The rain was still coming down in Trost, bouncing lightly off the rooftops and streets when the small drops of water landed. The blood on his uniform jacket being washed out while he sat on the roof next to the body of Emily Schön, waiting for the end. He had given up, the grief of losing his comrades was too much for him to handle after bottling up his grief at the deaths of his six friends five years ago.
He sat completely still, not batting an eye when he saw the hand of a fifteen metre reaching out for him, he just stared blankly at the hand, silently wishing it would hurry up and end his misery.
Frieda on the other hand couldn't believe what she was seeing, the boy, if she could still call him that, who promised that he would give freedom to the people of the walls like she wanted before the succession ceremony. The boy that she had spent almost five years with after she transferred her consciousness into his mind. The boy who could have had any girl during his time in the military aside from Mikasa, but he chose her, even though she was dead, he still chose her. So in her mind it was clear what she had to do. She had to give him a reason to keep fighting.
"Nick! Nick! What are you doing? You need to fight back" she called out, as the titan wrapped it's massive hand around him.
He didn't respond to her shouts, he just kept his blank face, with the dead look in his eyes.
"Nick! Don't give up!" She shouted, trying to get his attention.
It was no use, as the titan put him in it's mouth and closed it, swallowing him whole.
Once the titan let him go he slid down it's wet and hot tongue and down it's throat into it's stomach. Luckily titans don't have a digestive tract, otherwise he would have been dead. The air in the stomach of the titan was foul and hot, it was causing him to sweat on the way down to it's gullet.
Once he reached the bottom he found it extremely hard to breathe because of the heat of the air inside the stomach of the titan. He was also soaked in a watery substance that was mixed in with the blood of the humans the titan had eaten.
"This is disgusting" He thought to himself. "I should have just stabbed myself instead." He grimly thought.
"Nick!" He heard Frieda speak again, but it was different this time. She sounded angry, very angry. Not like the time she had called humans "sinners" when he asked if she was going to free the people of the walls. No, this was her own genuine anger and he would be lying if he wasn't at least a bit scared.
"Nicholas Meier." She spoke once again. He knew she was furious now, because she never used his full name.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She was absolutely livid now, he could feel her anger bubbling inside him as he saw her face. She was not happy at all.
"What's the point" he weakly responded. "I'm still weak. I can't change anything." He told her, believing what he said.
"Excuse me? Who the fuck are you?, and what the fuck have you done with my Nick?" She asked him, sounding very offended at his response to her.
"What do you mean" he weakly asked, the heat from the titan causing his sweat to mix with the blood in the stomach of the titan.
"What happened to the boy that promised me that he would free these people? Huh?. What happened to the boy who thought he could take on all the titans?. What happened to the man that I love? Huh?" She was getting desperate in her attempts to motivate him now.
He didn't answer her, instead he looked down so he didn't have to look her in the eyes, he didn't want to hurt her anymore.
"Look at me Nick" She said, her voice quite commanding.
He didn't look up, instead he pulled his knees into his chest to avoid her more.
"Nick" she spoke a lot softer this time. "Nick, please look at me."
He slowly lifted his head to meet her eyes, expecting them to be full of anger, but instead she had one of the most caring looks he had ever seen on her face.
"Nick... Do you love me?" She asked. To which he nodded in response. "And you feel like you are weak and can't handle this anymore?" She asked him. He took a little longer before slowly nodding again.
"Nick, if you die here then how will you be able to remember me?" She asked him, trying one last time to motivate him to fight.
"I... I... I won't be able to" he suddenly realised.
"If you die... how will you remember the joy you felt being with me, of me just being around, of all those nights we spent together while you were asleep. What about the pure happiness on your face when I told you that I loved you, that it wasn't just a one way thing. That I felt the same way you felt?" She asked him, feeling that he needed one last push, she spoke again. "The truth is you won't remember me if you die, but if you fight, you can live, and if you live you will remember me, and I will always be here for you Nick, because I love you and I don't want you to die." She finally managed to get out.
He sat there for a moment, lost in his own thoughts at what she said. "You're right" he suddenly spoke. "I will only remember you if I live. And to live, I need to fight." He said as he stood up, the dead look in his eyes replaced by determination to get out of this titan.
