Achilles and the remaining soldiers from the Trost district got Eren back to the barracks where they were given their orders after the titans breached the walls. Marco, Achilles, Sasha, Jean, and Daz all stood in a circle, while Jean conversed with Christa, Ymir, Conny, and Annie. "It's over! We can't keep fighting and fighting until we're all eaten! We need to leave NOW!" Daz exclaimed. "Quit it, Daz! Pull yourself together! We're all scared, it's not just you!" Marco shouted. Marco looked at Sasha "Look at Sasha she's still holding her head even after a titan ambushed her!" Marco exclaimed. Sasha yelped and thinking quickly she clutched her stomach "Ahhh! My stomach... Hurts so bad! I... I'm not sure I can fight anymore." Sasha groaned in fake pain. Marco and Achilles stared at her in surprise, Daz suddenly grabbed his head "I-I Can't go on!" Daz shouted in anguish. "Dammit! Enough already!" Marco shouted. "Achilles, can you please talk some sense into these two?" Marco asked. Achilles looked at Sasha who was glancing up at them hoping she was fooling them with her fake stomach ache "Do you want some indigestion tablets?" Achilles asked sarcastically. "Oh no, thanks I'm good." Sasha said realizing she wasn't fooling anyone. Achilles turned to Daz "Now listen need to control our fear, and keep fighting." Achilles replied. "That's easy for you to say! How the hell do you to stay so calm the whole time?!" Daz demanded. "Seriously, we are running out of time here!" Marco exclaimed. Suddenly a cannon shot was heard causing all of them to jump "Was that gunfire?" Jean asked.
Everyone looked at the door which lead to the base's courtyard that Eren, Mikasa and Armin had been taken through by Kitz not long ago "What the hell's going on in there?!" Achilles shouted fearing for the lives of his friends. "Well we can find out." Annie said tapping her gear with a smirk. Achilles smirked as well when he realized what she was talking about Annie, Achilles, Reiner, and Jean all used their ODM gear to get to the roof of the base silently and they stood up there watching what was happening. They saw thirty or maybe forty Garrison soldiers each with their weapons drawn. Staring at a massive cloud of steam "It's done?" Kitz asked. Seconds later as the steam dissipated they saw; something horrific, there was what looked like the torso of a titan without any skin, just muscle and bone but it wasn't alive, it had one green eye, and an outstretched arm which again was only covered by muscle and was facing in the direction of the cannon that had just fired. Achilles and Jean gasped in shock while Reiner and Annie stood there like nothing happened.
The Garrison soldiers all drew their swords more steam began to appear as the body began to evaporate, before the steam appeared Eren, Mikasa, and Armin could be seen kneeling and talking about something but it was impossible to tell what. Moments later a person could be seen running out of the cloud of steam Kitz looked at the silhouette in horror and raised his hand "Stop!" He demanded. Armin stood in front of him and raised his hands in the air in a surrender "Eren is not our enemy!" Armin shouted. "We intend to tell you everything we know." He said. Kitz paused "You say he's not the enemy... Prove it!" Kitz demanded. "There is no need for proof! How we perceive him is not the problem here! Numerous people must've seen him fighting the titans! And they must've also seen the titans swarm him! They prey on him the same as they do to us! This is an unequivocal fact!" Armin shouted. Many of the Garrison soldiers looked at each other, Kitz thought for a moment "Prepare to attack! Don't listen to this trickery!" Kitz shouted. The Garrison soldiers readied their weapons, Armin gasped as he looked back at Eren and Mikasa.
