"Woo!" Piper thrust her fists in the air. "We did it!"
"Yeah we did!" Hazel grinned back. She fired a wire, following the crowd as they zipped through the sky, towards the wall.
Nico watched them fly away. He had noticed a group of people not rejoicing to get over the wall, and decided it was strange enough for him to stick around.
Mikasa stood alone on the top of a roof, apparently captivated by something. She wasn't moving an inch.
"Mikasa?" Armin said, staring at the girl. He fired a wire onto the top of the roof, and quickly went zooming up.
This should be interesting, Nico thought drily as he shot his own cord next to Armin's.
"What are you doing?" Armin asked. "We have to leave, now!"
"Look down there." Mikasa said curtly, her eyes stretched wide.
Nico followed her gaze and felt his own eyes widen at the sight. Armin gave a little gasp of surprise.
The abnormal titan that had been rampaging against the other titans was backed up against a building, unmoving as other titans clamped their jaws onto his skin and roughly ripped the flesh off his bones.
"Cannibalism?" Armin breathed.
"Looks like it." Nico remarked drily.
The abnormal shakily looked up, and his mouth stretched open as if to roar, but the only sound that escaped was a pained, mangled cross between a grunt and a whimper.
"Can he not regenerate like the others?" Armin asked, his eyes fixed on the horrific sight.
"...This may sound stupid but I was hoping he'd be the key for us." Mikasa said. "That he'd help mankind break the cycle. Turn the tide just long enough to give us a little ray of hope."
"She's right." Reiner's gruff voice said. Nico glanced over his shoulder to see the burly blonde man standing there with Bertolt, Annie and Jean. "He's too valuable to just let die. There's too much we can learn from him. I think it's perfectly clear that our priority should be to ward the scavengers off him. He's no good to us picked apart."
"Are you out of your mind?" Jean exclaimed. "We've got a path out of this nightmare and you want us to stay?"
"Think about it." Annie shifted her gaze towards Jean. "Having an abnormal as an ally would be an incredible advantage right? Cannons got nothing on a titan that likes to rip apart it's own kind."
"Do- do you-"
"Hey, what's the hold up?" Jason settled onto the roof behind Jean, cutting him off. "Why are you just-"
Nico snapped his fingers and pointed to the abnormal.
"Oh." Jason frowned. "That's not good."
"Oh no!" Armin gasped. Nico glanced up. "It's the one that ate Thomas!"
Jason whipped around to see the shaggy haired abnormal. The images of Thomas hanging from that creature's mouth, looking so scared, so desperate, flashed through Jason's mind.
The good abnormal, the one the cadets assumed was a goner, suddenly roared. He broke away from the building, smaller titans' jaws still locked on his body. He charged at the abnormal as well as he could with the extra weight and missing limbs. The smaller titans began to fall off, and with green eyes dancing with a sort of familiar rage, he lunged forward and snapped his jaw around the abnormal's neck. He had no arms, so his teeth were the things to sink into the nape of the abnormal.
He lifted his head, the dying titan hoisted into the air by it's neck. His eyes darted around and settled on the titan that had been gnawing on him.
Oh Hades. Nico thought. This is going to be good.
The titan swung his head, smashing the tian corpse against the smallest titans in sight as another fifteen meter began to make it's way towards him. The abnormal quickly noticed and jerked his head around, hitting the approaching fifteen meter with the corpse of the abnormal. The fifteen meter crashed into the buildings behind it.
"Holy Hera." Jason breathed.
The titan dropped the abnormal and turned it's head to the sky, it's jaws stretching open as it released another war cry.
"What was that you were saying?" Jean said shakily.
The titan swayed, it's roar dying, and it fell to the ground, sending dust and smoke billowing up from the floor.
Armin let out a little gasp and Nico felt his heart sink. There goes our titan ally.
"Because I think it's a used point now." Jean finished, turning away. "Alright, enough of this, let's leave while we can. We're lucky the ugly beast didn't get bored. We'd have been next on the menu."
"Wait." Nico gasped. I can sense a life force down there. A familiar, life force. "What is that?"
