-C-
A massive crowd of people was standing right in front of the rear gate of Trost which led deeper into wall Rose. Given the situation, one would expect them to be rushing through it as fast as they possibly can, and they would have been if not for the fact that the gate was blocked by a horse wagon that filled up the whole gate. The horses pulling the wagon had suddenly stopped halfway through and refused to budge no matter how hard the riders tried to get them to move, blocking the exit for everyone as a result. The owner of the wagon, Dimo Reeves, the head of the Trost merchant guild, was shouting at the crowd, ordering them to help push the cart. Carla Jaeger and Daisuke Serizawa watched all this from the sidelines, absolutely disgusted.
"This is insane," Carla growled. "People's lives are at stake here. What's so important about some damn wagon?"
"There's nothing we can do now except wait. We won't be able to convince selfish people like him," Serizawa said. "Believe me, Carla. I would know."
"I take it you've had experience with this particular breed of bastard before?"
"More than I'd care to admit."
They both then heard Dimo shout out, "HURRY UP AND PUSH THIS DAMN THING! IT'S NOT LIKE YOUR LIVES ARE MORE VALUABLE THAN WHAT'S IN THIS WAGON, EVEN IF YOU SAVE UP FOR ALL YOUR LIFE! IF YOU WANNA LIVE, THEN HELP US PUSH THIS THROUGH! THERE'S A REWARD IN IT IF YOU HELP!"
Carla couldn't take any more of this and sat up in her wheelchair while screaming, "YOU SELFISH SON OF A BITCH! DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THE TITANS ARE ONLY AFTER PEOPLE!? YOUR STUPID CARGO CAN WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE PEOPLE WHO GIVE IT VALUE CAN LEAVE! NOW GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
"Carla, this is pointless…" Serizawa murmured as he was reminded of many conversations he had in the past.
Dimo looked down at Carla and snapped back, "SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH, LADY! CRIPPLES LIKE YOU ARE NOTHING BUT DEADWEIGHT ANYWAY, SO WHY DON'T YOU DO US ALL A FAVOR AND-"
Suddenly, a loud rumbling noise silenced everyone, forcing them to look toward the streets. They saw an Abnormal Titan running straight towards the crowd with webs dangling off of its arms, carrying debris that swung around like a pair of wrecking balls, smashing through buildings that it passed by.
"PUSH IT THROUGH, DAMN IT! OR THAT THING IS GONNA KILL US ALL!"
The crowd began panicking and pushed against eachother, while Serizawa and Carla were shoved to the ground.
The Titan was being pursued by a group of soldiers who were unable to get close enough to slash its weak spot. Just in the nick of time, Mikasa flew in and cut the titan's naip out with a single swipe, sending it crashing to the ground in front of the terrified crowd. Mikasa landed on top of the Titan's carcass. After noting that her blades were severely dulled by her attack, she looked down at the crowd, wondering why everything was being delayed. She then jumped down when she saw Carla and Serizawa in the crowd, Serizawa helping Carla back into her wheelchair.
"Mom, are you hurt?" Mikasa asked as she reached Carla.
"I'm fine Mikasa, but it's not me you should be worried about," Carla then gestured to the crowd. "Please, you have to help these people."
"Hey, you!" Dimo shouted to Mikasa, who kept her back turned to him. "Quit wasting your time with that legless freak and get back to putting your life on the line for us civilians! You may be a soldier, but now's not the time to act like a selfish little hero!"
Mikasa slowly stood up, and Carla's face changed from a look of relief when seeing Mikasa was okay to complete, abject horror. "Selfish? You're calling me selfish? You, the man who probably has never even seen a titan before today, are calling me selfish?"
Dimo initially scoffed at her, until she actually turned around, and he saw the look on her face. It was easily the most terrifying thing he had seen in his life. The gaze she gave radiated the most intense feeling of hatred that he had ever seen on any human face in his life.
