-E-
Eren gasped as she awoke with a jolt. She placed a hand on her chest and felt her heart pounding rapidly, then yelped and moved it up to her forehead and fell back over as the feeling of a splitting migraine suddenly came over her. As she squeezed her forehead with both hands, she suddenly felt a comforting hand placed on her shoulder. It was Mikasa, who was sitting by her side.
"Eren, what's wrong?!" She asked with a worried inflection.
Eren panted softly as she slowly lifted herself back into a sitting position, before looking around, realizing that she was sitting in a wagon with Mikasa and Armin by her side, both of them worried for her. Looking around, she saw the rest of the scouts on horseback, a few of them sitting in cots, watching over the dead or injured. She also noticed two particularly interesting caravans. One was a wagon that held everything they were able to loot from the basement, primarily books, and chemicals, but they were also able to fit Geisha's entire desk. This comforted the titan shifter, as it proved to her that despite their losses, the mission was successful. The other caravan was carrying a cage that seemed to be made of the same Nano-Metal that Gigan used to rebuild the gates, and within the cage were Reiner and Bertholdt. This confused Eren, and she decided to ask Armin and Mikasa about it. Mikasa was taken aback by her question when Armin reminded her that no one had told Eren about them yet.
"Tell me about what?" Eren asked.
"Eren, please don't freak out," Armin pleaded, before taking a deep breath and admitting it to him. "Bertholdt is the Colossal Titan, and Reiner is the Armored Titan."
Eren's eyes nearly bulged out of her head upon hearing this, and she found herself clenching her fists so hard that she almost drew blood from her palms. However, before she could break the skin, she heard Petra maneuver her horse closer to the cart.
"Eren, just calm down," she said. "We already have them locked up. Don't do anything rash."
Eren growled and turned her ire toward the men in the cage. She dragged herself to her feet and slammed her hands onto the rim of her cart before screaming at them.
"YOU BACKSTABBING BASTARDS!" She screamed.
"E-Eren, stop it," Armin pleaded.
Eren continued. "WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEADS WHEN WE TRAINED TOGETHER?! REINER, ALL YOUR TALK OF GOING TO THE HOME YOU LOST, WAS THAT JUST A FUCKING ACT?! WHAT ABOUT ALL THE TIMES YOU SUPPORTED US?! ALL THE TIMES YOU SUPPORTED ME?!" Mikasa and Armin both noticed tears well up in Eren's eyes. "You were my hero! You were everything I wished I could be… why…?"
Reiner said nothing in response. In his mind, he deserved what she was saying to him.
Eren then wiped away her tears as her rage surged once more. "And you!" She pointed at Bertholdt. "Did you enjoy your visit to Shingonshina? All that destruction, all those ruins, all those corpses, were all because of you!" She leaned forwards only for Mikasa to hold her back. "YOU SHOULD BE ERASED! YOU DON'T DESERVE TO EXIST, YOU ABOMINA-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU DEVIL!" Bertholdt screamed. Everyone paused and looked to Bertholdt, confused. That phrase, "devil" was such an oddly specific term, yet one that Eren found oddly familiar.
"All of you, you're all devils. I see that now," Bertholdt hissed, before backtracking. "No… deep down, I always knew you all were devils. I just didn't accept it. You all acted so human, so relatable, so… so much like me. It almost made me regret kicking the walls down. Reiner practically had to twist my arm to get me to do it again. But now…" Bertholdt let out a slightly manic giggle. "Now I see the truth. You're the abomination who deserves to be erased, Eren Jaeger! And I swear to you, I will kill you as slowly and painfully as possible."
"What a coincidence," Eren spat back. "I was about to say the same to you."
"Eren, please! Don't provoke them," Armin said. "They might still be able to escape, just like you did from the basement."
"No, they can't," Ymir suddenly said. The trio turned and saw Ymir in a cart nearby looking over an unconscious Krista. "If they were able to, they would have done it by now. Reiner had more than enough time to regain his energy by now."
"How do you know that?" Eren asked.
"She's a titan shifter too," Petra answered.
Eren's eye twitched before she threw up her hands in frustration. "OH, GREAT! SO LET ME GUESS, SHE'S WORKING WITH THEM!?"
"Eren, Ymir helped us capture Reiner and Bertholdt," Mikasa said.
"O-oh…" Eren then turned to Ymir. "Um… thank you."
"Don't mention it," she said with a distant tone in her voice.
Ymir could honestly care less about the Scouts. However, she figures that helping the guys who have the Black Angel and the Founding Titan on their side would probably provide her and Krista with more safety than giving herself and Krista up to the guys who will probably take her back to Marley, where she'll be eaten by whoever is scheduled to have the Jaw titan next. When she weighed up her options, even if they put her on trial like they did with Eren, it'd probably be better for her in the long run than the other option.
"Still though, quit poking the bears, Eren," Petra said before joining back with her group up ahead.
Eren took a seat and rested her head in her arms as she contemplated the whole situation, finally having a moment to breathe and think about what had happened. After contemplating the numerous ways she wanted to tear Bertholdt and Reiner to pieces, the thing that was most prominent in her mind was the question of how her mother would react to what has happened to her. The idea that her son left the walls one day and came back as her daughter was one she may not be able to understand. What really terrified her though was the thought that she'd approach her mother, and the first thing she'd say to her was "I'm sorry, have we met?" As she contemplated this, she felt the cart suddenly come to a stop.
