Now Armin-strong has become Armin-strongest :D enjoy
"Alright troops," Erwin shouted over the lull of conversation emanating from the ranks behind him, "this is the fifty-eighth Exterior Scouting Mission. This time we will push forward to Shinganshina if we are able. Keep to formation and we should be aware of the Titans before they take us by surprise."
It had been a year since Stohess and this time as Armin sat with the rest of the Regiment, in his place in the formation, he felt as if he was ready. He had taken down Titans before, he had been on missions outside the walls and he was still standing, he had even taken down Eren when he was on a rampage. This time he felt no fear as he sat while some of the newer recruits that they had recently picked up looked as if they were about to be sick.
He could hardly blame them, most of them had just graduated from their basic training and really shouldn't be going out into the field but with the Survey Corps numbers being what they were and what they were likely to come back with Erwin needed every able bodied soldier he could get his hands on. He looked over at the kid sitting next to him, a baby-faced boy with red hair who was shaking violently.
"Hey," Armin said softly and the boy looked over at him.
"Yes Sir?"
"It's going to be alright," he told him. "Just remember your training and keep to the formation."
"Yes Sir," the boy said nodding vigorously.
"You don't have to call me Sir," Armin said with a smile. "I'm not a Squad Leader or a Captain. Just call me Armin."
"Okay," the boy said nodding again.
"What's your name?" Armin asked hoping that if he kept talking then he would distract the boy from his nerves. He could see a lot of himself in him the first time he had gone on an exterior mission; he had felt so unprepared despite having been at Shinganshina during the first attack and at Trost during the second.
"Doyle," he replied.
"Good luck out there today Doyle," Armin said as Erwin called for their attention. "Just stick to what you've been taught in your training and you'll be fine."
"Okay," Doyle nodded smiling. He looked a little less like he was going to pass out and there was a little more colour in his cheeks.
"Troops fall out!" Erwin shouted from the front of the formation as the gates began to rise allowing them out into the world.
Armin dug his heels into his horse's sides to get it moving. This was going to be a long mission but, if it was successful then they might actually be able to push far enough forward for Armin to see home for the first time in nearly seven years.
The success of a mission often depended on whether or not they were taken by surprise by the Titans or if they were the one's doing the ambushing. Unfortunately once again they were taken by surprise. There didn't seem to be any like Eren or Annie among the group that found them but there were three abnormals as well as a large number of other Titans in varying sizes. The outer ranks were hit the hardest and almost as soon as the Titans broke through, getting closer and closer to the centre, there was a flash of lightning and Eren emerged in his Titan form.
Being on the ground made the ODM Gear virtually useless but it wasn't the first time Armin had had to engage it while the only things for the hooks to latch onto were the Titans themselves. He managed to take at least four of them down before they were overwhelmed but their numbers were depleted from the last exterior mission and Stohess and, as more Titans seemed to flock to the scene, Erwin gave the order to fall back, leaving only a select few on the field to try and fend them off.
Even with Eren fighting in Titan form there had never been a guarantee of a victory but, then again, neither had having any one person fighting their corner. He managed to take down a significant number of the enemy but at a great cost to his own strength and power and before he had the chance to react he found himself ripped out of his Titan body and thrown to the floor. It took him too long to become alert enough to do anything but stare up at the Titan now looming over him, ready to strike.
He couldn't move, he couldn't think, he couldn't do anything but sit, rooted to the spot, and wait for death to come. As the Titan's hand reached out for him he tried one last ditch attempt to do something and raised his own hand to his mouth and bit down hard, hoping that if he could transform again then he would be alright. But nothing happened. Eren sat there, blood beginning to ooze from his hand where he had bitten, staring up at the Titan with wide eyes as he realised he last option for saving himself had failed. He closed his eyes and waited for it to be over.
"Eren!" Mikasa's voice shouted and Eren opened his eyes to see her flying through the air towards the Titan above him. With a flash of steel she sunk her blades into the back of the Titan's neck and it fell to the floor, wobbling as it did so. Without anything nearby to attach her gear too Mikasa fell with the Titan. As it landed, face first, on the ground she slipped and fell to the floor landing on her gear. One of the gas canisters split open and she looked down at it in horror realising that their only chance of escape now was on foot.
"Mikasa your gear," Eren said as he reached her. Mikasa looked up from the broken canister at him. He looked a state; covered in blood, his clothes torn and no gear either.
"Where's yours?" she asked.
"Must have lost it when I shifted," he replied. "What do we do now? What's happening?"
"Commander Erwin's given the order to retreat," she told him, "so we find a horse and get back to the gate as fast as we can."
"But..." Eren began but was cut off by the stomping of huge feet from behind them. Slowly both he and Mikasa turned to see another huge Titan looming over them, the usual manic grin spread over it's face.