Armin saluted Kitz "I have devoted my life to the protection and restoration of humanity! I will be more satisfied to see my life end in defense of my convictions!!" Armin shouted. "If we combine Eren's power with our remaining soldiers, it may be enough to take back the Trost District! At the very least, we could go out in a blaze of glory for humanity! I will risk everything for his tactical value!" Armin screamed. Achilles gripped his swords but Annie held an arm out in front of him "Don't." She said. Achilles released his swords and watched as some bald man with a Garrison soldier uniform and a red and gold sash walked up behind Kitz and as Kitz was just about to give the signal to fire the cannon the bald man grabbed his arm "Halt, Kitz. Like always you're a delicate fawn despite your size." The man said. "Commander Pyxis...!" Kitz said surprised. "Can't you see this boy's heartfelt salute? I think we should listen to what they have to say." Pyxis said.
"Let's go back... We need to prepare for our next mission." Reiner said placing a hand on Achilles' shoulder. Reiner walked off, Annie and Jean followed soon after, Achilles glanced back for a second before he too walked away. They arrived back where the rest of the soldiers were congregating, Achilles saw Daz standing there looking terrified "Oh God... Are... Are we going to have to go back among those monsters? Please tell me this is a bad dream..." Daz said. Achilles sighed, "I'll take those titans on myself if I have to." Achilles replied. "What? Are you serious?" Daz asked. "W- well, I suppose, we don't need to do everything together, right? or at least you don't have to stick with me ALL of the time." Daz replied. "Just try not to get killed." Achilles replied. "Oh man, what am I gonna do? I-I just want to go home and see my folks!" Daz said with a slight whimper.
Kitz pinched the bridge of his nose "Pyxis... what is he thinking?" Kitz mumbled. He placed his hands at his sides "But still he's the commander, and we must follow orders." Kitz thought to himself. "Hey! Are you soldiers ready for action?" Kitz asked. Everyone saluted Kitz, right away "Yes sir!" The soldiers shouted. "Then line up! The commander is about to explain the strategy!" Kitz shouted. All of the soldiers stood at the base of the wall, murmuring to each other until Pyxis showed himself standing on top of the wall facing the soldiers "ATTENTION!" Pyxis shouted. All of the murmuring stopped instantly and everyone looked up at Pyxis standing on top of the wall. "I will now explain how he plan to retake the Trost District!" Pyxis shouted. "First I would like to introduce, Cadet Eren Jaeger!" Pyxis exclaimed. Eren stepped forward into view. "He is the success story of a titan transformation experiment done in complete secret." Pyxis said. Eren saluted the crowd, and everyone looked at each other with expressions of unimaginable shock and fear. "After he turns into a titan, he will carry the large boulder that is near the front gate, and he shall use that to seal the hole in the gate! Your duty is to protect him while he does that!" Pyxis exclaimed. "Lies! All this talk about a human weapon is nothing but lies!" Daz shouted. "If you expect me to die here... I quit!" Shouted a garrison soldier. Many followed after him.
Kitz drew his blade "You traitors will pay for your insolence!" Kitz shouted. "Listen! Those who choose to leave will not not face disciplinary action!" Pyxis shouted. Kitz froze and looked up at him in disbelief "Those who succumb to their fear of titans have no business being here!" Pyxis said. "And those who want their parents, siblings, and loved ones... to feel the wrath of the titans firsthand should leave as well." Pyxis exclaimed. All of the soldiers attempting to leave stopped dead in their tracks "No, not my family." One of them said clenching his fists. All of those soldiers reluctantly turned and walked back to the crowd. "If Wall Rose becomes compromised, humankind will be wiped out forever." Pyxis shouted. Achilles was scared now, knowing he would likely die but he tried to hide it, but Sasha saw through his ruse and placed a hand on his shoulder "I'm afraid too, but... We can't just run away..." She said. Achilles smiled "Who's running?" Achilles replied. "We will die at one of the inner walls! Do it... Die here!" Pyxis shouted. The gates to the Trost District were then opened.