She picked her head up and looked around, noticing a bunch of abandoned houses surrounding her. She quickly realized that they were already at the gate, where Erwin set off a smoke signal to signify their arrival. While waiting, the mood was tense. The wait for the gate to open was ironically one of the more dangerous parts of any expedition, as titans could start approaching them while at their most vulnerable, and most depleted. More than a few soldiers were lost in the past just from the wait to get back inside. However, on this day, their fear was unnecessary, as Gigan and Isabella had already done a spectacular job at making this section of Wall Maria completely safe for them to travel through.
Soon enough, the gates rose with a pneumatic hiss, and the scouts began funneling in, crowds of people watching them ride by, many whispering amongst eachother, but few actually heckling them, as they clearly brought back something useful, judging by the cart of stuff from the basement. The crowd did however have quite the riot heckling and mocking Reiner and Bertholdt as they were paraded around the city like zoo animals. That brought a smile to Eren's face.
Mikasa looked out into the crowd and saw the little girl from before climbing up onto a box, then waving at her and giving her a salute, which Mikasa returned. She then blushed bright crimson when she saw her holding up a drawing she made of her fireman carrying Sasha with the shape of a heart encircling them in red crayon. A few other scouts noticed this drawing, including Sasha, who giggled at the thought, her cheeks also slightly reddened.
Ymir continued to watch over Krista, brushing a bit of hair out of her face. She parted the hair on her forehead, then slowly leaned in… before pulling away and sighing as she placed her hands on her knees.
'Not yet,' she thought.
"Excuse me, captain Levi?"
Ymir looked up towards the front, seeing a man running up to Levi with a letter in his hand.
"I'm Petra's father," he said. "Might I lend your ear for a moment, before she sees us?"
Levi shrugged. "What do you want?"
"Well, apparently, you hand-picked her yourself?"
"That's correct."
"Well, she's very excited to be working alongside you, sir. She seems very devoted to you. So devoted that to be honest, her mother and I are getting a bit concerned," Petra's father laughed awkwardly.
"Get to the point already."
He cleared his throat and tugged on his collar. "W-well, you see, as her father, it might be hard to let go of my little girl, but still, it seems far too early for her to be thinking about marriage."
Levi raised an eyebrow. As her father continued to explain, he looked back and saw Petra looking around at the crowd. She eventually looked back at him and gave him a bright smile and a wave. Levi looked away and off into space as he thought back to all his interactions with her, wondering whether or not she ever showed any signs of affection towards him, made all the more difficult due to his bad people skills. He ultimately shook it off and interrupted Petra's father mid-sentence.
"Look, if you wanna talk about this with someone, go talk to your daughter back there," he pointed at Petra with his thumb.
"R-right, thank you, captain," and with that, the father went to go confront his daughter.
"So, when's the wedding happening?" Hange asked, leaning down from her horse.
"It's not," Levi bluntly stated. "Besides, even if it was, like hell would I tell you. You'd probably bring your pet titan to be the priest."
"I would not!" Hange said in an exaggerated offended tone, before switching to a more jovial tone when adding, "Gigan Jr. would be one of the bride's maids."
Despite the high casualty count, the Scouts' latest excursion beyond the walls was a profound success. Not only did they retrieve the secrets from the cellar, but they managed to capture not one, not two, but three new titan shifters, gain a greater understanding of Eren's true potential and ensure that Shingonshina would be a safe place for mankind to repopulate in the future.
Within hours of the Scouts' return, they were called back to the capital to discuss Eren's now permanent custody under the scout regiment, and the re-location of Carla Jaeger and Daisuke Serizawa back to the Trost district.
-S-
Serizawa stood by Carla's side as she leaned against a stone railing for support. After weeks of testing prosthetics and obtaining all the materials needed to construct them, Serizawa finally made a pair of working prosthetic legs for Carla, and they had finally entered the phase where she could start adjusting to them.
"Just one step at a time," he said. "Take your time. You're doing well."
Carla smiled gratefully at Serizawa as she leaned against the stone rail after almost tripping. She slowly took one step forwards after another, always moving forwards bit by bit. Slowly, she grew accustomed to it, and before long, she managed to reach the end of the railing.
Several MP officers and recruits watched the scene in front of them while they were taking one of their many breaks, and were quite impressed by the working fake limbs that Serizawa had created. Even commander Nile Dock stopped by to marvel at this technological marvel and wondered how it could be used to help his own soldiers. As she made her last step towards the finish line, the crowd clapped for her as Serizawa supported her and guided her back to her wheelchair.
"I never would have imagined that I would be able to walk again," Carla remarked, sniffing softly. "Thank you, Daisuke."
"I'm impressed at how well you were able to wear the prosthetics. I expected them to cause some sort of discomfort, but you seem perfectly fine."
In truth, Carla's body ached quite a bit, but she decided not to admit this at the moment, as the high of being able to walk again was still on her mind. Still, she did appreciate being able to sit down in her chair again.
"Will I need to wear them all the time? Do I have to do anything specific to maintain them?"
"There's a lot more I have to record during your progress to determine certain things, but no, you won't be wearing them all the time. You can take them off when you're sleeping or bathing, and you should let me know if they start to feel uncomfortable. As for maintenance, I'll handle that. Now, let's get you back to your room."
Serizawa got behind Carla and began to wheel her back to her room, but before they left, Nile approached Serizawa. "Doctor? May I speak with you for a moment? Alone?"
"Hm? Um… sure," He replied before turning to Carla. "I'll be with you in the room later. Someone else will take you back."