"Run!" Mikasa shouted and the two of them scrambled to their feet and began to run. As he tried to stand Eren slipped and fell and that gave the Titan the opportunity to reach out with a huge hand and pick him up the the scruff of the neck. He cried out in shock as he was lifted into the air, Mikasa turned to see him dangling from the Titan's hand and began to run back towards them both. "Eren!"
"Run away you idiot!" he shouted down at her. "Your gear's fucked, save yourself."
"No!" she shouted. "I've got enough gas to use it once more, I can save you."
"Use that to get yourself back alive," he told her.
"But..."
"Just do it!" Eren shouted back, closing his eyes. He struggled in mid-air but as the Titan was holding onto his clothes rather than him in proved to be virtually useless. He finally stopped struggling and opened his eyes to look down into the huge open mouth of the Titan and he realised that he was going to die. He felt tears pricking the corners of his eyes but he swallowed them down as best he could, it was ridiculous but he didn't want his final moments to be crying for his life, like a coward.
Suddenly the Titan let go of him and he fell into its mouth and began to fall down it's throat. This is the end, this is how I die. He reached out hoping to try and find purchase on the Titan's tongue to stop himself from falling then maybe he could try to climb out but found nothing just wet and slime that was impossible to grab.
Then something solid and firm closed around his wrist. He opened his eyes to see that it was a hand and looked up towards the Titan's open mouth, which was being forced apart by one of the person's blades and their sheer force of will, pushing against the bottom set of teeth with their boot. Eren squinted up at his saviour, trying to work out who it was. It could only have been two people but the hair wasn't long enough for Mikasa and it was too long to be Levi. Whoever it was began to pull Eren up, out from the Titan's throat and it wasn't until he got closer to them that he saw a flash of blond.
"Armin?" he asked, his voice shaking as Armin pulled him up, with one arm, so that Eren was against his chest.
"Are you alright?" Armin asked.
"Yeah," Eren replied feeling dwarfed by Armin's new found strength. Except it wasn't new found, he realised; this is what he had been doing all those evenings and mornings he spent on the training ground with Levi – learning how to become stronger.
"Good," Armin said. He wrapped an arm around Eren's waist and turned the both of them so that they were facing outwards. "You ready to grab on?"
"What?" Eren asked but Mikasa flew round the Titan's shoulder and appeared before he could find out. Before he knew what was happening Armin heaved and threw him in Mikasa's direction. She just about caught him.
"Get yourselves out of here you don't have enough gas to do anything else," Armin told them and cold fear began to wash over Eren again. Was Armin about to do what he though he was about to do?
"What about you?" he asked, voice trembling and tears filling his eyes as he looked back at Armin.
"I'll be alright," Armin replied. "Now go."
Before either Eren or Mikasa could stop him Armin removed his blade from between the Titan's top teeth and they snapped shut over him. Eren felt his entire world come crashing to a halt as he stared up at the closed teeth as he and Mikasa fell to the floor. He struggled against her grip on him, which hadn't been overly secure to begin with and reached out as if trying to get to Armin to save him.
"Armin!" he screamed. His chest felt as if it was ripping in two and tears began to stream down his cheeks. It was like watching his mother die all over again. He had been awful to Armin in recent months and now he would never get the chance to apologise or properly thank him for saving his life. As he and Mikasa landed on the floor he felt himself crumble, folding in on himself as if trying to hold himself together and sobbed. He felt Mikasa's hand tugging his arm but he shrugged her off. She tugged harder.
"Come on," she said and Eren could hear the tremble in her voice as well, "he told us to get out of here so we need to do that."
"But I can do something," Eren said weakly. "I can transform again, I... I can try and save him."
"Eren please..." Mikasa tugged his arm again and he could hear the pain in her voice. "We need to go."
"I don't want to leave him," he said. He heard Mikasa take a shuddering breath and her voice seemed to stick in her throat as she spoke.
"It's not like there's a body to leave."
Eren felt himself break as that realisation hit home. She was right; Armin was gone and there was nothing left of him to take back. A scream of agony ripped through him as he hugged himself tighter trying to hold it all in but failing.
"Eren!" Mikasa screamed and he finally looked up to see the Titan reaching down for the both of them again. Once again he found himself rooted to the spot, unable to move, think or do anything.
The Titan stopped suddenly in mid reach, hand still stretched out to grab Eren, and a sickening spurting sound filled the air. Both Eren and Mikasa looked up to see blood beginning to drip down to the ground from the back of the Titan's neck and from where she was standing Mikasa could see a blade sticking out of its neck, glinting in the sun. The blade began to move from the inside, slowly at first but faster and faster until it was nothing but a flash of steel, and the Titan's head fell to the floor completely separate from its body, which followed shortly afterwards. Neither Eren or Mikasa dared to move, both waiting for it to regenerate and try to kill them again but it remained motionless on the floor.
