A/N: this chapter is loaded with profanity. I apologize to anyone reading this that aren't huge fans of the bad words. But I felt like they were the only way to communicate the characters feelings.
Chapter 3:
Jacob watched in horror as Max turned his back, and leaped behind the building. His cry for help fell on deaf ears...
Max abandoned them. The titans ahead were advancing, and Max abandoned HIM! He abandoned Claire! He disgraced Victor, and he ran, like a bloody fucking coward! "Max!" He shouted, now not only burning with rage and hatred for the titans, but the added betrayal of Max as well. Jacob got up, his blades drawn and in hand as the fifteen meter approached. The same one that stepped on Victor. He screamed as loud as his voice would allow and more, "'I'll fucking KILL YOU!" He swung his blades in fury, a futile attempt at striking fear into a fearless opponent, "I'll fucking kill you all! I'll kill every last god damned one of you!" Jacob prepared to fire his hooks pointing the right hand blade at the titan, "And I'll start with you!" He pulled the trigger, but nothing happened except a useless click from the trigger. He kept clicking, his anger swelling with each useless squeeze.
He looked at his gear, noticing the right side was crushed in, and his left sides gas had a gaping hole in the canister, no doubt already vented. He scowled, and looked back at the titan, "I don't need that damned gear to kill you!" He looked up at it, the titan smiled down. "Yeah, you'll be smiling as I tear open your god damn neck! You'll be smiling alright!" His eyes started to burn with the tears of hatred, "You think I give a fuck that you're taller?! You killed Victor! You killed my best friend! And I will make DAMN SURE you pay!"
Jacob swung his blades as it approached, and when the titans shadow blotted out the sky, he screamed again, "Pick me up! Go on! Fucking do it! I'll use your own god damn body as my maneuver gear!" The titan started to reach down, but before it could grab him, he was yanked by someone, out of harms way, and in the opposite direction of the titan.
"Let me go!" He screamed, "I'm going to kill that mother fucker!" He used his left sword, and jettisoned the blade at the titan. It landed very short, and only pissed him off more, "I'll kill it, god damn it! Let me kill it!" He screamed, "That fucker killed Victor! He killed my best friend! Let me kill it!"
He and whoever saved him crashed into a rooftop some distance away. Jacob wasted no time in looking up, burning a hole in the titan as it stood still for a second grinning... that taunting grin no doubt directed at Jacob. It would've been laughing if it could. Then, it relocated away from him. Jacob and whoever he was with no longer priority.
Jacob had lost. He lost his best friend, he lost his gear, he lost to the titan. He reached out, eyes still locked on to the titan. "Come back here!" He shouted, his anger subsiding as realization and despair started to overcome him. There was nothing he could do. He could not chase it, and it would not follow after him. "Come back..." He started sobbing again as the titan moved behind a building and out of sight. "You can't... get away with that..." His strength left his limbs as all his power went straight into crying, and he collasped on the roof, "God damnit... Victor..." he sobbed, and punched the roof, anger mixing back in with his grief and despair, "GOD DAMNIT!" He paused to sob, then smashed his hand onto the roof again, "SHIT! WHY? WHY?" With each repeat of why, he slammed his fist into the roof, neglecting the blood that was starting to come out. He screamed, throwing his body back, "VICTOR!" He swung his empty blade in a fit of anguish.
A pair of feminine hands started to lift him up, but before they could get him off his knees, he threw them away, "Get away from me, you bitch!" He screamed, getting up on his own in a hurry, and taking a few steps away as his strength flowed with a burning sensation from his fiery heart. He looked up at the owner of the hands. Claire. She was speechless, and Jacob looked away from her, not only embarrassed she had witnessed his foul attitude and crying, but to keep from punching her. She did nothing wrong... she saved his life. She was an ally... but she tore him away from the titan that killed Victor.
"Um..." She looked around, "Where's Max?" she asked.
"Dead." Jacob answered. Max was dead to him, and if Jacob ever found that coward, Max would be dead to everyone. "He's dead."
Claire nodded, and observed the surroundings, "We've lost... haven't we?"
Jacob looked around them, and finally noticed just how far the titans had actually advanced. Their line was broken before Victor had even died. "We..." he looked around, seeing titans everywhere, some filling their stomachs with unfortunate soldiers and a few straggler civilians who were either trapped, or just not fit to run. "We failed..." Jacob shook his head. The sounds of what should've been battle was instead screams and begs for mercy, "How could we let this happen..." He paused his defeated attitude, and an image of Victor flashed through his mind, and he shook his head again. "No..." he corrected, "We haven't lost, damn it." He looked back at HQ, watching a few soldiers make a mad dash back to it. They weren't alone. There were more soldiers. They could regroup, and they could reorganize. There was still a fighting chance. He could avenge Victor.
Jacob turned to face Claire, "We need to resupply, and get me new gear." He spat out what saliva he had accumulated while crying, and wiped his nose. "This fight isn't over. It's not even close. I refuse to lie down and die." Jacob looked at his gear, and frowned. "But I can't fight like this."
"Jacob..." Claire answered, "I don't want to leave you out here. You'll wind up like Vic-"
"I know." He answered, making sure he couldn't hear His name. "I know the risk, Claire." He took out his gas tank that was busted, and threw it, aiming where the titan that had eaten Victor went, then started to remove his good tank to be put into his working gear. "But we need to get to HQ."
"Your gear-"
"Claire!" He shouted, the sound of gas hissing as his gear was ready to go.. or good enough. "It's all we can do." Jacob tested his single hook, and it pulled him, granted, it was only half as fast, but it was usable. "Let's get moving, or would you rather die out here, alone? Because I'm going, regardless of what you say."
She shook her head, and together they started to move. It wasn't too long before he lost sight of Claire. Half speed wasn't enough to keep him up with her, and it was such an awkward flight pattern... being pulled diagonally instead of straight. At least he was going.
He was able to glide distances, and that was a huge saving grace, the HQ was getting larger. The day would be humanities... and revenge would be his. That smiling titan would not be able to escape him once he got his gear. "Just you wait..." He muttered, "Just you fucking wait."
A titan leaped, at him. Aberant. Jacob ejected gas to try and speed past, but there was a sharp yank as it knocked him off balance and detached his hook, swinging dangerously with no real pattern. The hard jerk sent him into an uncontrollable tumble. He was alive, though.
He tried firing his hook, but nothing happened. Did the titan break his good gear?! If it did, Jacob was in deep shit. He couldn't stop his spin. For some reason, his legs weren't responding, and nothing he did stopped his out of control spin. What had happened when the titan got him? Why-
Looking down at his waist, his eyes widened in shock. His stomach and intestines flapped freely in the wind as a trail of blood traced his fall. Where did his... how? Where did his legs go? What happened?!
He knew the answer to all of them: Titan.
The titan had consumed his gear, and his waist. There was nothing he could do, and even though he knew this, he prayed just maybe he could click his gear, and he was just seeing things... but nothing happened. There was no way to balance himself, no way to land safely... not that he could anyway. His lower half wasn't there.
How had the titan... how did... why him? What purpose?He had to kill that damned monster that crushed Victor...
This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
Gravity brought him past the rooftops on a collision course with the stone road. There was a sickening crack.
