Chapter 19: The King Titan

The entire structure shakes around me as the already impossibly large titan continues to grow ever larger. The huge spine continues to form despite the fact that the ribcage has already been pushed far out of view. A huge crater is beginning to form and the entire half of the room that Riess was in before he transformed is beginning to cave in. Huge chunks of white rock fall down from the ceiling to land with huge booming cracks against the floor. "Everyone to the back of the room!" orders Hange.

Scouts, MPs and rebels alike all dash towards the far end of the chamber. As I watch several are crushed by falling rubble. Hauling Historia to her feet I dash towards the dais at the back. Fifty or so people pack into the one corner, trying to get as far away from the newly forming titan as possible. "It's no good!" calls out Levi over the dim of falling stone, "this part of the cave is going to collapse as well. There're already cracks in the roof!" He points up to where a web of black lines is creeping over the pristine white surface.

"So, we're still gonna die huh?" says Eren inside my head.

'You've really been a pessimist today haven't you?'

"Sorry about that. Is Mikasa okay?"

'Probably. She's not here at any rate so she won't end up being crushed by falling rubble.'

"She probably won't be too happy about me dying on her. You know, she said something to me during the Battle out in the field. You remember when we were being rescued."

'Yes, I remember.'

"She said thank you. It seems kind of stupid really doesn't it? I mean, that I never really understood why she cared about me so much until just recently."

'You know then?'

"Yeah. Took me a while didn't it? It's a shame really; I was just starting to warm up to the idea."

'Don't give up yet. A way out may present itself. Besides, you're Eren Yeager right? What's a collapsing ceiling got on you?'

"Don't patronise me." Then mental silence, in stark contrast to the massive amount of noise being generated by the cave in. All of a sudden, "oh what the hell!"

I see Eren dash out from his position back against the rear wall. His legs are still in the process of regrowing so he more or less falls off of the edge of the platform. "Eren no!" I cry as a huge boulder drops down and smashes into the edge of the platform, blocking him from view. As the rock falls away to the side I can see Eren rummaging through a bag lying on the ground.

"What's he doing?" hisses Levi through gritted teeth.

"Whatever it is, he's going to be crushed out there," says Hange. "Levi, I need you to try and-

She's cut off by a terrific bang. Eren has pulled out what looks like small bottle from the bag and taking of the lid emptied the contents into his mouth. No he vanishes in a blaze of orange heat and energy. "This had better work!" I hear him roar inside my mind.

The roof splits open and a massive piece of stone plummets down towards the group. I shut my eyes and grab hold of Historia. But the impact doesn't come. I look up and open my eyes to see the huge rock frozen in mid air. In fact the entire earthquake has now stopped. The boulder appears to have been caught in mid air by a long branch of white rock. Similar branches of rock are stretched throughout the room. Their central point is a fifteen metre tall brilliant white statue. Made of solid titan stone, Eren's now armoured titan stands with arms outstretched to the corners of the room. His front branches out into a wide smooth wall which covers much of the cracked roof.

As I look closely the nape cracks open and Eren emerges. "Dear god," I hear one of the MPs murmur to himself. Cautiously, both of the captains along with myself and several others from the Scouts and rebels advance down into the now still room.

"Eren!" calls out Hange. "Hey Eren come down!" Nothing. "Doesn't look like he's conscious. Hang, I'll go see if I can get him down from there." She swings up to equal height with the nape and bends over it. However, she doesn't make any move to free Eren from his restraints.

"Commander?" calls out Levi.

"Just a minute!" comes the excited reply.

"Oh no," says Levi, putting a hand to his face. "She's examining something. This could take all day. Hang on, I'll get them down." He fires both cables into the back of the titan statue and swings up to the nape, where he begins a heated altercation with Hange.

"So," says someone on my left, "you're him huh?" I turn in surprise to see Amanda looking at me curiously. "Funny," she says with her head on one side, "I always imagined you'd be more, I don't know, cowardly or villainous."

"Gee thanks," I say.

She shrugs, "eh, what can you expect. You are the one responsible for this mess you know."

"Yeah, I know." I look down at the floor grimly.

"Hey, I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. You were only about five years old at the time so you can't exactly be blamed for your actions. Whatever they were anyway."

"Who are you people?" I ask.

