A/N: I won't be able to post this chapter tomorrow, so please enjoy this chapter a day early. From here on out, we will be entering the events of the fourth season of the Anime.
Please leave a comment to let me know what you think of the story so far!
Chapter 38
Willow stands in the airship with a prominent scowl on her face as nothing is going according to their ritual. She is still latched onto the handgrip above her head, but there is a glaring difference between their previous battles and this one, and that is the presence of Zeke aboard the aircraft.
She stands, turned away from the window and towards Zeke as she watches him with wary eyes. She and Reiner have a perfect dynamic of winning these battles, so to add him, along with the Cart and Jaws below unnerves her. There are far too many fingers in the pot, and it's bound to get messy down there.
"Our forces have disabled the armored train," a man in the back of the airship informs them. "We can now commence the airborn assault," he says. Willow's eyes land on Zeke's; this is not part of their ritual. They've never needed the help of mindless Titans to take out the enemy forces, and the idea of turning those innocent people into the disgusting dead-eyed monsters she used to strike down with her blades makes her want to vomit.
"Are we sure this is not another armored train lurking?" Zeke questions as he looks out the window at the carnage below him.
"Intel had only one armored train in their possession," he begins as he turns to Reiner. "This has more armor than the ones you're used to facing. It would have caused you a lot of headaches." Reiner simply nods once at the man while Willow glances out the window, unable to see much from her angle with all the smoke rising from the battle. "It's time," the man tells them in a low and foreboding tone that makes her heart leap in her chest.
She clutches to the handle above her head at the sinking realization that nothing is operating within her field of comfort. Reiner does not lift himself to pat her shoulder. He does not hand her the knife to cut herself; she's proven herself capable of wielding it herself now. The doors open to the aircraft and he is not the first to jump out. Instead, hordes of tied up husks are hurled out of the airship with a wrinkle of disgust clear on Willow's nose.
Willow watches as the bodies drop from the plane, as Zeke and Reiner join her at the edge of the opening. She glances over at Reiner whose eyes are fixated on his blade and mentally preparing himself for the battle. Her heart races wildly in her chest at the inconsistencies in the beginning of this battle to all the others they have won together. She can't help but shake the feeling that something awful is going to transpire down there between the two of them. Her hands shake as she moves her grip to his shoulder, hoping this will regain some sort of normality to their routine.
Reiner side-eyes her with a hard expression on his face, conveying that this is not the time, and she figures it is because of Zeke that he does not allow her to touch him. She drops her hand and after the deafening roar from Zeke that triggers the Titans to shift, they begin descending the aircraft themselves.
Willow waits—as she always has—for Reiner to cut himself before she does herself. He is engulfed in yellow lightning and instinctively, she cuts herself, assuming the Female form with no issues. So far, they are operating without problems, and she can only hope they continue in this way.
The Armored crashes down onto the wall of Fort Slava, breaking down the exterior wall and beginning his rampage of the city. He begins tackling his hardened body against enemy forces and turrets stationed atop the walls of the fortress.
He is shot by a few rounds of the Anti-Titan piercing rounds that tear through his hardened skin as if it were paper. The Armored continues to push forward, knowing these rounds will be an issue for Willow and her Female Titan since her skin is not as hardened as his, so he will need to focus their attentions on him, and not allow them an opening to shoot at her.
The Female drops down, crushing some of the Middle Eastern forces in her wake. She quickly cries out a wail, commanding the Pure Titans to storm the city where soldiers run at their feet with weapons aimed up at the large Titans. The Pure Titans do as she commands and attack the forces, stomping wildly and crushing the crying men below them.
The Female Titan notices the turrets in the trenches aimed at the Armored and moves to aid him as the Jaws does the same. The Female Titan charges at the trenches while the Jaws lunges for their foes. Without noticing one another, the two Titans collide into each other as they attempt to protect the Armored, causing them to fall back and the soldiers to continue their assault on the hardened titan.
Willow glances over at the Jaws, seeing the look of dissatisfaction in his eyes as he jumps away from her and collapses the overhang of the trenches and burying the soldiers underneath the rubble. The Female Titan falls back while Willow grits her teeth. This is nothing like their battles before; there are far too many people on the battlefield and it's getting messy.
With a deafening boom, a shot cries out in the space behind them. The Female Titan turns to look at the Armored to see his arm has been blown off. The two Titans look around frantically for what could have caused this much damage to the Armored Titan, when they see another armored train approaching them.
The Female Titan quickly responds, releasing a Scream to command Pure Titans to storm the train and act as a distraction, but the Pure Titans don't move this time. She's confused and tries to release another Scream, when she hears the command coming from the sky. She looks up, seeing Zeke releasing his own roar, to command the Pure Titans to stand down and focus their attacks on the city.
