Chapter 20:The Northern Wall

"Citizens of Orvud District, we request that you remain calm and follow the orders given to you by those military representatives assigned to your area. Participation in this drill is mandatory so please do not try to cause trouble. Mass scale troop movements and cannon fire should be expected. Do not be alarmed by it; it is all a part of the procedure."

Even though the midday sun is shining I can feel a dark swathe of apprehension. The King Titan is due to come within firing range of the batteries on the Walls of Orvud District within a few minutes. I can see the huge bulk of the creature as it drags itself over the ground, face pressed into the dirt. I glance nervously to my left and right at the huge array of cannons upon the white stone boundary. Hundreds of soldiers from both the Garrison and the Scouts are bustling about everywhere, checking weapons and loading guns. "Hey Matthias, are you listening?" says Armin irritably, cutting through my thoughts.

"Ah yes, sorry Armin," I reply hastily, turning back to my friend and huge pile of boxes and barrels tied up by ropes behind him.

Armin sighs and shakes his head. "As I was saying, we're only to get the one shot at this. It's unlikely that the cannon fire will do the job but of course it might, so it's still worth trying it. If it fails however, we're going to have to wait until the titan tries to pull itself up onto the wall. When that happens we'll detonate explosive charges along the top of the Wall in order to bring him forwards and down. Then Eren in titan form will hurl this large net filled with explosives into the titan's mouth. That should cause sufficient damage to blow out the nape. All fragments from that are going to have to be cut apart, preferably in the air before they hit the ground and become more difficult to localise."

"Aren't we relying pretty heavily on the chance that the titan's mouth will just happen to be open?" asks Jean with a frown.

"Not entirely," says Armin with an uncharacteristically confident smile. "He's been dragging himself along the ground this entire time because his weight is too great for his legs to support. That means that his face has been pressed against the ground from the very moment he first formed. More than likely the front part will be missing, ensuring a wide opening for Eren to throw down."

"The plan seems good," says the elderly Colonel Blackthorn-the leader of the local Garrison forces. "But if it doesn't work? The citizens down there will be totally vulnerable to the titan's attack. We lack the ordinance for a second attempt at this. I don't feel comfortable letting the people under my protection be slaughtered."

"So you shouldn't Colonel," says Captain Hange, "but don't worry, we do have a backup plan. Of sorts."

"Of sorts?" asks the Colonel sceptically.

"I'm afraid we don't have much of a fleshed out alternative," explain Armin. "Even if the explosion fails to kill the titan, it should still expose its entire nape and destroy most of its head. At that point we'll be relying on Matthias and Eren in titan form to try and finish the job. They should be able to withstand the heat and posses the strength required for the task. However, even when badly damaged the sheer size of this titan makes it a formidable adversary, so we'd rather not have to resort to that plan."

"There's something you've forgotten to take into account," speaks up Amanda. "You've forgotten about Forrae. She's bound to try and protect Riess by oath, she may come back in order to stop this. If she transforms it's unlikely that even both Eren and Matthias at the same time could take her down and she's totally impenetrable to blade strikes and cannon fire. If she appears we need some sort of counter measure to sue against her."

Armin pulls a face. "From that it sounds like we don't have one. Matthias, you fought with her briefly; is there any sort of potential weakness that you can tell us about?"

"Not a thing," I say grimly. "She was at least twice as fast as the Female Titan in hand to hand combat and almost as strong as the Beast Titan. On top of that her armour has no joints or weak points of any kind. Sheer concussive force might work on her but apart from that I can't think of anything."

"If she does come we'll just have to try what we can," says Armin. "We really ought to arrange for some sort of giant weapons that you two can fight with at some point. If her armour's impervious something like a mace would probably work well. Sufficient force could damage her internal organs, and possibly are strong enough blow to her nape might kill her human body."

"In any case," says Hange, "our first priority needs to be bringing down Riess. That means that we'll need Matthias to try and hold of our thorned friend until we're finished. Can you do that?"

"That depends on how long you need," I reply. "I could probably buy a few minutes but not much more. Plus the damage to civilian buildings could potentially become extensive."