"You, the man who allows others to die for the sake of your own profit, including children, are calling me selfish?"
"D-DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! I'M WARNING YOU, I'LL-"
Mikasa used the jet in her ODM Gear to boost herself right up to Dimo and land right in front of him, jamming her blade into the wagon right next to his head, while holding the other up to his neck.
"You, the walking, talking corpse who doesn't even have the courtesy to rot in the ground, are calling me… selfish?"
"P-p-p-" Dimo seemed to be wavering between "please" and "pull" before finally pushing out, "Pull the damn wagon out of the way."
And so, the cart was pulled out of the way. As Mikasa sheathed both her blades, she saw a woman and her daughter walk up to her and thank her for her help. Mikasa smiled and saluted the two of them. After everyone was evacuated, Mikasa spent a bit of time talking to Carla and Serizawa.
"I'm very proud of you, Mikasa," Carla praised. "I can't imagine what would have happened if you weren't here."
"I should have gotten here sooner," Mikasa replied. "If I had known that bastard was delaying the evacuation effort, I could have stopped him, and you two would be on the other side by now."
"You shouldn't blame yourself for other people's crimes. There's no way you could have even known about all this, to begin with, Mikasa, so don't blame yourself." Carla took Mikasa's hand and smiled at her. "What matters is that the evacuation was successful."
Mikasa smiled, "Yeah… I guess it was. I'm glad you're okay. Now Eren won't have to worry anymore."
"Speaking of which, where are he and Armin? I thought you three would have been together in a time like this."
"We were assigned to different groups. Since I was highly skilled, they moved me back here to help with evacuation while Eren and Armin were in the front guard."
"Front guard?" Serizawa questioned, "But that means they'll be facing the incoming titans, AND K-" Serizawa paused for a moment, remembering these people didn't know the species name for the other threat yet. "The giant spider. Wouldn't it make more sense for you to be there?"
Carla nearly had a heart attack at that prospect. She clutched Mikasa by the uniform and begged her to go find them.
"O-of course mom. I'll make sure I get to Eren as soon as possible."
And with that, Mikasa rocketed off, stopping to regroup with her team before telling them she was going to check in on the front guard, and also change out her blades. Meanwhile, Serizawa grasped Carla's hand gently and tried to calm her down while he pushed her through the gate. As they arrived on the other side, Carla took a deep breath and counted down from ten while Serizawa gently massaged her shoulders, which did well to help her calm down.
"Th-thank you, Daisuke…" Carla said. Serizawa nodded slightly.
"You're welcome," he said. "Don't worry, Carla. Wherever your son is, I'm sure he's just fine."
-E-
Eren was neigh catatonic, the last few moments playing in his head over and over again. He and Armin were celebrating a successful plan, killing two birds with one stone by getting the giant spider and the Titans to fight eachother. Then, an abnormal walked up behind the two of them. He pushed Armin out of the way, told him to run, and now… he was here. Trapped inside the stomach of a titan, swimming in its internal fluids and surrounded by the bodies of people who fell to this one titan. He even recognized a few of them as his comrades from the 104th.
Tears welled up in his eyes as thoughts of his loved ones wormed their way into his mind, and how he had failed them. Mom… Mikasa… he promised the two that he would survive, and return to them. He failed. Armin… he promised him that one day they would leave these damn walls and go to the ocean together. He failed. Father… he promised him that he would take care of his mother while he was gone. He failed. He failed everyone.
'Why? Why does this keep happening?' Eren thought, 'You took my home… you took mom's leg… you took all these people's lives… why? Why are you so hell-bent on taking everything from us?!'
Eren's eyes began to grow heavy as the heat began to overtake him, and he began to sink. Out of desperation, he tried to hold himself up against the wall of the titan's stomach, but that only delayed the inevitable. As Eren's vision slowly turned to darkness, he thought back to happier times when he was a child one last time, and silently prayed that Mikasa, Armin, and his mother would make it out of this nightmare alive. However, before his eyes shut completely, he heard something. Just above him, he heard a voice speaking to him.
