Sorry these updates have been taking so long, my semester just started, and work is as stressful as always! Hope you all enjoy! Remember to review or follow if you like it!

"Shit!"

Ragnar looked back as the sound of combat thundered inside the walled city. He could just barely see the top of Eleanor's Jotunn as it struggled with several something's.

Could it be some ferals'? He thought, just as Eric's Jotunn was hurled into the air. No, it can't be. But… I only feel three Jotunn. Shouldn't I feel more?

His lack of concentration cost him, as he nearly ran into a low hanging beam that was jutting out of a destroyed home. He ducked under it, but was caught off guard once again as a massive foot smashed downwards in front of him. It had nearly caught Annie, who was riding in front of him.

A feral looked down at him as he reined his horse to a stop, diving out of the saddle the instant before the Jotunn snatched it up. The rest of his team had continued moving towards Eren's former home, only a few hundred meters away, but their path was now blocked by a dozen feral Jotunn.

"Keep going! I'll take care of them!"

He saw Annie's blue eyes turn back to look at him, before returning to look ahead as she leaned over her horse's neck, racing between the legs of the feral Jotunn. Ragnar immediately began to try to latch onto the ferals minds, to control as he had done with Anya, but felt his touch being blocked. He dove under another backhanded blow from the feral, before rolling into one of the side shops. His hand came up towards his mouth, and for the first time in weeks, the taste of his own blood flooded his mouth.

Annie looked back once again, her eyes widening as she saw Ragnar's Titan slamming a fist into the other Titan. She noted immediately that Ragnar's form had changed again, as he now lacked his extra set of arms, and he had lost a few meters in height. Now instead his entire form was covered in armor, like Reiner. But as she looked more closely at it, it wasn't quite the same instead…

"Annie, watch out!"

She turned in her saddle as she heard Historia's warning, laying herself along the horses flank as a feral hand reached down. It brushed her arm, sending a rush of goosebumps up her arm.

I need to pay more attention, She chastised herself, Ragnar will be fine!

Their horses were charging down the stone lined streets, leaping over debris from five years ago. Jean and Eren were in the lead, Mikasa trailing behind, with the rest of them spread out behind, swerving to avoid the feral Titans.

A massive roar split the air, and a shadow passed overhead. Ragnar landed in front of them, slamming an armored fist into the last enemy blocking their path. She took a moment to look up at him, seeing that the black armor that covered his Jotunn was not smooth, but made up of hundreds of segmented sections able to move freely against one another, complemented by bracers and graves made of crystal. And a ferocious looking helm now topped his head, angular and menacing, with a great blade like horn jutting out of the top. It covered most of his head, with a long armored cowl arching down over his neck, revealing only the front of his face.

"My house is right up ahead," Eren screamed over the noise, drawing Annie's attention, "Looks like he's clearing us a path! Just go straight for the basement!"

Eren was the first off his horse, struggling to pull all of the debris away from the two basement doors as more feral's appeared. They came, some slouching forward, some bursting with the unusual speed of an Abnormal, and then…

Annie's eyes widened as she caught sight of one of the Titan's, which seemed to be…

It seems to be hanging back… And why is it covered in fur…

Historia's voice caught her attention, even as Jean and Eren were finally able to wrench the door to the basement open.

"That Titan," She yelled, gesturing to Sasha and Connie, who were watching it with wide eyes, "It sort of looks like the Ape Titan that attacked us at Utgard. Doesn't it?"

Sasha and Connie nodded, as Eren and Jean lead the way down into the basement. Annie hesitated momentarily, peering towards Ragnar, before following them down into the darkness.

"So, Grandfather, you've come to kill me, have you?"

Tobias froze as he moved along the alley, the bodies of two unfortunate guards behind him, and looked up. A man stood silhouetted in the early morning sunlight, blades drawn. It was clearly Ackilles, with that silly looking mask strapped tightly to his face.

He took too much after his Gods-be-damned father.

"I have come to rid our family of the disgrace you have placed upon it."

Ackilles laughed, leaping down from the roof to land in front of him.

"Disgrace?" He said, "You want to know what is disgraceful? How our people fear power so! How they dislike the notion of someone being stronger than them! Is that not why they sent those useless brats to break down the Walls? Because the people of the Walls were growing too strong? Because of the Coordinates?"

Tobias grimaced as Ackilles sneered at him.

"You grossly misunderstand the situation."

"Then why don't you elucidate me, Old one!"

