Ugh I feel so terrible about posting so late, but college and work have been destroying me! Anyway, enough with excuses.
Some of you seemed to think Eren had lost control of his titan form, but that actually wasn't the case, as you'll read now. I'm sorry if my last entry gave off that feeling.
To the Guest that had asked me numerous questions about the future events, all I can say, is that it will be taking a different turn from the anime, very different. Most of what happened after the battle will not involve Eren, and in fact it will be a little longer until anyone figures out Rogue is actually Eren, but I'm hoping it will still come out interesting!
Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, a review is greatly appreciated! :3
The beast of a titan slowed and skidded to a halt in front of their building, sending several cadets running towards the nearby buildings to escape him. Many of the others were either too injured to move or too stunned by the titan's sudden appearance and speed. Jean and Connie had attempted to grab Gwen and pull her away but she held her ground and before the two boys could escape, the titan was above them, freezing them in place with its piercing eyes. The only others on the roof appeared to be the cold blond girl, a beefy young man with short golden hair, and a tall boy with dark hair and eyes. They were all shocked into place by this creature before them.
Then the titan moved, lifting his closed hand to the humans. To Gwen's complete amazement, he opened his hand and sitting in his palm, shaken but unharmed, was a young soldier with blond hair, watery blue eyes, and a baby face. When the human didn't move onto the rooftop on his own, the titan pinched the back of his jacket with his other hand and gently placed him next to Jean and Connie, who's shocked expressions would have been hilarious if not for the situation.
"Armin! Armin, man, are you okay?!" Connie yelled, checking over his friend and shaking him when he didn't respond. Armin blinked and then slowly turned to Connie, his face locked in an expression of numb confusion and fear.
After a second round of shaking, he finally nodded and said in a breathy, trembling voice, "I'm f-fine, Connie."
Jean continued to stare in horror at the titan, whose attention had shifted from the blond boy and his human comrades to Gwen's huddled form beside a wounded young woman.
"Angel," the titan hissed through his deformed maw, having trained himself to speak through his titan form despite his teeth, something none of the others could accomplish yet.
Gwen flinched and cursed every deity out there for this turn of events. She shakily got to her feet and with every human's eyes on her she answered her leader.
"H-Hello, Rogue. I wasn't r-really expecting you to find me here," she said nervously. Though she had little to fear from Rogue, she knew this would not look good should Ms. Drake hear about it.
All around her, the humans gasped and shuddered in disbelief, but none of them knew how to react to his turn of events.
The titan narrowed his eyes, looking livid but before he could scold her, Gwen hastily added, "L-listen, I know you're probably angry at me right now, but could you save it for later? Please, Rogue? I know I'm supposed to be with my team, but I couldn't just sit there and watch all these humans suffer! I had to help, Rogue! Don't you see?"
Gwen continued to ramble on, growing more and more frantic as Rogue continued to simply stare at her, face impassive. In her panic, her hood fell down and exposed her flustered face.
"A-and, and if they can't get those titans off the supply depot, they won't have enough gas to get over the wall and retreat. They'll all die here if I don't do something!"
"ENOUGH!" Rogue snarled out, silencing Gwen and terrifying the rest on the roof.
The titan stared down at her before lifting his head to stare at the titan-infested building in the distance. She could see him debating it in his mind, and she hoped to any god listening that he would agree to leave it to her.
"If I can just get Gemini or Cana to clear it out, we'll still have plenty of time before the mission is completed," Gwen said quietly, afraid to draw his wrath again. Next to her she could feel someone step up.
"You want to help humans, right?" said the blonde boy, Armin. He was clearly afraid, but tried to keep composed. "If we can just get you to kill those titans around it, we can get inside and refill our supplies. Can you at least do that for us?"
The titan turned back to glare at Armin, who shrunk back slightly, before he let out a grumbling sigh.
"I will kill the titans around the building, but once you are inside, I must return to my mission," Rogue said, preparing to burst toward the depot, but before he took off, he turned to Gwen and said, "I trust you know what you're doing, Angel."
Gwen nodded, face determined. She grabbed her swords and prepared to follow after Rogue.
"We aren't seriously going to rely on a titan to fight for us, are we," one of the soldiers asked fearfully.
"At this point, we don't have much of a choice," another one answered.
All around the soldiers drew their swords, nervous but determined enough to follow through on the insane plan set before them.
Rogue took off with a jolt of speed and a blast of dust and crushed stone beneath him. An adrenaline filled roar ripped through the air and all the soldiers let out their own warriors yells before taking off after him toward the infested supply house. Gwen followed closely behind her leader, gripped with joy that her plan to help the humans was going this well. She would have to give her deepest gratitude to Eren later for this.
Earlier in the mission
Eren stood on the roof of one of the many ruin buildings in the demolished city. Before him stood several titans, clawing to get to him and blocking the rest of the way to the boulder. He had anticipated there being quite a few of these bastards but he never imagined there would be this many and it greatly hindered their plan.
"Glaring at them won't make them go away, you know," Gabriel smirked. He and Hannah stood behind Eren, waiting for instructions.
"Damn, worth a shot," Eren replied, a smile on his face. His expression cleared then when more titans appeared behind their building. "This is going to be much harder than I anticipated."
"Ha! When does anything go our way?" snorted Hannah. "Hey, think I could spit in one of their eyes?"
Before either of the boys could scold her for thinking off topic, she bent over the edge and sent a large glob of spit down onto the titans before, nailing one in the eye. "Ha! Bullseye!"