"It's time to recapture Trost!" Pyxis shouted. "We need to keep the titans away from Eren! Lure them to the wall then kill them!" Armin ordered. Achilles nodded at Armin and propelled himself up into the air, the cannons on the walls soon started to fire "If we can draw the titans over to the wall, we can blast them with the wall-mounted weapons." Pyxis said. Achilles flew up and got on top of a very tall roof "I will not die here." Achilles said before propelling himself down, he felt if he had to attract titans this would be a good way to do it, and he was right three small titans two five meters tall and one four meters tall, began to chase him, thinking on his feet he switched on his ODM gear and latched on to the nearest wall so he was out of reach of those titans. Armin and Annie came in shortly after and killed the two five meter titans and Achilles swung around and killed the last one. The battle continued for what felt like hours. And Achilles stayed mostly to the edge of the wall luring titans out and killing them, that was until he saw a distress signal go off in the distance.
Unable to fight his instincts Achilles activated his ODM gear again but chose to mostly just leap from one roof to the other as he made his way to where the distress signal was sent up. When he got there he was horrified to see Daz and Sasha being attacked by a large abnormal, the titan grabbed ahold of Daz and looked at him with its ravenous eyes. Sasha screamed "Save me!!!" Daz screamed as tears poured from his eyes like rivers while he looked into the titan's gaping maw in terror. Achilles didn't even think about what to do, he just swung forward at the titan and sliced its hand off, Daz fell and screamed again but Achilles caught him and fired a flash bang into the air to blind the titan. "You s-saved me..." Daz said stunned. Achilles left Daz on a roof not far from where they were fighting the titan "Stay here for now." Achilles ordered. Daz nodded, Achilles quickly got back up to Sasha just as the titan regained its sight "You ready?" Achilles asked. "Ready as I'll ever be." Sasha replied. The two swung around the titan very quickly to the titan it was like trying to grab to tiny mosquitos. Sasha cut into the titan's neck causing it to stumble for a second before Achilles came in from the left and finished it off. Achilles and Sasha made their way back to Daz and Daz fell to his knees and hugged Achilles' legs "Thank you!!!" Daz shouted with tears still falling from his eyes. Sasha patted him on the back "Sorry Daz, but we've gotta get back to work!" Sasha said. Daz whimpered. Achilles helped him to his feet and patted him on the back "You can do this." Achilles said. "Hell, I'll go with you guys." Achilles said. That helped Daz to at least feel a little better "Alright then we'd best get moving." Sasha said.
Achilles, Sasha and Daz all began swinging toward the area where they were supposed to go (The area in the Trost District where the boulder is) but they were soon stopped when a large abnormal smashed through a building sending rubble flying everywhere and causing Achilles to fly through the widow of the house behind him, The broken glass left a cut right under his eye "Ah damn!" Achilles said through gritted teeth. But when Achilles heard Sasha and Daz scream he got to his feet immediately and ran out of the window, when he got out there he saw Sasha and Daz both in the titan's fists, trying to use their blades to cut through its fingers to escape, it wasn't working. Achilles didn't hesitate for one second he propelled himself upwards toward the titan's neck and sliced right into its vital region, causing blood to spray out of the wound like an erupting volcano. It released Daz and Sasha who were quick to use their ODM gear to get onto a house "You're my hero, Achilles." Sasha said. The three of them soon saw a distress signal flare go off not far from them "That can't be good." Achilles said. "Let's go!" Sasha exclaimed. "Do we have to?" Daz whimpered. "Yes." both Achilles and Sasha said. Daz groaned and the three of them set off toward the smoke signal.