Fucking Asshole, Willow thinks to herself. I need these mindless fuckers to take out these trains not the fucking villagers.
The Female Titan presses another Scream from her throat that shakes the ground around them, but again, Zeke overrides her command from above. The blonde Titan looks up at him, fists clenched as he watches her from above. How can his Scream override hers when The Female Titan is the only Titan to possess the power according to Zeke himself?
Another round is shot, and The Female Titan is hit in the gut, knocking her off of her feet and sending her flying to the ground.
Reiner begins panicking internally as he commands the Armored to run after the train. If that train goes anywhere near the Jaws, Cart, or Female Titans they will all be obliterated. He begins charging at the train as it continues to shoot rounds at him that eat away at his armor with little effort. He growls to himself as pieces of his arms continue to be blown off. He will not be able to fight much after this, but if he can take this thing out and stop it from harming the others, that's enough for him.
The Armored launches himself into the train, tackling it off of its tracks and toppling it on its side. He turns around, preparing himself to pick it up and crush it in his grip when he turns to see a turret aimed at his face and prepared to shoot. "Shit," Reiner calls out as he blocks his face with his forearm in a feeble attempt at blocking their rounds. He knows he is done for.
However, before they can shoot, the turret and the men operating it are crushed to death under the clawed hands of the Jaw Titan. "Galliard," Reiner smiles, looking onto the Jaws with relief flowing through his body.
The Female Titan lifts herself to her feet as the Jaws moves towards the armored train to take it out. She watches as he pushes Reiner's Titan back, searching for the glory of taking out the train on his own, and causing the Armored Titan to step back from his assault on the train.
Fucking idiot, Willow thinks to herself as she watches the Jaws push the Armored back in an attempt to smash the train. She turns away from the fight to see another Anti-Titan gun atop the wall that the three of them missed.
Willow's heart races at the sight of the gun as the soldiers point the barrel at the Jaws that attempts to take out the train. She grinds her teeth, knowing that shot will render him incapacitated, if not kill him outright, and she needs to make a move quickly.
The Female Titan turns from the Armored and Jaws and begins charging at the turret while the soldiers scramble and panic at her quick pace. They crank the gun to point the barrel at her, and her heart begins racing wildly. She will need to act quickly.
The Armored and Jaws glance over, noticing that neither have been shot at, but Reiner's heart falls into the pits of his stomach when he looks back to see the Female Titan standing behind them with her entire head blown off. "No, Willow!" Reiner panics as he turns back to see she's been shot at the neck, and her nape's been obliterated. "No!" he cries out as the Armored presses a destitute roar.
The Female Titan's body crashes to the ground, and Reiner doesn't have time to check if she miraculously survived the attack as the train and turret continue to shoot at the Armored and Jaws with the Anti-Titan piercing rounds. Reiner does not allow the logical reality that she was killed in the attack to penetrate his skull, and focuses on the optimistic delusion that she foresaw the assault, and managed to escape the attack.
They are being shot at from all angles as the Jaws focuses on taking out the turrets and the Armored focuses on the train. The train shoots rounds behind the Armored, missing each time, and he wonders why their aim is suddenly terrible. He stomps down on the train, crushing the section of the locomotive that continues to shoot at something, but it is not him.
Once he crushes the turret, he turns around to see what the train was focusing its attacks on when his heart flutters at the sight. He looks behind him to see Willow running in the streets of carnage around her with both her arms blown off and a gaping hole in her abdomen. She must have foreseen the attack after all, and escaped at the last moment.
Reiner glances down at the nubs remaining of her arms and knows that she will not able to turn with her injuries being so severe, but there is nowhere for him to put her to be safe from enemy attacks; they are in the middle of a warzone.
He watches as she approaches the turret with the Anti-Titan piercing rounds. His eyes enlarge when he watches her launch herself into the trenches where the soldiers stand. They begin shooting at her with their rifles and Reiner watches helplessly, wondering if he can grab for her or not.
His head turns when he notices the Jaws lunging towards the trench while the men are distracted from the turret and Reiner's heart sinks in the pits of his chest. If the Jaws attacks, he will crush Willow and she will die.
"No! Galliard!" he cries out, commanding the Armored to run after the Jaws and stop him before he crushes his lover.
He turns to him, but before he can step towards them and halt his attack, the trenches are engulfed by yellow lightning. The Armored takes a step back, frozen at the sight as Willow assumes the Female's form with the injuries that she's sustained. The Jaws also staggers back, halting his charge when he notices her transformation.
The trenches are lit up with the yellow lightning of her transformation and deafening cries of soldiers' screams are heard as they are vaporized due to their proximity to her transformation.
Once the Female has taken her form, she cries out a vicious yell as she lifts herself from the trenches and onto the wall to begin running atop the structure, stomping down on each soldier and turret that stand in her way. The Armored and Jaws watch, frozen at her speed as she races around the wall, killing everyone in her wake. Once she's finished a lap around the fort, she jumps from the walls and joins the Armored.
