What you weren't expecting was the silence.
Screaming, explosions, anything else would have been expected, even acceptable. Fitting. But all there was was that awful, horrible, drawn-out silence that seemed to wrap itself around you like a blanket made of freezing water, never ending.
You stood with your comrades, your family, mouths open and eyes wide. No one said anything. No one did anything. All you could do was stare at the spot that used to be Thomas before he fell, shrieking, down the titan's gullet. And then there was silence.
The titan slowly picked itself up off the ground where it landed and turned, walking away like it hadn't just shattered your whole reality in a split second.
Your fists were clenched so hard you could feel your fingernails puncture the skin of your palms. Blood mingled with sweat. You vaguely noticed the feeling of a sharp pain in your leg from your landing, seconds earlier.
You heard a sound that was something between a sob and a gasp, coming from below you, finally breaking the horror spell, the silence. Eren hung over the edge of the roof by a single hand, staring towards the clock tower, wind-blown hair barely masking how his eyes shined with grief.
And then rage.
His chest heaved, his face burned. "You bastard!" he screamed, launching his anchors into a nearby building and flying off the edge of the roof.
"Eren, don't!" You couldn't believe how your voice sounded - so weak, so desperate, but so powerful. You activated your 3DMG, following in Eren's wake at breakneck speed.
"Eren!" came Armin's voice from behind.
"Wait! Stay with the group!" Nack yelled, taking off after him.
You could hear Eren yelling something ahead, but couldn't make out what. He was moving too fast, faster than you'd ever seen him move before.
You were faster.
You were still one hundred feet away. You exerted more gas. You could hear it hissing dangerously at your waist. You didn't care.
"[Name], slow down!"
Eighty feet.
You saw it before Eren did. You wondered if Eren saw it at all before it was too late. A titan, only four or five meters, walking around on the street below. Eren was flying towards it, eyes clearly trained only on the abnormal. But the smaller titan noticed him.
Fifty feet.
"EREN!" someone screamed. Maybe it was you. Maybe it was Mina. You didn't know. You didn't care. You had almost reached him - you were only maybe thirty feet away now. You could hear Eren yelling that the titan wouldn't get away, wouldn't get away.
Fifteen feet.
The small titan jumped, jaw opening so wide it tore his cheeks from the corner of his lips to his ear. Eren flew right over it, not noticing, and then its teeth slammed shut with a sickening snap. You felt the stirred air from its descent as you shot past it half a second later. You saw Eren still in the air, and sighed in relief. Everything remained normal for a second longer.
Then you heard a grunt. Eren let out a single grunt as he lost his balance. Had the titan really missed him? Everything was happening so fast, you weren't sure. Eren's form began to dive then, faster than you could catch him, crashing into a roof off to the side, face-first. He hit it with such force that he broke tile, his momentum propelling him forward as he slid and rolled and was thrown for what felt like forever until finally skidding to a stop a hundred feet from where he landed.
You dropped at full speed, your injured leg collapsing upon impact with the building, your vision going blurry with pain. You groaned, but crawled to him on your hands and knees, unhindered.
"Eren, no..." you croaked hoarsely as you reached him, finally getting a look at what had happened as your eyes refocused.
His left leg was missing below the knee, bits of flesh and cloth trailing out from where his previously white pant leg ended. The straps had been cut clean, completely loosing his leg from his gear. Even if he was conscious, which he didn't appear to be, he probably wouldn't be able to fly effectively. You'd have to carry him. Blood speckled the rest of his body, and ran freely from his hairline. A head wound.
You couldn't tell whether or not he was even alive, you realized with a sinking feeling. Panic. His eyes were open, but they were blank.
"Wake up, you bastard!" you hissed, laying a gentle hand on his back to contradict your harsh words. Nothing. Your heart raced. "I have to get you someplace safe, I have to get you evac, medical! You can't do this. Don't you even dare," you growled. "Don't you dare!" you yelled hoarsely, shaking his shoulders.
He didn't move. You let out a single, miserable sob, letting your head fall.
There was a shrill sound from the direction you had come from. "Eren! [Name]!"
Your gaze snapped to where you had just come from to see three other shapes rapidly approaching. Armin remained on the roof where you had all initially crashed. Maybe he had been more injured in the initial landing than you realized. Mina's shriek drew your attention away from Eren just in time to see another, different titan walk out of a dark side alley, no taller than the first.
You tried to yell a warning, but you were too late.
The new titan reached out an arm and swatted Nack out of the sky like a fly, using such great force that all that was left of him was a pink mist littered with chunks that you didn't want to think about, the gruesome disintegration of all the blood and flesh and bone in his body. Mina saw it too, howling fiercely, turning in her harness and drawing her blades as she flew straight through the disgusting cloud, covering her whole body in a layer of gore.