Carla nodded as one of the MP recruits helped her back to her room while Serizawa followed Nile out of the courtyard.
" , ever since we've taken you two in, I was unsure of what to think of you two," he began.
"Well, what about now?" Serizawa asked. "It seems as though you've warmed up to us."
"Don't mistake tolerance for friendliness, sir. I still have my suspicions regarding her knowledge of her husband and the origins of her son's powers."
"I'd tell you she and her son are just victims of circumstances, but I'm sure you've heard that before.."
Nile sighed and placed his hand on his forehead. "I'd like to believe that, but there's no good evidence in support of it. In all honesty, though, I hope the Survey Corps pulls off their expedition."
Serizawa raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you and your regiment the ones trying to get your hands on Eren during the trial? Why change your mind?"
"I never wanted him in the walls!" Nile argued, "None of us want something as dangerous as him in the interior! I'd much prefer that he stay with the people who know what they're doing."
"Then why go through all that effort to try and get custody over him?"
"King's orders. Apparently, he really wants to get his hands on Eren for personal reasons. Classified reasons of course..."
Serizawa nodded, then began considering the implications of this. He would have to make sure to let Xiang know to investigate the King in the future.
"But anyway, I didn't just come to tell you that," Nile continued. "I'd like to know your plans for the future. Do you plan on caring for for a long time?"
Serizawa didn't hesitate to answer. "Yes. I hope to care for her for as long as I can."
Nile nodded in understanding. "Well, that's a shame, be cause I was hoping you would consider working at one of the hospitals nearby. After seeing you make an artificial limb for her, I was hoping you could do the same for soldiers who also lost their own."
"While I appreciate the offer, Commander, I'll have to politely decline. Carla still requires my full attention for the time being."
Serizawa chose not to give his full reasoning, which was that he didn't want to support any military ever again. After concluding his conversation with Nile, he turned to head back to Carla. However, Serizawa stopped when he sound of a croaking noise nearby.
"Did you hear that?" Nile asked.
Serizawa nodded as the two heard it again, this time followed by a hissing screech, sounding closer than before. The two pressed their backs against eachother as Nile pulled his rifle out from off of his back. Eventually, the two heard rattling in the rafters above them. Something was crawling above them. Something too big to be a rodent or cat. Eventually, Serizawa caught a glimpse of a clawed, reptilian hand reaching down for Nile and tackled him to the ground as it swiped at him. The two men then turned around and saw a bipedal reptile jump down in front of them and roar, unveiling a maw of sharp teeth.
Serizawa pulled Nile to his feet as they began running, the Baby Zilla giving them a head start before pouncing towards them at alarming speeds. Nile was able to get a shot in, which left a bleeding hole in the side of its head and sent it tumbling to the ground. Nile nudged it with his foot, and it didn't move. He shook his foot, getting some of the blood off of his shoe.
"Okay, I think we're safe," Nile said.
"No we're not," Serizawa said with a horrified expression. "I know these creatures, and they never hunt alone. Which means-"
Suddenly, Serizawa and Nile heard screams coming from the other side of the structure.
"CARLA!" Serizawa cried before he ran to the source of the scream, with Nile close behind him.
The two arrived to find Marlo Freudenberg and Hitch Dreyse standing guard around Carla, attempting to fend off five Baby Zillas at once. Or rather, Marlo was trying to fend them off, while Hitch was too terrified to even move an inch. The two Baby Zillas in front of her lapped up every ounce of fear she showed them as they crept closer and closer.
"B-BACK OFF, YOU MONSTERS!" Marlo shouted while aiming a rifle at three of them, his voice trembling and knees quivering slightly. "I-I'M WARNING Y-"
One of the Baby Zillas cut him off by grabbing the barrel of the gun in her claw and pressing her head against it, blood dripping from her maw as a smug grin stretched across her face. Between her jagged teeth, Marlo could see what remained of her last meal. The small shards of fabric between her teeth clued him in that the unfortunate soul that found their way into the jaws of death was a human. Marlo clenched his eyes shut and pulled the trigger on his rifle. The shot left a bleeding wound on her forehead, but to his horror, she wasn't dead.
One of the other Baby Zillas proceeded to bite the rifle, snapping it in two, but just before another could lunge, she was suddenly shot in the soft underbelly, leaving a mortal wound. Marlo looked to his savior and saw Nile holding a smoking rifle.
"You two! Help Serizawa get Carla to safety! That's an order!" Nile then got between them and the Baby Zillas as Marlo and Hitch saluted him before they and Serizawa wheeled Carla out of there.
Nile loaded another shot, but before he could, a tail wrapped around his neck and dragged him to the ground. He looked up and, to his horror, saw the face of the Baby Zilla from earlier looking down at him. The other four soon joined their sister, opening their jaws wide as they began to eat the man alive. Nile screamed in utter agony as the reptiles tore into his flesh, gobbling up all they could get their teeth on while saving anything vital for last. The sadistic creatures took a sick pleasure in making the man suffer a slow, agonizing death in their jaws.
[Now now, little sisters, don't eat too much.]
The five looked up, then ran outside, leaving Nile hanging on by a thread. The little lizards looked up and saw a fully grown Zilla looming over the building and looking down on them.
[You don't want to spoil your appetites before supper.] She said.
[Okay, big sister,] they said in unison.
The larger Zilla chuckled, then left the little ones to their own devices, while she returned to trampling the city of Stohess, alongside the other big sisters. And as Serizawa and the others made it out of the building and saw a Zilla's massive foot slam down in front of them, the true hopelessness of the situation finally dawned upon them. They then turned around and saw the five baby Zillas running towards them, one of them crushing Nile's severed head in her mouth and gulping it down as she approached.
