-A-

After their hiding place was overrun by Titans, all the remaining cadets that were alive were making a break for HQ, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, swinging through the air with their grappling cables, and using what little fuel they had left to soar for brief amounts of time, steering clear of any titans in the process. It wasn't easy by any means, but the group grew closer and closer to HQ at high speeds. That was until they were all ambushed by an entire group of titans.

One of these titans snatched Mina Carolina's ODM cables while she was swinging over the streets. Mylius, who was carrying Thomas on his back, turned around upon hearing her screams, despite Thomas' protests, only for both of them to be grabbed by one of the Titans. Slowly but surely, more and more of these people were captured by the titans, several of them killed. The rest of the group stopped on a roof and watched in horror as all of their friends and allies were slaughtered one by one. Jean especially was disgusted with himself, watching helplessly as Mina was slowly swallowed right in front of him. Armin meanwhile was cowering in terror as he watched the members of his squad be devoured just like they did with Eren, and he was once again helpless to stop them.

However, just as her feet were about to slip between the titan's teeth, its naip was suddenly sliced clean out by a sudden blur of motion. Jean and Armin both looked down to see Mikasa land just as the titan fell, steam billowing from its neck. Seizing the opportunity, Jean ordered that everyone keep running. However, Armin stayed behind as he noticed a titan that had Mylius and Thomas firmly gripped in its hand slowly approaching his friend.

"M-MIKASA! LOOK OUT!" He screamed.

Mikasa turned around and jumped out of the way of the titan's swipe. She tried to fly out of there but found that she had run out of fuel. Cornered, she braced herself to leap out of the way again, only for both Armin and Sasha to jump in, Sasha slicing through the Titan's index finger and thumb and Armin cutting down the titan's other hand, releasing the two men trapped in it. Armin then grabbed Mikasa up off the ground and back up on the roof, with Sasha following them.

Upon seeing the three soldiers land, the titan attempted to lunge down and eat all three of them, but a wooden pole was suddenly thrown right through its head. Armin slowly turned his head to the source of the pole, and then gasped in shock when he saw another titan charging at their location, gripping another titan's neck in his hand. The muscular Rogue Titan swung the other titan over his head and slammed it down onto his prey.

The titan then stomped onto its weapon's naip and roared victoriously while Sasha jumped up and cheered, "WOOHOO! GO EREN!"

"E-Eren?" Armin murmured. He then looked up and saw the titan look down at the group, giving them a thumbs up.

"Yes," Mikasa answered. "That's Eren. We don't know how or why, all we know is that he's here, he's a titan, and he's helping us."

Eren nodded at Mikasa's claims, then looked down and saw the surviving members of his squad on the ground around him, all having overheard this revelation and being equally as shocked as Armin. Eren carefully lifted them into the palm of his hand and placed them onto the roof along with one other survivor, Ymir, who appeared the most gobsmacked out of all of them.

"Hey, Eren!" Sasha cried, drawing his attention as she pointed to HQ. "Everyone's heading to resupply! Any chance you could get us there?"

Eren nodded and turned around. "Hop… on…" He growled.

Everyone anchored themselves to his back, and he began running towards HQ, quickly catching up with the rest of the cadets, who were all horrified to see him approaching. However, Armin leaped up onto Eren's head and explained to them that he was not a threat as quickly as he could, before letting them know that he'd explain everything once they got inside. When the cadets began asking for proof, Eren provided it by putting all of his momentum into a powerful punch to a 13-meter-titan's jaw that completely obliterated its head. This very quickly silenced most of the scouts, though Jean in particular was still on edge. After clearing a path for the cadets to get into HQ, Eren stood by HQ and defended everyone from the surrounding titans while Mikasa and Sasha explained everything they knew.

"After growing too tired to keep digging, I began talking," Mikasa said before correcting herself. "Pouring out my heart into the titan's stomach, hoping beyond all hope that Eren would hear me from within there."

