"What do you mean, my brother stayed behind?"
Suttungr stood in a rush, his chair sliding backwards. Erwin stood before him, wearing a heavy overcoat to shield him against the heavy rains that hung over Karanese district. A pair of hectic months had passed, as they waited for Ragnar and the rest of his team to return, a wait that had seemed in vain, until they suddenly walked up to the inner gates the previous morning, having been sent along by the Garrison force now occupying Ragako.
Dirty, ragged and thin, they'd all collapsed with exhaustion when finally given a chance to stop. Except for Levi and the oriental girl, who seemed to show no signs of exhaustion. He'd caught the newcomer glaring at him several times, as she stood protectively over the little blonde women.
She's even become important to our plans. He'd thought, remembering several meetings with Erwin, about the true rulers of the Walls.
Shaking his head to banish the errant thoughts, he glared at the Commander.
"I mean exactly what I said." The Commander intoned flatly, his eyes locked onto Suttungr's own, "Ragnar and the Fema- and Annie Leonhardt stayed behind to lead a horde of Titan's away. Captain Levi and his squad all confirm that they are likely dead."
Suttungr's family flinched back, staring at the bearer of bad news. Suttungr himself contented himself with driving a fist into one of his new homes support beams.
"I find that unlikely, Commander." He grunted, as dust that had long hidden in the rafters floated downwards, meeting the steam from his bloody knuckles halfway. "My brother and Annie are stronger than that. Will we form a search party?"
The Commander shook his head.
"Too much time has passed. And the distances involved are too great," He said, "Especially with our operations to cleanse Wall Maria of all feral Titans. I can recount most of what occurred with your brother, if you wish."
Suttungr nodded, sitting heavily again, as he felt the first sense of loss hit him.
"From what we've gathered-"
"Oh… Oh, yes…"
Ragnar grunted, finishing with his task, before rolling off of Annie. Joining her in looking up at the top of their animal skin tent. Their coupling had become frantic these last few times, as the tribe of barbarians, the Huna, prepared to move for the third time this month.
Annie and Ragnar had been lucky... Whatever good they'd done in their lifetimes, their owners goodwill had mattered little to the slaves of Hannibal. Their uprising had saved Annie and Ragnar from certain death, and so sowed the roots of its own demise. Only a dozen had escaped with them, the others either being slayed, or returned to their former positions.
Ragnar, Annie and their new hangers-on had made it away… And run directly into the Huna. He'd been lucky they spoke at least a little of his standard dialect, Annie theorizing that they had been one of the peoples planted by Ragnar's father.
Now… They travelled with them, knowing that Annie's father and an army were looking for them, and would likely catch them before too long.
"We might as well make a break for the Walls," Annie said, "The Huna can't protect us from the Council, now that we've caused so much damage."
Ragnar shook his head, standing and pulling the tunic he'd escaped in on.
"No, they'll run us down before we get halfway… We need the Huna, and I think I can bring Ha-Monte to the realization that he'd do much better nearer the Walls. Then we'll be able to get back to our friends."
Ha-Monte, the chief of the tribe of Huna they'd stumbled upon, was a stubborn little man. He obviously wasn't much older than either Ragnar or Annie, since it seemed no one in the tribe lived past their late 20s. When Ragnar had asked Annie about that, she'd gone into some detail about the history between the Huna and Hannibal. The Huna had migrated from somewhere to the North several generations before, and had raided Hannibal several times, before 'punitive expeditions' had been launched.
Now, seeing all the orphans left by these 'expeditions', and the fact that there were no elders, raised a low simmering anger in his heart.
"Friends, Rag-nar and Ann-ie," A voice, Ragnar having to focus to understand the thick accent, said from outside their tent, "We are leaving soon. Please, be ready when we do. You ride with me."
"Well, it looks like we're out of time," He said, giving Annie a hand up, "I'll get the tent apart if you'll grab everything else."
Annie rolled her eyes, rolling their simple bed pad up, and shoving it into a pack with their other meager belongings. Ragnar had to hand it to the Huna, they were masters of traveling light, especially since their mode of travel was so… peculiar.
Stepping out into the cool spring air, the smell of a large number of people living in close proximity was unmistakable, but there was something missing... The smell of horses, their sweat and shit.
"Rag-nar," Ha-Monte called, waving from his position atop a strange structure made of logs and rope, "La-Digne returned with the scouts. No scummie's nearby."
Ragnar felt Annie tense behind him, 'scummie' being the term the Huna used for anyone from Hannibal. It had been whispered in her direction several times, and without the slaves from Hannibal to tell their own tales, the Huna would likely have turned Ragnar and Annie away.
And that little demonstration of my strength those first few days definitely didn't hurt either.
With their tent strapped to Ragnar's back, he and Annie mounted the scaffolding, wrapping a rope around both of their waists, before taking a seat at one of the benches. Several other pieces of scaffolding stood around them, with people taking their places. The majority were woman and children, with at least five children to every adult.
Ha-Monte gave a signal, raising his right hand high above his head, and a dozen Jotunn burst into life. Hot air smacked against Ragnar's face, but he watched the feral looking Jotunn, mostly females, grip the straps of each set of scaffolding, as he had several times before already, and sling them carefully onto their backs.
It was truly a brilliant idea, the Jotunn being able to cover so much more ground then even people on horseback, and he'd have to set something like it up when he got home.
