Levi stared down at the human form of the Beast Titan, his breathing somewhat heavy after the short but brutal fight.
"After transforming, if your body is severely damaged, it's too busy healing to let you resume your Titan form. Isn't that right?"
The man didn't respond, and Levi pushed his blade forward so that it sliced right through the man's cheek.
"Hey, I asked you a question, it's only polite to answer."
Levi lowered his hand slightly as his thoughts turned to the serum in his pocket.
I can't kill him yet. There must be someone out there who's still alive. It doesn't matter if-
Levi unintentionally brushed his hand against the man's abdomen, and suddenly he felt a spark of electricity shooting up his arm.
A small crowd of people was gathered before the table, and at the head of the crowd was an old king, his three daughters standing in front of him. On the table before them was the butchered corpse of a young woman, and the three daughters were slowly chewing on pieces of the corpse that had been placed before them.
The King stared down at them and spoke with a commanding voice.
"Eat my daughters. Whatever it takes, you must inherit Ymir's power. Eat all of Ymir until nothing is left, Maria, Rose, and Sina."
Levi jerked his head in shock, looking around in bewilderment.
"What the hell was that?!"
He looked back at the Beast Titan's human form, but the man just stared at him in confusion, as if he had no idea what he was talking about.
Levi furrowed his brow. What I just saw...was that a vision? Or...a memory?
He heard a rumbling sound behind him, and just barely dove out of the way before a Titan's mouth clamped down on him.
With him out of the way, the quadrupedal Titan snatched up the Beast Titan's human form and hastily dashed away.
Levi stared at his fleeing quarry dumbly, his mind still rattled by the strange vision he'd seen.
"Hey, stop." He muttered.
The Beast Titan's eyes snapped open, and he bellowed. "ALL OF YOU! KILL HIM!"
At once all of the Titans that had been standing still sprang into action and began to run toward Levi.
With more pressing matters at hand, Levi brushed the vision aside and focused on the Titans before him.
"No." He replaced his blades. "I can't die here. I promised Erwin I would kill you no matter what."
He fired his hook into the nearest Titan and launched himself into the air, his blades ready to go.
Levi grabbed the helpless Colossal Titan by the collar and looked at everyone on the roof sternly. "Everyone get out of here right now! I don't want Erwin to eat one of you instead of Bertolt!"
After everyone had vacated the roof, Levi set Bertolt down, and got the syringe ready. He regretted that he had let the Beast Titan get away, but at least he would be able to save Erwin.
As he approached Erwin, the commander lifted his hand up and spoke softly, Levi just barely able to make out the words.
"Teacher...how were the three walls built?"
Levi found himself letting out a small smile. He must be reliving some memory from his childhood. Asking a teacher about the three walls…
Levi froze. The three walls.
In his hurry to chase after the Beast Titan and the ensuing argument about who to use the serum on he had completely forgotten about that strange vision he'd seen, but now it came flooding back.
Maria, Rose, and Sina.
Eat all of Ymir until nothing is left.
Whatever it takes, you must inherit Ymir's power.
Levi looked down at Erwin, then glanced back at Armin, an outlandish idea occurring to him.
Impossible. Insane. But if it worked…
His grip on the syringe tightened.
Bertolt woke up in the middle of a destroyed house, his entire body wracked with pain, as if he'd had all four of his limbs chopped off and then fallen through a collapsed roof, which, funnily enough, was exactly what had happened to him.
He didn't have any time to get his bearings though before he noticed that two Titans were coming toward him, a five meter with a hollow face on his left, and a ten meter with a head noticeably too small for its body on his right.
Unable to move, all Bertolt could do was scream.
"NO! STOP IT! SOMEONE HELP ME! ANNIE! REINER!"
As the two Titans tore into Bertolt, the surviving Scouts watched from a nearby roof.
Floch looked at Levi in shock. "Captain, why the hell did you turn both of them into Titans? Is it so they'll fight over Bertolt? Is this some kind of sick game to you or something?!"
Levi shook his head. "Call it a crazy hunch. We still don't really understand how the Titan powers work. But I thought that if both Armin and Erwin ate part of Bertolt it might be possible to save both of them. If I'm wrong, so be it. But if I'm right…"
Erwin's Titan collapsed, and steam started to pour out of the nape. Armin's Titan seemed to sense that a human was about to emerge from the nape, and began to crawl toward it.