"As she was doing that, a titan began approaching us," Sasha added. "I didn't have enough fuel left to kill it, so it managed to grab us… but then, as the titan was about to eat us, the bearded titan's stomach began to glow, before swelling rapidly and exploding. The next thing we knew, we were standing at the feet of a massive titan that seemed to have a vendetta against his own kind. Well, that is until Mika here realized that they weren't his kind at all."

"I was able to confirm this when I tried speaking to him, and he spoke back, personally assuring us that he was in fact Eren," Mikasa concluded. "Also, Sasha, you do not have my permission to call me nicknames."

"Do I at least have permission to tell them about the cute moment you and Eren had?" Sasha asked, peaking everyone's attention at the idea of Mikasa being "cute," and making Mikasa blush profusely.

"A-ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Mikasa shouted, prompting disappointed sighs from many people in the crowd, as well as Sasha.

After their explanation, Armin decided to speak up. "So… if that really is Eren, then is there any way to change him back to normal?" He asked.

"Why would you want to?" Connie asked, before making an ecstatic gesture towards his gigantic comrade, "Just look at him! He's a titan killing machine!"

"Yes, but he's also a titan, himself," Armin said. "It'd be nigh impossible for us to get him to safety should he be overwhelmed while he's in that state. And even if we could, how are we going to explain this to our commanding officers? They may just try to kill him on the spot."

"I'm sure he can turn back," Ymir interjected. "And we should probably find a way to turn him back, and quick. He looks like he's starting to slow down."

They all then looked out to see steam start to billow off of Eren's body. The titans that he was previously killing with one hit were now surviving several, and Eren frequently had to take breathers after killing several titans at once. Additionally, the titans themselves were starting to get more hits in on him, nearly forcing him to the ground on one occasion.

"Damn it…" Jean muttered before he turned back to the cadets. "Alright, everyone with enough fuel in their tanks to fight, keep those titans off of Eren!"

The group then nodded, and the troops with the most fuel in their tanks took off to back Eren up and take out the last few Titans approaching the building, while Mikasa, whose tanks were practically empty, joined them so that she could talk to him.

Armin stayed behind though, not because he was low on fuel, he actually had quite a bit left, but because he noticed something about the way Ymir was acting. She looked… well, he didn't really understand what that look was. Fear? Humiliation? Shock? Confusion? Whatever it was, Ymir's facial expression was overflowing with it after what she said. As if she didn't actually want to say it.

Krista noticed this as well and gently grasped Ymir's hand. "Are you okay, Ymir?" She asked, snapping Ymir out of it.

"Y-yeah… I'm fine, Krista…" Ymir gently ruffled Krista's hair. "Don't worry about me, doll. I just need some time to think."

Ymir then left the room and went into the next one over while Armin and Krista were left wondering what was going on in her head.

-P-

"Why did you make me do that?"

"Hey! Don't give me that! They'd be sitting ducks without that information!"

"I'd think after what you've been through, you'd be more hesitant to do that to people."

"Normally, yes, but with that Kumonga roaming around in conjunction with the titans, we need Eren to learn the ropes ASAP."

"...You're right. In moments where people's lives are at stake, personal space isn't exactly top priority."

-E-

A mindless titan swiped for Mina Carolina as she swung around it. After cutting a chunk out of its ankle, she rocketed away, leaving the titan open for Eren to jump in and bite out the naip with ferocious force. After leaving the steaming corpse to fade away, he took a moment to catch his breath. As he leaned against HQ, he watched with pride as his comrades dealt with all the injured or small titans that had escaped their fate at his hands, though also mentally chastised himself.

'Damn, I should have finished them off!' Eren thought. 'If my comrades weren't here to help me, they all probably would have ganged up on me by now.'

Eren's thoughts were paused when he heard Mikasa running up behind him and turned to face her. He crouched down slightly so the two could talk eye to eye.

"Eren, I have something I need to ask you," she said. "I'll make it quick since we probably don't have much time before more threats arrive. Do you think you can transform back to your normal self?"