"Well Colonel, are you willing to try and kill this monster then?" asks Hange.

The Colonel sighs and shakes his head. "It's already on its way here. So what choice do I have eh?"

The sound of the cannons firing blots out everything else. All I can hear are the resounding, cracking booms of charges detonating, sending steel round hurtling through the air into the flesh of the advancing abomination. The thing's back has already been minced by heavy cannon fire, but it continues to use its shrivelled arms to drag its massive bulk of a torso across the ground towards the Walls. The artillery halts in order to reload and I remove my hands from my ears.

Everything is more or less silent to me after that barrage. People's voices are reduced to far away mutters and thuds instead of words. I look around at the people hurrying left and right along the length of the white stone structure. Fresh charges are being hastily fitted into place and the firing pins being removed in preparation for the next volley. I look up at the source of the long shadow covering me.

The Berserker Titan is looking out at the King Titan as it continues to haul itself closer and closer towards the Walls. "I'm pretty sure the people down there aren't going to be prepared to believe this is a drill for much longer," thinks Eren.

'We don't need them to,' I think back. 'They just had to stay put until we lured him here. He can't resist such a large number of humans all gathered in the one place.'

"It's going to be a pretty terrifying experience for them all the same."

'With any luck they'll all live to hate us for using them as bait. Make sure you don't miss.'

"I wasn't planning on it."

"FIRE!" shouts the Colonel, and I hastily clap my hands back over my ears as the guns open up again.

The blasts make no difference whatsoever as the King Titan reaches the foot of the Wall. Those cannons directly above it turn to point straight down and fire directly into the creature's neck. This is the point where our hope for success with the cannons is best. If they can get a direct shot at the nape they stand a better chance of hitting the weak spot.

Suddenly I feel something tug at my shirt from behind. I turn to see a man wearing a full length black cloak. "Who are you, how did you get up here?" I try to ask, but the sound of the cannon shots drowns me out. With a single calm swift movement, the man grabs me by my collar and throws me off of the edge.

I have absolutely no idea what's going on. All I know is that I don't intend on dying from a fall. I bite into my hand as I plummet, sparking off the usual bright light. I impact as my titan body is forming around me, caving in the roof of a house. To my surprise I snap straight out of the battered nape and fall onto a cracked wooden floor.

The half formed titan body threw all of its forming muscles towards the nape in order to keep my body safe. As a result almost none of the titan formed, not even its skeleton. The steamy construct is composed of only numerous thick bands of muscle woven around a half length spine with a few short protruding ribs. I stagger backwards gasping for breath. I feel dazed but nothing more than that seems to have happened.

Then the man from the Wall lands neatly on top of the half formed corpse. He shrugs off his cloak to reveal a set Anti-Personal Gear, which must explain how he was able to get up onto the Wall. His right arm is missing and the left side of his face covered in plasters, as if he's just had all the flesh ripped off and someone's tried to bandage him up in a hurry. The little of his face that I can see clearly though confuses me even more than what I can't. "Bruce Yeager?" I stutter. "But, Amanda said you were killed during the fight."

"I almost was," he replies in a voice that chokes on every few syllables, attesting to damaged vocal cords. "My face was damaged severely and my right arm was mangled so badly that it had to be amputated. My old buddies from the underground that saved me told me not to get up and about so fast but well, I just had to come up here and pay you all a visit."

"But, how did you know where we were and what was going on?"

"Oh at the time I had no idea where you were. It wasn't you I was looking for. As soon as I was able to stand up I headed for the place where I knew Riess ought to be. I was kind of pissed as you might imagine; fancied running him through a few times, or at least making off with a few valuable items of his. What I found was most surprising though. All the landscape had fallen in and there was a right bloody mess. I found something worth looking for though."

He takes out a small wooden box. "Recognise this by any chance? You probably should since two of the doses are missing." My eyes widen. It's the same box that Riess had the titan drug in. Bruce flips open the lid and shows the inside to me. "Four doses," he explains in a remarkably friendly tone, "one for the pretty little girl that he labelled queen, the one he's gone and slipped himself now labelled giant, one labelled silver-whatever that means-and this last one labelled hunter. I do like the sound of that one don't you?"

