Mikasa.
"What if wrong with you people?" Retorted Jean, "Am I seriously the only one who saw this coming?"
"Well it's clear where her loyalties are now. She and Reiner are on the same side, we were lured into a trap!" Cried Armin.
"Fuck!" Jean cursed when a second set of Titan light lit up the clearing in front of them, whether at the sudden blinding or at the implications behind it, Ryan wasn't sure, nor in that moment did he care. For the sight before him made him stop cold.
With his suddenly heart in his very dry mouth and blood pounding in his ears, Ryan stared wide-eyed at the person before him. A very familiar person. "No…" Ryan breathed staring up at the limp form of his friend as she hung from the tree like a broken piñata.
"Is that…?" Armin trailed, coming up next to Ryan."Is she…?"
Refusing to believe what Armin was suggesting, Ryan rocketed forward and plucked Edith from her perch, where he then landed on one of the outcropping branches at the other end of the Titan forest. With shaky hands, he tried to disentangle her from the wires she had been wrapped in; at some point Jean had joined him to help.
Once free, Ryan quickly set to work in finding some sort of sign that she was okay. With bated breath he searched for her pulse beneath her neck-there! Lub-dub Lub-dub Lub-dub. Ryan let out the breath he didn't know he was holding as he carefully rolled Edith over onto her back.
Although he had visibly sagged in relief earlier, the sight that greeted him now was almost more disturbing. Markings grew from her eyes and ran down her cheeks like bloody tears and reminded him very much of the ones on a Titan shifter after they had emerged from their carcass. And worst of all? The markings glowed a brilliant red, like lightning dancing beneath her skin.
On her other side, Jean sucked in a breath through his teeth unable to tear his eyes away from her. "What the hell…?" He breathed.
"Ryan!" Armin called from the next tree over, "Is she…?"
"She's alive!" Ryan called back, still cradling the redhead in his arms. "Just unconscious!"
Turning back to Edith, he freed a hand so as to try and awaken her. "Ed? Ed can you hear me? Ed?" Ryan gently slapped Edith's cheeks in an effort to wake her up. And she did a little. Edith's eyelids fluttered rapidly and her eyes rolled back and forth beneath them as if she was dreaming.
When her face scrunched up in pain and mutterings fell from her lips, he knew it was a nightmare. "…No…Nona…stop please…hurts…Nona" Edith whined as tears fell from her eyes.
"Whose Nona?" Jean asked quietly, but received no reply.
"Edith? Edith? Can you hear me? I need to wake up now" Ryan tried again, "Edith?"
"Shit! No! They're getting away with Eren!" Armin's voice caught the pair's attention, causing them to look away from Edith's prone form and out across the landscape where Titan Ymir clung to the back of the Armoured Titan along with Bertolt and a bound Eren.
"MOVE IT! GET ON YOUR DAMN HORSES!" Hannes ordered when he appeared with Connie & his squad on his heels
"Sir!" The gathered group chorused.
"But what about Edith? She's not even awake!" Jean turned to Ryan who propped Edith up against the trunk of the tree before facing her.
"Oh please don't kill me for this…" Ryan muttered under his breath (although if the odd look he was getting from Jean was anything to go by, it wasn't as quiet as he would have liked) and raised his hand in the air.
SLAP!
"EDITH! WAKE UP!" Ryan yelled in her face, slightly guilty at the bright red hand print now covering her right cheek.
"…R-Ryan? J-Jean…?" Edith blinked groggily at the two before her as she fought to keep her eyes open. The sudden pain in her cheek was nothing compared to the pounding in her head, but she still raised a hand to the new throb present there, "Wha-?"
"Good, you're up. Let's go"
Erwin looked over his shoulder at the Armoured Titan as it emerged from the forest; still wary of the other ones hiding along the forest's edge. He knew that their window for retrieving Eren was slowly closing and with the sun already setting on the horizon, visibility would become non-existent soon. They had to do this now.