Suddenly, just as the Baby Zillas were about to reach them, a cloud of mist rushed by the group and forced the lizards backward. The mist formed into a young Asian man who guarded the group with his life. When the Baby Zillas tried to approach again, he held out his hand, and it exploded into a cloud of mist with such violent force that it ripped the wooden boards out of the walls, floor, and ceiling, leaving them as blank foundations. The force snapped the necks of two of the lizards and crippled the other three, allowing him to use his mist to suffocate them with brutal efficiency.
Marlo, Hitch, and Carla were absolutely astonished, while Serizawa breathed a sigh of relief. Huang turned around as Marlo ran up to him.
"E-excuse me, sir," Marlo said. "First of all, thank you so much. I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't arrived."
"Probably died," Huang said. "That's my guess."
"B-but, ahem, second of all… who are you?"
Huang looked down for a moment, deciding whether or not to give him his name, before making a decision.
"I'm the Human Vapor."
Serizawa's eyes widened with surprise before Huang turned back to a mist form and disappeared. Marlo and Hitch were at a loss for words after what they just experienced, but luckily for them, Serizawa was there to pick up the slack. He began wheeling Carla way and called for them to join him, snapping them out of their shocked stupor as they began following him.
-E-
While riding through Sina towards Stohess, the Scouts immediately noticed something was very wrong when they saw smoke billowing out of the top of the wall. It wasn't Titan steam, no no. The smoke was black, signifying that there was a massive fire. Eren immediately became worried upon seeing it. No matter how she sliced it, this could not mean good news for her mom, or for Serizawa.
"What do you think's going on up there?" Mike asked Erwin.
Erwin remained silent for the time being but did fire off a flair once they were in range to signal that they were approaching. As the Scouts grew closer, however, it became clear that whatever was happening was something serious, so Erwin looked back to Levi.
"Levi, give the signal," he said.
Levi nodded, and then pulled a flair gun out of his bag. "Everyone, cover your ears!" He called, and they did as they were told before he fired off an acoustic round.
The purpose of this was to summon Gigan to their location, however, after waiting for a moment, he never came. This was concerning to the scouts, as this meant they may need to rely on Eren for this mission, and if it's against one of the stronger kaiju that Gigan warned them about, they may be doomed. This is something that Armin was thinking about as they drew closer to the city, eventually making it to the gates, which were still down.
Ness climbed off his horse and scaled the wall to see what was going on up there. As he climbed, however, he noticed something looking down at him. And as he climbed higher and higher, more and more of those figures looked down upon him, until eventually, he was able to see what they were: a pack of twelve Baby Zillas looking down upon him with greedy looks in their eyes.
Ness gasped and pulled back, but one of them grabbed him by the cables of his ODM gear, leaving him dangling in mid-air as the other Baby Zillas laughed at him. That was, until Ness reeled his anchors in, causing the Baby Zilla to fall off of the wall, screaming as Ness reeled her in and impaled her with both his blades, before kicking her off. He then swung back down to the ground to warn the others, however before he could reach them, he felt another one land on his back and sink her claws into him.
Eren watched, horrified as Ness coughed up blood, the Baby Zilla's claws piercing through him. He landed on the ground just as the Baby Zilla ripped his head off with her teeth, then consumed it. She then growled at the scouts, getting into position to attack, as everyone got ready to fight. Eren almost turned into a titan but restrained herself when she noticed the look Levi was giving her.
The lizard roared and lunged at them, but was quickly dispatched by Mikasa and Levi. They, Eren, Erwin, Mike, Jean, and Armin proceeded to scale the wall, now ready for a battle. The Baby Zillas tried to fight back, but were swiftly dispatched. All except one, which Eren took her time dismembering before kicking off of the wall, then huffing furiously. The group then looked down onto the city, finding it to be an absolute war zone, with nine adult Zillas causing rampant destruction, and countless Baby Zillas scurrying around the city.
However, within the city, the group saw something strange. They saw what appeared to be a cloud fighting against one of the adult Zillas. However, upon looking closer, they realized that the cloud would occasionally form into… a human?
-H-
Huang maneuvered back and forth, even turning his entire body into a cloud at times, avoiding the attacks of Zilla, while getting in as much damage as he can. Unfortunately for him, his impacts, while powerful against the smaller Zillas, were substantially less effective against the big ones, like this one. Eventually getting fed up with the constant back and forth, Huang tried to suffocate the Zilla, only for her to puff him out just as fast as he got into her nasal canals.
Huang tried to go back in, but the Zilla scooped a burning house into her maw and then turned towards him while he was in a cloud state. She then unleashed a blast of napalm ignited by the fire in her mouth, turning into a power breath beam that caused Huang to howl in agony as he was slowly forced back to his human form. The Zilla prepared to unleash another blast of her Power Breath, when she was suddenly interrupted by a bolt of lightning striking her back, stunning her, before she wailed in pain as she felt something punch one of her dorsal spines, cracking it.
She shook the creature off, then looked down, finding it to be a 15-meter-tall human woman with shoulder-length black hair, no genitalia to speak of, teeth exposed on her cheeks, and a firey look in her emerald eyes. The Zilla growled and charged at the human woman, prompting her to flee in the opposite direction. As the titan fled with the Zilla in toe, Huang saw the Scouts swoop down, coming to his aid.