"What are you talking about? What are you even doing here?"

"Well you see, my friends told me I might have suffered just a teensy bit of brain damage. Of course, they have no idea what they're talking about. I've suffered a shit load of it! And you know something, I don't care!" He laughs manically several times. "I had my left eye cut out and my head smashed six times against a roadside. And that was after getting shot three times in my right arm. Look at me; I'm a fucking mess! So I've turned up here and I decided to just start killing you people starting with whoever I saw first. Guess who got lucky?"

"And how exactly do you intend to kill me?" I ask, holding my right hand very close to my mouth. "You don't have a right arm; I doubt you can beat me in your condition."

"Oh defiantly not," he says, nodding eagerly. "But that's where this baby comes in." He takes out one of the two remaining cylinders from the wooden box and carefully sets it down on the shattered floorboards. "I'll need to come back for that later," he says with a smile that causes blood to run down from underneath the plastered side of his face. "Anyway, I've heard rather a lot of references to this stuff giving you freedom. Oh I know what they mean by freedom don't you worry, but I figure, let's go out with a bang huh? My wounds are horribly infected you see, so my chances of survival are basically zero. So why not have some fun eh? Let's be free and give into those lovely little impulses. Let's be free, and kill!"

He drops the glass container into his mouth and bites down. He pauses, almost thoughtfully for a moment, and then swallows. Nothing happens. "Come on, comeoncomeoncomeon!" Bruce snaps, stamping his foot. Then a slight crackling sound begins to fill the air. "Ah, much better," he says, before exploding into a huge lightning bolt.

I'm thrown backwards but manage to bite into my tongue and trigger my own transformation. The sixteen metre tall humanoid that emerges out of the clouds of steam is gangly with deeply sunken eyes. Its hair is long, brown and matted and practically its entire head is split in two by a massive row of teeth. Its face is thrust forwards a long way, almost like a snout and its ears end in pointed tips.

The Feral Titan leaps onto me, ripping at my throat with its many teeth. I slam fist up into its stomach and send it flying upwards and off of me. I scramble back to my feet, coughing on the blood clogging up my airways. Even if breathing is unnecessary I keep trying from force of habit. The Feral Titan rolls over, scrabbling in the dirt before turning and leaping at me again. I smash my fist straight into its head as it comes on, crushing a large part of its ugly skull.

As it drops to the ground it leaps forwards, slipping under my arm to latch itself into my torso. It sinks its teeth into my side and rips out a huge chunk of flesh. I howl in pain and grabbing hold of him tear him free. I throw backwards into the Wall where his spine crunches slightly and he lands awkwardly. I try listening for some sort of thought from the Feral Titan but all I can hear is a mad laughing sound.

With a yelping snarl the Feral Titan climbs back to its feet again, shaking its steaming head and sending blood spraying in every direction. It cries aloud as if in ecstasy and runs forwards. I jump to the side but it turns on its heel as it rushes past. Slipping the Feral Titan falls onto its face into the ruined fragments of the building. It grabs hold of my right leg and bites into my Achilles Heel. My leg gives out straight away and I drop down onto one knee.

In delight the Feral Titan clambers up my back. Its snapping jaws probe for my weak spot hungrily. I crash my elbow into its face, breaking apart its newly formed jaw. I then proceed to drag free from the insane creature, kicking it off as it tries to pursue me.

Then there's a massive explosion from above me. I look up to see pieces of charred titan flesh flying in all directions. I've been so preoccupied I forgot what else was going on right now. Numerous soldiers leap from the Walls, blades flashing as they move to cut through the black missiles that may in every case contain the human components of the King Titan.

Ignoring the blast the Feral Titan attack me again, jaws slavering. I strike it across the face, sending it into the ground with a crash. 'Stop this you maniac!' I think desperately at Bruce. 'You're totally uncontrolled. You can't beat so just give up!'