The Armored nods at her, not conveying the true gratitude that Reiner feels for her being here. Without her, they would be dead.
The Armored looks away from her and up into the sky as Zeke descends onto them with the knowledge that they have cleared the field. He begins waving him down to a safe place to land as the blonde assumes the Beast Titan.
The Beast takes hold of left-over artillery cannons into his hand, and walks towards an opening in the fort's walls that the Armored created when he crashed down from the sky. He positions himself before the naval forces that wait for them. He takes the cannons into his hands, preparing himself for a pitch and sends the cannons flying towards the bay.
Both the Female and the Armored hear the crashing of cannon fire before the shells leave the Beast's hands, and their hearts race. The Armored springs into action, knowing the Beast's body is nowhere near built to sustain that type of an assault, and without the proper training that Willow forced on her own body, Zeke will not be able to recover from this type of attack.
The Beast lifts his hands up as if that will defend him from the assault, but the Armored and Female are faster to react, as they have fought against these tactics for four years. Without the need of communicating with one another, the Armored rushes before the Beast, acting as a shield and absorbing each and every strike.
He begins to falter as the attacks are too great on his hardened body, and he staggers back, but the Female is there, lifting him up and supporting him upright with her shoulder. She acts as the hand that holds the shield, and keeps the Armored upright as he continues to take in the shots that protects them from their attacks.
Once there is a break in their rounds, the Female lowers the Armored, allowing the Beast to send another wave of cannons at the naval fleet. She lifts the Armored back up, preparing for another attack, but it does not come as the naval fleet is eviscerated by their blows.
The Female Titan lowers the Armored and he falls unconscious before her feet. He took on far too much damage and is unable to assume another form of his Titan like Willow can. On top of her years of mutilating her body in order to train herself for this type of battle, her Titan is easier to move and call upon since she does not hold the heavy armor that his does, so it is not as draining for her to pull in and out of her Titan form as it is for Reiner.
The Female Titan kneels down, hardening her fingers as she claws at the Armored's nape, pulling Reiner's unconscious body out of his Titan form, while being mindful of his limbs. She places him in the palm of her hand and notices that she clawed off his right arm and leg, so he will be out healing for a while.
She takes him in her grip and keeps him safe in her hands as they begin clearing the fort. She hears the sounds of soldiers cheering at her feet and the realization that this may be her final battle against the Middle Eastern forces brings a smile to her lips as a single tear falls down her cheek.
Two days have passed since the battle of Fort Slava and the Marleyan's defeat of the Middle Eastern forces. Reiner has been unconscious since the battle, focusing on healing his wounds while Willow keeps to herself, not too comfortable around the other Titan shifters, and definitely not welcomed amongst the Marleyan officers.
She enters the infirmary where Reiner lays on his bed sleeping, only she stops in her tracks when she notices someone sitting at the table next to him. She moves to turn around when the sandy blonde glances back at her with heavy tired eyes.
"You must be the Female," he rasps with an amused tone that also conveys how tired he is. He turns away from her and back to the letter that he is reading. "He's still out. Don't imagine him waking up anytime soon," he informs her.
Her eyes slide to Reiner as the growing line between his brows tightens while he stirs in his sleep, and beads of sweat accumulate on his forehead. "How long has he been like this?" she asks him, noticing the distress his expressions paint.
"It comes in waves," he tells her uninterestedly. She sighs and he turns towards her once more, arm lazily slinged on the backrest of his chair. "You changed twice out there," he begins, "More impressively after your arms were blown off and you were being shot at," he finishes and she waits for him to say more but he doesn't.
"I trained my body for years to do so. Though I didn't think I'd be able to with both my arms gone and a hole in my stomach," she admits self-consciously.
"You two really know how to fight with each other," he says glancing at Reiner, and she notices that he does not compliment their fighting style, but rather just observes it.
"Yeah," she responds glancing down at Reiner.
"It's so good to see you again," she hears a female voice calling out from behind her. Willow turns around and notices a black-haired woman limping in with a crutch stabilizing her bum leg. "You were amazing out there."
Willow's brows press together, wondering how someone like her would be useful in battle, considering her stiff leg. Willow's blue eyes fall down the frame of her body, lingering on her crutch when the girl notices the confusion lacing her gaze. "You don't recognize me," she tiredly giggles with a calming coo in her voice. "I guess I don't blame you. My Titan doesn't look so much like me the way the Female does to you."
Willow blinks at her, unsure what she means when the man at the desk speaks up, "She's the Cart Titan if you didn't piece it together," he says in a bored tone, turning back to his letter.
