'This is it. The end…'

His stomach in knots, Reiner gazed up at Wall Rose. The Survey Corps were scaling the wall, but the group from Utgarde did not have ODM gear equipped. They would be manually pulled up one-by-one.

Ymir was being lifted up first, on a makeshift stretcher. Historia would follow after, determined to remain at her friend's side. Bertholdt was next, and then it would be his turn. The ride to the wall had passed quickly… too quickly. He was reeling. In no time at all, everything would change. He would no longer be a soldier. He had come to love these people like they were his family, and now he had to betray them. A deep feeling of regret washed over him, as he realized that caring for these people had been a mistake. This was the mission. It was their duty as warriors to carry it out, to return home with the coordinate. Making friends had not been part of the plan. Originally it had been an act, something he felt like he had to do to keep moving forward, to gain the trust of the people in the walls so that they could finish the mission and go home.

'Annie hated this from the very start,' he thought. She had remained distant from her fellow recruits, and didn't seem to develop any close bonds with other trainees. Reiner remembered her confronting him about how close he had seemed to have gotten with the others. "They're not our friends," he had reassured her. She had been disgusted by that dishonesty. Annie was not good at lying, but she was good at keeping to herself. That's what she did. Maybe she had been right in her approach. Perhaps she would be able to live with herself when this was all over. "I am going to puke," she had said to Reiner. He hoped she was okay.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as he caught Historia looking at him. It was her turn to ascend the wall. She gave him a small smile. He smiled back, nodding for her to go on up. He hoped that her smile would be burnt into his memory. As she turned her back to him, he was overwhelmed with disgust for himself. He felt slimy, like anything good that had ever happened to him was more than he deserved. 'At the very least… I can make sure she is safe. I can try to do that at least.' He watched her go, as she was pulled higher and higher up the wall. He thought of home, and the people waiting for him there. He didn't miss any of them as much as he would miss her. She was the first person to make him feel like he was worth something as he was, to make him feel wanted without expecting something more from him. His own mother had never given him that. No one had given him that until Historia. In fact, every one of his friends from the 104th had been better to him than the people waiting for him back home.

"You good?" he felt a hand on his shoulder. Bertholdt had approached him from behind.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Reiner replied, no emotion in his voice.

"This is it," Bertholdt started. His voice seemed distant. "I'm about to go up. I'll see you on the other side buddy."

Reiner could not understand how Bertholdt was so calm and collected. He supposed he had to be… one of them had to be. It had been easier once, when they had just docked at the island. He had seen things differently then. The walled nation had been easy to imagine as full of evil beings masquerading as innocents. He had wanted to be a hero then, a hero that would save the world from the devils on the island of Paradis. The truth he had learned was far more complicated.

Reiner watched Bertholdt ascend the wall, getting higher and higher. He felt like he was going to retch. He tried to empty his mind as he waited for his own turn to scale the wall. Something inside of him was crumbling.

The next several minutes passed as if Reiner were in a dream. It all seemed foggy, muted. His turn came to be lifted to the top of the wall, and he dreaded the trip with every fiber of his being. He looped the rope around his waist and held on as best he could with his one good arm.

It seemed as if he was on the ground one moment, and the next he was at the top of the wall. Eren was waiting for him, extending a hand to help him up. Reiner gladly took it. "Eren... Thanks," he grunted, happy to have his feet back on solid ground.

Eren nodded. "Walk with me, Reiner?"

Reiner walked with Eren, in the opposite direction from where the others were standing with Bertholdt. Eren asked him about what happened at Utgarde, and what happened to his arm. Reiner recounted the events of the last couple of days honestly. Eren pat him on the back, before he replied, "Well I am glad you made it back."

Reiner wanted this to be his life. Historia had been right - he did have a family. He had grown so fond of Eren, who reminded him so much of himself when he was younger, before this mission. He had ben just like Eren when he was younger- driven by a sense of purpose that entirely consumed him and pushed him forward, despite not being particularly great at anything. Reiner reminded himself that he would never have even been selected as a warrior, if Marcel had not intervened to protect his brother. He wondered how different things would have turned out if Porco had gotten the Armor in his place, as it should have been. He then realized that the mission would likely have been a success. Marcel would never have been eaten on that first night, and they might even have the coordinate by now.

After they had been walking for a few minutes, there was a sudden commotion in the direction they had just come from and Reiner looked back. Bertholdt was still standing with Connie, Historia, and Hange. Something didn't look right though – he looked agitated. He had a knife in his hand, and that got Reiner's attention. That was when he began to feel the tension in the air.

Reiner quickly assessed what was happening. 'Every one of them is going to die,' he thought, in shock and horror. Something in him broke. It was the part of him that could coldly accept the things he had done and the things he still had to do. Instantly, his perspective shifted. A choice he had not been aware of became prominent in his mind. Things didn't have to happen like this. These people were his family. They were the people he cared most about. They loved him, in a way that he had never really known before. 'I can save them,' he thought, as he began to run. There was no time for second-guessing.

For the first time since Marcel died, Reiner was happy that he had been the one to inherit his titan – that he had been the one to come to Paradis. If he hadn't, he would never have known anything. He wouldn't know that these people exist, and what their lives were like. He would never have known that they were worth saving.

It had been five years - five years since the last time he had taken his titan form. He was no longer the boy he had been then. He had grown, and had become someone that others could depend on. What kind of person would he be if he let them down here?