"RIDE! LET THE TIANS CHASE YOU! ALL SQUADS FOLLOW MY LEAD!" Erwin charged away from the forest with a select few Titans on his heels.
"DO WHAT? ERWIN YOU CONNIVING BASTARD! YOU'RE USING US AS BAIT AGAIN?!" Roared one of the MPs.
"IT'S THE ONLY WAY! YOU FOUGHT WELL AS MPS, NOW GIVE YOUR ALL AS SOLDIERS! THE ARMOURED TITAN MUST BE STOPPED BEFORE HE TAKES EREN! FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!"
With heavy hearts and fear-ridden souls the Scouts and MPs rode forth, luring the small forest Titans towards the retreating enemy.
"Reiner's too slow! We've got em!" Called Jean as the group followed close on the enemy's heels.
"I won't hesitate this time, I'll kill them without a thought" Mikasa vowed, her eyes dark "…If Ymir feels like getting in the way, so much the worse for her. This ends here and now, I swear it!"
"What the hell…?" Ryan trailed off as he happened to glance up just in time to see Ymir hold up a rather soggy Historia, seemingly coughing up her lungs. Ryan winced when he heard Edith let out a hiss of pain behind him as their horse stumbled over a pothole. The arm around his waist tightened its hold on him as they continued on.
Despite her the extension of her prior injuries, Edith seemed to be doing well. Though it was undesirable for here to be moving at the moment (as he had yet to take full stock of her injuries), she was able to keep her eyes open and move around. The big headache and bruise on her head did cause him concern though. And then there was the red markings…just what was going on?
Up ahead, the sound of whistling steam caught his attention, bringing him back to focus. Ymir's Titan still clung to the back of the Armoured, but her upper half had emerged from the nape and appeared to be talking to a rather distraught Historia.
It was at that moment that Eren chose to wake and what he saw set his heart aflutter. Soldier after soldier each launched an attack on the Armoured, trying to set him free. It wasn't until Mikasa leapt forth and sliced through one of Ymir's eyes that some leeway was finally made.
Ryan could only watch from the ground as Mikasa landed on the Armoured's shoulder and stalked towards Bertolt who fled from her attack. "REINER! PROTECT US!" He roared as Reiner slapped his hands around his neck, pinning both Bertolt and Eren inside. Not that that deterred Mikasa.
With Ymir's intervention, Mikasa was forced to disengage from Reiner and take care of her first. "Alright then! Looks like Ymir goes first! RAAH!"
"MIKASA! NO!" Historia cried, putting herself between Mikasa's oncoming blades and Ymir. "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO KILL YMIR!"
"That all depends on her!" Mikasa retorted from the back of Reiner's head, "What will it be? She can step aside or she can die! Her choice!"
"THAT'S NOT FAIR! She'll die if she doesn't go along with whatever Bertolt and Reiner tell her to do! She's screwed either way!"
"Tch, listen there's only so many lives I can give a damn about! Cruel, but that's the world our enemies gave us six years ago; sorry I don't have nay heartstrings left for you to tug on. You want compassion? Move on, you want fair? Tough shit. Time's wasting, pick your side Historia: Eren or the bitch I'm gonna kill!"
With Ymir, Mikasa and Historia sufficiently distracted, the other members of 104th cadet corps took to the air intent on freeing Eren from his fleshy cage. Other than Mikasa and Historia's rather loud…conversation of few moments ago, the one between Bertolt and his other classmates was much quieter in comparison. Which meant that Ryan only had their reactions to go on.
It wasn't until Hannes called out an order that Ryan's attention snapped to the horizon ahead of them. "OI! GUYS! GET DOWN FROM THERE AND TAKE COVER!" His eyes narrowed on the horizon, "What the hell is Erwin doing? He's off his rocker. LOOK! THE LUNATIC'S LEADING THE TITANS STRAIGHT FOR US!"
And indeed he was. Backed by the setting sun, Erwin led the other half of the soldiers and Titans alike in their direction. Holy shit!