"Huh? What is-" Jason followed Nico's gaze to the nape of the fallen titan's neck. It was hard to see through the steam of the titan's corpse, but Jason could just about see it A dark smudge was in the center of the nape, and while the rest of the titan body evaporated, it didn't move an inch.
"Look, a titan's a titan." Jean grumbled.
"Jason." Nico grabbed the blonde's wrist, his voice low and knife sharp. "Something's alive down there. And I get the feeling it's not a titan."
Jason stared at him, confounded, then he retunred his gaze to the dark smudge. The smudge slowly moved backward, and Jason felt chills race through his body. Something was definitely alive down there.
"Mikasa!" Armin shouted suddenly.
Nico whipped around. The dark haired girl had leapt off the roof and was rocketing towards the titan's corpse using her ODM gear.
"Check it out." Nico ordered. Jason nodded and jumped off the roof as well, not even bothering to fire a wire.
Mikasa was running towards the titan, her eyes wide and desperate. Jason realized the dark smudge was actually a lump. Then, with a little help from his glasses, he found one more realization.
It was not a lump. It was a boy.
Mikasa's speed increased. She leapt onto the steaming corpse and suddenly enveloped the boy in a tight hug, and Jason finally recognized his facial features.
It was Eren.
"Oh my gods." Jason halted, his brain too surprised at the discovery to command his body to move.
Mikasa held Eren there, simply holding him for a second. Then she moved her head down to his chest and listened for a second. The silence stretched on for moments, then the sound of Mikasa crying reached Jason's ears, snapping him out of his trance.
He ran over to the nearly evaporated corpse of the titan and leapt onto it. Eren appeared to be unconscious, but unharmed. Jason couldn't tell how his leg was faring, after the one titan bit it off, though the fact he had just emerged from the nape of a titan was the biggest question swimming through Jason's mind.
The rest of the group leapt off the building as well. Nico took one look at Eren and, if possible, paled. Then he said something Jason couldn't make heads or tails of.
"He did this." The son of Hades breathed. "He did this."
"Let's get him off the ground!" Reiner exclaimed. "Come on! We're sitting ducks down here! We can ponder this once we're safe."
Jason nodded and quickly grabbed both Mikasa and Eren. Neither of them showed any sign of discomfort, or even acknowledgement. Jason willed the air to send him flying up at the tower whilst he clutched Mikasa and the unconscious Eren in his arms. They zoomed upwards, the rest of the cadets close behind.
Jason's feet touched onto the stone tower, and he set both Mikasa and Eren down. Mikasa kept her arms tightly locked on Eren's motionless form. Everyone stared at him, wide eyed. Armin looked the worst though.
He had an expression of disbelief, and fear was written all over his face. Jason could practically see the thoughts racing through Armin's mind a mile a minute through his eyes. His mouth hung slightly open, and faint whimpering/choking sounds could faintly be heard.
"Any ideas?" Jason bumped Nico with his elbow, his eyes still locked on Eren.
"Not one." Nico remarked. "But something tells me Eren had control of that titan. How? I'm clueless there."
"And why is he fully healed?" Jason asked. "I saw a titan bite his leg clean off!"
"It might have something to do with the titan's regeneration ability," Nico said softly. "But I'm not Annabeth. I'm not going to make any calls or insane theories right now."
The dark haired boy glanced at Armin, about to ask if he had any ideas, but the question died on his tongue. Armin was tearing up, and he looked strained.
The blonde boy shakily reached down and lifted Eren's right arm. Eren's shirt sleeve was torn at the elbow, unlike the wrist length sleeve on his left arm.
I wonder if he lost that arm too. Nico thought.
"How is this," Armin slipped his own hand into Eren's, their fingers intertwined. "How is this possible?"
Nico scowled and noticed Jean, who had turned around. Nico followed his gaze, his eyes scanning the battle grounds, where the corpses of the titans the abnormal had vanquished lay. They were rotting, steaming piles of spoiled flesh and crumbling bones now.
"So that means," Jean said faintly. "Eren did this?"