Amanda smiles. "We call ourselves the El-Ekar. It means freedom in a traditional tongue from way back in the day. I suppose you could say that we're rebels against the Riess family's rule in these Walls. For the past hundred years or so we've been made up of people from the Old Families who weren't prepared to sit back and just take things as they were. More recently we've been able to add ordinary people to our ranks as well, thanks to the efforts of Grisha Yeager. And in part your adopted father."

"Are you the leader?"

She nods. "Well, by default I suppose more than anything else. My father was Michael Quinn, the previous leader and he died unexpectedly without appointing a successor. Things were in such a rush five years ago that there wasn't time to appoint a new leader like normal, so I got handed the reins."

"And we've never had cause to regret it," pipes up the man in the black tunic. He's a much older person of about forty years with a grey beard. He offers his hand to me, "Leonardo Leonhart."

"Matthias Quinn," I say taking it. "Actually, I suppose it's Edmund Riess." I find myself pulling a face, "not sure how much I like that name. So, are you related to..."

"To Annie?" asks Leonardo, "Yes I'm afraid so. She's my daughter."

"What?!"

"Yes it's true. There isn't a day goes by that I don't blame myself for her betrayal to Mankind."

Amanda reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder. "I've told you before Leonardo, it wasn't your fault. The choice was hers in the end." Leonardo sighs and says nothing, as if he's heard the same words many times before, and doesn't believe them anymore now than he did the previous occasions.

"So most of you are from one of the five families then?" I ask, trying to change the subject.

Amanda nods. "Most of us are Quinns and Leonharts though. Nearly all of the Ackerman's turned their backs on the fight over fifty years ago, and there are very few Yeagers and Juvels full stop."

"Why?" The two Ackermans I know don't really seem like the sort of people to turn their backs on this sort of cause.

"I know you're thinking of the two you know, but trust me when I say that they're exceptions in that family rather than the rule. One of the most significant Ackermans in recent history was Kenneth Ackerman. People called him Kenny the Ripper."

My eyes widen. I heard the stories of course, everyone had. The Ripper was meant to be the most deadly criminal in the entire underground. Stories claimed that he killed twenty MPs all on his own, locked their bodies in a supply ship and sailed it up to the capital with a note that read: 'fresh meat for his majesty. Compliments of his friend Kenny.' Of course there weren't many people who believed in those kinds of tales. "But, I thought he was meant to be a story."

"Almost all stories have some basis in truth. He wasn't quite the big-shot the stories make him out to be, but he didn't exactly make fair use of his gifts. In the end the El-Ekar put him and his gang down three years back. However, one of the gang members escaped; a Mister Bruce Yeager. I believe you're familiar with him?"

"Yes. He shot one of my friends straight through the stomach. She barely survived and she was still in critical position the last time I saw her."

Amanda nods. "He'd been working for Rod Riess through Kenny for the past few years now. After Kenny was eliminated he started making direct contact with him. From what we can tell he and Forrae didn't get on too well."

"Hang on, what happened to Forrae!" I exclaim, looking around the room in alarm. "She was here earlier!"

"No idea. She was in the fighting for a while but once the smoke cleared she was gone. She'll probably head for the Wall and the quickest way out of here now. Her missions a failure; there are only two Riesses left and I don't think either of those are going to want her protection."

"No thank you. What about Bruce, what happened to him?"

"Indisposed. Permanently," says Amanda with an unpleasant look.

From up above there's a cracking noise and then a zip as Levi descends carrying Eren. "But Levi, I wasn't doooone!" wails Hange as she follows. "There were so many interesting strands to study!"

"It isn't breaking apart," says Levi irritably. "You can do all of your cataloguing later."

"But it isn't the saaaame!" she whines.

"Ugh, I can't believe I take orders from you."

"Oh there's no need to talk like that," says Hange as she lands next to him. "He coming around?"

Eren lets out a slight groan and slips out of Levi's hands to sit on the floor. "I'd say yes."

Eren sits up and rubs his head. "Uh, did it work?"

"Yep, like a charm," says Hange. "This is so perfect; I can finally conduct a detailed study of your titan forms outer anatomy!"

"Plus the roof didn't fall in on us," points out Levi.

"Oh yeah, that's nice too."

"So, is that it?" I ask.

"Far from it," says Hange more seriously now. "We still have to deal with that thing outside."

The new titan is well over a hundred metres tall. In fact it's so large that it can't even stand up. Instead it's being forced to drag itself over the ground with its face in the dirt. Even so, it's emanating a vast amount of heat and steam making it impossible to approach it. We're watching from the back of a wagon from an entire kilometre away. Historia is asleep on top of several boxes with a blanket draped over her. Levi, Eren, Armin, Hange and Amanda are all sitting along the edges.