He then pulled his right handle out and attached a blade to it, he then plunged it into the stonach of the titan to see how far he would have to cut to get out. The blade got about five inches into the flesh before it became easier to push it, signalling to him that it went through completely. "Okay, about five inches, thats just like striking at the nape. Only with no speed, and hardly any room to swing. Great." He said out loud as he attached a blade to his other handle, prepared to slice at the titans stomach.
He got into position, ready to slice, he brought the blades downwards in an oval pattern so it would cut a hole in the flesh for him to escape. After he cut the flesh he swung his boot at the flesh, knocking it out of the way, allowing him to grapple out of the titans stomach.
Once he got out, he noticed how cool the air was outside compared to inside a titan. He also noticed that it had stopped raining, making sure that the blood from the bodies the titan had eaten would stay on him for now. After he reached the nearest rooftop, he turned around to see the titan reaching for him again. This time however he dodged the grab and fired his hook into its ankle, preparing a slash at it to immobilise it, he used a short burst of gas to propel himself towards the ankle, he slashed the back of the foot clean off, sending the titan to its knee. He then released his hook and spun around to fire his left hook into its neck and boosted his way up to its nape, slashing across the flesh, carving a chunk of it out as the titan fell on its face.
"Now then" Nick thought. "I have to find Sasha and the others."
Sasha had now regrouped with the others such as Jean and Connie, but there was no sign of Nick. She was worried that he was hurt, or even worse. But she was here with the other recruits who had gathered here with looks of defeat on most of their faces.
Connie, who had managed to put aside the trauma of having to fight the titans was talking to Jean about what to do now.
"Hey Jean, what do we do now" Connie asked him, his attitude quite down at the moment.
Jean was not faring much better at the moment. "We can't do anything. They finally gave us the order to withdraw, and we're all out of gas. Of course." He sighed. "I can't believe this is how it's gonna end…because of those damned cowards."
"You mean the supply team?" Connie asked him. "What happened? Where are they?"
"They lost their will to fight" Jean explained as he pointed towards the HQ, which was overrun by titans now. "I mean, who could blame them, but they abandoned their duty to supply us. What's more is that titans have swarmed the place, meaning we can't get the gas ourselves."
Connie was getting more aggravated by the situation. "Then why are we waiting? We gotta go! Start thinning their numbers so we have a chance! Sitting here on this roof is completely pointless. Eventually, the Titans are gonna come for us."
Jean didn't say anything, he only looked at him with a blank look.
"We don't have much gas left." Connie went on. "And what little we have will be wasted by runing away, and without our mobility we're completely screwed."
"You're using your head for once, Connie," he said. "Nice going, but I'm not sure if we've got the numbers needed to pull this thing off. The veterans in the vanguard force have all been killed. How exactly do a bunch of rookies pull off a suicide mission like this? I mean, let's assume half our forces survive the initial assault. Then what? The supply room is probably crawling with Titans in the three to four-meter range. I don't see us accomplishing much there."
As he heard the words coming from Jean's mouth, the reality hit Connie. "It's... hopeless." He muttered.
On another part of the roof, Sasha was doing her best to try and galvanise the recruits, even though she was the last one from her squad. "Come on, guys. We can do it! Right? Let's go. If we all work together, we can make this happen. I know we can. All right? I'll take the lead."
The cadets however seemed tok traumatised to do anything in response to Sasha's proposal. "Where are you Nick?" She thought to herself. "We really need a plan" She looked over at Armin for a second. "And Armin is in no shape to help at the moment."
"Heads up" Connie shouted, "Two fifteen metres coming in fast"
Further down the street next to the recruits, two abnormal fifteen metres were sprinting towards where the recruits were gathered. Some of the recruits gasped in shock at the speed the titans were coming at them at.
"We'll handle it" Reiner called out, referring to him, Marco, Annie and Bertholdt. But before they could move one of the fifteen metres went down into the side of a building, not getting back up. The recruits watched in awe as someone caught up with the other sprinting titan and gracefully sliced its nape, killing it before it hit the ground.
"Who is that?" One of the cadets called out.
"It must be Mikasa" Another one offered up.
"No, she was in the Rear-Guard, these titans came from the east." Reiner said.
"Then who is it?" Daz asked, trying not to throw up everywhere at the sight of the blood.
