Am I the only one who feels s as if it's been FOREVER since I have posted…? Though, it hasn't even been a week…? I hope not, anyways – ENJOY ^_^
"What's Ymir's condition?" Rivaille asked Samantha as he watches Ymir be lifted up to the top of the wall.
"Well…" Samantha began. "Her right and leg are bitten off and her insides are more like scrambled egg than anything…" Rivaille sighed, and grabbed Samantha's hand, gripping it tightly.
"A normal person would have been long gone by now…" Samantha says, trying to ignore Rivaille's sudden affection – it felt new almost, it seems like it had been so long since they touched.
"Normal, huh?" Eren overhears from below them, he was crouched down; Samantha and Rivaille not noticing as he was on the opposite side of where Ymir was being brought up. The trio hears the sound of someone struggling, they look in the direction of the noise and it was Reiner with his arm in a sling.
"Oh! Reiner, grab my hand." Eren stands up, offering his hand out to Reiner who takes it.
"Thanks." He stands up, as others began to show up on the wall, brushing himself off with his spare hand. A slight silence comes between everyone, which Samantha breaks.
"I hear I'm supposed to be a Squad Leader here soon… Guess I should go see what that's all about…" Rivaille nods and decides to follow her, leaving the trainees behind – all except for Eren, who carefully follows Rivaille. They walk the wall together until they find Hanji whose talking to Christa.
"Please believe me!" They hear from afar. "It's true! To save us, Ymir revealed her secret and fought for us as a Titan! She even disregarded her own life for us! It clearly shows her loyalty to us as comrades!" As they get closer, they see that Hanji's face isn't convinced, but listening.
"I know that her actions up to that are inexcusable…" Christa began again. "She withheld information of vital importance to mankind." Hanji nodded, agreeing. Samantha stood with her elbow at her breasts, her index finger and thumb under her chin as she watched the conversational carefully. She's shaking out of her skin.
"But she has changed, and now Ymir is mankind's ally!" Christa began shouting again, her fists clinching and her face sweaty. "As someone who's known her for a long time, I assure you that she's a lot simpler than she might seem!"
"I see…" Hanji began. "Well, don't get me wrong… Sure, I'd rather be friends with her if possible. Regardless of what she did 'til now, the information she can prove is treasure to the human kind… Of course… I want to be on good terms with her. Only, she herself might be simple by nature, but the state of affairs in our lands is very complicated." Hanji turned her head, seeing Samantha first – flashing a smile. She walked up to Samantha and Rivaille, with Eren standing a couple feet away behind them – hugging them tightly at the same time (which was rather hard and awkward looking as they are both shorter than Hanji).
"You said your real name was… Historia Reiss?" Hanji asking turning her torso along with her head.
"Yes…" Christa smiled nervously, Samantha eyeing Hanji and Christa as they talked.
"Reiss… As in those famous nobles?" Samantha asked seemingly out of nowhere. Everyone looked at Samantha then back to Christa. Christa bowed her head, only to look right back up again.
"Yes…" She replied quietly.
"I see…" Samantha spoke as the gears were turning in her head. "Well, nice to meet you, Historia!" Samantha patted her shoulder, but Christa felt uncomfortable still.
Samantha turned quickly, making her travelers cloak flow in the air. She walked over to Eren and the group of other trainees, including Reiner and Bertholdt - realizing Eren had left the little crowd that Hanji had created. Everyone watched, this lead Hanji to Ymir who was now on the wall, surrounded by people tending her wounds and placing a cold rag on her head.
"How's Ymir?" Hanji asked bluntly, placing her hands on her hips.
"The bleeding has stopped, but she has a vapor oozing from her wounds." Christa looked at Ymir worryingly, grabbing her limp hand.
"We need to transport her to the Trost District so that she could be provided with proper treatment. I'll leave that to you."
"Yes ma'am." Both of the trainees replied in unison. Hanji turned around but spoke loudly so everyone around her could hear.
"Originally, we came here to plug the hole in the wall…" Hanji's voice left Samantha's ears as she gave her attention to Reiner.
"Ow, ow, ow." The blonde winced.
"Reiner, are you going to be okay?" Though no one could see it, a slight smile appeared on Reiner's face, but quickly vanished. Yeah… I'm going to be perfectly fine…
"Am not," He replied after Samantha had helped Eren get Armin over the wall. "A Titan crunched on my arm, you know." Samantha giggled slightly at his comment, trying to lighten up the mood.
"Damn, what a bummer," Reiner began, covering his face. "I seriously thought I wasn't gonna make it…" A crooked expression came on Samantha's face, but she still tried to make him feel better with small talk. But it failed.
"Even someone as strong as you had some big troubled, huh?"
"Strong, huh?" Reiner chuckled at Samantha's compliment, surprising her a bit. "What are you talking about? It's the second time I had a close shave – right, Armin?"
"Eh?" Armin replied while stumbling to his feet, trying to recollect his thoughts.
"I've been in a Titan's grasp before, remember?"
"Yes…" Armin just agreed with Reiner, still having no recollection – Too much has probably happened since then… he thought.
"I've been way too close to comfort twice already – at this rate, I'll be on my way to my Kingdom in no time." Samantha bowed her head, she can understand the physical and emotional pain the trainees must be going through – but that doesn't mean she wants to hear it.
"I know it was my own choice to follow the path of a soldier, but somehow, I feel that n this line of work… me heart will give out sooner than my body." As Samantha opened her mouth, Reiner began talking again, as he too, stumbled to his feet.
"Oh well…" He towered over Samantha, patting her hard enough on the back to move her body. "Guess there's no time to bitch about it until we at least plug the wall, Squad Leader?" Samantha was shaken by the term "Squad Leader"; she hadn't been called that until the day her team died. She ignored her feelings, seeing the smiles on her new team's faces made it easier to do so – Bertholdt, Reiner, Eren, Armin, and Mikasa. She noticed that her team was bigger than most (by one), but maybe there was a good reason for this – or they just didn't know where to put the extra trainee or didn't want to separate anyone – plus, maybe it's better than having a "smaller than most" team like before…
"Yeah…" She began, talking herself away from anymore thoughts. "We passed the home village of you two not so long ago, so we have to find a way to hold our ground here." Reiner and Bertholdt shared an ecstatic look.
"Reiner!" Bertholdt shouted happily. "Let's go back there! We can return now!" Bertholdt walked up to Reiner, who's next to Samantha, grabbing his shoulders. "Compared to what we had to go through til' now, it's just a little bit more left!" Reiner came back to reality.
"Right…" He smiled. "And afterwards, we'll just need a place where we can take a break." Samantha expressed a confused look to Eren who shared the same face, but was glad to see that now all of her team was happy or at least anything but depressed.
"Is everybody here?" Hanji asked as she walked up to Mikasa helping Connie over the wall, with Rivaille next to her. Rivaille walked next to Samantha swiftly, putting his arm across the mid of her back, holding her close to him with the curve of her waist.
"We'll deal with Ymir later." She began. "First, we got to put the plan to restore the wall into action. I expected to see hordes of Titans around the breach but…"
"Hannes?" Eren, Mikasa, and Armin said in unison with eyes wide.
"It's the vanguard of the Stationary Troops." Hanji explained. "They came here to let us know the location of the brea-"
"There's no breach anywhere!"