-E-
Scouts crowded around Eren from the rooftops as they watched him rip the female titan to pieces, before eventually grabbing Annie out of her naip and lifting her up to his face. He noticed tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared at him with wide tear-filled eyes. She seemed remorseful. Like she was silently apologizing for everything that she had done and begging for her life.
But where was this remorse when she crushed Mina? Where were these tears when she turned Mylius into a red stain on her hands? No. She didn't deserve forgiveness. She deserved exactly what she did to Armin to be done to her tenfold. He lifted her up to his mouth, and bit her in half, swallowing both halves of her.
-A-
Just as soon as the world went dark for Annie, she felt herself falling into a body of water. Her legs were somehow reconnected to her body, and she was somehow able to breathe perfectly fine, but she couldn't move no matter how hard she tried. All she could do was float in place in utter silence, completely alone. A single tear rolled down her face as she recalled her father's last words to her before she left.
"Stand your ground."
And yet, she didn't. She cracked under pressure, made irrational decisions in the face of insurmountable adversity, and now she was dead, and would never be able to see her father again. She died a monster and a failure.
Suddenly, however, she felt herself falling again. This time, she landed on a floor of sand. She looked around and found that she was in a desert at night, with a constant aurora borealis in the sky. There was also a constant, ambient blue light that illuminated her surroundings. She gently scooped up a handful of sand and allowed it to slip through her fingers as she pondered where she was and how she got there. While pondering this, however, she heard something over by the tree. It sounded like wood scratching against wood in a repetitive motion, accompanied by the sound of a woman humming some song she had never heard before.
Annie cautiously approached the tree, unsure of what she would find there. Upon arriving, she saw a pile of thin, dull blue wooden slabs stacked up next to a woman. This woman bore blonde, armpit-length hair, sapphire blue eyes, peach skin, and scars underneath her eyes similar to those of a titan shifter. Shackles were bound to her wrists and ankles, keeping her in a kneeling position as she carved a stick figure with a crown and a beard into a tiny slab of blue wood using a chisel, also made of dull, blue wood. Behind her was another girl, this one unshackled and seemingly a tad younger, with slightly paler skin, black, shoulder-length hair, and light blue eyes, herself also bearing titan shifter scars. The black-haired girl turned around to speak to the other girl, however upon noticing Annie, her eyes widened and she rapidly tapped on her friend's shoulder, alerting her to her presence, which prompted her to stare in shock as well.
"Um… Hello…?" Annie greeted while rubbing the back of her head.
"ANNIE!?" They both exclaimed simultaneously. That creeped Annie out.
"How do you know my name?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.
The girl on her knees cleared her throat and began to explain, "S-sorry. Let's start over. I'm Ymir Fritz," she said. She then gestured to the woman behind her. "This is my friend, former queen Frieda Reiss. I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but…" Ymir was suddenly elbowed in the ribs by Frieda.
"Ymir! Be more cordial! The girl was just eaten alive, for heaven's sake!" Frieda chastised.
"Frieda, you and I both saw what she did to those scouts," Ymir retorted. "Eren had every right to eat her."
'What is happening?' Annie thought.
"That's beside the point, Ymir!"
"It's exactly the point, Frieda! She's a murderer! She doesn't deserve our pity!"
However, Frieda and Ymir's bickering was interrupted by the subject of their argument.
"Wait, you're the Ymir?" Annie asked. "As in, the Goddess Ymir?"
Ymir winced as she heard that name. "Don't call me that..."
"And you," Annie pointed at Frieda. "You're the former queen of the walls, right? So you're the Founding Titan?"
Frieda fiddled with her hair. "I was the Founding Titan until Grisha Jaeger ate me, and then had his son, Eren Jaeger, eat him. Now I'm just Frieda. I don't really have anything special anymore."
"That's not true," Ymir said. "You have me to grant you wishes."
Annie's eyes widened. "Wishes?"
"Hugh? Oh, yeah, I'm forced to obey the will of the royal family no matter what. Basically, I'm like their own personal genie, but with more restrictions, no wish limit, and I can't prank them, even when I really want to."