Then her wire jerked.
You barely noticed it at first. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. Mina was yanked back, and got slammed into a wall with bone shattering force, three hundred feet away. She slid, body broken and limp, to the base. The new titan, five meters with a shaggy dark mop of hair and massive, glassy, brown eyes, dropped her wire and peeked down around the edge of the wall where Mina lay, dazed. Drool dripped out of his mouth and landed on her, but she didn't seem to notice. She didn't move.
Move, [Name]. She's in trouble.
Your knees remained glued to the roof.
You need to move!
The titan picked Mina up in two enormous, fleshy hands, holding her in front of him like he was appraising a new toy. She didn't move. Millius started screaming - the titan that had jumped at Eren had him in hand as well, a ways further back than Mina was from you. You didn't see how it happened, and you didn't know where Armin was, you realized with fear. He wasn't on the first roof anymore. You looked down at Eren's crumpled, bloody body.
You weren't sure if Mina was even alive anymore. She was still. She was quiet. But then her head picked up weakly. Even from several hundred feet away, her eyes met yours. Her lips formed your name.
Your mind started up again like a stalling engine finally roaring to life.
You got up to your feet, despite the pain in your legs from two crash landings in less than three minutes. You gave Eren one last look. You felt tears you hadn't noticed before dripping off your face and onto your uniform. He hadn't moved. "I'm sorry," you whispered, before running at full speed and launching yourself off the building towards Mina and Millius.
You were still too far away, and the titan began to lift her to his mouth. Millius still struggled with the titan behind her. It placed him between his teeth, his torso hanging out of his mouth. Millius tried desperately to push himself out with arms, but couldn't get any traction on the slimy expanses of the titan's teeth.
"Please, stop! I don't want to die - agh!" you heard Millius screaming as the titan bit down.
Then he went silent. The last thing you heard from him was a soft thump as his upper body hit the ground.
"No!"
You were crying too hard now to see much anymore but for the titan that lifted Mina slowly to his mouth. You were so close. So close to finishing it, to saving her.
You wouldn't lose another sister. Never again.
He was within range. You lifted your flesh paring blades up high with a vicious cry, hooking your anchors behind his head and hurtling towards him at top speed. You wrenched your body around, blades held aloft, and felt the heavy pressure on your swords before it gave, as you spun past him, cleaving the nape of his neck from his body in one, fast sweep.
The disgusting piece of flesh fell, and the titan dropped to his knees and fell to the side, immobile. The titan just a bit further ahead was reaching for Millius' other half, like it wanted seconds. You felt a dark rage bubbling up inside you at the sight of it.
No more!
Your anchors landed in between its shoulder blades and you used a bit of extra gas to lift yourself high above his head. You began to retract your wires, shooting towards its back, twisting your body sharply in the harness to get more momentum. Your blades hit their mark, and the titan fell forwards as you leapt off, running back to Mina without a second glance at the monster's steaming corpse. You could see no other titans in the immediate vicinity.
You struggled on your injured leg, sprinting back to the other carcass. You didn't even realize you had just gotten your first real kills.
You finally reached the titans open hand, where Mina still lay motionless. You dragged her out and pulled her several feet away to safety, laying her in your lap. You brushed her bloodied hair out of her face. "Mina, I got you. You're safe now."
Mina's eyes slowly moved to meet yours, half closed. "I can't feel anything, [Name]," she breathed shakily, a note of anxiety in her weak voice.
You tried to remain as calm as possible for her. You hadn't noticed before - blood leaked out of the corner of her mouth - her blood, not Nack's. Her chest rose and fell shallowly like she couldn't find enough air. That wasn't a good sign. It could mean that a broken rib punctured one or both of her lungs. It had happened to one of the cadets after a bad accident during 3DMG training. He hadn't survived. Her arms and legs were bent at strange angles. Whether from the titan's fists or the wall, you didn't know. Maybe a little bit of both.
You smiled weakly. "You have a few broken bones, but you will be okay. We just need to get you help."
Mina exhaled slowly in your lap, fighting for breath. "I'm not... going anywhere. Even... if I could... you need to survive," she said. "I can't, but you can... and you will be so amazing," Mina said with the tiniest of smiles, a ghost of the one that had greeted you every morning for the last three years. "Whatever you do, you will be. You saved me."
You started brokenly crying even harder at her words. "Mina, I didn't," you hiccuped. "I wasn't fast enough. I'm so sorry... I'm so, so sorry."
Mina slowly moved her hand onto your arm and let it rest there. Her eyes were nearly closed, just a little bit of the familiar bluish gray of her irises peaking out from beneath her thick, black lashes. "You... did... save. Not eaten... is enough. You're here... thank you."