When they got to the origin of the signal they saw Jean kneeling down doing what looked like repairs on his ODM gear with Conny looking around terrified. A titan advanced toward them and Conny screamed and Jean looked at it terrified "Let's go!" Achilles shouted. Achilles was the first to activate his ODM gear and attack the titan, the hook latched on to the titan's and forehead and Achilles flew right at it "What the fuck is he doing?!" Sasha said. Achilles detached the blades of his swords from the handles and threw them both at the titan, one went into each of its eyes causing it to cover its eyes as blood poured form them, Achilles got behind the titan and soon swung under it, severing its right leg at the knee and causing it to fall. Sasha finally snapped back to reality after what she had just witnessed and flew over toward the titan, she was the one to finish it off "Thanks." Achilles said. "No problem." Sasha replied. Achilles, Sasha and Daz soon joined Conny and Jean. Just as Jean finished his repairs "Okay that should get my gear to work, for now at least." Jean said. "Good, Let's get going." Achilles replied. Suddenly they saw a flash of green and yellow lightning "That has to be Eren." Sasha said. But only a minute later a flare signifying that something had gone wrong was shot into the air "Oh no, we need to get over there." Achilles said. "Why?" Daz asked. "Eren and the others could be in danger!" Achilles shouted. Without a second thought Achilles activated his ODM gear and started moving toward the area where the flare was shot.
When they arrived there they saw Eren in his titan form standing near the giant bolder that he was supposed to carry on his back to seal the hole in the wall. But instead of picking it up Eren was stomping around roaring uncontrollably, Achilles made his way over to Mikasa who was standing the roof of a house. Followed moments later by Armin. The titans were mainly focused on Eren so they were in relatively little danger "What the hell is going on?" Achilles asked as the two stared down at Eren rampaging around. The titan isn't behaving the way Eren wants. The plan has failed... At this rate we'll all be killed." Mikasa explained. Titans swarmed Eren but he swatted them away like flies but any time a soldier got near him he'd attempt to grab them too. A short girl with short white hair and glasses (Rico) looked at this in horror "Eren... Why is he attacking us too?" She asked shocked.
Once all of the titans around him were dead Eren turned his attention to Mikasa, Armin, and Achilles. Eren swung his fist at them and smashed in the roof of the house they were standing on. But luckily Achilles, Mikasa and Armin managed to get out of the way in time. Using her ODM gear Mikasa jumped up and latched on to Eren's forehead and she hung in front of his face and stared him in the eye "Eren, don't you recognize me?!" Mikasa demanded. Eren balled his hand up into a fist "Move!" A garrison soldier named Ian shouted. Mikasa jumped out of the way before Eren smashed his fist against his own face; where Mikasa was only moments ago. Eren stumbled and fell backward suddenly sitting down and leaning back against the boulder, he looked like he was completely unconscious while Mikasa and everyone else stood there in stunned shock.
After a painfully long few seconds Armin snapped back to reality "...I'll bring Eren out here! Mikasa you and everyone else protect the area from titans!" He ordered. Several titans soon began to advance forward toward Eren "Rico! You take care of the titan in the back! Mitabi and I will take the two in the front!" Ian shouted. Ian glanced at Eren "Eren's defenseless. We can't just leave him alone!" Ian added. "Hundreds of people have already died, because of him! Yet you want to keep going?!" Rico shouted. "Tell me then! How can we defeat the titans without sacrificing more lives...? Without losing our humanity?!" Ian demanded. "I... don't know." Rico said. "Exactly. And that means our only option is to risk our lives for that human weapon of ours." Ian said. "Hey it's a hell of a lot better than not doing anything." Achilles said.
The battle to keep Eren safe from the other titans took a long time, but when they finished, several soldiers had died, and many of the living ones were completely out of breath "Looks like you all did a good job, just leave the rest to me." Armin said before jumping down and standing on the Nape of the neck on Eren's titan body. "A titan's weak spot is one meter by ten centimeter area from the back of the neck to the nape..." Armin said as he stood on the back of the titan Eren's neck. Armin pulled out one of his blades and stuck both hooks down into the flesh of the seemingly unconscious titan, Mikasa gasped and Achilles' eyes widened as Armin raised the blade over his head, ready to stab into the titan's body. "It's alright... He'll be okay as long as I avoid the middle." Armin said. "It'll just hurt a little..." Armin said as he plunged the blade into the Eren's titan body.