Annie's eyes widened as she came up with a plan. "So, then you can help Bertholdt and Reiner capture Eren?"
Ymir raised an eyebrow. "How?"
"What do you mean, 'how'?" Annie asked. "You're Ymir the Founder! You can do anything!"
Ymir chuckled a bit. "Yeah, Frieda thought the same thing." She then looked back up at Annie. "Look, there's a lot of things I can't do, either because I'm physically incapable, or because Battra doesn't want me to. And since Battra is in control of this entire dimension, his will supersedes anyone else's, royal blood or not."
Annie looked around. "Where are we, anyway?"
"This is the Paths, an alternate dimension that Battra created after Julian and his cronies killed and ate me, not in that order, forsaking humanity in the process."
"If this is your prison, then why am I here? And for that matter, why is she here?" Annie asked as she gestured to Frieda.
"Well, you being here actually confirms a theory I developed after Grisha ate Eren," Frieda said. "My theory is that any Titan shifter that is eaten by another Titan shifter gets sent here after being eaten."
Annie found this explanation acceptable enough. However, this left her with yet another question.
"How did you know I was eaten by another Titan shifter?" She asked.
"The same way that we knew your name," Ymir then placed a hand on the glowing tree next to her and Frieda, and suddenly, a holographic screen appeared before them, which showed a first-person view of Eren only a second after devouring Annie. She then dragged her finger across it slowly, showing the entire fight playing out from Eren's perspective. Frieda meanwhile pulled up a second screen showing the fight from Annie's perspective. Annie was astounded by this, then watched as the screens blipped away.
"Within paths, you can see the entire history of every titan power," Ymir explained. "That of course includes my own."
"What about the future?" Annie asked.
"Only the Attack titan power can see the future, for as useful as that is."
Annie was amazed by this but tried to keep her composure. "Well, back on topic, is there any way you can help my allies?"
"Not physically, if that's what you mean. Not unless they came in physical contact with a person of royal blood, or they have royal blood."
"I know someone with royal blood that we all came in contact with," Annie said, catching Frieda's attention. Ymir's eyes then widened as she remembered what Annie was talking about.
"OHHHH! You mean Zeke?" She asked.
"Okay, seriously, how long have you been going through our memories?"
"I've been trapped in here for 20,000 years," Ymir growled. "I have nothing else to do but make wooden sculptures, watch the shifters' memories, and occasionally follow the orders of people I almost always hate!"
Frieda placed a hand on Ymir's shoulder while Annie simply brought it back to the subject of Reiner and Bertholdt. After calming down, Ymir explained that even after touching a shifter, she could only affect their minds, and not their bodies.
"I can make them aware of things they didn't know before, or even tell them to do or say certain things, but only 1. If Frieda asks me to, and 2. If Battra allows me to." Ymir then looked down at her hands. "I hate doing it, but if someone with royal blood commands it, and Battra allows it, I don't really have a choice."
"Can you tell them that Eren is the coordinate, then?"
Frieda and Ymir looked to eahother, then back at Annie. "What would that accomplish?" Ymir asked.
"Well, it will allow them to complete the mission," she said. "They can take the coordinate back to Marley, have someone more loyal to us eat him, then-"
"-initiate the rumbling yourselves and use it to fight the kaiju," Ymir interrupted. "I know that. What I mean is, what do you think telling them that Eren is the coordinate will accomplish?"
"What do you mean?"
"Think of this from their perspective: they just watched their friend get eaten right in front of them. Not only that, but to Bertholdt, you weren't just his friend, you were the girl he loved."
Annie's expression changed slightly upon being told about Bertholdt's crush, not necessarily out of embarrassment, but more confusion at the fact that he'd find her attractive.
"They are not gonna be thinking clearly after that. Even if I do tell them, they probably won't care. Maybe Reiner would, but Bertholdt definitely wouldn't. Believe me, I would know."
"Damn it…"
Frieda raised an eyebrow as she glanced down at Ymir.