Eren raised an eyebrow, but Mikasa explained that Armin and the others had some concerns about him while he was in this form. Eren nodded and then growled softly before speaking.

"Still in… normal form… kind of…" Eren replied.

"Hugh? What do you mean?"

Eren pointed to the back of his neck. "Can feel body… in titan body… can move body… in titan body… Maybe my body… can break free?"

Mikasa and Eren looked around to make sure the coast was clear. After finding nothing but smoke and celebrating soldiers, Eren took a knee, closed his eyes, and tried to focus on moving only his human body. Within the titan, Eren wriggled and writhed against the veins and muscles holding him in place, before eventually pulling his hand out of the body. A huge gust of steam burst out of Eren's naip as he struggled with all his might, slowly lurching out of his body with all his might. Mikasa jumped down from the spot she was standing and helped Eren out of his titan. His ODM gear was missing, as was his jacket, but he was still fully clothed, and conscious.

After getting Eren back inside, the cadets all gathered around Eren as he supported himself against Mikasa. They began asking a barrage of questions that began to overwhelm him until Mikasa shut the crowd up by holding both her blades up and banging them together, the resulting CLANG silencing the crowd. Eren then took a seat on a nearby chair while he caught his breath.

"You alright, Eren?"

Eren looked up to see Mina standing over him. He sighed softly and smiled.

"I'm fine, just tired is all. Nothing I can't handle."

"Do you think maybe it had something to do with your time as a titan?" Armin theorized.

"I'd say so," Eren replied before looking up at Armin with a determined smile. "Don't worry about me though. I can still fight." Eren stood up to prove his point, but stumbled about, and would have collapsed outright had it not been for Mikasa catching him.

"Not yet, you can't," she scolded. "Look at you! You can barely stand, much less fight!"

"Mikasa-"

"Mikasa, nothing!" She interrupted, "I already thought you died once. I don't want to have to go through that feeling again, so please, get some rest. You've fought enough, today. We can take it from here."

Eren was about to argue, but remembered Mikasa's confession while he was in the titan's stomach and ultimately lamented. "Okay, fine. I'll rest for now. But once I get my second wind, I'm coming to help you guys."

"Deal," Mikasa replied.

With that, Eren sat back down. Mikasa handed him a flask of water she had on her before going downstairs with the rest of the group, while Connie was wondering what they were "taking from here." He was then reminded that the supply chambers were still infested with titans, so they needed to figure out a plan. Thankfully, Armin had already come up with one, and with the guns that were brought in courtesy of the Military Police, Armin began explaining it.

"As it stands, we're looking at seven titans, all of the four meters tall variety, in the supply room," he said. "If we time this perfectly, this much ammo oughta be enough to do the trick. Here's how it will go: we lower a crew down into the supply room via the lift, meeting the titans at eye level. Once all the titans are in range, the group fires in all directions simultaneously. Then comes the hard part. Before the titans can recover, seven of us will swoop down from the rafters and strike the naip. And that's the plan. All our lives are on the line, so if we screw up, we're dead. It's quite the risk for one attack, but it's our only chance. Seven soldiers have to slay seven titans at the same time, so we're going to need the seven soldiers most physically adept with their parring blades."

"Sounds like a sound plan!" Reiner praised.

"When you get right down to it, the risk is about the same no matter who goes," Annie said.

"Look, I'm willing to be talked out of this," Armin said, his voice now softer and lacking in confidence. "One half-baked plan can't be all we've got."

"Half-baked? Come on, don't be so hard on yourself," Marco said. "For our only option, it's pretty well thought out. If we give it our all, we can pull this off."

"You just have to be confident in yourself," Mikasa added. "You're a better strategist than you give yourself credit for. That mind of yours saved Eren and me more than once."

"W-what? When did I ever save you?" Armin wondered as everyone got into position.

"You didn't realize it at the time," Mikasa then headed to get suited up. "We can talk about it later."