"Are you alright?" Armin asked.
"I'm fine," Huang replied. He then looked up to see Erwin approaching him.
"Sir, do you know of any way we can defeat those creatures?" Erwin asked.
"Not with those swords of yours," he said. "The adult Zillas are way too tough for that. Even going all out, I could do little more than scratch it, and I doubt your friend over there could do any better."
The group then watched as Eren was suddenly launched across the city by the Zilla.
"Case in point," he sighed. "The Zillas are smart, sadistic, and strong in numbers. If you want to take them out, you'll need some bigger guns than that."
"What about the little ones?" Armin asked. "Surely we can take them all out with our blades."
"You could… if it weren't for the fact that the big ones reproduce asexually," Huang replied. "It doesn't matter how many you kill. The big ones will always be able to make more."
"How many more?" Erwin asked.
"They can produce as many as 1,000 eggs per litter."
This prospect made the scouts rather nervous. All except Erwin and Levi, who, even in the face of these bleak odds, remained stoic and fearless. Erwin turned to the troops and ordered them to find any survivors and lead them to safety, making sure that they stay in a group so they don't get picked off too quickly. The scouts nodded and took off while Erwin took a seat next to Huang and began formulating a plan with him.
-S-
Serizawa, Carla, Hitch, and Marlo hid in an alleyway as the city was smashed and crushed. Cannons could be heard firing at the monsters in the distance, followed by screams and explosions as the artillery crew was destroyed. Marlo carefully leaned out to check and see if the coast was clear, but Hitch quickly pulled him back as a pack of Baby Zillas patrolled through the street. Carla gripped Serizawa's hand tightly as tears of terror welled up in her eyes.
Serizawa remained silent, his eye closed in quiet contemplation. He thought back to all the events in his life leading up to this one. He wonders if maybe if he had taken the offer to leave Carla on her own, he wouldn't be in this horrible situation, but he knew deep down that he could never do that to her, knowing it would just have led to her death at the hands of the Zillas. But is this any better? All his presence here has done is prolong the inevitable, except now, soon, he would die too. However, when he looked down at Carla, and felt the case on his back containing her prosthetics, he felt an oddly comforting sensation. That he could die peacefully knowing that caring for Carla was going to be his final act, at least it was a kind one.
And as the pack noticed them, it seemed as though his end would come soon. So, he wrapped his arms around her as she clutched his sleeves tightly and began to weep, thoughts rushing through her head about how she would never see her children achieve their dreams, never find out what happened to her husband, and never be able to hold her son again. As she closed her eyes, tears rolled down her cheeks as she made sure that her final thoughts would be those of the ones she loved most in this world.
However, as Hitch and Marlo were about to fire upon the Baby Zillas out of desperation, they were each suddenly cut down by a flurry of sword slashes. Heads rolled and blood splattered as the Baby Zillas were helpless against the sudden attack. The attackers soon landed, revealing themselves to be the scouts. Mikasa quickly noticed Carla within the group and ran towards her.
"MOM!" Mikasa shouted as she ran towards her.
"MIKASA!" Carla replied, nearly jumping out of her seat as the two tearfully embraced eachother.
" !" Armin exclaimed as he joined the three, all of them embracing eachother. After the three of them spent a moment in each other's embrace, Carla looked around at the other Scouts.
"Where's Eren?" She asked.
Mikasa and Armin looked at eachother wide-eyed as the realization dawned on them. After Eren was thrown across the city, they couldn't find her anywhere.
"Mikasa, Armin, where is Eren?" Carla asked again, now sounding more concerned than before.
"...We don't know." Armin said.
Carla nearly had a heart attack upon hearing that. She placed a hand on her forehead as Mikasa held her hand to comfort her. However, before they could try to say anything to comfort her, they all heard a low rumble as a shadow slowly formed over them.
They all looked up and saw one of the adult Zillas looming over them, and she was quite unhappy with the slaughter of her little sisters. Hitch and Marlo tried to shoot it, but the bullets bounced right off of her snout, and only served to enrage her further. Everyone prepared for an attack as she raised her claw to swipe at them. Her claw came down to crush them all, and while most of them were able to escape with their ODM gear, they realized far too late that Carla and Serizawa were stuck on the ground.
They managed to avoid being crushed by escaping the alleyway, but the shockwave knocked them to the ground and knocked Carla out of her wheelchair. She then looked up weakly as Zilla raised her foot to crush her. However, as she was about to crush them, a loud rumbling noise could be heard, as something sped past the Scouts, leaving a trail of steam behind her. Carla and Serizawa flinched as the foot came down, but before it could reach them, something got between them and it.
Carla opened her eyes first and gasped as she saw a familiar-looking titan holding up the foot, her eyes blanked out and glowing blue, and her skin was covered in glowing, molten cracks as steam billowed off of her.
It was Eren, Carla knew this much. But the rage-filled look on her child's terrified her.
The titan unleashed a scream of abject rage as she threw the massive foot off of her, making Zilla stumble, before leaning down to swipe at the titan. Eren growled as she caught the swipe in her arms, before roaring with all her might and swinging Zilla around while spinning on her heels, before throwing her down the road. Zilla was so stunned by this, that she failed to notice Eren running at her with hardened fists before leaping up and punching her with enough force to cause her to recoil as blood squirted out of the wound.
Eren leaped up to attack once again but was knocked away by a tail smack which launched her into a building that collapsed on top of her. The Zilla then watched as she rose from the rubble ad began charging down the burning street on all fours, then used her power breath, which was ignited by the fires surrounding her, to blast her backward.