Levi stood up and got ready to cut Armin's Titan down. If his plan had failed, he wanted to make sure he at least saved Erwin, plus he didn't think that Armin would react well if he found out that he had eaten Erwin.
But just as he was about to swoop down and kill Armin's Titan, it collapsed to the ground, and steam began to pour out of its nape as well.
Hange gaped in amazement. "No way. Did it actually work?"
The remaining Scouts descended down and approached the two newly resurrected soldiers. Eren, Mikasa, Jean, and Connie gathered around Armin, while Levi, Hange, and Floch gathered around Erwin, tears of relief flowing down their faces.
Armin slowly sat up, his head feeling heavy, and froze when he realized something massive was looming over him.
He looked up and saw the massive form of the Colossal Titan's head a short distance away. It stared at him for a moment, its eyes sad, before suddenly all of the flesh and muscle melted away, leaving only a giant skull. A crack formed above the skull's left eye socket and traveled up to the top of the head before an adjacent crack formed below the skull's left eye socket, continuing down and to the side until it reached the side of the skull. With nothing left to support it, the fragment of the skull detached and fell down toward Armin.
As the fragment descended toward him, threatening to crush him, Armin hastily shielded himself with his hands, knowing it was futile, bracing himself for the end.
But the end never came. He hesitantly opened his eyes, and suddenly found himself on top of the wall, the grim spectacle of the Colossal Titan's fractured skull nowhere in sight.
He looked around in confusion. "A dream? Where am I?"
He looked down, and saw someone else laying down next to him.
His eyes widened. "Commander Erwin."
Erwin began to stir, and slowly opened his eyes.
He sat up, looking unsettled. "Huh? I'm...still alive?"
Erwin looked down at his hands, his eyes widening.
"Looks like you're both up."
Armin and Erwin turned around to see Levi standing a short distance away, with Sasha lying down next to him out cold.
Levi pulled out a gun and fired a smoke signal into the sky.
Erwin stood up. "What happened Levi?"
"The battle ended about five or six hours ago. The others have been searching for survivors, but at this point that seems doubtful."
Armin glanced at Sasha before looking over the ruined city of Shiganshina. "How many of us are left?"
Levi grimaced. "Just ten."
Armin looked at him sharply. "Is Eren…"
Levi waved a hand reassuringly. "He's fine."
Levi then summarized the battle for Erwin and Armin, explaining how they had won but how the Beast and Armored Titans had gotten away thanks to the quadruped Titan.
Levi looked down in shame. "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise."
Erwin shook his head. "It's alright. We'll worry about the Beast Titan later."
While Levi had been explaining the battle to them, the others arrived one by one.
Seeing that he was up, Eren and Mikasa ran toward their friend.
"Armin!" Eren cried.
They hugged him, the three childhood friends embracing each other tightly.
"Welcome back." Mikasa said softly, trying to hold back tears of relief.
After the touching reunion was over, Levi went on to explain the argument that had broken out over who would eat Bertolt. Eren and Mikasa looked rather awkward as he detailed their mutiny, but neither apologized for it.
"I was originally going to save you, Erwin, but then it occurred to me that it might be possible to save both of you if both of you ate Bertolt."
Erwin glanced at Armin before returning his gaze to Levi, a small smile on his face. "Since we're both standing here, I think it's safe to assume that it worked."
Armin looked down, a troubled expression on his face. "So, we ate Bertolt…"
Jean frowned. "Bertolt was the Colossal Titan, and now the power has been divided between two people. But what does this mean?"
Hange put a hand to her chin. "If I had to guess, Erwin and Armin are now both Titan shifters, and their collective abilities will be roughly equal to that of the Colossal Titan, with neither being quite as strong as Bertolt was."
She looked over at Erwin and Armin. "It's a shame we've lost the full power of the Colossal, but at the same time having two more shifters will be quite useful, as I doubt the enemy will be expecting that."
She smiled softly. "And of course it's great that we were able to save both of you."
She turned to Levi with a frown. "But how did you come up with this idea Levi? And why were you so sure it would work?"