"Eren… if you can hear me… I'm sorry…" Mikasa said.
-M-
Several minutes earlier…
Mikasa flew through the streets of Trost in search of Eren's squad, narrowly avoiding encounters with Titans. As she rocketed through the city of Trost, she paused and landed, looking up in silent dread as she stared upon a colossal web created by the giant spider, reaching up from the ground she was standing on and stretching diagonally for miles, leading all the way up to the top of the wall. Within the web, she saw countless titans entangled in it, all struggling to break free, their struggles ultimately in vain, as the webs were simply too sturdy and too flexible for the titans to break, and too adhesive for the titans to escape.
Mikasa eventually snapped out of her trance when she noticed a group of her fellow soldiers all huddled up on some rooftops close to the web. Mikasa was initially confused as to why none of them were trying to escape to HQ, having heard the signal to retreat. As Mikasa looked back to HQ, her question answered itself when she saw titans swarming the building, trapping the suppliers inside the building in the process. Based on that, she deduced that they wouldn't be getting new fuel or blades any time soon.
Mikasa grappled her way over to them, and upon landing, heard Sasha trying to rally everyone together with words of encouragement. Her attempts were futile, but Mikasa was happy…ish to see Sasha had overcome the terror she showed back at the barracks.
Upon scanning the crowd, Mikasa noticed Eren's squad and became hopeful that Eren did survive. Her hope grew when she approached them and saw Armin sitting there. Although, she noticed that Armin looked a bit worse for wear, curled up in the fetal position and holding his head in his hands.
"Excuse me," Mikasa said to Eren's squad members. "I know this may sound selfish given the situation, but do any of you know where Eren is?"
Upon hearing Mikasa, Armin's eyes widened in terror as he realized that she would have to find out sooner or later. After the rest of the squad fell silent, she turned to Armin, who was terrified and questioning what he could even say to her, feeling utterly useless as she knelt by his side.
"Armin? Do you know where Eren is?!" Mikasa asked with desperation in her voice. Armin said nothing.
"Armin?!" Mikasa asked again as she shook her friend. He looked up at Mikasa, and she recoiled upon seeing her friend's red, puffy eyelids, clearly strained from sobbing for so long.
"I… he…" Armin clutched his hair as tears rolled down his cheeks."I-I'm so sorry, Mikasa… but he's…" Armin collapsed against her, bawling her eyes out once more while clutching her jacket. "I'M SORRY!" he screamed. "IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME! EREN SAVED MY LIFE, AND IT MEANT NOTHING!"
Mikasa held onto Armin, biting back her own tears as the weight of this news came crashing down upon her.
Eren was dead.
Mikasa slowly stood up, letting go of Armin, then turned to the other members of the squad with a cold, empty expression.
"How did he die?"
Mina then pointed at a titan that was lying on the ground, practically glued there by a glob of webbing. Its midsection, left arm, left leg, and part of its face was exposed, the rest engulfed in the same webbing that formed the gigantic web which surrounded Trost. Mikasa stared at the titans for a few moments and then began walking towards the edge of the roof she was on. That walk quickly turned into a sprint as she leaped off of the roof and boosted through the air with her ODM Gear while letting out a blood-curdling scream. Soon enough, she had reached the titan, who tried to reach out to her and devour her, only for its entire hand to be shredded to ribbons and its arm to be severed at the shoulder. The titan groaned and flailed in place while Mikasa stabbed one of her blades into the Titan's stomach and began ripping away at it, splattering its blood all over her, which quickly evaporated.
The other cadets watched as Mikasa stabbed into the body of the titan again and again while screaming Eren's name. Eventually, however, Reiner and Bertholdt noticed titans closing in on the area and warned the others about it, which prompted Jean to go try and rescue Mikasa, with Sasha and Marco joining him, Marco being willing to follow Jean regardless, and Sasha wanting to save her "friend" from getting eaten by the titans. The three landed around Mikasa and attempted to pull her off of him and carry her away, but Mikasa struggled violently against them.