"Oh no…" Mikasa said as she watched the battle with Armin. "She's in that berserk state again."
"Berserk state?" Armin asked.
"After Annie swallowed you and killed Mina and Mylius, she entered this enraged state and tore her apart. And now, she's doing it again, but she seems to be using Annie's powers in conjunction with this form."
Armin looked back at the battle, noticing that Eren trying to push forwards through it while roaring and screaming.
"She's not doing so strategically though," Armin said. "She's just pushing forwards mindlessly. Like she's completely lost herself to her rage."
The two then looked back and saw Serizawa helping Carla into her wheelchair. Armin went down to check and make sure they were okay, while Mikasa broke off from the group to help Eren. Levi immediately noticed this and chased after her, the rest of the scouts soon following suit. However, by the time they reached her, it was already too late for her.
-E-
Eren screeched furiously as the Zilla continued her assault. She could feel her skin singe and burn away, as the force of the blast outmatched her ability to push forwards. However, the onslaught soon ended when the Zilla ran out of fluid to keep the power breath up, allowing Eren to quickly close the distance. However, instead of clashing with the Zilla, she burrowed underground, as a group of Baby Zillas jumped on her from all angles, all of them ripping into her flesh with their teeth and claws.
Eren slammed her body against buildings in an attempt to get them off, when Zilla rose from the ground, destabilizing the ground Eren stood on and causing her to fall into a sinkhole. Eren groaned and grunted as the Baby Zillas tapered off of her, and three more adult Zillas surrounded the pit. The Zillas then proceeded to stomp on her, slam their tails down on top of her, punch her, and blast her with power breath. Slowly, the molten cracks on Eren's body faded, and her eyes returned to normal, before shutting as she collapsed in the ditch.
The scouts arrived on the scene just as Eren was defeated. Mikasa screamed upon seeing the state Eren was in, and this scream drew the attention of the Zillas. Thankfully for them, Huang had arrived and drew their attention away from the Scouts by attacking them and getting them to chase him. Erwin and Armin soon landed with the Scouts, both parties completed what they set out to do. The two both looked down and saw Eren lying on the dirt, her body battered and broken, steam billowing off of it. However, despite that, her wounds didn't seem to be healing, nor was she ejecting from the Titan body.
"M-Mikasa, what happened?!" Armin asked.
"Th-the monsters…" she uttered. "She tried to fight them, but they… there were so many. She never stood a chance."
Levi stepped forwards and drew his blades.
"Alright, I'm getting the kid out of there," he said.
"W-WAIT! NOT YET!" Armin held Levi back. "The last time this happened, transforming a second time knocked her out! We need her in her titan form as long as possible!"
"Well, that titan form of hers isn't worth much when it's as unconscious as she was."
Armin looked down at Eren once again and thought about how Eren emerged from the naip every time. Then, he had an idea.
"Captain, let me do it then."
Levi raised an eyebrow. "What are you playing at?"
"I have an idea of how we can get her back." Armin walked towards the edge of the roof. "But I need to be the one to do it. You guys focus on helping the mist man." Everyone took off, however Erwin decided to stay behind, which Armin noticed.
"C-commander?"
"I'm interested to see what your plan is," He said. "If it works, it would be invaluable for future operations in case something like this were to happen again at a crucial moment."
Armin nodded before the two men rocketed down to Eren. Once there, Armin stood at the naip, and advised Erwin to anchor himself in place, before raising one of his blades.
"I'm sorry, Eren…" Armin said. "BUT WE NEED YOU!"
He clenched his eyes shut and slammed the blade down into the naip, piercing straight through and severing Eren's arm. The pain that shot through her body was enough to cause the titan to momentarily thrash about, but it quickly returned to an unconscious state. Armin then fell to his knees and leaned into the titan. Recalling Mikasa's story from Trost, Armin knew that he could be heard through the Titan. He just needed to be loud enough.
'Good,' Armin thought. 'She's not dead, and she's at least somewhat conscious. Now comes the hard part…'
"Eren! Can you hear me?!" He called. "Wake up, already! We need you! If you stay like this, we're all going to die!"
"A-Armin…?"
-E-
Eren was sitting on the couch, wrapped in a warm blanket as his adopted sister, Mikasa, his mother, Carla, and his father, Grisha, were all in front of him. He blinked slowly and sleepily as he turned his head towards a window behind him, where he saw his best friend, Armin, banging on the window, with some figure shrouded in shadow standing behind him.
-A-
"Your mom! Think about her!" He said. "If you don't get up, she'll be torn apart!"
-E-
"Armin… What are you talking about?" He asked. "She's right here."
Eren looked ahead to see Mikasa and Carla washing dishes with bright smiles on their faces.
"Open your eyes. Mom's not in any danger."
-A-
"Eren…! Eren PLEASE!" Armin begged as he continued to bang on the naip. "I know you're in there, LISTEN TO ME! If you don't do something, the monsters are going to kill us!"
-E-
"Armin… seriously, what are you talking about?" Eren asked. "I don't want to move anything… I'm perfectly fine here…"
Eren's eyes widened.
"It's not like I want to be a Scout," she said.
-A-
"Want…" Eren's titan grumbled softly, prompting Erwin and Armin's eyes to widen, as they realized it was working.
"That's it, Eren," Armin said. "You can do it! Do it, for me! Just wake up."
-E-
"Do you remember when we were kids? How we'd always talk about exploring the outside world together?" Armin said.