The soldier landed on the roof, covered in a red, blood like substance, which had completely soaked his white pants and had stained the lower part of his white shirt. He turned around and they all saw Nick standing there, looking like he had just been thrown up by a titan. But before anyone could ask someone else arrived at the scene.
"Annie" A voice called out. Annie turned and saw Mikasa striding towards her. "I know how bad things have gotten. And I know it's selfish putting personal matters first. But have you seen Eren?"
"No I haven't, and I haven't seen anyone go up the wall either." Annie answered her question with.
"But we found Armin, he's over there." Reiner interjected, pointing hs thumb in Armin's direction.
Mikasa walked over to where Armin was sitting by himself to find out where Eren was.
"Hey Nick" Sasha spoke. "What happened back there?" She asked, wondering why he was soaked in a red substance.
"I gave up" he admitted. "After she died, I wanted to die too."
"Then why didn't you?" Sasha asked him.
"Because I found a reason to keep living. A reason to fight back, no matter how bleak it looks. I will always fight from now on." He told her.
"What was that reason?" Annie asked him out of the blue, signifying that she had been listening to him.
"Memories" he simply said. "If I'm dead I cannot remember all the joys in my life. All the good times I had. That is why I chose to keep fighting."
They were then interrupted by Armin, who was talking to Mikasa about Eren's whereabouts.
"The cadets of Squad 34 : Thomas Wagner, Nac Tias, Mylius Zeramuski, Mina Carolina and Eren Yeager."
"They all died, but how?" Nick thought, upset at the death of his friends, but he didn't let it show on his face.
"These brave five... upheld their duties and died valiantly of the field of battle." Armin finished with, tears flowing down his face at the death of his best friend.
The cadets around them couldn't believe that the whole squad had died, especially Eren, they knew he was skilled after making it to fifth in the top ten, but he didn't even make it to graduation.
"I'm so sorry Mikasa" Armin apologised. "It should have been me who died."
"Armin" Mikasa spoke, no emotion in her voice whatsoever. "Stand up" she commanded as she pulled him to his feet. "Now isn't the time to get emotional" she said as she turned around.
"Marco, if we eliminate or bypass the titans at HQ, we can refill our gear and get over the wall. Is that assessment correct."
"Well, uh, I guess so. Sure" he said, being put off by her sudden change in attitude.
"But even with you on point there's just too many of them." He stated.
"I can do it!" She declared to the cadets.
"I'm strong" she stated, pulling her sword out and holding it high into the air. "Real strong. None of you even come close. I am a warrior."
Nick wanted to say something to his relative, but he needed to let her finish so the cadets would have the motivation needed to fight their way to the HQ.
"Know this" she said. "I have the power to slay all of the Titans that block our way…even if I have to do it alone. As far as I'm concerned, I am surrounded by unskilled, cowardly worms"
Some of the cadets stared in shock, some were insulted that she had the nerve to insult them after what they had been through. However it was working as it got them out of their traumatised state for the moment.
"You can all just sit here, twiddle your thumbs and watch how its done." She finished her speech with.
"Wait Mikasa you can't be serious" A cadet called out.
"Yeah are you crazy?" Another shouted.
The cadets heard the sound of blades being unsheathed as they turned and saw a blood soaked Nick with two swords out, walk over to Mikasa and stand next to her.
"You guys should know" He started. "Someone who meant a lot to me told me that the most important thing in life isn't what you do, it's how you remember the things you do." He stopped to collect himself as the cadets, even Mikasa, all stared at him. "It's about remembering the joy in your life, not focusing on the worst parts of it. But if you die, you won't have those memories anymore. And if you don't fight, you die. But if you fight, you can win, and if you win you live, and if you live, you get to remember." And with that he turned around. "Let's go Mikasa" he said as he sped off towards HQ with Mikasa in tow.
"Wow, that was actually good" Jean said, surprised at Nick's motivational words. "But I still blame you Eren"
"Hey" he shouted out to the rest of the cadets. "We weren't taught to let our comrades fight alone. Unless you are a coward, in which case, stay out of my way!"
After that Jean and Connie followed suit while Sasha was shouting at the others. "Hey. Seroiusly, come on you bunch of chickens" She then followed Armin, Reiner, Annie and Bertholdt off the roof.
Now spurred on, the rest of the cadets on the roof gave a cry of determination as they all followed the example set by Nick and Mikasa.