With that, everyone got into position, with Jean, Reiner, Annie, Connie, Sasha, Mikasa, and Bertholdt up in the rafters, while everyone else was lowered in the lift, their buckshot rifles at the ready as they waited for the titans to notice them. At first, the titans were wandering about mindlessly as they usually did, until eventually, their vacant, dead eyes locked onto the soldiers in the lift, and their ravenous hunger beckoned them towards the soldiers. Sweat trickled down the cadets' faces as they watched the titans grow closer and closer. With every thunderous step, the cadets grew more and more terrified, and whimpers could be heard from the group as the titans grew closer and closer. Eventually, the titans were so close that their eyes were practically pressed up against the barrels of the guns that were being pointed at them.

And then…

"FIRE!" Marco screamed.

All at once, the cadets unloaded their rifles, blowing out the titans' eyes and lighting up the dark room. The titans recoiled in pain and the soldiers in the rafters then jumped down. Five titans collapsed to the ground, their naips now severed. However, there were two scouts that missed their mark, Connie and Sasha. They both nervously walked backward as the titans turned to see their assailants.

Sasha screamed as the titan facing her leaned down and pounced at her, but before it could devour her, Mikasa had gotten onto it and cut out its naip, Annie doing the same for Connie.

"MIKASA!" Sasha screamed while clutching Mikasa's jacket. "YOU SAVED MY LIFE!" "Are you okay?" Mikasa asked.

"BECAUSE OF YOU, I AM!" Sasha sobbed.

"Good. Now ge-" But before Mikasa could finish the command, Sahsa jumped up and wrapped her arms around her. Mikasa grunted and stumbled a bit as Sasha bawled her eyes out over her shoulder.

"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I KNEW YOU CARED ABOUT ME! I PROMISE I'LL DO WHATEVER I CAN TO RETURN THE FAVOR!"

As Sasha continued to bawl her eyes out and scream words of gratitude over Mikasa's shoulder, Mikasa hooked her arm under Sasha's armpit and grasped her scarf, thinking back to how Eren saved her from a mob of human traffickers when she first met him as a child. A few tears rolled down her cheek as well, and she hugged her food-loving friend back.

After watching this from a distance, Annie turned around to refer to the person she had just saved. "Don't even think about doing that to me," she said coldly.

"Wasn't planning on it…" Connie replied awkwardly.

"THEY'RE ALL DEAD!" Jean announced. "START LOADING UP ON SUPPLIES!"

"YES SIR!" Everyone said.

After fueling up their ODM gear, Mikasa and Armin went back to the lift so they could go get Eren and tell him the good news. They hurried back upstairs and into the room they left him in, where they found him taking a nap on a desk. Mikasa shook him awake, and Eren groaned softly before getting back on his feet, feeling rejuvenated after that nap of his. Armin and Mikasa then told him about what happened, and Eren was happy to hear that everyone was okay.

As the three went back down the lift, the dark clouds outside, which had been everpresent since Eren was eaten by a titan, had begun to form into a thunderstorm. The storm that was brewing was ignored by most of the group, as things were finally starting to look up for them, but unbeknownst to them, that storm was nature's way of reminding mankind that they weren't out of the woods just yet.

Eren came down to see everyone refueling their gear. Several people were happy to see him up and ready to fight again, including what remained of his squad, who he went to go check in on.

"Mina! Thomas! Mylius! You guys are okay!"

"Thanks to you, we are," Mina said. "You showing up all titaned-out saved our lives."

Eren then looked around. "Did Nac make it too?"

The group solemnly shook their heads.

"He was killed just before the three of you arrived," Thomas said.

Eren clenched his fist in frustration as tears welled up in his eyes. 'Damn it!' He thought. 'I couldn't-' He suddenly felt Thomas place a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Eren. You're not a god. You can't save everyone."

Eren brushed Thomas' hand off. "Yeah… sure."

"You still saved us," Mina said. "And you helped save so many other people today by killing so many titans."