Finally a figure began to emerge through the steam. Panting heavily and covered in Titan blood and saliva came Armin. He threw the ruined blade in his hand away, letting it clatter against the ground and shook as much of the excess fluid off himself as possible. Eren stared in disbelief and joy, wondering if he had actually just died and was seeing things, as Armin ran a hand through his hair, his fringe sticking back with the gunk he was caked in. Any attempt at cleaning himself seemed to be proving futile but all Eren could focus on was the fact that he was alive and in front of him. He pushed himself to his feet and ran over to him.
"Hey I thought I told you to get out of..." Armin began when he saw Eren but was cut off as he was tackled to the floor, Eren throwing his arms around him and sobbing into his shoulder. "Hey," he said softly wrapping his arms around Eren as he continued to cry, "it's okay, I'm still here."
"I'm sorry," Eren sobbed tightening his grip around Armin's neck. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay," Armin said, hugging Eren back just as tightly.
"No," Eren shook his head, not seeming to care that he was covering himself in the same mess Armin was covered in. All he cared about was the fact that Armin was there in front of him, he was real, he wasn't dreaming and he had the chance to make up for everything. "Don't leave me again okay?"
"Promise," Armin chuckled. He didn't have the energy to try to shift Eren so they could both get to their feet, find some horses and get back to the safety of the gate. Beheading that Titan from the inside out had taken almost everything he had out of him and he wanted nothing more than to stay where he was but he knew that wasn't an option. He heard and felt through the ground the pounding of horse hooves, that pulled up to a halt just behind them.
"Is this really the time or the place for a rest?" Levi's sceptical voice said from above them. Armin looked up against the glare of the sun and saw Levi sitting astride a horse, another in tow, and staring down at them with a raised eyebrow.
"Hi Captain," Armin said. Knowing that it was Levi standing above them made Eren snap back to himself. He jumped to his feet, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand and trying to seem composed. Once he was free Armin managed to heave himself to his feet with great difficulty as fatigue was beginning to set in. When he finally got to his feet Levi looked from him to Eren, taking in their dishevelled and damp appearances, and grimaced.
"What the hell happened to you two?" he asked. "What are you covered in?" Eren opened his mouth to answer but found his voice sticking in his throat. Luckily for him Armin was still able to answer, even if he was having trouble catching his breath.
"Titan saliva," he replied, "some blood too." He sounded way too cheerful about the whole situation.
"Disgusting," Levi said glaring at him.
"Once you're inside those things are really difficult to get out of," Armin stated. Levi snorted and rolled his eyes.
"I wouldn't know," he said, "I've never been stupid enough to get eaten by one."
"Technically I wasn't actually eaten," Armin said and both Eren and Mikasa stared at him in disbelief. Surely he was about to be beaten to the ground and reminded of his place for sounding so blasé when talking to a commanding officer. Levi shook his head.
"Do you want to talk about technicalities or do you want to get back inside the walls?" he asked.
"I think I'd like to go back inside," Armin replied.
"Then get on the horse," Levi said handing Armin the reigns of the other horse he had bought with him. "I only found one so we'll have to double up."
"Okay," Armin said and heaved himself into the saddle. Eren took a step towards the horse Levi was on, not sure what he was supposed to be doing but was stopped by Levi's hand appearing in front of his face.
"Hell no you're disgusting, you're not riding with me," he said. Eren blinked up at him, not knowing what he was supposed to do. Levi turned to Mikasa. "Ackerman you're with me, Yeager you go with Arlert, he's already filthy." Eren nodded and went over to Armin's horse as Mikasa pulled herself up behind Levi.
"Need a hand?" Armin asked holding his hand out. Eren took it and, with a strength that Eren had no idea he possessed, Armin pulled him to sit on the horse behind him. He wrapped his arms around Armin's waist, holding him tightly.
"Thank you," he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he pressed his cheek against Armin's back.
"It's okay," Armin said placing his hand on top of Eren's and giving it a squeeze before taking hold of the reigns and spurring his horse into a gallop to catch up to Levi and Mikasa.
"Hey Arlert," Levi called over when they were level, "how many did you take down in the end?"
"Twelve I think," Armin replied.
"That's pretty good, Levi said.
"Thank you Sir."
"Not good enough though; I got fifteen in total," Levi said smirking at him.
"Oh come on," Armin cried, "I took that last one down from the inside out, can't you give me that one?"
"I suppose that is rather impressive," Levi said, pretending to not be impressed in the slightest. "I heard you saved a whole group of the new recruits too."
"It wasn't really a group," Armin said. "More like two or three."
"Really?" Levi asked. "Because there's this red headed kid back at base banging on about you like you're the fucking messiah."
"Was that Doyle?" Armin asked grinning. "I'm glad he's still alive."
"Looks like you're going to have a fan club by the end of the day," Levi stated. "Well done though, you did incredibly well today," he added after a pause.
"Thank you Sir," Armin said. He couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face. Yes the mission hadn't been a success by any stretch of the imagination but for the first time since he had enlisted he felt as if he had actually managed to make a difference. The fact that he could feel Eren's arms around him, squeezing him tightly, meant that he had made enough of a difference to at least a few important people.