Their blades slammed together, their bodies straining against each other. Though Tobias was forced steadily back. He was able to slam a booted foot into the younger man's stomach, and get the room he need to fight. Tobias knew that he could never defeat his grandson in a swordfight or even hand to hand.

I think it's time to make this a battle of shifters!

His hand reached upwards, but it never even moved half the needed distance before his head leapt from his shoulders, as an unseen foe slashed from behind him.

Ragnar slipped beneath the thundering torrent of feral Jotunn, thirty or forty of them swarming. The only reason he survived was the armor of his new form, a fact which had shocked him when he'd first transformed. It didn't weight down on him as much as any other kind of armor would, nor did it seem to limit his movements.

I need to break the will of whoever is controlling them, he thought, as he struggled to get to his feet, Or else they'll pry apart the armor and devour me…

Thanatos, I need your help! How can I fight his control?

The darkness welled up inside him, and the shadow creature appeared within his mind.

There is little you can do except overpower the others will.

He nodded, knowing what he'd have to do. He kicked his legs upwards, sending several small Jotunn into the air, and loosening the grips of several of the larger ones. Twisting, he slid out of their grips, as their clumsy hands scrabbled against the smooth contours of his armor. He struck, again and again, feeling their flesh part beneath his claws.

All the while he searched, searched for the one controlling these Jotunn.

There you are…

He leapt, using one of the larger ferals as a jumping board. He landed on a nearby rooftop, crushing the house beneath his feet. The ferals were after him almost immediately, scrambling through the streets, onto the rooftops. Ragnar kicked a few away as they got too close, and leapt again, down into the street, launching himself into a run that smashed the paving stones below him.

His enemy, a beast covered in fur, was barely able to move out of the way in time, as he slashed towards its face. He missed, and was forced to skid to a stop, slamming into and through another building. The beast turned away from him, running towards the Wall.

Coward!

He pursued, but was forced to fight through the beast horde, even as he tried to impose his will upon them. But the other Jotunn was powerful, and even as he poured his strength into it, he made no headway.

Bursting through the horde, he pursued at an all our run, slowly gaining ground on the ungainly beast.

You won't escape me this time!

Igigi did not know what to do.

He felt lost, as the child of his master's sister pursued him. The Harbinger was powerful, and his True Form had changed again… He looked quite a bit like an Annunaki now, the crystal armor mirroring that which Master Ishtar and Master Inanna wore.

I can't stand against him, not like this. I'm weak… Maybe I should have asked Ackilles to assist me…

The Harbinger slammed into him from behind, arms wrapping around him in a crushing embrace.

"Kill him!" He roared, ordering his minions forward.

They responded immediately, as slaves should. Two hard blows, and then his slaves were pulling the Harbinger off of him, ripping and tearing at his armor ineffectually. Igigi didn't stay to watch, only scrambling forward, grabbing one of the protruding buttresses and shimmying up towards the top, to freedom.

And to failure.

"God damn it!"

Eren smashed his fist into the ground, cursing the empty basement around them. There was only a table with some simple tools on it, and a bookshelf that held no books.

Nothing! That bastard left me nothing!

"God… What have we done? All the deaths, all the useless death, just for an empty basement!"

He stood, pacing the dark little room, fists clenched in absolute rage. The others stood in a little clump, glancing about.

"Eren, isn't there anything else that you remember from that last time you saw your father?" Armin asked quietly. "Something that may give a clue?"

Eren tried to look back, to remember, but drew only blanks.

"Damnit, that fucking bastard! I can't remember anything!"

Click.

The noise was quiet, yet all of them heard it.

"Voice match, completed," A disembodied voice, female and very tinny, said out of the blue, "Keywords matched. Identity confirmed. Please proceed."

The bookcase swung outwards, revealing a secret door that led further under the house.

"What the hell?" Eren said.

They proceeded cautiously down the stairs, which winded further and further downwards. The walls of stone gave way to smooth walls of metal, until they finally stepped into another room. It was an antechamber, with a small pedestal in its center. Lights snapped on all around them.

"Please place key into receptacle to proceed."

The pedestal lit up, Eren stepping closer and seeing that there was a small keyhole at the top. He took the precious key from around his neck, and slid it into the keyhole. Turning it, he felt a light resistance, increasing until the key was wrenched out of his hand, spinning back the way it had come, slowly disappearing into the top of the pedestal.

"This is all really weird," He heard Connie say, even as he stared at the spot where the key had disappeared into, "Did… did you dad make all of this, Eren?"