"Some Titans possess unique abilities…The Colossus Titan's super hot steam & the Armoured Titan's reinforced skin are examples of this…Origin of these powers are unknown…"-Titans through the Ages: Special Abilities, Geoff Bramwood
Erwin locked eyes with the Armoured as they came into view. With Titans on his heels and soldiers on the Armoured, he knew this was probably going to turn into a shit show. "JUMP DAMN YOU! GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE!" Hannes ordered as the cadets evacuated themselves from the Armoured.
"SQUADRONS BREAK!" Erwin ordered, "MAKE THE TITANS SCATTER!"
In an effort to overwhelm the enemy with their own kind, little thought had gone into what would happen to those still seated upon the Titans. In Historia's case, Ymir savagely went to work tearing through all who even tried to touch the blonde. As for Eren, he was still trapped behind Reiner's skeletal hands and bound to Bertolt with nowhere to go.
All of a sudden Reiner let out a roar that bellowed across the fiords. Everyone slammed to a halt at the call, all too aware of what that could possibly mean. Would he call upon other Titans to help him like Annie had? Or was it just a shout of frustration? Either way it wasn't going to be good.
"What's going on? Is this hell?" Questioned Jean. The soldiers were far enough away from the Titans swarming Reiner that they could watch on with less fear than if they had been underfoot; but that's not to say they were without fear all together.
"Not yet, but it will be!" Erwin called as he raced passed, "ALL SOLDIERS! CHARGE! WE'VE COME TO THE MOMENT OF TRUTH! MANKIND'S FATE IS DECIDED NOW! THERE IS NO FUTURE WHERE WE WILL RECLAIM THESE LANDS WITHOUT EREN AND THERE NEVER WILL BE! GO! RECOVER EREN FROM THE ARMOURED TITAN AND RETREAT! YOUR HEART AND SOUL TO THE CAUSE!"
While the soldiers were ordered forward, what medics had survived were left gathered on the plateau overlooking the battle. There was no used wasting good medics. Many shifted on their horses as they shared the feeling of unease watching their comrades run forth into battle, many looking death in the face.
"No…!" Edith breathed over his shoulder as they watched Erwin get ripped from his horse, his arm lodged firmly in a Titan's mouth. And yet Erwin ordered the fleet onwards.
"I SAID ADVANCE GODDAMMIT! EREN'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, DO NOT FALTER!"
The next few moments passed by in a series of flying limbs and blurred actions. One moment the group had been charging towards the swarm of Titans and the next Mikasa had swooped in to grab Eren who was free falling after Erwin had reappeared and set him free; all thanks to Armin channelling Hanji in his psychological torture.
"ALL SOLDIERS RETREAT!"
With that call, all remaining soldiers turned on their heels and headed back towards the Walls…Or at least they would have had had the sudden appearance of Titan flying overhead not stopped them in their tracks.
"He's tossing Titans now? That son of a bitch has gone berserk!" Jean remarked dodging out of the way of any of the flying debris.
"Holy cra-!" Was all Ryan got out before both he and Edith were tossed from their horse by the shockwave of the next Titan thrown. Caught amongst the flying debris, Ryan distantly recognised the sound of Armin calling out for Mikasa and Eren before both he and Edith hit the ground, flopping over like ragdolls.
Gritting his teeth, Ryan was able to push himself up onto shaky hands and then finally fall backwards onto his ass. He quickly searched for Edith, hoping against hope that she was okay. Being tossed around would not have been good for those previous injuries. He worried.
"Oh thank God…" Ryan breathed upon spotting Edith a few meters away and sitting upright. Though she was hunched over and clutching onto her head in pain with whimpers and tears escaping her; that was not what caused his heart to drop to his feet.
Just beyond Edith, there he stood. Ryan stared wide-eyed and full of fear at the Titan grinning down at them with a mouth full of boulder-sized fangs and bloody lips. Never before had Ryan felt so much fear, fear that kept him rooted in place, fear he never hoped to feel again.
Is this Death…?