As he began to shift, the pain in his arm and throughout his entire body dulled immensely. Thunder seemed to tear through every inch of him. His human body became secondary to him, and for a moment it felt as if he had no body at all. He felt himself become heavier. Impossibly strong fibers attached themselves to his whole body, until he no longer felt human at all. Heat and darkness encased him, but his vision returned instantly as the Armored titan's eyes came alight.

He had no plan. He only knew that he needed to protect the people dearest to him, even if it meant turning his back on the one person who had understood him since childhood. 'I don't want to be a weapon anymore. Right and wrong are no longer clear to me, but I know that what we are doing has to be wrong.' With that in mind, Reiner put himself between Bertholdt and as many of the Survey Corps as he could. He crouched over them, using his body to shield them from the blast of Bertholdt's transformation.

Bertholdt's titan was taking on a misshapen form, with no legs and a ribcage that seemed to attach itself to the wall. This was likely due to the fact that they hadn't had an ounce of sleep in two days. Reiner counted himself lucky, as the blast would have been far worse if Bert had been physically prepared. He might not have been able to save any of his friends, had that been the case. He tried not to look at them, expecting that the expressions on their faces would be too hard for him to take. He wasn't wrong. As he glanced over the group of people who he considered to be his friends, their eyes were full of horror. Historia's eyes were the same: disbelieving, sad, and horrified.

There was more time to ruminate on this observation, as another explosion boomed behind him. Eren had taken on his titan form as well, and was charging in his direction. Reiner braced for impact, but was surprised when Eren ran right past him for the Colossal. Reiner couldn't understand what he was trying to accomplish, as his titan could not stand against Bertholdt's. Then he saw that Eren was trying to push the Colossal, to fall on the other side of Wall Rose, into Wall Maria territory. It seemed he might succeed, until the Colossal managed to grab Eren's titan as if it were a toy. It used its free hand to grab the nearest ODM-equipped soldier and tossed them into its mouth, swallowing them whole. Reiner did not see who it had been.

Reiner screamed within his titan. "GO!" he wanted to yell to Bertholdt. The armored titan was not gifted with the ability to articulate words, and so it came out as a blood-curdling roar. He hoped his friend would understand, that he would realize that was the signal they agreed upon earlier, and that he would go… alone.

The Colossal titan ceased its actions for a moment and roared in response. It had Eren's titan clutched in its grasp, and slowly began to detach itself from the wall, its ribs cracking sickeningly. Eren writhed wildly to break free of its grip, but was ultimately unsuccessful. The Colossal was too strong, too large. They fell, together.

In his titan, Reiner was only vaguely aware of his actual body, of the wounds that hadn't yet had enough time to heal. They didn't hurt, not at the time. Despite the distance he felt from his own body, he knew he was crying. A sense of loss washed over him, as he watched the Colossal fall. There was no going back from this decision. There would be another explosion, he knew. He braced himself for the impact, trying to shield his friends as best he could.

Mikasa refused the protection he offered and charged forward, her singular purpose being to protect Eren. She was on her own when a flash of heat and light consumed everything in Reiner's vision. He gripped the wall as hard as he could, trying to keep his footing. Just when he thought he could hold no longer, everything stopped. Steam rose from where the Colossal had fallen, but he and Eren were nowhere in sight. It was were done. 'Be safe, Bertholdt. Just survive,' he pleaded silently.

The dust began to settle, and people were moving again. Hange was yelling something at him, ordering him to come out of his armor he realized. His titan still crouching, Reiner began to push himself outside of the huge, armored body. It occurred to him that he didn't remember the last time he had to pull himself out on his own. Bertholdt had always helped him. His own body had not had enough time to fully recover from its injuries, and he ached. With some effort, he pulled one arm free. He was so tired. How long had it been since he had slept? He pulled his other arm free, the momentum causing him to lose his balance. He fell the distance from his titan's nape to the wall, landing roughly on the stone-like material.

He couldn't move. He had used every ounce of his strength and could barely hold on to consciousness. Unable to keep his eyes open, he became aware of voices arguing around him, hands on him.

"We should kill him here," he heard someone growl, though he couldn't identify the voice. That statement was met with a chorus of raised voices. He couldn't understand any of them.

"What would be the point of that?! He may be the only reason we are alive right now!" He recognized Historia's voice, pleading for him.

"He is an enemy of humanity! It would be naïve to assume he is an ally at this point. He could have another motive. They could have planned this… we don't –"

"Krista – no, sorry - Historia is right," Hange's voice interrupted whoever had just been talking. "But all of these concerns are also valid. We don't know how much we can trust him, but it would be foolish and wasteful to kill him here."

Reiner opened his eyes slightly, and saw that Historia was crouching at his side almost protectively. He inwardly laughed at the fact that he had never in his life felt protected by anyone, and here he was being protected by this tiny woman who he had sworn to himself to protect.

After some more arguing that Reiner had not paid attention to, Hange continued, "I have a plan, so here is what we will do. Ymir and Reiner will both be taken underground for the time-being. We can't be sure of either of their motives, so we will have to be cautious. Bertholdt has Eren, but he can't have gotten far on his own. We have to wait for horses before we can go after him, but we will pursue him. Many of our people were incapacitated by the last explosion, so we will need reinforcements as well. We will get Eren back though. We have to get him back."

Before long, Reiner became vaguely aware of the fact that his body was being lifted and moved. Eyes still closed, he fought off unconsciousness for as long as he could, but he knew it would take him eventually. Before succumbing to it, he felt fingers lightly graze his cheek – delicately tracing where he knew markings had formed deep lines in his skin. "We're taking you underground," A voice whispered. Historia. "Please don't fight."

Done fighting, he let the darkness take him.