Eren shook his head slowly, watching the pedestal drop down into the floor.

"I... I just can't believe-"

"Eren."

His father's voice cut off his response, seeming to come from all around them.

"Eren, my son," The voice said, as angry tears crept down his face, "I am so glad you have made it home. I must apologize though, for I am not here to greet you. But time is pressing, and I must go. Take these gifts from me, but do not use it yourself Eren." A portion of the wall they were facing dropped away, revealing a small row of vials, the dark liquid within them barely visible, "Head far to the north, when you can. I shall meet you by the sea."

By… by the sea?

"This… this is so… this is such a fucking let down!"

Annie was the first over to the wall, picking up a tiny hand written note. Eren reach out and took it from her, probably a little more roughly then he should have.

"What… what does it say?" Historia asked, as Mikasa stood moodily by the door.

"It says," Eren looked down at the paper with wide eyes, "'He who takes the blood of a Titan, shall wield its power'."

They looked at the little row of vials, how the value of this mission had already changed.

Ragnar screamed in frustration, sending another feral flying with a backhanded blow.

There were only a handful of the original horde left, and they seemed to have grown wary of him, circling just out of his reach like a pack of wolves, waiting for him to grow tired.

And he was growing tired. He felt himself growing sluggish, the armor dragging him down, and with the hairy Jotunn atop the Wall, he was at a disadvantage. A piece of Wall landed heavily beside him, the force of its impact sending a little shockwave through the ground, and emphasizing his disadvantage.

Another followed it, slamming into his shoulder, sending him to his knees. More and more fell from above, and he began to roll and dive, doing his best to avoid the ferals and the stones. He need something to level the playing field…

The Wall itself! The idea popped into his head, and he began to probe, to feel the area around him with a heightened sense… The hairy Jotunn tore another chunk from the Wall, finally revealing what he needed…

"Awaken!" He screamed, the lips of his Jotunn stumbling over the words.

The ground shook, as the Wall began to shake and convulse, huge chunks of debris falling, revealing the Colossal Jotunn that had formed one of its pillars. The other Jotunn plummeted to the ground, catching itself upon a piece of the Wall, before swinging down to the ground. Within reach of Ragnar.

Now I will kill this foul creature!

He held his arm straight out to the side, feeling that it was the right thing to do. Using the last of his strength, he manifested the first thing that came to mind. Glittering under the now risen sun, the seventeen meter length of crystal flashed into existence. He looked at it, a weapon that he had only trained with sparingly.

A war-scythe? Why this?

Having Luigi as a teacher had caused him to be exposed to nearly every type of weapon one could imagine. He'd trained with hand scythes, spears, war hammers, every kind of sword… but the war-scythe… Luigi had been almost reluctant to teach him that.

But… As I hold it, it feels right!

He leveled the blade at the hairy Jotunn, and lunged.

Igigi couldn't take it anymore, this man, this Harbinger, was clearly possessed by the ghost of Inanna.

Inanna of the Scythe.

He dodged to the side of the Harbinger's lunge, and ran for his life. All of his original horde pursued him, no longer under his control, their ravening jaws and hand reaching for him. He thundered by the basement, which he had been supposed to keep these meddling children away from, seeing the little group of young men and women standing by the exit.

Another group was coming down the road towards him, led by two of those damned northerner Titans. He skid to a stop, turning in place as he saw the enemies arrayed against him. The men and women of that infernal Scouting Legion, the northerner's, the feral Titans, and the terrifying ghost that was even now haunting him.

I have no place to go… I'm sorry, Master!

Heat and light enveloped him.

Ragnar sat with his back against a building, the remains of his Jotunn decaying not too far away. His body felt like a sack of potatoes, as he lay limp, his chest heaving. He was having to use half of his concentration to keep the ferals and the Colossal well behaved, something he hoped he could pawn off on Eren as soon as he saw him.

He looked towards where the beast Jotunn had been. Ragnar supposed that it had thought it had no place to go, and panicked. It had turned itself into a statute, that stood even now as it had in life.

"Ragnar, you okay?"

Eren jogged over towards him, followed closely by Annie.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He said in response as they each offered a hand to help him up, "I feel quite the worse for wear though… And controlling all of these ferals is a little exhausting in and of itself. Mind taking over?"

The other man nodded, walking towards the ferals, leaving Annie and he alone.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She asked, looking up into his eyes, "That new Titan of yours looks a little… tiresome. Especially with how reckless you were!"