Mina let out one more, rattling exhale. Her eyes closed. Her hand fell loosely to her side. She died in your arms.
Again. It had happened again.
I've failed you all, you thought, boiling in rage and agony.
"No!" you heard Armin scream from somewhere nearby.
But I will NOT fail anyone else.
You gently pushed Mina off your lap, pivoting and activating your ODM yet again. Armin was significantly closer than he had been before, held like a kitten by its collar between the index finger and thumb of a massive, grey-bearded titan, probably fifteen meters tall, dangling over its wide, gaping mouth. It released its fingers and Armin slid, howling, down its throat. You picked up your speed.
You wouldn't be able to just kill the titan now. Armin would burn up inside it as it disintegrated. There was only one other choice.
You would have to cut him out from the inside.
"I will NOT fail anyone else!" you screamed.
"No!" came a bellow from beside you, and you felt the telltale give of someone cutting one of your wires.
Uneven, you fell, crashing flat on your stomach on the shingled roof, the air forcibly pushed out of you by the impact. "What the -"
The shape blew past you, unrecognizably fast. Yet, you knew who it was.
"Eren, stop!" you screamed, struggling to your feet and breaking out into a run, your gear rendered useless.
How is he still moving?
Eren landed in the titan's mouth on his remaining leg, diving in without a second thought, clinging to the edge of its mouth for support. Your heart nearly stopped. You had to get there in time. Had to save them.
Almost immediately, Eren threw Armin out of the mouth of the huge titan by his hand, and Armin fell unceremoniously onto the roof. Then the titan began to close its jaw. You stared on in horror as Eren tried to get out but couldn't move fast enough, getting caught between the upper and lower teeth, holding them apart as well as he could with his right foot and arms. He struggled. You forced your legs to move even faster, if it was possible. Armin started to pick himself up off the ground, but looked confused, staring at Eren in horror.
"I refuse to die like this, understand?" Eren growled, struggling to keep the titan's mouth from shutting. "We're still going to the outside world... The things you told me about... I have to see them... I have to..."
Eren turned and saw you then, so close to reaching him. He took one arm off the titan's teeth and reached his hand out to you, grimacing in pain, the other wobbling dangerously.
"Eren, no!" you screamed, diving forward, reaching out to grab his hand.
The titan's mouth slammed shut, Eren's arm still outside its teeth, flying out and landing in front of you on the roof in a shower of blood. You stared at it in shock. The titan threw back his head and swallowed.
Armin wailed, sounding like a dying animal. You felt your heart shatter into a thousand pieces, cutting into your soul. You felt a sob rise in your throat.
But you choked it down.
There was still one left you could save, and you wouldn't allow weakness to stop you anymore.
You tackled Armin's side, pulling him away from the edge of the roof as he reached his arms towards the titan like he wanted to pull Eren out just as he had done for him. He struggled to get out of your grip, but you kept pulling him away.
"Armin, stop, we need to go," you spoke steadily. "My 3DMG is broken, so you need to..." you turned around and saw the huge titan walking away. "Here, take it off. I'll get us out of here."
Armin's eyes stared blankly beyond you, unseeing and unregistering.
"Armin, come on," you pleaded, grabbing his shoulders and forcing him to face you.
He looked at you then with grief-stricken eyes. "It's alright," he whispered brokenly. "I can do it." He grabbed you around the waist, and you wrapped your arm around his shoulders. "Are you ready?" he asked quietly, sniffling.
You looked back. The titan was gone. Eren was gone. "...Yes."
Armin nodded and took off, weaving carefully in and out of buildings to avoid the heavily titan-populated areas. You barely noticed anything until you landed in the bell tower of a church somewhere. You didn't care. You wondered if you'd ever care again. You kept your face devoid of emotion.
Armin let you go and you fell to your knees, leg giving way. He slid against the wall across from you, cheeks stained with tears, tucking his legs up to his chest and dropping his head into folded arms. He was silent.
You felt an overwhelming feeling of guilt looking at the broken boy. "Armin... I..." you started. But what could you say to someone who just lost his best friend because you weren't fast enough? "I am so sorry. I failed you... I failed Eren. I failed everyone."
Armin looked up to you in shock, water falling from his eyes like a river. "Why are you apologizing?" he asked incredulously. "You fought! I didn't do anything, I just watched. I just watched everyone die! I'm the one who should be apologizing. I let you down," he sobbed, letting out all his words in a rush. "I let him down."
You got up and quickly pulled Armin into a hug, squeezing him as tightly as you could. He wrapped his arms around you and squeezed back, openly grieving for his lost friend.
"We can't stay here long," you said finally.
Armin continued crying softly for several minutes, and you rubbed his back comfortingly, silently.
You didn't want him to see your face, but you knew he could feel it as each of your teardrops landed on his back.