"Come on, Mikasa! We have to get the hell out of here!" Jean shouted.
"You heard him, Mikasa," Marco pleaded. "We have to run before more titans show up, or worse!"
"NO! I CAN'T LEAVE EREN HERE ALONE! I KNOW I CAN SAVE HIM!" Mikasa cried out with tears streaming down her face.
"Mikasa, even if he is alive, there's nothing you can do," Sahsa reasoned. "Now come on! I can't let any more of my friends die today!"
"GET OFF OF ME RIGHT NOW!" Mikasa screamed.
With that, Mikasa threw all of them off at once and got back to where she was, digging further into the Titan's thick hide. Jean and Marco, seeing that there was no reasoning with her, decided to make a run for it while they still could. Armin was taken away by the rest of the group as they fled the area. Sasha stayed behind, climbing back onto the titan body and sitting by her friend, hoping that she could see sense and run away with her. Until then, however, She would stand by her side and protect her as the titans appeared around them.
Eventually, however, Mikasa grew tired and collapsed, her sword embedded deep within the titan's body as she tried to catch her breath. Sasha meanwhile, after killing three titans, was almost completely out of gas. She had enough to last maybe a little longer, but not nearly enough left over to take out any more titans from her position. Sasha retracted both her blades and knelt down by Mikasa's side as Mikasa began speaking to the titan's stomach, in hopes that Eren would hear her.
"Eren… If you can hear me, I'm sorry…" Mikasa said while panting. "I should have been there for you like I always have been. I know you find it annoying whenever I keep on meddling in your business… but please understand… my point of view."
Eren looked up to the ceiling and tried to listen more closely.
"You saved me that day… when I was kidnapped. You gave me the strength to fight back against this cruel world." She clutched her scarf and smiled weakly. "You gave me a new home… a new family… a new sense of purpose. I can't thank you enough for being by your side…"
Sasha smiled at her and wrapped her arm around Mikasa's shoulder.
"I… I love you Eren. Not just as family, but as something much more than that. And even if you don't feel the same way, that's okay… because as long as you're in my life, I'll never give up on you, just like you never gave up on me or your mother."
Eren stared up in shock and blinked a few times. "M-Mikasa… I…"
Sasha then screamed, catching Mikasa's attention as a titan reached down for them. Mikasa stabbed at its fingers, but it was no good, as the titan grabbed both of them in its massive hand, undeterred by Mikasa and Sasha repeatedly stabbing its hand.
Eren tightened his fists so hard that they drew blood. Mikasa's words reached deep into his psyche, and his desire to save everyone boiled back up to the surface. He pounded against the walls of the stomach furiously as he screamed furiously.
"I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE! I HAVE TO PROTECT THEM! MOM! MIKASA! ARMIN! I'LL PROTECT EVERYONE!" Eren roared as loud as he could, and an electric aura began to form around his body, so bright that it could be seen from within the titan.
And suddenly, the titan exploded.
The explosion blasted away the titan that was about to eat Mikasa and Sasha, and the two girls tumbled onto the ground. Mikasa looked up and where the portly, bearded titan once stood, now stood a ripped, 15-meter-tall, black-haired titan with a set of exposed teeth and emerald eyes. Mikasa's eyes widened as she recognized certain features of the titan. The hair, the eyes, the rage radiating off of it. All of it clued her in to who this titan was.
"Must… save… everyone…" It thought as it grabbed the titan that was attacking Mikasa and Sasha by the neck and ripped its head clean off. "Mom… Mikasa… Armin…"
"Eren?!"
As the titan dropped the lifeless body of the other titan to the ground, its eyes suddenly widened, and it looked down on the two girls, Mikasa looking up at it with wide, misty eyes, and Sasha looking at Mikasa with confusion and surprise.