Eren gasped softly, the form of herself as a young boy gently morphing to fit that of a young girl instead.
"Frozen tundra that stretches to the skies, sand dunes, forests, oceans. The world that lie in my grandfather's book."
-A-
Erwin was nothing short of fascinated by what Armin spoke of, then looked down and saw Eren's broken limbs begin to heal.
"I'd always thought you'd outgrown that dream," Armin said. "I was sad that it didn't come up anymore. But then I realized, that you'd stopped talking about it because you didn't want me to join the scouts."
-E-
Eren's cheeks reddened slightly as she stood up, dropping the blanket altogether. Her fists tightened as it all began to come back to her. The walls being kicked in, the scouts, Gigan, the many hard-fought battles they'd been through.
"Tell me, honestly, even though your first step beyond the wall meant you'd experience hell on Earth, gambling against the possibility of dying like my parents… Why? Why throw caution to the wind and venture outside?"
Eren turned around with a look of disbelief that Armin could ask something like that.
"What kind of question is that? Don't play dumb, you and I both know why!"
-E-
"Because…"
Eren slammed her fist against the ground and slowly rose to her feet, Armin and Erwin swiftly climbing to her shoulders.
"I WAS BORN INTO THIS WORLD!"
She roared a roar so loud that it could be heard across the city. Mikasa stopped everything upon hearing it and looked back, a smile slowly stretching across her face as she pressed her scarf up to her face. Carla looked up, somewhat relieved to hear the roar of her child. If nothing else, at least Eren was alive. Armin and Erwin landed on Eren's shoulders as her roar came to an end.
"Eren, before you do anything, I need you to listen!" Armin said.
Eren looked down to her right shoulder and nodded for Armin to continue.
"Whatever you do, don't leave your naip!" He continued, "We don't know if you'll be able to transform a second time without passing out now that you've already gone berserk!"
'Berserk?' Eren thought. 'What's he talking about?'
"What… do you… mean?" Eren asked.
"I'll explain later, but the point is, you need to make do with this form right now!"
Eren nodded, then looked to Erwin. "Commander… orders?"
"According to our new ally, the Human Vapor, there are five Adult Zillas at large and countless juveniles assisting them. In your berserk state, I noticed that you appeared to be far more powerful than you were previously, strong enough to seriously wound one of the adults. However, your blind, rage-fueled assault was ineffective against a full group of them." He then looked Eren in the eyes. "However, you did demonstrate an ability that will be of far greater assistance to us. The ability to harden your skin, similarly to how I've heard Annie Leonheart was able to."
Eren's eyes widened as Erwin continued.
"While you were fighting them, one of them unleashed a blast of flames from their mouth, however, despite it burning the rest of your body, your arms, which were hardened during the assault, remained unharmed. If you are able to use that hardening ability at will, we may have a chance at defeating them."
Eren looked down at her hand, then turned it over. She squinted for a moment, trying to get it to do something, and eventually, it did. It hardened, but not into the crystal texture like Annie's, or even the one she had from her berserk mode. Instead, for whatever reason, her hardening took on a stone-like texture similar to that of the walls. She looked at her other hand and hardened it, and found that it took on a crystalline texture. She found this very strange but chose not to question it for now, as this meant that they had a chance in this battle.
Erwin then jetted off of Eren and towards Marlo and Hitch, with Eren and Armin following behind him. After finding them with Serizawa and Carla, he asked them a question that they found rather odd, however, Serizawa had a pretty good idea of what he was planning.
"How much gunpowder does the MP base here have in storage?" He asked.
-H-
Huang and the Scouts flew through the air in hot pursuit of the Zillas as they tore through Stohess. They also had to swoop down to the ground, however, in order to kill the Baby Zillas on the ground. They were able to save a few lives as a result, but far more people were killed. As they continued trying to damage the Zilla, three Baby Zillas jumped off of her back and attacked Levi, one of them landing on him. He managed to kill it, but wasn't able to get airborne again in time and landed on a house, getting knocked out cold in the process.
"CAPTAIN!" Jean shouted. He then looked back and gritted his teeth in frustration.
The Scouts managed to swoop around the Zilla, grappling from dorsal plate to dorsal plate before eventually swinging down to her eyes. Before they could attack it, she clenched them shut, which left her vulnerable to an attack from Huang which stunned her momentarilly. He tried to keep up his assault, however, the Zilla quickly recovered and ran right through him.
However, as the continued running, she suddenly yelped in pain as she suddenly felt something sharp stab into her ankle. Mikasa landed on a building and gripped her scarf as she saw Eren using hardened claws on her hands and feet to climb up the side of the Zilla's leg with a bundle of barrels on her back wrapped around her shoulders with rope. Huang saw Eren climbing her and helped keep the Zilla off her by slamming blasts of mist into her face with the force of a hurricane.
Eren soon reaches the Zilla's back and undid the straps on her shoulders. She then looked down at Armin as he climbed off of her, a lit torch in his hand.
"Remember Eren, we have to make sure it's in a place we know will kill it before we detonate it," he said. "This is all the gunpowder that the MPs had available to them, so we need to make it count."
"Back of the head then…?" Eren asked.
"Seems like our best bet. Now let's go!"
Eren began running across the giant monster's back, the barrels slung over her shoulder. She occasionally stumbled and leaned against one of the dorsal spines for support as she felt Zilla rock back and forth, before continuing forwards. As they continued forwards, however, Armin turned around when he heard the roars of Baby Zillas. Upon looking behind them, he found that they were climbing up and approaching them.