She pushed a finger into his ribs, eliciting a moan from Ragnar, who doubled over in pain. The pained moan turned into a half-hearted laugh, which hurt his chest even more.

"I know, I know," He said as the laughter stopped, "I'll try my best, my love…

The exhaustion caught hold of him, tugging him towards sleep, even as Eren slipped his own control over the ferals. Annie grunted under his weight as he slid forward, but was able to slide him around so that he was lying on his back.

"Well, that's it, we've searched everywhere. They aren't here."

Historia's downcast face had been enough for Eren to figure that out as she'd rode towards them. The human members of the Legion had spread out inside Shinganshina, looking for Reiner, Bertoldt and Ymir, while the rest made camp at the center of the town.

And we can actually make camp without worrying about Titans bothering us, thanks to Armin.

As he'd originally suggested, Eren would be the one to use his shifted form to seal the Walls. But, when he'd seen Eren ordering the Colossal Titan to seal itself back in the Wall, he'd suggested to use the others to block the gates. It had almost been easy.

Now they could sit in peace for at least a few moments, and study the 'gift' that his father had given them. Jean even now looked covetously at the little wooden box that Captain Levi kept under his watch.

"Jean, find someplace else to look," Levi said as he rode up from the opposite direction of Historia, "No one is going to have access to those vials until we return to the Commander. And that's final."

Jean turned away, and Eren snickered. He felt strange not having Mikasa near him, but, the newfound freedom was nice. She'd volunteered to patrol the Wall, and he wouldn't have to worry about her for at least a few hours.

Armin spoke up from where he was sitting, not too far from Ragnar and Annie.

"Did you find anything, Captain?"

"Nothing," Levi said as he dismounted his horse, "But did you all really have hope you could find them after so long? They'd have to move on, since as you can tell, there isn't really any food to be had in here."

Bastard.

But they all nodded, seeing how foolish they had been to think they'd still be here.

"But, where could they have gone?" Connie asked, "They couldn't really go back to the inhabited portion of the Walls, they'd be hunted down as soon as they showed their faces. So where?"

Eren spoke up at that point.

"They kept talking of going home," He said, looking at Annie, "So I guess they've gone home, haven't they?"

Annie met his gaze, her eyes like steel, knowing what he was going to ask, but Ragnar cut him off. The older man had taken most of the day to recover, and even now looked a little gaunt in the firelight.

"Our mission is not complete," He said, hand laying atop Annie's, "We have sealed the Walls of this city, and stopped the inflow of feral Jotunn into your lands. But we have not recovered these people you are looking for. We must continue on, to their homeland, and capture them."

Eren watched Historia bristle, as Ragnar lumped Ymir in with Reiner and Bertoldt, but she held her silence.

"We have fulfilled our mission objectives, and my orders were to return to Ragako," The Captain said, turning his cold, grey eyes upon Ragnar, "But, I do not feel that it would be good to return without our secondary objectives. Hange!"

Hange came tumbling out of a nearby house, her glasses askew.

"Yes?"

"You will return to Ragako and report on what we are doing to the Commander," Levi's eyes hadn't left Ragnar, "Could one of your people escort her home?"

Ragnar nodded and looked at Eric, who snored blissfully, his head against a piece of debris. Ragnar picked up the first thing he had and threw it at him, hitting him in the chest.

"W- What, what the fuck?" He said as he sat up.

"Eric, would you be so kind as to return Hange to Ragako?"

The big man turned, looking at the indicated woman with a lecherous eye, before turning back to Ragnar.

"Yes, Prince Ragnar," He said formally, no sign in his voice that he had seconds ago been asleep, "Shall I do so immediately, while it is still dark?"

Ragnar nodded.

"Now," Levi went on, "How shall we go about this 'rescue' mission? I believe that you know how to get to your homeland, don't you?"

He turned his gaze to Annie, her lip twitched in irritation

"Of course I do," She said angrily, "It'll be about a week and a half hard travel, to the southwest. That's to get to the furthest out of the villages. To get to the capital it'll take two weeks. And that's where we'd need to go."

Eren sat back, listening to everyone as they planned.

I hope I can see Reiner again… So I can finish what we started all those months ago.

As a note, the 'armor' of Ragnar's new form is a combination of lorica segmentata (Classical Roman armor) and The Destroyer (The mechanical monster from Thor). The war-scythe is also not a standard 'reaper' scythe. It's more of a spear than anything, but the blade is a scythe.

Eren's form will be getting a redux within the next few chapters. Other's likely will too.