The blade pierced through the titan's flesh and muscle with ease just as it was designed to do but stopped the second it stabbed one of Eren's arms inside of the titan. The titans eyes shot open as it sprang to its feet and let out a roar "EREN! Can you hear me?! Come out through here!!" Armin shouted slamming his fist into the titan's back. "What of your mother's killer?" Armin demanded as other soldiers fought to keep the titans that tried to get close to them at bay. "And besides... We're gonna explore outside the walls together someday, aren't we?" Armin asked. As Armin did this Achilles and Mikasa both worked together to kill several titans despite how tired the two of them clearly were. "Eren, tell me one thing, You know the one thing waiting for us outside the wall is hell. So why do you want to see it so badly?!" Armin demanded. "Why...? I'll tell you... Because I was born of this world!" Eren shouted in his head. Eren's titan body let out another roar as Armin dropped off his back. Eren then turned and looked at the boulder. Without hesitation Eren grabbed the boulder and forced it up onto his back, and he began to slowly walk toward the hole in the wall. Though the weight of the boulder made that difficult.
Everyone stared in awe as Eren did this "Eren..." Mikasa said with a smile. "MIKASA!" Armin shouted as he propelled himself onto the roof where everyone was standing; causing everyone to snap back to reality. "Eren did it! Now we just need to get him to go to the gate safely and we win!!" Armin shouted. Everyone stayed silent for a few more seconds "Give it your best! Don't let any titans get close to Eren!" Ian shouted. Every soldier on the roof propelled themselves away and toward Eren "We are going to win." Achilles thought to himself. The group managed to slaughter any of the titans that got too close to Eren but it was not without cost, the number of remaining soldiers was cut in half by the time Eren had finally gotten close to the wall, sadly however that hole was where the titans were still getting in through.
Achilles propelled himself above them followed by Mikasa and Armin while the others stayed below, the three titans that had just entered the Trost District swatted at the other soldiers like flies but couldn't hit any "We take those three out and let Eren seal the hole, Mikasa take the fifteen meter titan on the left, I'll take the one on the right. Armin, I think you can figure out what to do." Achilles said pointing at the middle titan which was ten meters tall. Both Mikasa and Armin nodded and they detached their hooks from the walls and flew down at the titans like meteorites. The three of them killed their targets with ease. But they had to move away quickly as another fifteen meter titan showed up, it tried to grab Mikasa but missed. Achilles and Mikasa ran at the new titan and Rico suddenly appeared out of nowhere, she lodged her blades into the titan's right cheek but that didn't deter it for long as it soon tried to grab Mikasa again, Mikasa slid under its enormous hand and latched one of her hooks to the back of the monster's neck and she swung up to the titan's weak spot and sliced its head halfway off "Come on Eren!!!" Armin shouted. And with one last roar Eren slammed the boulder into the hole in the Trost District wall, sealing the other titans out. There was no way in hell they were getting passed that.
Everyone stood once again in stunned silence among the steam from titan corpses, and the blood of their fallen comrades. Rico fell to her knees "Everyone... Your sacrifice wasn't in vain..." Rico said before shooting off a flare signifying the mission was a success. "Today, for the first time... humanity has won against the titans..." Rico said. Armin launched himself up and cut Eren out of his titan body, Eren was unconscious when Armin managed to pull him out. Achilles ran over to see if Eren was alright and he seemed to be unharmed however their single moment of peace was interrupted as two ten meter titans with psychotic grins and dead eyes stared down at them. Achilles drew his blades as one of the titans reached down for him but before it could grab him someone in a green cloak flew in from out of nowhere and killed the first titan, they swung around again and began to spin in the air like a flying sawblade. Severing the second titan's vitals. When the person stood up on the corpse of one of the fallen titans Mikasa ran up to Achilles "Look..." Mikasa said. Achilles and everyone else soon noticed the emblem of 'Wings of Freedom' on the back of the cloak which only went halfway down their arms the person was wearing.
