Chapita Tu-oo.

He was swinging through the streets towards the castle, moving faster than I'd ever seen him go in training. I could already tell it wouldn't be enough. There wasn't time enough to make any real plans, so I just leapt in among the horde, hand outstretched to catch him before they did.. The smaller titans were like embers against my side as they cushioned my skidding fall. "Owe!" My voice thundered as I shook him reflexively, his blood-covered blade dropping to the cobbles below. By the sound of his screaming I deduced that at least I hadn't accidentally broken his neck by shaking him like that. Kicking off the chest of a 15-meter class I rolled backwards and up onto my feet, sprinting several hundred yards away before I halted. "Armin, it's me, calm down already. And you damn well better not cut my hand again."

"Mikasa? Is that you?"

Well, I couldn't really fault him for the guess, considering the circumstances. "The others are refilling their tanks, we need to distract the titans until they finish." He said nothing, mouth still agape. "Armin, focus! Do you have any ideas?" I was strafing right to keep as many of them following me as I could, but the situation was growing worse and worse.

"Umm, grab those bricks, if you hit them it should slow them down."

I was hoping for something a little more flashy but it would have to do. Gathering up rubble from a ruined building I started pelting them with the stones. Nearly as powerful as canon balls thanks to the strength of my arm they whistled through the air and sent titan flesh flying. It was just barely enough to keep the 15-meter titans stumbling, and even walking backwards I could outpace most of the smaller titans. Through a gap I caught a glimpse of the destroyed gates. The titans were still coming through, a seemingly endless horde. 'Mikasa, where are you?'

* V * V *

"Mikasa! Wake up Mikasa!"

'?' My head was pounding, my back a mass of pain. Where was I? Someone was looking for Mikasa? I brought my hand up to rub at my eyes. "Armin? Why are you so tiny?"

"Get up, Mikasa, he's right behind you!"

I started to rise just as a house-sized hand pinned my shoulder to the ground. The titan's jaws opened wider and wider, until they could encompass my whole head. 'Shit' I made to swing back onto my shoulders and kick him away but a 3-meter class sank his teeth into my calf, disrupting the movement. "Armin, get out of here, I can't hold them." I kicked the titan away, but two more replaced it. It was taking all my arm strength to hold the 15-meter titan still pinning me to the ground. It appeared that I was going to be devoured a second time. This time around I suspected it would take more than one bite.

Suddenly the titan went slack, weight slowly dissipating into hot smoke. I pushed its burning corpse to the side with both hands, Armin having climbed to my shoulder. "Come on, we need to go."

There, hair swaying as she perched on the roof, was Mikasa. "You made it just in time, where are the others?" I punched away the two on my legs, wincing at the divots they made in my flesh. They were only bleeding a small trickle, however, and appeared to already be healing, though slowly.

"They went on ahead."

"But, how are you there?" Armin was considerably confused, it took me a moment to remember why.

"I'm not Mikasa, I'm Eren."

"...Right."

Mikasa swung down, neatly killing a medium-sized titan coming from in front of us as we started to run. I kept to just a fast walk, not wanting to press Mikasa too hard or send Armin flying off my shoulder from jogging. After the kill she landed deftly on my waiting hand.

"Guys, where are we going, exactly?" asked Armin. "They'll have closed the gate by now, and Eren can't climb the wall with us."

I faltered a step but kept going. "At least I can get you two to the wall. I'll figure out something after that."

"I'm not leaving you Eren. I'll kill every last one of them if I must." With Mikasa, I half believed she could do it.

A blast came from in front of us, an unholy roar shouting triumph. The gate was destroyed. "No." Pebbles jumped at the sound of voice. "No, not again. Not this time." I'd stand at the broken gate and defend it myself if no one remained to stand with me. I wouldn't let humanity end here.

I was sprinting before I knew it. "...ren, Eren!"

"What is it Armin?"

"You can't fight them head on, you're not strong enough. "My vision flashed white with rage as I remembered Hannes saying the same just after my mother died. I was always too damned weak, wasn't I. "You need to draw the titans away long enough for reinforcements to arrive. You're like a magnet to them, we've already got at least twenty of them following us." He was right. And with the other trainees fleeing and the scouts dead, that number was only increasing.