She turns to the black-haired girl with a slight lift in her eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't… I just expected…" Willow staggers on her words and decides to give up on the direction of her words and instead bows her head to her. "I guess I have to thank you for our history," she says referring to getting her out of her imprisonment in the crystal.
She smiles at the girl and launches herself at the bed next to them with a whimsical sigh, "Wow, that was so long ago," she exhales. "I guess I haven't seen you or Reiner in four years," she smiles. "It was amazing to see you fight like that." The man at the desk rolls his eyes with a scoff and Pieck giggles, "That's Pock, he's impossible sometimes."
"That's not my name," he returns glancing up at Willow, "It's Porco Galliard." Willow nods at him, beginning to tell him her name when he interrupts her with a harsh, "I know."
She turns her gaze from his harsh one, back to Reiner, who's struggling in his sleep, grunting and groaning as something haunts him. Pieck notices the worry in Willow's eyes and says, "Don't worry, the doctor's say that he will be fine, he just needs some rest."
Willow nods, eyes still fixated on Reiner. "Can you tell him I was here when he wakes?" she asks to neither of them in particular.
Porco scoffs and rolls his eyes, "Yeah sure, I'll be your messenger."
Willow doesn't fight with him, feeling too exhausted to even try. She knows his type, and knows that anything she says to him will just be wasted breath. She nods once and turns around, leaving the three in the room that she knows she's not welcome in.
"Tsk," Porco scoffs as he turns his head from the closed door to Reiner's tortured face. "What the hell does she even see in him?" he asks, clearly reading a romantic relationship between the two of them, and not understanding why a woman like that would waste her time on a shell of a man like Reiner.
Pieck inhales deeply at his harsh tone, "Pock, you have to understand, they have history," she tells him. "Four years fighting next to one another; protecting one another, not to mention their time on the island together."
"Still," he says side-eyeing Reiner as the blonde struggles to sleep. "He doesn't deserve happiness."
Willow walks the open grounds that she and the other soldiers have been given permission to roam freely outside of the precious earth the Marleyans walk atop. She digs her hands into the pockets of her overcoat as she aimlessly walks the area.
"Willow!" she hears her name called out and she turns around to see one of the soldiers she's fought alongside for four years. She smiles, feeling warm at the realization that he survived the last battle.
"Elias," she smiles at the young blonde who runs to walk beside her. "It's so good to see you. Where are Felix and Henri?" she asks him as her chest constricts, mentally preparing herself for him to tell her the worst.
"Felix took some damage to the head and got some shrapnel to his left eye. The doctors were unable to operate on it, so they took it out," he frowns and so does she. He was the oldest of the group, but no older than twenty, and now he will live with only one eye, but she can't help but feel relieved that he will at least live. "And Henri is fine," he tells her and her heart beats again. "He's recovering from a blast to the arm. Doctors say there is no need for amputation, but he's lost the ability to use it," he frowns and she does the same.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there," she grimaces and he shakes his head wildly at her.
"No don't say that!" he tells her happily, "You were amazing out there! The way you turned after being blasted out of your Titan! You saved the Armored and the Jaws! We wouldn't have won this without you!"
She smiles at him, feeling warm by his words. "Well, I'm glad you survived," she says grabbing him into a playful headlock. "Who else is going to annoy me day in and day out?" she asks spiritedly.
He pulls himself out of the headlock with a laugh, "Can you believe it's finally over? We finally brought an end to this war."
It's never going to end.
She swallows hard, pushing down those words into the deepest depths of her head. "Yeah," she smiles at the blonde teen. "We can finally rest for a while," she tells him with a false hope in her voice that doesn't seem to sound very convincing.
"What are you going to do now?" he asks her. "You've never been outside of the Port of Marley. Where do you go from here?"
Willow sighs, looking up at the clear blue sky before them, "I'm not sure," she tells him honestly. "Theo told me I will be given quarters within the Internment Zone. I guess I will start there." She turns to him, looking into his bright green eyes, "What about you?" she asks him.
"I'm going to see my father," he tells her. "He became sick just before I deployed for the war. I haven't seen him in four years, so I am excited to see him again. He's my only family here since my mother died when I was young."
She smiles sadly at him, happy that he will be able to return to his father unscathed, unlike the rest of his friends, but she quickly reminds herself that they at least survived.
"I'm sure he will be happy to see you," she smiles at him.
"You should come visit!" he suggests with widening brown eyes. "I'd love for you to meet him! And if you don't mind, maybe you could cook for us? My mother was an amazing cook from what I remember, and I'm sure my father hasn't had a decent meal in years, so he would be floored by your cooking!" he excitedly suggests before his shoulders drop, "Well… only if you'd like, that is," he says suddenly self-conscious and aware of how out of line it might appear of him asking her to cook for him and his father.
"I would love nothing more," Willow says with a smile that reaches her eyes at the thought that things are finally looking up.