Their savior turned to face them "Alright... What the hell is going on here?" The person asked with a stone gaze. "Titans soon began to advance toward the boulder "Never mind, anyone who has time; come with me." The man ordered. "The scout regiment?! They're back from outside the wall?!" A soldier shouted. "We'll talk about it later. Right now we need to wipe out the titans that are still here." The man said. "Hey, cadet with the silver hair, you look like you've still got some fight left in you. Come with me." The man ordered. "Mikasa, Armin, get Eren somewhere safe and stay with him." Achilles ordered. "But what about you?" Mikasa asked. "I'll go with the scout, don't worry, I'll be fine." Achilles said before propelling himself away. He glanced back momentarily and saw that both Armin and Mikasa carrying Eren away from the battle field with several garrison soldiers following them.
Achilles along with the scout regiment went around through the Trost District, killing titans left and right like insects, while they did need to stop momentarily to either save a comrade or refuel it never stopped them for long. It took many hours and several more lives were lost in the fight but eventually all of those titans were killed. Suddenly the man who saved Achilles earlier dropped down in front of him, the man was short; only about five feet two inches so he had to look up at Achilles to maintain eye contact "Follow me, the other scouts want to know what happened here." The man ordered. "Yes sir!" Achilles replied. "Hey I never got your name." Achilles said. "It's Levi." The man said. The two of them propelled themselves up onto the top of the wall where they were greeted by three others; one was a woman about a foot taller than Levi she had wide, light brown eyes and shoulder length dark brown hair tied up in an unkempt high ponytail with bangs parted down the middle, and she wore the normal scout uniform and a pair of square, thick-rimmed glasses that had bands strapped around her head. Another was a man; he had brown eyes and long blond hair which had a middle parting and a bun folded at the back, he matched the woman in terms of height, He had a small beard, small brown eyes and a serious face. Last person was another man he also equaled the woman in terms of height, the last man had a slightly darker skin tone. And he wore a short crop of brown hair that was kept to a point on the back of his head.
And now that things had finally calmed down, Achilles could actually make out more details about Levi apart from his height; like he had short, straight black hair styled in an undercut, as well as narrow, intimidating dull gray eyes with dark circles under them and a deceptively youthful face. "Who are all of you?" Achilles asked. "I'm Hange." The woman said. "My name is Eld Jinn." The blonde one said. "I'm Gunther Schultz." The one with the black hair said. "Anyway, it seems that all remaining titans within these walls are dead." Levi said. "What about the hole in the wall?" Eld asked turning and looking at what remained of the Trost district. "Not to worry..." Rico said as she walked up followed by Ian. "Engineers from the Garrison Regiment are already getting started with plans to fix it." Rico explained. "This is a great burden on the Garrison Regiment. I'm sorry we can't help more." Ian said. "No... We appreciate the reinforcements. If we were on our own..." Rico said trying not to think about the fact that she'd probably be dead without the reinforcements the Garrison Regiment sent in.
"Well done, Levi." Ian said. "If you want to thank anyone thank this kid instead." Levi said gesturing to Achilles who looked at Levi surprised. "...A cadet?" Ian said equally surprised. "A member of the 104th Cadet Corps, just like Eren Jaeger, who blocked the hole in the wall." Rico explained. "You may not have noticed it Erwin, but I had no idea this soldier was a freshly graduated cadet." Hange said amazed. "I see... You did well to stand up to your fears and fight, cadet." Ian said. Achilles saluted Ian "You really did amazingly today. I think you'll make a fine soldier." Hange said standing on her tip toes trying to lean into Achilles' face.
A/N: Okay after some lengthy deliberation I've settled on three candidates to pair Achilles with: Mikasa, Hange, and Sasha. But I'm not sure which of them to actually pair him with though I'm currently leaning toward Mikasa. If someone else has any other ideas I'd actually love to hear them