"But I could have done more," Eren said. "No, I should have done more! If only I knew I had this kind of power sooner, I could have made sure we weren't in this situation, to begin with. I could have killed every titan that came through the gate before they even killed one person!"

"Speaking of titans, don't any of you think it's weird that no titans came towards HQ yet?" Mylius asked.

"Maybe they got distracted by other people still in Trost?" Thomas suggested.

Mina immediately shot that down. "Evacuation started as soon as the wall was kicked in. Even if a few people were left behind, it wouldn't be enough to offset us."

"Then maybe the spider is distracting them?"

"But if that's the case, and it's still not dead, then how strong is that thing?" Mylius asked.

That thought worried the group especially. If it was strong enough that it could fight titans all day and still not succumb to its wounds, its power must be like nothing they've ever seen before.

After dwelling on that for a bit, Connie approached Eren and asked him how on Earth he was able to turn into a titan.

"I… don't know," Eren said. "All I know is that I trigger the transformation by hurting myself."

'Wait, how do I know that?' Eren thought.

"Well, however you're doing it, I'm glad you are. If it weren't for you, we'd all be royally screwed," Connie said. "We all owe you one."

"He's right," Marco said, joining in on the conversation. "You were incredible out there, Eren. You're nothing short of a hero."

"A-a hero?" Eren didn't really see himself that way. He was just fulfilling his duty and his vow to protect everyone. Before this wave of praise could continue, however, everyone was startled when they heard a loud crash, followed by ground shaking rumbling, and a bunch of people screaming.

Eren saw everyone running by him, and then saw one person get trapped underneath a massive spider leg. One which belonged to the giant spider that the cadets were lucky enough to have been avoiding for a good long while. But now, it had found them, and it was hungry for their flesh. Eren grabbed the man's hand and pulled him out from under the spider's grip, then ran towards the exit. Mikasa, who was fleeing from the leg, turned around to see Eren running towards it and followed after him, with Armin joining the two.

Once close to the door, Eren grabbed a nearby shard of wood and stabbed it into his hand. Lightning surged out of his body, and an explosion of steam blew a massive hole in HQ, causing the giant spider to jolt back and crawl away.

A section of the roof came crashing down, and everyone screamed in terror. However, those screams turned into cheers when they saw Eren lifting the roof with his bare hands. He then turned around and roared mightily as he threw the roof at the spider. It shattered against the eight-legged monstrosity, but it shrugged it off and hissed at Eren, who proceeded to arm himself with a wooden beam with a large clump of stone attached to it.

Eren charged at the spider and dodged underneath its swipes before taking a swing at its face. The spider caught the makeshift warhammer with one of its mandibles, then lifted Eren up and flicked him away, sending him flying into a house nearby, before snapping the beam in two and chucking the two halves of the warhammer aside. The majority of the cadets retreated at Jean's behest, however, Mikasa and Armin both stayed behind. Upon seeing that Mikasa was staying behind, Sasha, going against her instincts, turned back and went to join her.

Eren threw a pile of rubble off of himself, then scanned his surroundings for anything else he could use as a weapon. However, the spider didn't give him a chance to find a new weapon. With just one massive leap, it closed the distance between itself and Eren. Eren was forced to dodge and roll out of the way when it tried to impale him with its legs, then give it a powerful kick to the leg, a technique he learned from Annie, which left the spider howling in pain and giving Eren the chance to make some more distance between himself and the spider while chucking debris at it again and again. The debris Eren threw soared with the speed of a gunshot as each throw hit true. The spider tried to counter this with its web spray, which forced Eren to flee even further away from it.

Armin, Mikasa, and Sasha watched the fight from overhead, zooming around on their ODM gear in an attempt to prevent any harm from coming to them. As they watched the battle unfold, the trio waited for an idea to come to them, their collective train of thought repeatedly being cut off by Sasha having to warn them of incoming debris or webs. While surveying the battle, Armin noticed that one of the boulders Eren was throwing hit the spider right in the eye, and it recoiled, covering the bleeding eye with one of its mandibles while Eren kept running.