"No, Frieda, I didn't love Gordon!" Ymir corrected. "I can just relate to how Bertholdt probably feels right now."
"And yet you couldn't show Annie any sympathy when she arrived, despite her being eaten alive just like you were?" Frieda retorted.
"I said I can relate, not that I approve of them committing fucking genocide on the other half of mankind."
As Frieda and Ymir began to bicker once again, Annie took a seat on the soft, cool sand. She looked down at the small pieces of wood Ymir was carving into. She saw on them stick figures of kings, queens, clowns, and cards covered in various shapes. Spades, hearts, what looked like either clovers or clubs, and diamonds. Then, Annie realized that she was making a poker deck. Annie couldn't help but be impressed by Ymir's ingenuity, craftsmanship, and resourcefulness.
1 minute later…
"Got any 3s?" Frieda asked.
"Wait, I thought we were playing poker," Ymir replied.
Frieda placed her head in her palm. "I already told you, Frieda, I don't know how to play poker."
"You had over forty thousand years to learn, and you still don't know poker?"
"Tuche," Frieda shrugged.
"Hey! Ymir!" Annie called, prompting Ymir to turn around, revealing her cards to Frieda by accident.
"Yeah?"
"How come after spending weeks, it seems like things are only just now starting to pick up steam outside in the real world?"
"Oh, looks like you've already noticed how fucked up time is in Paths," Ymir replied with a bitter chuckle.
"What do you mean by that?"
"A year in here translates to about an hour in the real world. I'd say maybe a minute or two have passed outside. If I had to guess, Battra probably made Paths that way on purpose to make me go insane."
"Did it work?" Annie asked.
"A little bit at first, but that was only because the first founding titans with royal blood were Julian Reiss and his fucked up daughters," Ymir remarked. "Ever since Frieda arrived though, I must say, I've felt quite sane ever since."
"Julian Reiss? Do you mean Fritz, the first king?"
"No, I mean Julian Reiss. He just changed his name to Fritz because he lusted for me so much that he centered his entire life around me." Ymir then shuddered, recalling the lengths of Julian's depravity. Frieda herself gagged at the thought, as she had to live with his memories for several years when she was alive.
"Care to elabor-"
"NO!" They both shouted in unison.
6 minutes later…
Ymir slapped a 4 of diamonds down onto a pile and laughed victoriously, her hand now empty of any cards, as she knelt across from Frieda, who had seven clutched in her hands.
"I WIN AGAIN!" Ymir taunted. Frieda leaned back and groaned.
"This game is so weird," Frieda said. "And you and your friends played this game all the time?"
"Yeah! We always had so much fun!" Ymir then twiddled her hair awkwardly. "Mostly because Erika didn't win every single time."
Frieda then turned to face Annie as she stood by the tree. "Hey Annie, you wanna join us?"
Annie didn't respond.
"Frieda, I'm still not really sure if I'm comfortable with her-" "Oh hush you. I'm just trying to make her feel welcome," Frieda replied before turning back to Annie. "Hey! Annie! Did you hear me?"
Annie shuddered slightly, which made Frieda grow concerned. She stood up and walked over to her while Ymir began to shuffle the deck, which proved difficult given how thick each card was.
"Annie? Are you okay?"
Annie remained silent. Frieda then noticed that she was watching the memories of the Female titan. Frieda looked at them as well and saw that she was viewing a scene from her past, where she was speaking to her father one last time before she would have to leave for Paradis. The man was on his knees before her with his hands gripping her shoulders and tears in his eyes.
"Annie… I'm so sorry," he began, biting back his tears. "I don't expect you to forgive me, but… please… please, just stand your ground. Stand your ground, even if the whole world stands against you! They will despise you, they won't understand… but I do. Your dad always will…" Her father then brought her in for a hug as he began to sob. "Promise me you'll return… that's all I ask…"
Annie placed a hand on her father's back, and with tears in her eyes, replied with, "I pro-"
Annie slammed her fist through the screen and onto the tree, causing wood chips to shatter off of it, losing their glow in the process. However, the dent she made into the tree almost immediately was mended, as if nothing had even happened to it. Frieda was at a loss for words for a moment, but eventually, Frieda walked up to Annie and hugged her. Annie clutched the back of Frieda's gown as she began to sob over her shoulder. Ymir meanwhile simply looked away, then brought up Eren's memories just to see what was going on with him. The first thing that caught Ymir's attention was that Eren was now a girl.