"Eren! Keep moving! I'll hold them off!"
"Armin… Let me… Help you…"
"No, Eren. You're the only one who can stop it! Now go!"
Eren wanted desperately for Armin to come with her. She knew that if Armin died here, she wouldn't be able to get him back. However, before Armin could jump in and fight the baby Zillas, Mikasa and Jean swooped down and killed two of them. They then saw Marlo rocket up and fire a rifle, shooting one of them in the head and causing it to fall off to its death.
"Mikasa! Jean!"
"Erwin told us the plan," Jean said. "You two keep going! We can hold them off!"
Armin and Eren nodded and kept moving forwards. Jean and Mikasa began ripping through a hoard of the Baby Zillas, while Marlo kept his distance and provided cover fire for them. The Baby Zillas fell one by one, however with a roar from Zilla, more of them began climbing up to replace the ones that fell. This combined with the Scouts having to use their gas sparingly meant it would only be a matter of time until they were defeated, and Zilla knew this, so she didn't even bother shaking Eren and Armin off, because she knew she already won.
That was her last mistake.
Suddenly, she felt Eren sink her claws into the back of her head and grunted. On her head, Eren had hardened her entire body, save for her naip, which she emerged from, before jumping off with Armin as he threw the torch and called to the others.
"EVERYONE GET OFF!" He cried as he and Eren leaped to safety.
Mikasa, Jean, and Marlo heeded his warning and jumped off, however, Mikasa ended up being attacked by a Baby Zilla in the air. She managed to kill it but was left with three deep scratches over her left eye, rendering it useless. Jean meanwhile saw that his landing was flooded with Baby Zillas, so he had to get to safer ground, in the process breaking off from the group.
The barrels left behind quickly ignited and detonated all at once, creating a powerful explosion that ruptured the back of the Zilla's skull and caused the ground to rumble. She stumbled forwards briefly, before collapsing to the ground, her eyes glazed over, blood rushing out of the back of her head like a red waterfall. But there were no celebrations to be had just yet, as there were still four more Zillas to deal with, and they just ran out of gunpowder.
-L-
Levi woke up on a roof, hoisting himself back to his feet and preparing to join the battle again. As he was about to take off, he took a look down, and he saw the reason why there was no evacuation. The gate to the interior was being guarded by a pack of Baby Zillas. Piles of the bloody bones of eaten humans were lining the streets, as well as the broken weapons of soldiers and the corpses of Baby Zillas who fell during the battle that took place here. It was clear to him at this point that this wasn't just a losing battle, but a losing battle that they wouldn't be able to escape from, especially when they were already starting to run out of fuel.
"CAPTAIN!" Mike called as he swooped down to Levi's side.
"Mike, status update," Levi ordered.
"We managed to kill it, but then the little ones arrived, and in the chaos, Mikasa lost an eye, and we lost Jean in the city."
Levi growled, then reached into his bag.
"Sir, what are you doing?"
Levi pulled out a flair gun and pointed it above his head while covering his ear. "I'm calling Gigan again. You go find Jean."
"Understood."
Mike then took off while Levi quickly shot the acoustic round. He then heard screeching beneath him and looked down to see a pack of Baby Zillas that were going to try and kill him writhing in agony and covering their bleeding ears. Levi took this opportunity to carve through each of them, but after finishing and landing back on the roof, there was still no sign of Gigan.
'Where the hell is that thing?' Levi thought.
However, while the round didn't summon Gigan, it did summon the attention of a different monster. Levi looked up as he saw two of the adult Zillas emerge from their camouflage and loom over him, both with vicious grins on their faces. Levi, for once, actually had a look of fear on his face, as one of the Zillas lunged for him.
However, just before Levi was devoured, a gigantic, black mass of metal crashed into both of the Zillas, and sent them tumbling down the street. Levi was relieved to see that Gigan had arrived to aid them finally, but that relief turned to mortal terror when he saw the sorry state Gigan was in.
Sparks flew out of him, his jaw lazily hung open, his wings were torn asunder, and one of his arms was missing. The lights on Gigan briefly flickered on, but a sudden pulse of energy from the sky caused his systems to shut down once again. He tried to prop himself back up, only for a winged, grey monster to swoop down and slam into him, knocking him back to his knees. This was followed by another energy pulse and another slam. Soon, twelve of these monsters began circling around the city, all of them using their abilities to prevent Gigan from using his abilities as Battra slowly descended from the clouds.
Battra's eyes glowed purple and two Prism Beams fired down from them and onto Gigan, causing him to howl in agony and collapse. He then unleashed an alpha call, and all the Baby Zillas began to swarm Gigan, crawling all over him and scratching at his body, slowly picking him apart scratch by scratch. As Gigan was being torn apart by the Zillas and Mutos, and whittled down further by the Baby Zillas, Battra began finishing what the Zillas started, laying waste to entire city blocks just by flying over them and creating hurricane winds strong enough to rip entire houses apart.
Levi fell to his knees as Battra decimated the entire city, leaving only fire and debris in his wake when suddenly, he was blasted to the ground by a beam of green Atomic Breath. Levi, Gigan, and all the other monsters and people stopped and looked up to the top of the wall as they saw another Zilla. But this one was unlike the others. Her eyes flashed green and she proceeded to unleash a roar that echoed across the island.
The princess had come to save the knights.
-Reviews-
Guest account: "Lol"
LMAO
Drosera68: "Mina, Nooooo XD"
Don't know why you put an XD at the end of that, but okay.