"Did you see that?!" Armin asked.

"Yeah," Mikasa said.

"Of course," Sasha said.

Armin pondered for a moment, before nodding once. "I have an idea. Come on," Armin then rocketed off towards Eren, with Mikasa and Sasha following suit.

Eren took a moment to hide behind a house and catch his breath, while also attempting to make some sort of weapon out of the materials he had available to him. As he tried and failed to mash parts together and create any sort of weapon, Armin, Mikasa, and Sasha landed next to him, with Armin landing right on Eren's shoulder so he could explain his plan to Eren.

"Now, I only came up with this plan on the fly, but I have an idea for how we take down the giant spider," Armin said. Eren nodded and listened as Armin began to explain. "We need you to distract it by fighting it head-on like you've been doing, but I need you to try your best to keep out of its striking range by throwing rocks and debris whenever you can. You also need to stay to its sides, where you're still in the line of sight, but not within the radius where it can aim at you with its web spit."

"Why does he need to stay in the line of sight?" Mikasa asked.

"As I said, he's the distraction. While he's fighting it, you, me, and Sasha will move in on ODM and slice at the giant spider's eyes, blinding it. After that, Eren can close the distance and attack its legs. We probably won't be able to get all the legs before the creature adapts to our tactics. From what we've seen, this creature isn't like normal titans. It's clearly intelligent, so it will likely become more defensive. However, we don't need to take out all the legs. Just enough for it to be helpless against the final phase of my plan." Armin then points to a shard of the wall that the Colossal Titan kicked in close by them. "Eren just needs to pick up that piece of the wall and stab the spider in the head with it. This plan needs to go off without a hitch though. If even one of us messes up, it won't work."

Eren nodded. "Good plan…" He grumbled.

As they were about to put the plan into motion, however, Sasha pointed at the spider and warned everyone that it was on the move… and heading towards the wall.

-K-

Kumonga had grown weary of waiting for Eren to come out of his hiding place and trudged through the rubble of their battle, his minor wounds rapidly healing. Each step he took left holes in the pavement beneath him as he crept closer towards Wall Rose, eager to feast upon all the delectable creatures that may be hiding behind it. As he approached it, he was intercepted by two abnormal titans, one 15-meters, the other only 10. Kumonga was annoyed, as the taller ones were always more difficult to deal with, but after fighting Eren, he found these two to be downright laughable by comparison, easily dispatching both of them at once.

However, as soon as Kumonga defeated the two mindless titans, he felt rubble pelt his back with a high amount of force. It turned around, and sure enough, Eren was standing there defiantly, readying another handful of debris to pelt Kumonga with. It flinched as Eren pelted it, but began advancing towards him regardless.

-E-

Eren backed up in an attempt to lead the giant spider away from the wall, continuing to throw rubble and boulders at the spider, until eventually, he saw Mikasa swing past its face, slashing its eye out like she would a titan naip. The spider howled in agony and flailed about as its eye gushed out sticky, green blood, which coated Mikasa as she swung out of the way, allowing Eren to send out another barrage of rubble.

Sasha ran across the spider's head before jetting down his face and taking out another eye. She and Mikasa swung past eachother and landed on a building nearby while Armin flew in to do his part. Armin stabbed his blades into one of the center eyes, then cut into it almost getting blasted off by all the sticky, green blood shooting out of it. As the spider screeched in agony, Eren continued his long-range assault. Eventually, the three cadets were able to eliminate all of the spider's eyes, allowing Eren to rush in and deliver a powerful kick to one of the spider's legs, breaking it, the resulting snap sounding like a steel beam being snapped in two. Eren continued to attack the legs until he got to the fifth leg, where, just like Armin predicted, the spider began defending itself by curling all its legs in so that Eren couldn't break them.