"...Alright Armin. We'll do it your way." I wasn't that much faster than them when I wasn't sprinting, so I couldn't just turn around immediately. I took a curving path past the broken inner gates gate, careful not to go too close however much I wanted to. If the titans started sensing the humans behind the wall instead of me then this entire plan would fall apart. "Hold on." I picked up some more rubble, Armin and Mikasa holding onto the flags that were my clothing as I bent for them. Now that I was armed, I could slow down, at least a little. A few good throws sent the sprinters among them hurtling back into the pack. The rest were easy enough to lead. I stayed just a few dozen meters ahead of them, not wanting to lose them.

"Mikasa, keep an eye out for deviants, one caught us earlier," said Armin.

"Hn."

With them as my lookouts, I was free to lead the pack like some sort of reverse sheepdog. I was growing ever more adept with this body, no longer having to keep an eye on my feet to maintain my balance. Unfortunately, here came the hard part. "I'm going to take them through the outer gate. You both need to climb the wall."

"I'm not leaving you," said Mikasa.

"If I get caught in there you might not make it out." I turned my head towards my shoulder, glaring sternly at that tiny mirror of my new face. "They'll need your skills at the inner gate if this fails." There was no time for further argument, so I picked up one in each hand as we came to the massive hole the colossal titan had knocked in wall. Even as tall I now was, it was still twice my height and several times my width. As I reached the entrance I tossed them upwards, Mikasa shouting in protest. Their 3-d gear snicked out a moment later, anchoring them high above the reach of the titans. As I had feared, the way was not clear.

"I've faced worse odds." An alien instinct hold of me as I charged, a roar to shake stone blasting from my throat unbidden. The titan's weight shifted to his back foot and I took advantage, shoving him to the ground. A quick spin sent me clear of the grab of an ape-faced 7-meter class. I slapped the wall, transferring the momentum of my spin into forward movement. A moment later I was free. I could see the sky again, stretching on forever. I stood in the Outside that had once been Inside, a part of the domain of humans. And now, looking across the field that should have been ours, was a herd of titans. My grin at seeing the sun disappeared as quickly as it came.

"Eren, up here!" I laughed, Mikasa had saved me again. Aiming for the left side so that my hands wouldn't crush him I coiled my body like a spring. The jump that followed was one worthy of Mikasa herself, first in our class. I gripped the edge of the narrow cannon platform above the gate. The wall pushed out a bit to either side, so I was able to swing my feet to get purchase on the wall face to the left of me. From there it was just a matter of levering myself up onto the ledge.

"Go help them, Mikasa, I've got it from here." And like a flash, she was gone, likely dragging Armin along with her. It wasn't quite as quick as a straight path, but they could reach the rest of the army in safety from here just by walking on top of the wall.

I was alone. Save for the milling titans beneath me, at least. The ledge was narrow, certainly not meant for someone the size of a titan. My feet didn't quite fit, and even with my arm bracing me against one side of the cubby it constantly felt like I was just about to fall. I had no real fear of heights, but of being devoured when I fell? If I was honest with myself, there was at least an inkling. Looking down, there really was so damned many of them, weren't there. Giant mouths, always hungry. I would have thought being roughly their size would ease some of that fear. Instead I just kept thinking that the end would come a lot slower as piece by piece I was eaten alive...

End chapter 2:

-The Use of Tools.

Err, question for canon fanatics. The scene in the manga where the titan learned/relearned how to climb trees, was there any indication from point of the sun in sky or something just how long that took? Please and thank you.

To the reviewer who questioned my use of first person in telling this story: I actually got two paragraphs into the first chapter before I wondered, "Why am I writing this in first person, anyways?" Then I figured I'd just go with it. Gives a more personal feel for Eren, even if it is at the expense of some insight into the primal fear the others have of something so terribly huge. Might throw in some brief entries from other characters later though. Besides, without a forty page setup it's difficult to get the same feeling as you'd get from a 20-second sketch in the anime of that raw ferocity Eren displays.

Whew, wrote this in one sitting.