Mikasa quickly overtook Nick on the way to HQ, both of them slicing away at the titans easily. He looked over to Mikasa and noticed how fast she was going.
"Damn, Mikasa is a bad ass!" Connie exclaimed. "How is she going so fast."
"No, she's using too much gas. I should have known, the adrenaline is distracting her and she isn't conserving her gas." He thought to himself.
Then it happened, she ran out of gas amd went careening into a rooftop, both her blades breaking in impact with the roof.
Armin immediately changed his course to go after his friend.
"Do I go after her? Or do I stay here and hope Armin gets to her. Think damn it!"
"Connie, go after them" Nick shouted. "Make sure they're alright."
"I'll go too" Jean offered.
"No Jean, wee need you to lead the cadets to HQ." Nick interjected.
"What about you Nick? You could lead them." He suggested.
"No Jean. You need to lead them." He paused to look at his reflection on his blade. His face streaked with the blood of others. "I'm going to carve up any titan that gets in our way." He told him.
"There you go, it's settled then." Connie said as he changed direction to go after Armin and Mikasa.
Nick was now at the front on the cadets, Jean a short distance behind him, shouting orders to the cadets to keep moving. There was a twelve metre in front of them, looking right at him.
"Look out!" Jean yelled.
Nick continued forward until he released his hooks, falling to the floor as he shot another one past its leg, he went under the titan and twisted to shoot a hook into its neck. He flew up and quickly dispatched of the titan, clearing the way for the cadets.
"Holy shit, when did he get so good?" One of the recruits questioned as they flew after him.
"Yeah, how come he wasn't in the top ten?" Another asked.
"He didn't want the top ten" Krista explained as she flew alongside them. "He wanted to join the Scouts from the start so he saw it was pointless to take someone else's spot in the top ten."
"Woah. I guess he isn't the regular guy from the interior is he then?" Another cadet asked.
Krista just smiled before speaking. "No. He really isnt."
The cadets were now on top of a roof, about halfway to the HQ, when Tom, one of the cadets had ran out of gas down in the street. The titans were converging on him as he cried out for help. Two of his friends went to help him but they were quickly grabbed by the other titans as they began to eat them as the other cadets watched in horror.
"Why couldn't I do anything? Why didn't I?" Jean thought to himself. "Wait, no thats it!" He had an idea now.
"Everyone move out while they're distracted" he called out, jumping to the lower ledge to continue the journey to headquarters.
"He's right lets go" Nick stated, following Jean on the roof.
The cadets quickly followed after them, using the cadets being eaten as a distraction to move past them.
As Jean flew through the streets, three titans were in his way. He dodged the first two but ths third grabbed his leg, but before he could swing at the titans finger it let go of him, he saw that Nick had sliced the titans nape, as the titan fell he saw the other two were dead on the ground as well.
"Holy shit! How does he do that? Even Mikasa wouldn't have an easy time with three titans." Jean thought to himself as he landed on a roof and started to run.
Marco landed next to him and ran alongside him and spoke to him. "Jean. You really came through for us there. We owe you big time." Jean looked a little confused, so Marco began to elaborate. "Don't shrug it off. I'm serious, we're alive because of you. Like I said you make a great leader."
"Easy with that crap, we're not out of this yet." He replied.
He then took off again, they were close to the HQ now. He and Marco dodged two titans before they heard the screams of someone being grabbed. "Keep going" Jean shouted. "Don't stop for anything"
"Or anyone" he thought to himself.
Jean let out a cry before covering his face as he smashed through the window. He was the first one in, so he turned around to see some of the others flying through the windows as well. He looked through the window he came through from where he was standing and saw Nick kill another 12 metre and coming through the window Jean broke.
Jean turned around and saw other cadets hiding under the tables, cowering in fear. One had blood on her face and shoulder and both of them were crying.
"You guys were with the supply team." Jean stated, still staring at them.
"Y-Yeah." The male cadet nervously replied.
Jean then took a hold of his jacket, pulled him out from under the table and punched him across the face, sending him to the floor.
"You cowards" Jean yelled as Marco came to hold him back. "You left us to die out there, You abandoned us."
"The titans overran the supply room." The female cadet cried out. "There was nothing we could do."
"It's your job to deal with it and back us up anyway" Jean shouted, enraged by their cowardice.