Apparently it's around four in the morning, but my body's been so thrown off by recent events that it isn't tired. I can see that for Armin, Levi, Hange and Amanda that's not the case. Armin rubs his eyes and yawns sleepily. "It's almost a bad thing we're so far away," he says with a smile, "If we were closer then it would probably set off enough adrenaline to wake us all up again."

"Odds are we'll all be functioning without rest for a while longer," says Levi. "Eren, try it again."

With a groan of annoyance Eren stands up and scowling furiously at the King Titan as it crawls along the ground calls out, "Stop!" Nothing happens.

"You have to invest your will into it," I say.

"What do you think I'm doing?" growls Eren irritably.

"Look, maybe we could try contacting the titan itself directly. That would probably be more effective wouldn't it?"

"And just how do I do that?" he asks, slumping down into his seat. "This is crazy; you're the only one capable of opening direct communication, and I'm the only one who make it do anything! It's like we have all the pieces we need we just can't hold both of them at the same time."

"Look, the Coordinate power's meant to work over massive distances," says Amanda. "You should be able to do this."

"Well I can't all right! I'm not a Riess so I don't have full access to the power."

"It is possible that it's simply too far away," suggests Armin. "I mean, a kilometre is long ways for an order to carry you know."

"The point is it isn't working," says Eren. "So can we please just stop trying to get this plan to work and come up with another one?!" He sits down and folds hi arms.

"Well, there's no way we can attack it conventionally," says Armin. "The heat it's putting out is just beyond what a person can stand. Matthias or Eren might be able to resist it in titan form, but it's unlikely the titan would simply let them search for the weak-spot."

Hange nods, "finding the exact point where Riess's body is will be like finding a needle in a haystack the size of a house. It just doesn't seem to be practical."

"Add to that the fact that if we were to mess up the killing blow his body would simply regenerate and any possibility of a direct attack becomes remote at best," says Armin gloomily.

"So we need something indirect?" I ask.

"Yes, I suppose so," murmurs Armin. He rubs his eyes again from sleep.

"Maybe some of you guys should get some rest," suggests Eren. "This thing's not moving very fast and it's heading northwards so we've a long time until it reaches a populated area."

"Maybe you're right," says Armin. "But we should at least sleep in shifts so that enough of us are awake at any one time to deal with a crisis."

"Eren and I were asleep for a big part of the day and night," I point out, "so we're not tired."

"All right then," says Hange. "We can pass the word around to sleep in shifts for the next few hours. That should help keep everyone fresh enough to fight when we finally have a plan to work with. Levi, see to that will you?"

"Yes sir," says Levi, pushing himself to his feet and neatly vaulting over the side of the wagon, which is moving along at a slow pace so as not to leave the King Titan behind. Armin stretches and climbs down into the bottom of the wagon. Pulling his cloak around him to act as a blanket he closes his eyes and within a few minutes his breathing matches the steady rise and fall of sleep.

"You know," says Amanda, looking curiously at the blonde, "The Arlerts used to be rather influential. Many of them held major posts in the Army and several served as advisors to the King."

"What happened?" I ask.

"We're not really sure. As far as we can make out though they found our something they weren't meant to. It got passed around the family and before you knew it all of the ones in significant places of power were just disappearing. They vanished both from the world and people memories. It only happened about thirty years ago but no one knows about it, except those of us from the old blood strains." She shakes her head and chuckles quietly to herself. "He probably has no idea that his great uncle was a General and the Commander of the Southern Territories before Pixis. Or that his great grandfather was a Colonel and the leader of the Scout Regiment. And it's not only his family that's fallen from grace over the years, several have suffered similar fates.

"A good example is the Kirstein Family. Sixty years ago Louis Kirstein was the Premier. One day he discovered who he was really working for and began to try and plot against the Riess Family. But they caught him, had him removed and then reduced the status of the entire family to the same as the average farmer. They built themselves back up to become successful merchants in Trost over the past few generations, but none of them have any idea of the honour their name used to hold. It shows how pointless it was to resist the royal family. Until seven years ago, when everything changed."

I stare blankly into the night sky. The idea that people could be reduced to such states and no one even remember them is baffling. Perhaps over centuries but overnight seems impossible. In fact to put it bluntly it seems terrifying. If the Coordinate power were to return to the Riess family all we've achieved, ever sacrifice we've made would be erased in an instant. Suddenly a thought occurs to me. "Has this happened before?" I ask.