Eren then took a step back, his face now caked in its blood. He marched over to the massive wall shard and hoisted it out of the ground. The thing was almost as big as him and weighed hundreds of tons easily, but he was still able to lift it regardless. His steps cracked the pavement beneath him as he approached his enemy, who squirmed and writhed on the ground with its four broken legs. As he grew closer and closer, he quickened his pace into a speed walk, then into a jog, and then a full-on sprint as steam billowed off of his muscular body.

'As long as I live,' Eren thought. 'I will never let you, or any other nightmares like you oppress us anymore. Today, we. Are. FREE-'

Suddenly, the giant spider opened its mouth and shot out a blast of web with enough force to knock Eren miles away and knock away the boulder as well.

"W-WHAT!? HOW DID IT KNOW TO DO THAT!?" Sasha screamed. "I THOUGHT WE TOOK OUT ALL THE EYES! DID WE MISS ONE!?"

"N-no…" Armin stuttered as he slowly pointed towards the spider's legs. "L-l-look."

Sasha and Mikasa watched in horror as the spider's broken legs twisted and snapped back into place. It then wiped away the blood on its eyes, revealing that all of them had healed.

"I-IT CAN REGENERATE!?" Mikasa and Sasha screamed simultaneously.

The group then watched as Eren tried in vain to pull himself free of the webs he found himself entangled in. Thunder clapped and roared as Kumonga grew closer and closer, its paralyzing fangs ready to jab into Eren.

'This was hopeless,' Armin thought. 'We never stood a chance against it. And now, we're all going to be devoured.'

"COME ON!" Eren shouted from within his titan as he struggled to break free of the webbing, "BREAK ALREADY, DAMNIT! I'M NOT GOING TO DIE HERE, I REFUSE TO DIE LIKE THIS!"

The spider reached out with one of its legs and dragged Eren into its maw so that it could bite out his naip, Eren still struggling furiously. Mikasa immediately ran in, her blades drawn, while Armin and Sasha tried to call for her to stay with them. She swooped in through the air and stabbed into the naip. Within it, Eren saw her cutting into it until she was able to expose Eren's upper body, and with all her might, she tried to pull him out. But she was too late, as they were both almost on the verge of being devoured by the spider.

However, just before it could consume both the cadets, a massive blade suddenly pierced the clouds and sliced clean through the spider's leg, cutting it off and causing it to drop the two as it howled in agony. It attempted to regenerate its arm, but before it could, a gigantic figure bathed in red light breached through the storm clouds, the shockwave it left behind parting them, and allowing the sun to shine down on the city. The metallic giant landed on top of the spider, impaling it on his bloodstained chainsaw hand. The spider screamed in pain and terror as the black angel sliced it in two.

Eren emerged from his titan body as it leaned against an abandoned house. As Mikasa, Armin, and Sasha landed around him and helped him out of his titan, Eren looked up at Gigan with an exhausted smile.

"Took you long enough…" And then Eren fainted.

Gigan was amazed to see that Eren really did have similar powers to Ymir. However, he couldn't think about that right now. At the moment, he just had to check for any other potential threats.

{Pelops, scan the area.} Gigan said. On cue, a chibi, orange dog with a blue bow on its back and a dogbone collar appeared in the bottom right-hand corner of his visor's HUD.

"Already on it, Gigan!" A loading bar then appeared in the center of the hud while Pelops did a little animation where he marched from one side of the screen to the other while wearing garb resembling a stereotypical detective and holding a magnifying glass before the task was completed and Pelops disappeared.

Gigan was then shown a map of Trost and nodded as he looked at all the areas containing titans.

{Thanks, little guy.} Gigan then blasted off to exterminate the threat. He took to the skies once more and began his attack on the Titans.

-G-

Several minutes ago…

A sandstorm enveloped the entire city as ten female Mutos all pounded on the same area at once, while three male Mutos flew above them in circles like vultures, rhythmically using their EMP ability. The female Mutos were surrounded by dozens of copses of other Mutos, all of them either sliced to bits, burned to a crisp, filled to the brim with blades, or some combination of what was previously mentioned. Beneath the ten Mutos lie the source of the dead Mutos, Gigan.