Levi considered mentioning the strange vision he had seen, but decided against it, unsure of how he would even try to go about explaining it when he didn't understand it himself.
He shrugged. "I don't know. It just came to me."
Erwin smiled. "Well, it's hard to argue with the results. As for Eren and Mikasa's insubordination, I think that can be overlooked given the unbelievably stressful and emotional situation. No permanent harm was done, so there's no sense dwelling on it."
His smile faded, and his expression became serious. "Now that we've secured Shiganshina and wall Maria, our first priority is to reach that basement. Eren, you still have the key?"
Eren pulled it out. "Yes sir, it's right here."
"Very good. Let's go."
Erwin, Hange, Eren, and Mikasa headed for the basement, while the others remained on the wall to keep an eye out just in case the enemy returned, even though that seemed unlikely.
Erwin led the group of four, eager to learn the truth about the world they lived in.
Author's Note: Now I know some people will say that what happened in this story is impossible, but let me explain why I disagree.
We already know it's possible to divide the Titan powers. Originally the power of the Titans was contained entirely within Ymir Fritz's body. Then, after her body was cannibalized by her three daughters, Maria, Rose, and Sina, it was divided three ways. Then, following the king's instructions, after they died Maria, Rose, and Sina had their corpses cannibalized by their three eldest children, dividing the power nine ways, and thus the Nine Titans were born. But why did they stop there? Personally I think it's because they didn't want to dilute the Titan powers too much. I mean some of the Titans, such as the Colossal or Warhammer, are still pretty strong, but when you get to the ones like the Jaws or the Cart, while they're definitely useful, they pale in comparison to what Ymir's power was like. And those with more powerful Titans would have had an advantage over those with less powerful Titans, and they likely wouldn't want to risk giving up this advantage by dividing the powers any further. And after enough time passed the Nine Titans just became an ingrained and iconic part of the Eldian empire's identity, so the idea of dividing them any more never came up. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen, and from what has been established I think dividing the powers beyond the nine is definitely possible.
Personally I think that during the initial three way split Ymir's power was divided into three Titans, the Founding Titan, which represented the human and commanding aspect of the Titans, the Colossal Titan, which represented the sheer scale and raw power of the Titans, and the Beast Titan, which represented the animalistic traits of the Titans.
Then, when the first Founding Titan was split three ways, it was divided into a less powerful Founding Titan that still retained the key power of commanding other Titans, the Warhammer Titan, and the Female Titan. When the first Colossal Titan was split three ways, it was divided into the less massive but still huge Colossal Titan we see in canon, the Armored Titan, and the Attack Titan. And when the first Beast Titan was split three ways, it was divided into the less powerful version of the Beast Titan seen in canon, the Jaw Titan, and the Cart Titan. That's just my theory though.
So in this situation, where the Colossal Titan is divided between Erwin and Armin, the way I'm imagining it Erwin would inherit most of the Colossal Titan's power and he would be the new Colossal Titan, though his would only be 40 to 50 meters tall rather than 60, while Armin would become a new kind of Titan with as yet unknown abilities and characteristics.
I think it's a neat idea, and there's a lot of possibilities here, so someday I may expand on this more. Be sure to leave a review and let me know what you thought.
Edit: Some have asked why I divided the Titans the way I did. Well, when it comes to the Beast Titan I think it's safe to say that the Jaw and Cart Titans are the most overtly animalistic of the Titans, so it makes sense for them to have come from the Beast Titan. As for why I chose the Warhammer and the Female Titans to be the ones that came from the Founding Titan, the reason for the Warhammer is because it along with the Founding Titan are the most human of the Titans. As for the Female, well, it's the only female Titan. It seems likely that Ymir was raised in a patriarchal society that valued men over women, and this combined with her slave mentality is why when she began making Titans in the paths she gave most of them a primarily masculine appearance. The Female Titan is the only acknowledgement Ymir gave to her femininity in the Nine Titans, which is why I had it coming from the Founding Titan, since it's a nod to her original Titan's appearance. So I think the Armored and Attack Titans came from the Colossal mainly by process of elimination. The Attack Titan may also have represented Ymir's subconscious desire to rebel, so I don't think it would have made as much sense for it to come directly from the Founding Titan, its future sight notwithstanding.