"Hahaha! Freedom! We, have, FREEDOM!" is the only reply I get.

'Yeah, you do.' I bring my foot down into the Feral Titan's nape. There's a cracking and snapping noise as the flesh of the back of the neck gives way beneath my stomping foot. My mind flashes back to all of the Scouts killed during the fighting, of Mikasa still in critical state and of Connie as potentially mortally wounded. Anger rushes through me and I stomp down again and again. The Feral Titan has long stopped moving, but I don't care. 'Get up! Get up so that I can kill you again you filthy scum!' I can hear my titan voice roaring and snarling as I continue to pound the corpse beneath me into a red pulp. 'Get up! Get up!'

Finally, I stop myself. I stare at the battered and broken body in front of me, steam already rising from it. 'Why, why did I do that? What did you do to me?'

"Freedom," whispers a small voice in the back of my head.

'If that's freedom, then I know I don't want it. Blood isn't much to my tastes. I suggest you keep out of my head from now on. I'm in control and not you, that's how it is and that's how it's going to stay.'

I look around me in a dazed way. To my surprise I'm being watched. Three small boys and a girl are staring at me from one of the streets. One of the boys is looking at me with amazement, one with fear and the other with hatred. The girl has her hand around the amazed boy's arm. It's a bit like looking into a window on the past actually. I just hope these kids don't have to go through the things me and my friends have. Since I don't want to panic them I do something I hope will reassure them a little. I bring my right hand up against my chest and a salute, and bow slightly.

"Wow," I hear the amazed boy exclaim to his friends. "He must be one of those titan kids from the Scouts. That was amazing!"

"Keep away from him, you don't know if he's safe," says the girl.

"Stop coddling me already!" snaps the boy.

Inside I shake my head with a sigh. If they really are anything like us, these four will be just fine. I walk away from the charred pile of smoking bones and head towards where the nearest soldier fell. If they missed and this just happens to be the target it could start to regrow. I'd rather not give it the chance. I look up at the top of the Wall to see the dissolving remains of a ripped up face peering down into the city. The main body of the titan at least, is dead.

The Scout who made the attack doesn't seem to have found anything special inside of the piece though; it steamed away and left no trace of a human form. It's the same with the next few I try and I'm beginning to worry that we're going to have to search through the city street by street for the regrowing titan. Then I notice that many of the people in the area (civilians and soldiers alike) are all heading towards a specific area. Curious I follow.

People are all crowded around something in the middle of a market square. They've ushered a person up onto a box and seem to be cheering something. If my titan body worked in the same way as my normal one my mouth would probably fall open. Historia is looking around at the crowds of people a little awkwardly, but with a certain level of confidence. As I get closer I realise what everyone's cheering. "Long live the Queen! Long live Queen Historia!"

I've temporarily forgotten that I'm still in titan form and when people see me they crowd away in panic. "Wait don't panic," say the nearby soldiers hurriedly, "he's one of ours." Despite this the civilians all still make sure to put as much distance between me and them as they possibly can. Because of this, a clear path ends up opening between me and Historia. Suddenly an idea occurs to me.

Stepping forwards I kneel down onto one knee, bowing low in front of her. The people around all look on in confusion. I snap open the nape of my titan and slide down its back to the ground. Stepping out in front of it I walk on so that I'm only a few steps away from Historia. I look her straight in the eyes, and then bow. "Your majesty, I herby swear service to you, to your people, and thus to all of Humanity. My sword is yours." I kneel down onto one knee and bow my head to look at the pavement.

To my surprise I can hear dozens of soldiers come out from the crowd around me and kneel down in the same way, repeating the same words. To my great amazement, I even see Captain Levi step out from the masses to join us. Then I see Eren further away on my right, and before long hundreds of soldiers have gathered in the square, kneeling and swearing fealty to the new Queen. Then, Historia speaks. "Brave soldiers of Humanity," she begins, doing her best to keep her voice calm and confident, "I accept your service. Stand now and carry your swords for Mankind."

As one we rise up to our feet. "Long live the Queen!" I cry.

"Long live the Queen!" echoes everyone else.