Home. Now there's a strange thought. His mind flashed with images of Jotunheim, before Annie nudged his shoulder.
"We aren't heading the same way," She said, looking down at her compass, "We're heading further west, not north."
Ragnar stood, careful to grip a nearby rope, and surveyed the landscape. Annie was right, they were heading away from the mountain he'd made note of days before, when they first arrived.
"Ha-Monte," He called, "Where are we going?"
The chief looked down at him from his position near the transport Jotunn's neck.
"To tribal meeting place!" He said, as if Ragnar should know that already. "All chiefs meet, trade, maybe find wives. You be able to talk to them all, then."
Ragnar sat back down, suddenly feeling quite tired. He only wished he could contact Eren, but since his transformation, he hadn't been able to hear his voice, nor that of Thanatos or Erebus.
The world was suddenly much lonelier.
"Well, haven't you all been really busy."
Eren stood atop the Walls around Karanese, looking down at the newly erected ramparts on the interior of the Walls. A dozen cannon on wheeled mounts were positioned carefully around the gate, with barracks built nearby.
"Very busy." Hange said, dangling her feet dangerously over the edge. "With the Garrison officially splitting from the King's government, now we've actually got a surplus of people. Mind if I see your Titan again?"
Rolling his eyes, Eren walked over to where Armin and Mikasa sat atop a pile of ammunition crates.
"I still can't believe they're dead…" Eren said, thinking of his final sight of Annie and Ragnar, charging the onrushing wave of Shifters. "So much for that prophecy of theirs…"
Mikasa shot him a dangerous look, before continuing to reapply medicine to Armin's wounds.
"Well… No one could have survived that, Eren," Armin said, "Not even those two. And if Ragnar could have, he'd have contacted you by now. We just have to assume that they didn't make it."
"I guess so." Eren replied hesitantly. "Where's everyone else, anyways?"
"Jean, Connie and Sasha are with Captain Levi," Mikasa cut Armin's own reply off, "Inspecting the outer gates. Krista and Ymir are still being debriefed by the Commander. Seems something important has come up with Krista."
Eren nodded, feeling completely useless. He'd been ordered to stay out of the way, until something could be found for him to do. Until then, he was to stay on the Walls during the day, and return into Karanese at night. Two days of it and he was already going a little crazy, even with Hange, Mikasa and Armin here as well.
An idea popped into his head, as he looked out towards the outer gates. A cannon fired, then a sound like a butchers cleaver slamming into a piece of meat resounded over the Walls.
"Hange! You said you wanted to see my new Titan, right?"
A wicked smile crossed his lips, as Armin and Mikasa resigned themselves to whatever he was planning.
He motioned for them to follow, and together they jogged to the outer gates, looking down at the row upon row of bulwarks that had been built. They served to funnel feral Titan's towards the true defense line, twenty cannons in tiers around the gate, ready to tear anything apart. Towering over them currently, was the great horned form of Suttungr, his blades serving to finish off a pair of ferals.
"How long do you think until Wall Maria is cleared of Titans?" He asked Hange, who was huffing a little more heavily than the younger trio.
"Well, the Commander's eradication plan is only in the first Phase, but we've killed more Titans in the past month then we have in the past half century." She nodded towards Suttungr. "Thanks to our friends. Hopefully with the serum we got from Shiganshina, we can even get our own Titan Corps going."
Eren nodded, and then without missing a beat, leapt over the edge of the Wall. His Titan formed in a resounding crash, and suddenly he was soaring out over the fields. He took a moment to look back at himself, though it was only a quick glance. The great black wings, leathery and nearly translucent in some places, were the greatest change from his previous form. But his body had morphed as well. His arms were longer, and his legs had gained another joint, so that they looked like the rear legs of a horse. Though he luckily didn't have hooves. He'd seen a drawing of himself that someone had made, most likely Hange, and in all honesty, he didn't like the way his face had become more animal-like, with his already long ears growing longer, as well as his hair.
But… He couldn't complain. Not when he got to fly.
Erwin looked down at the numerous reports in front of him, as the sky began to darken. Eren's little stunt hadn't gone overly well with the locals, but it honestly wasn't bad. The reports from close to Wall Sina were bad, however.
It seemed the King's government had somehow acquired the ability to create Titans… And they were turning them out in droves. Already, squads of a dozen or more had attacked his own scouts, ravaging them. He had no choice now, except to begin his own program to create a team of Titans, centered on their Suttungr and the rest of their guests.
Though, I am tiring of them, especially Prince Sigmund.
The young Prince had been causing quite a bit of damage, having missed one of his shifts at the outer gates, and nearly caused the deaths of the Garrison soldiers there. And even Prince Suttungr was beginning to wear on Erwin's nerves, taking any chance he could to verbally spar with the Commander. If he could be rid of them, he would, but for now they were too vital to his plans.
Another stack of papers cluttered his desks, files on the best hand to hand fighters within the areas his Rebel's controlled. Most were from the military, the Legion and Garrison, but there were a few civilians as well. He had to choose from this pool of candidates the first members of the Titan Legion.
He'd originally wanted Levi to be the first, but the Captain had refused, as had Mikasa Ackerman. Jean was high on his list as well, but…
Should I take it as well? He thought, looking towards the box that sat in the corner of his office. I grow tired of leading from the rear…
But he shook his head, steadying his own thoughts on what needed to be done.