Now, as he was running on the most advanced pieces of technology humanity had ever created, Gigan was resistant to EMPs, and could take one and recover quickly. However, when the Mutos began using upwards of ten at once, that's when Gigan began struggling to hold in there. His systems were all completely scrambled, leaving him open to attack from the Mutos. Now trapped and unable to use any of his weapons, Gigan only had one thing left he could rely on, and that was his own innate skills.

Using everything he could muster, he managed to stab one female Muto in the chest with his tail claw, then slam it into another one next to her, breaking up the cycle completely. Gigan then slowly rose from his position, his roar crackling and stuttering as his nanometal's regeneration had been hampered considerably. The female Mutos all soon got back up, forcing Gigan to maneuver out of the way of their attacks and counter accordingly with spiked knees to the gut and hooked kicks to the face.

One of the male Mutos noticed the females beginning to lose to Gigan even in this weakened state, and tried to swoop down and help them. However, it was his turn to EMP Gigan, which he remembered far too late, as Gigan's systems returned, and he sliced the male Muto in half. Gigan then rocketed off of the ground and used his eye beam to kill the other two, who dropped to the ground as balls of fire, before returning to the female Mutos.

The females all attempted to rush him down at once and managed to get him back into the position he was in before, but a short-range, scattershot version of Gigan's eyebeam knocked them all off of him. Unlike most weaker monsters, this didn't kill the females, but it left most of them severely wounded, allowing Gigan to finish them off one by one, dismembering each and every one of them.

When the battle was finished, Gigan took a moment to breathe and collect himself, before receiving an alert on his HUD.

{Woah, woah, woah, what's happening?} Gigan read the alert and found that something had happened inside Trost, but couldn't see what due to his older alert system only telling him that there was something happening and where it was happening.

"Need me to identify the threat?" A high-pitched voice asked.

{Gah! Who's there?}

"Sorry, allow me to introduce myself." A chibi dog then appeared in the bottom right-hand corner of Gigan's HUD. "My name is Pelops, your personal assistant A.I. I was the one who woke you up when the titans attacked Wall Maria. I was actually created to wake you up during a time of crisis. Sadly, my range is woefully limited without your global scanning systems. My reach was essentially confined to that one island. I'm terribly sorry."

{It's okay, really. As long as you're here to help mankind, you're good. Now, about that identification…}

"Ah, yes, I am able to identify any detected threats based on my databanks," Pelot then presented a rotating model of a Kumoga with its physical stats. "Kumonga, Female, Adult, current location: Trost district."

{TROST!?} Gigan shouted, {That's where Eren is! We have to get there right now!}

"Agreed. However, there are some mild weather troubles there, so do be mindful of that," Pelops said while switching to an animation of himself in a raincoat.

Gigan chuckled at the very thought of any bad weather concerning him. {I'll make sure to bring an umbrella.} He said as he took to the skies and flew towards Paradis.

As Gigan flew away, Battra surveyed the land with a mild hint of frustration. He had hoped that Gigan would be killed by the Mutos, but humanity's greatest achievement still found a way to escape death. This worried Battra, more than anything, however, as the only thing keeping their deal intact was the fact that Gigan believed that Battra was the stronger of the two when in reality, Battra feared that if he and Gigan came to blows, he may be the one to fall.

-Author's note-

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for all the praise this series has gotten so far. I hope you all enjoy the newest chapter in this ongoing tale.

And now it's time for another review reply section.

Guest: "Update please"

No

Guest: "Update please"

No

Chaotic: "I enjoyed this chapter {referring to chapter 5}. Like how the Mutos are migrating. Also like how Battra is in the story. He is harsh but fair."

This comment really makes me wish you could reply to reviews on FF, because this is such a different perspective from my first review, "I hope Battra fucking dies." I'd love to see an actual discussion about the characters in the comments. Anyway, thank you, Chaotic, and I hope you enjoy where the story goes in the future.

Guest: "Update please"

Okay, fine.