Reiner however, heard sonething coming from outside and yelled out, "Hit the deck" just before one of the walls were blown open, two titans looking through the hole in the wall.
"There's too many of us, move further in!" One cadet yelled out as they all began to scramble towards the inner part of the building.
"Shit, looks like I'll have to deal with these two" Nick thought, but before he could pull out his last pair of blades he saw a fist collide with the side of the titans face, blowing both if them away.
They were replaced by a fifteen metre with no jaw, long ears and messy brown hair. It was currently roaring with what Nick could only assume with pure hatred at the other titans. He heard the sounds of windows being broken but his full attention was on the titan in front of him.
"It has to be a shifter, but who?" He thought.
"Frieda is that-" He began, tightening his grip on the handles.
"No, it's not the one that killed me, but I may know who it is." She told him.
"How? Who is it?" He asked.
"I think it's Eren, because I think it was his father who stole my power. I didn't tell you before because I thought it would set you off." She explained.
"Why didn't you tell me he had it?" He asked her.
"Because I wasn't sure it was him, He doesn't look like Grisha." She told him, hoping he wouldn't do domething rash. "What will you do now?" She asked.
"No. This is good. We can use his power to take back the city, then Wall Maria, and use it to kill all the titans on this Island so we can be free of the walls."
"But what about Marley and the other shifters?" She asked.
"All in due time Frieda, the Armoured Titan hasn't shown up yet, and if he sees this titan fighting the others, he won't."
"Why not?" She asked.
"Because they don't know about the vow of pacifism passed down through Karl Fritz's memories, so they will likely think that he holds the power."
"But he does hold it." Frieda countered with.
"Yes, but hopefully they will focus their attempts on capturing him instead of breaking the walls." He explained.
"I can only hope you're right."
He then felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked and saw Mikasa. "We need to move, Armin has a plan" she said.
"Right, lets go then." He told her as they moved towards where Armin was gathering the cadets to explain his plan.
They entered a room with a lift in the middle going down to the supply room, Armin had schematics for the supply room on the floor, going over the plan when Jean and some others came into the room.
"Good news" Jean announced. "Courtesy of the Military Police, and covered in a layer of dust." He said, opening his crate to reveal a number of muskets inside.
Jean filled the rifle and checked it to see if it was operational. "Are you sure buckshot is the way to go? Seems like we might as well throw spit wads. Come on, guys. Are guns even effective?"
"It's bound to be better than nothing" Armin told him.
"We're looking at seven Titan in the supply room of the four meters tall variety. If we time this perfectly, this much ammo ought to be enough to do the trick. Step 1: we lower a group into the area by a lift to get the Titans' attention. Step 2: when the Titans come within range, the group fires in all four directions simultaneously, blinding them. Then, the hard part. The moment of truth, as it were."
He paused for a moment to breathe.
"Before the Titans have enough time to recover, seven of us swoop down from the ceiling and strike their vital regions. That's it. That's the plan. It puts all our lives on the line. If we screw up, we're dead. That's a hell of a risk for one attack, but it's our only chance. Seven people have to slay seven Titans in one blow at the same time. We're gonna need the best of you. The seven soldiers most physically gifted and adept with their parring blades. You'll be the difference between life and death for the rest of us. I'm sorry. That's how it is"
"Seems like a sound plan" Reiner noted.
"When it comes down to it, the risk is the same for everyone." Annie stated.
"So then, it's all or nothing" Nick said.
"Look, I'm, uh… ready to be talked out of this." Armin nervously told the group. "One half-baked strategy can't be our only option, right?"
"It's a good plan Armin" Nick told him.
"Armin, you're a better strategist than you give yourself credit for." Mikasa told him. "Your mind has saved me and Eren many times."
"Wait... when did I ever-" he said only to be cut off by Mikasa.
"You didn't realise it at the time, but we can talk about it later." She told him, getting ready to kill the titans remaining in the supply room.
"Wait!" Jean said, gaining the attention of the cadets. "Who's going down there to kill the titans?" He asked.
"Well I was thinking you, Mikasa, Reiner Bertholdt, Annie, Connie and Sasha." Armin repiled.
"What about Nick?" Jean asked.
"But he didn't make the top ten" Amin explained.
"No. Jean's right. On the way here Nick was cutting down the titans like a pro, we need him." Reiner said.