Amanda looks at me confused. "I mean, have people made the same kind of progress as we have, only to have it undone and be sent back to square one again?"

"Not that we know of," she says. "But that doesn't mean anything really. It's possible that the people who knew about it died before being able to pass the knowledge on. In fact, we don't even know for sure that the Walls have been in place for a hundred years, they could have been there for thousands."

"So really, we know nothing about the past for sure?"

"That's about the size of it. But then, isn't that always the case? I mean, we weren't there so there really is no way of being certain."

"I suppose so."

There's silence again for a while. After Amanda leans back and closes her eyes Eren speaks up. "How did you find us Commander Hange?"

"Ah, that," says Hange with a smile. "It's not particularly complicated really. Well, at least not compared to everything else that is."

"That doesn't really mean anything," I mutter to myself. "Everything about this mess is bloody complicated."

Ignoring me Hange continues. "Well, you recall I was going to try and get some information out of Pastor Nick our (sort of) contact in the Wall Cult? He'd been killed, supposedly by burglars. I didn't accept that for a second though. I only saw his body for a few moments but it had distinct signs of violence that thieves would never have wasted the time to inflict. I started snooping around Trost after that, trying to pick up something that might lead me in deeper but without success. Then, the next day I was approached by a young woman dressed in a purple cloak."

She nods in Amanda's direction. "She said that there had been some complications in the undercity. I of course told her I had no idea what she was talking about. 'Don't waste time upholding a false level of disconnection First Captain Hange,' she replied. 'The enemy has all three targets now and we need to act fast to recover them.' As you might imagine I didn't trust her at all, but her words worried me more than a little bit. So, I agreed to be detoured away from the main streets in order to have a more private conversation.

"She told me that there'd been some sort of battle in the undercity of Karanese District and that you and Historia had both been captured. I still wasn't inclined to believe her until she produced Captain Levi and the rest of the Special Operations squad. After that she informed us of just who her and her group were, the nature of the Riess's hold over the Kingdom, Historia's right to the throne and just where we could expect to find you.

"I'd managed to find a contact among the major news publisher in Trost who was rather sick and tired of having to publish the central government's propaganda. I've got his word that we can expect a full reveal of Historia's right to the throne and many of the Military Police's unsavoury dealings in this morning's paper. That should help a great deal to win the public over to our side. All we had to do then was rescue you.

"Two days later and Amanda said she had a lead. She led us right to where we found you. We rigged up a kind of smoke bomb system-courtesy of Corporal Arlert's imagination-and chucked it down the stairs into the main room. Under the cover of the smoke we were able to engage the MPs at close range, making their Anti-Personal Gear useless. Now all we need to do is stop this big guy," she says jerking her thumb over her shoulder at the gigantic steaming lump, "and we're home free. Historia becomes Queen, the Scout Regiment is cleared and the current government is removed from power. Of course, it looks like stopping this thing is going to be much more easily said than done."

I nod. "I wonder why the El-Ekar didn't come and find us sooner," I muse. "It would have saved us a lot of time and probably some people's lives if they'd made contact with us when this entire uprising began."

"Amanda says that at first they weren't sure if they could trust us. And when they decided they could it was already too late to stop you and Historia being taken. I don't know what she intends to do once we've established the new government. Most of her people have shown remarkable aptitude on the ODMs so we'd be glad to have them as part of the Scouts, but they may not want to do that. They've been a tight-knit family for a long time now, quite literally in some cases. I think the talent with the 3D Gear must be a genetic trait, since almost every person from one of these old families has proven to be highly skilled with it. Honed reflexes, physical strength and sharp minds all around; they're quite the elite force."

"Hmm," murmurs Eren, "I wonder though; are any of them titan shifters? I mean, we know it's supposed to be people from the old families who can do it, so they should all be able to, at least in theory."

Hange shakes her head. "From what I can gather, a person can only gain control over the titan shifting power if while they're in titan form they devour a person who already has it."

"Then where does it come from in the first place?" I ask.

She shrugs. "We don't know. The power has been with the Riess family since the Walls were raised, but for the others it's different. I've been trying to ask about Annie, Reiner and Bertolt, but they always dodge around the subject."

"If they want our trust they'll have to tell us at some point," says Eren. "They don't sit easy with me, none of them. I guess we'll see though won't we?"