"Focus, Hannah," Eren said in exasperation. Of all the people he could of picked, he just had to choose her for the delicate mission. "Now, I guess, I'm going to have to shift sooner than expected to clear out these bastards. You two save your energy until we get to the boulder."
"Look, dude, I know you can handle yourself pretty well, but that's a lot of fucking titans down there," Hannah grumbled.
"I know we aren't supposed to shift until you've got the boulder, but there's way too many of these bastards to fight through by yourself," Gabriel stated logically. "I say Hannah and I shift and plow through them so you have a clear path. You're the one who need their strength more than us."
Eren sighed and stared unblinkingly at the disgusting monsters before him. "Maybe you're right. It's a better plan than I've got, so we'll—'
Eren abruptly cut off when the sound of panicked screaming echoed through the air and his head whipped around in the direction of the sound.
There, kneeling on a rooftop several meters away, was a small soldier with short blond hair. He seemed to be frozen to the spot but looking relatively uninjured. Around him, titans swarmed the streets, creepy faces smeared with fresh blood that Eren could smell all the way on his roof. His nose wrinkled in disgust at these monstrosities and his anger flared at their indifferent bloodlust. It was nearly five years since he'd seen on of these abominations and he was greatly looking forward to slaughtering every one of them.
Eren found his attention drifting back to the poor soul slumped on the tiles. Suddenly, he froze and his eyes widened in shock, his mouth going slack in horror. Before Hannah or Gabriel could stop him or ask what he was doing, the brunette took off across the roof and shot out his wires in the direction of the soldier. The other two yelled after him, but he didn't respond. Instead he flung himself into the air and bit his hand, shifting instantly into his titan form.
Once he was fully formed, Rogue took off in dead sprint toward the soldier, completely ignoring the two shouting behind him. He was thriving on pure instinct and the need to protect.
Another titan had reached the boy before he could. The gray-haired giant stood in front of the blonde for a moment before lifting its hand and grabbing the boy's jacket, yanking him into the air. Rogue charged faster, eyes blazing an unearthly green and filled with rage. The disgusting titan didn't have any time to react before its head twisted to the side from the force of the punch and its nape brutally jerked out by Rogue's sharp teeth. The titan slumped to the ground, dead.
The screaming of the human pulled Rogue from his bloody rage and he pushed out his hand at the last second to quickly snag the boy from the air before he could splat on the ground. He pulled his palm close to him and stared at the human, concerned but also slightly amused by the boy's unnecessary trembling. When the boy finally looked up, Rogue saw the fear in his watery blue eyes turned to confusion, probably at not being eaten.
Eren smiled inside his titan body. It had been so long since he had seen his friend and even in this dire and inconvenient situation, it was wonderful to see Armin again. He couldn't stop staring at that boy sitting in the palm of his hand like a little doll, though the poor guy was probably terrified at the moment. Armin simply continued to stare up into Rogues unnatural eyes, as if he thought looking away would mean his certain death. That blonde head suddenly snapped to the side when Eren's cloaked teammates appeared on his shoulder, panting and growling under their breath.
"Are you trying to get us killed?!" snapped Gabriel, readjusting his glasses. "Did you forget we have something important to do?!"
"Yeah come on, man, you could have at least told us what—," Hannah began to say before she froze at the sight of the human sitting in her captain's palm. She cocked her head to the side.
"You nearly ruined the mission to chase a human," she snorted derisively.
Rogue snarled at her, silencing her immediately. How dare she mock his good intentions especially when it came to his friends, though she had no idea Eren knew this human.
"W-Wait, you were s-saving me?" Armin trembled out. When Eren nodded, the boy's face became shocked. "And you can understand human language?"
Hannah snorted in amusement and leaned against Rogue's thick neck. "You saw us talking to him before, right? Yeesh, I know humans aren't the brightest but damn, dude!"
"Excuse me for being more than a little in shock!" snapped Armin, his nerves far too frayed to deal with his strange person's insults. He turned back to the titan, becoming cautious yet curious. "So what…are you exactly? I mean, you look like a titan but you have human intelligence…"
"I would explain it," Rogue replied in a deep, rough voice, his vocals cords aching with the strain of forming words. It was something he preferred not to do often if he could help it. "But now is not the time. I will bring you to safety, but then I must return to my mission."
Armin had jumped initially when Rogue spoke, have never met a talking titan, but was now staring at him in fascination before he came to his senses.
"What mission? Are you planning to help us? Is that why you saved me, because you're on humanity's side?" Armin questioned excitedly. He didn't know when he'd get a chance like this so he wanted to make the most of it.
"Look, we can't tell you that, kid," Gabriel spoke for Rogue, knowing speech was difficult for him in this form. "Right now, we can't tell you anything. Rogue…"
Eren turned his head to his teammate to show he was listening.
"Bones and I will wait here for you and we'll try to clear out some of these monsters while you're gone, but you'll need to be fast if we want to get this done by sundown," Gabriel said, whipping out his swords as Hannah mirrored his actions.
"Be careful, and stay alive until I get back," Rogue growled. They both nodded before taking off in the direction they came from.
Without waiting a second more, Rogue cupped his hand over the other, protecting the human between them without harming him, and took off toward the heavy scent of human almost a mile away.
Eren knew he had acted on instinct and had probably hindered their plan greatly by doing so, but he didn't regret it in the slightest. He had saved his best friend, so how could regret that? This was why he fought, why he risked his humanity and his freedom. He did it for them, for Armin, Mikasa, his mother, and every friend he'd made along the way. He'd fight for them until he lost every ounce of strength in his body, a promise he had made long ago, and one he planned to always keep.