'Hugh, so that's what happens when a guy eats the female titan,' Ymir thought.
However, Ymir's eyes widened when she realized that in the distance, Bertholdt had reached his maximum height of 200 meters. This did not bode well for Eren, so Ymir called Frieda to show her what was happening. Annie followed Frieda after wiping the tears from her eyes, and the three of them witnessed the impercievably slow-moving image of Eren and his group attempting to evade attacks from the Armored and Colossal titan.
-E-
Gunther, Sasha, and Armin maneuvered through the street on foot with Eren in toe. Armin had to hold onto her hand so that she could keep pace with them, as Eren was still shaken over having killed Annie, in conjunction with being informed that Reiner and Bertholdt are the armored and colossal titans, and still trying to grasp the fact that she was now a woman. Armin looked back and saw that the Armored Titan was distracted by the other scouts, in particular Levi and Mikasa, who were able to cut his joints, but weren't able to get through the naip without shattering their blades. Despite this though, they did manage to temporarily down Reiner, allowing the four of them a chance to breathe. While they were resting, Armin placed a hand on Eren's shoulder and looked into her eyes.
"Are you gonna be okay?" He asked.
Eren looked down at her hands as she leaned against a wall. "I… I don't know…"
"Hey, don't think too much about what's happened right now," Gunther interjected. "The time for that can wait. Focus on what's happening: we need to get to your basement before the Colossal titan's temper tantrum makes it so there's no basement left to find."
As if on cue, the ground shook violently as Colossal titan screamed once more, decimating more of the city. Shingles fell off of the house they were next to and one landed on Sasha's head, causing her to wince in pain and cover a bruise on her head with her hands. Realizing the steaks of the situation, Eren tightened her fists and clenched her eyes shut.
'He's right,' She thought. 'This isn't boot camp anymore. This is real. I don't have time to wine and cry about who betrayed who, or if I happen to be a girl now. I have a job to do, and I need to do it.'
"I know where my house is!" She said, then beckoned everyone to follow her.
The group then hurried through the streets as the Armored titan was being restrained by the scouts, with several nets being thrown down onto him while Levi was sent to help deal with the Colossal Titan. The four of them ran down the street, passing by rubble from the original titan attack, and empty houses that used to hold entire families. They eventually reached what remained of Eren's childhood home, and found a latch door leading to the basement. There was a brief, awkward moment where Eren's key wouldn't fit into the lock, so they ended up ramming the old, delapodated door down and hurrying inside as another roar shook the city once again. However, upon entering, the rumbling of the Colossal Titan's roar caused rubble to pile up in front of their only exit.
Armin began hyperventilating, but Sasha quickly covered his mouth, warning him to save his breaths, while trying her best not to panic herself. All four of them became so mentally preoccupied with the fact that they were trapped in there, that they completely forgot to even look for what was hidden down there.
-P-
"SHIT!" Ymir shouted.
"What are we going to do!?" Frieda asked frantically.
"Why does it matter?" Annie asked. Frieda and Ymir looked back at her, surprised by her statement, as she continued. "If Eren dies in there, his- er… her power will be transferred to the next Eldian baby. With any luck, it's in Marley, but if it's not, Marley can always just come back and find them."
"Annie, do you not realize that this is our best chance at ending Battra's curse?" Ymir replied. "Without Eren, we're basically back to square one!"
"It doesn't matter. I've checked the Cuse's stipulations through the memories." She then pointed accusingly at Ymir. "You're the only one Battra will free from this damn place once the powers are united again, so what do I care if that moron dies or not?"