"Mikasa…? Why did you call that titan… Eren?"
Eren looked down at his hands and was horrified as he realized what he had become. He shuddered and placed a hand on his head while using a house to support himself.
'I-I-I'm a… a Titan?' Eren questioned.
As he thought this, he saw Mikasa and Sasha grapple up to the top of the building using as little fuel as possible. Eren, at first, didn't know what was going on, but after a while, he realized that this must have been what Gigan meant by "hybrids." Somehow, Eren became part titan. This was probably also why he was able to speak to Gigan. Eren's train of thought was interrupted however when Mikasa spoke up.
"Eren?" She asked. "Is that really you?"
Eren's titan opened its mouth, and instead of the usual grunts and growls that come out of titans… Eren's titan spoke. It was difficult for him to formulate words, but he was able to speak to them nonetheless.
"Yes… it's… me…" he said.
Sahsa nearly fainted upon hearing him speak, while Eren looked down at his hands.
"Not sure… how I became… Titan…" Eren said. "But… I know that… I can… use power… to help… comrades…" Eren then patted Mikasa on the head with his index finger, making her blush and squeak softly, which both Eren and Sasha found adorable. "Comrades… and family…"
Eren then noticed two more titans approaching them. One jumped up at him, baring its teeth at him, which he proceeded to punch right in the mouth, snapping its jaws in two, while the other one attempted to charge him, only for him to smack its head off. Several cadets who were trying to escape by jumping from rooftop to rooftop were taken off guard when a titan's head flew over them. Eren then proceeded to stomp on the naip of both titans, killing them instantly.
Eren turned his back to Mikasa and Sasha and gestured for them to hop on. The two anchored themselves onto his shoulders and directed him towards the rest of the cadets, who appeared to be heading towards HQ under the leadership of Jean and Reiner.
-G-
10 hours ago…
People fled in terror as a massive herd of monsters lumbered through the streets in a Marleyan city, migrating towards their usual breeding grounds. The monsters' bodies were charcoal gray with lighter underbellies and jaws, and piercing red eyes. Despite being mammalian, the creatures' bodies resembled arachnids, with eight legs instead of four, each leg being long and spindly, with three joints in each limb. The females walked on six legs, with two smaller legs curled up against their chests, while the males flew through the air. As the creatures rampaged through the city on their migration, the people of Marlay attempted to deploy old, worn-out Markelite towers and mazer tanks, as well as standard military weapons in hopes of stopping the creatures. However, the females were simply too powerful, their hides too sturdy and shrugged their attacks off like nothing, and the males were able to keep clear of the Markelite towers completely.
The monsters effortlessly crushed their weapons and slaughtered their people. Even their three available titan shifters, the Beast, Warhammer, and Cart titans, were powerless to stop these monsters and weren't even unleashed for fear of them being killed by the titan monsters.
As their path of destruction continued, and people fell by the hundreds, a family of three ran down the street, attempting to escape the stampede. They were the last three left living within their district, and they were about to be wiped out as well, as the daughter looked up and saw a male swoop down, the force of his flight flattening entire neighborhoods. As the mother and father held onto their daughter, accepting their fates, they suddenly heard the sound of a revved chainsaw and then opened their eyes to find themselves between the two halves of a dead male.
The family then looked up and were awestruck to see Gigan flying above them. The black angel smiled at them and gestured for them to flee, which they did. Gigan then looked at the heard of kaiju, which were all roaring at him angrily.
{70 female Mutos, 32 males.} Gigan said to himself. He then grabbed a male trying to pull a sneak attack with his tail claw and blasted its head off with a jet booster on his foot. {31.} Gigan smirked cockily. {Sounds like a decent workout.}
Gigan unleashed a storm of blades from his chest that rained down upon the female Mutos. The army of Mutos then charged at him, and he returned the favor, clashing with the first female Muto to approach him, causing the ground beneath them to rumble.