"Alright then, Jean you sit out. Nick you take his place." Armin told him.
"Alright, let's do it." Nick said.
The seven of them were now walking down the stairs towards the support beams where they would take position above the titans before attempting to kill them.
"Hey Frieda"
"Yes love?"
"What do we do about Eren, if it's him?"
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"I mean when the MP find out about him, they will try to kill him because they would fear him and his power. Or what about your father, if he finds ouf then surely he would try to take the power back."
"Yes, he probably would, but he could only use himself... or Historia."
"Exactly, we need to make sure that doesn't happen, or else we're back to the beginning again."
"Everyone, get in position" Reiner said, snapping him out of his conversation with Frieda.
They had all taken their positions on the support beams, waiting for the gunfire to signal them to attack. For someone who had the lives of everyone else riding on him, he was surprisingly calm. He wondered about how everyone else was taking the pressure. He was sure Mikasa didn't feel the pressure, sane with Annie and Reiner. He thought Bertholdt would be a bit nervous about it, but he had the skill to cope. But with Connie and Sasha, he was sure that they were scared out of their minds, they made the top ten, but they would be stupid if they weren't terrified.
"FIRE" came the shout from Marco as the gunshots echoed across the room, simultaneously blinding all the titans.
The seven on the beams rushed towards their targets, jumping down and slashing at the titans. Nick sliced horizontally, a clean cut through the nape. He looked around to see five of the seven titans go down.
"Connie and Sasha missed!" Bertholdt called out.
"Lead them the hell back!" Jean shouted from the lift.
Sasha was shocked at the titan turned around staring her down. She started apologising to the titan for sneaking up on it. She squealed as the titan lunged for her and she moved out the way, dropping her swords and covering her head.
Nick, seeing his food stealing buddy in danger, sprung into action, jumping up and slicing the nape of the titan before Mikasa could get to it.
Connie had been backed up into a pillar before Annie killed the titan by jumping up off a crate.
"Niiick!" Sasha squealed. "You saved me." She said, while grabbing onto his jacket, tears coming out if her eyes.
"Sasha stand up, you're gonna be fine" He told her as he helped her to her feet.
"Thanks I owe you one" Connie said to Annie.
"Don't sweat it" She replied nonchalantly.
"Wow that was dangerous." Reiner told Annie. "Glad you're okay." All she did was seemingly ignore him and walk away.
The cadets were now jubilant at their success, now believing that they would escape from Trost alive by retaking HQ from the titans thanks to the "Rogue" Titan outside, killing the other titans.
"I caved in front of them... I'll never be able to face them again!" Sasha cried out while refilling her tanks.
"God damnit save your whining for later!" Connie yelled at her.
"Sasha" Nick said while he walked up to her. "It doesn't matter anymore, what matters is that you and everyone else is fine. And if you stay calm until we get back, I'll help you aquire more meat since we lost the last meat. Okay?"
Sasha perked up at his words and quickly nodded her head and hugged hin tightly. "Thank you Nick."
"No problem Sasha" He said as he lightly hugged back.
"Now, onto that shifter outside" He thought to himself as he made his way to the roof.
When he arrived on the roof he saw Armin, Mikasa, Jean, Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie. Annie and Jean were arguing over whether the titan could be an ally for them. He also saw that the titan was pinned against a building, the mindless titans feeding on his body.
"Oh no." Armin said, "It's the titan that ate Thomas."
The titan that was trapped let out a hateful roar at the sight of it. The titan lunged forward, its right arm being ripped off at the sudden movement, it continued its charge forward, losing its other arm as it reached the titan. The titan sunk its teeth into its nevk and lifted it up. Shocking the watching cadets. It swung the titan at two smaller ones, and then threw it at another, sending both the mindless titans into a building.
The titan ket out a bloodcurdling roar at its victory, it then sunk to its knees as it ran out of energy.
"What were you saying about it helping us." Jean said. "Because I think its a moot point now." He turned around to leave. "Come on lets go." Seeing that no one was following he spoke up again. "Look a titans a titan."
Nick looked at the fallen form of the presumed Attack Titan, he could see the nape opening up as steam poured out from its body.
The cadets on the roof looked on as they all saw Eren emerge from the titans body. "Well then" Nick said. "That's rather ironic."