Ymir was left unsure of what to say at that moment, but then Frieda spoke up. "Well, what if the Scouts capture Reiner and Bertholdt before they capture Eren? Who will be around to capture the new Founding, Female, Attack titan shifter then?"
Annie glared at Ymir for a moment before looking away and crossing her arms. "Check my memories. They'll show the training I did for how to get out of situations like these."
Friesa gave a smug smile before switching to the Female titan memories and watching Annie train to use her power in small, enclosed spaces surrounded by allies, something which even Ymir herself didn't do, so she was quite impressed when Annie made it work. While Frieda was watching through these memories, Annie and Ymir looked back to the present.
-I-
The commotion from within Shingonshina could be heard for miles. And within this radius of earshot, it wound up waking up one of the two sleeping giants outside of the district. Isabella Tatopoulos slowly awoke from her slumber and rubbed her eyes. After fully awakening, she saw a titan four times the height of the wall rampaging throughout the walled city. She stood up and scratched herself with her foot before knocking on Gigan's forehead.
[Hey, Gigan, something's up in the town.]
No response. Unfortunately, try as she might, she couldn't awaken Gigan from his shutdown. Sighing audibly, Isabella realized she would have to face something over twice her height alone.
As the Colossal Titan roared and rampaged, Isabella was quiet and careful with each movement. Her dorsal spines began to vibrate as she entered a camouflaged state that made her practically invisible and allowed her to move so carefully and delicately that she could stand right on top of people's houses without even the slightest bit of structural damage. As Isabella crept towards the Colossal Titan, she saw the Scouts on the ground around it, many of them injured or on the brink of death, either from the burning heat f the titan's body, or the roar rattling their organs and rupturing their eardrums.
As the scouts tried to regroup and come up with a new plan, Levi suddenly felt something on his head for a moment, before it was lifted up off of it. He looked around but saw nothing, completely unaware of what it could have been. As he wondered this however, he saw a sudden bolt of lightning nearby, which he sent Jean, Connie, and Marco to investigate.
The trio nodded and went to go find out what was going on. Connie, believing that it was Eren transforming again, landed at the spot and with a smile.
"Great timing, big guy!" He called. "We could use the back u-" However he paused when he saw the titan below him.
Jean and Marco soon arrived as well and looked down upon the titan below them. It was short, with a large head and sharp teeth, dark brown hair, brown skin, and long arms with comparatively short legs. The gremlin titan stood before a crushed and burning building, and in its hand was an unconscious and bloody Krista Lenz.
"W-who are you?" Jean asked.
Eventually, Isabella found herself in range of the Colossal titan as it continued to howl furiously. Perched up on the rooves of a neighborhood's houses, she waited for the perfect moment to strike, her grip on one of the houses tightening in anticipation. She waited…
and waited…
and…
Now!
Isabella suddenly released her chamo-mode and lunged from her vantage point, the force of the jump crushing the houses as she landed on the Colossal Titan's back and began slashing at its back with her claws. The Colossal Titan eventually grabbed her and threw her off as steam billowed from his back. She climbed back to her feet and gave a taunting grunt before entering a battle stance, her tail in the air and her hands on the ground, while the Colossal Titan raised his fists in defiance.
Having snapped out of his enraged stupor, Bertholdt began the battle by unleashing a roar right at Isabella. She clutched her ears and squinted, but it was no use, and they ended up exploding, causing blood to streak down her face. Bertholdt then closed the distance and rammed into her, smacking her into the wall and proceeding to pummel her. Isabella grunted in pain with each hit but managed to blast Bertholdt away with a blast of Atomic Breath.
The blast sent Bertholdt flying for miles, giving Isabella enough time to regenerate her eardrums. She then shook off some debris, then jumped out of the way when Bertholdt tried to roar at her again, retaliating with another blast of Atomic Breath which severed Bert's arm. Bertholdt attempted to scream at her once again, but this time, she burrowed underground, leaping up behind him and pinning him to the ground. She then took her time playing with her prey, gently gliding her claws against Bertholdt's naip, when Bertholdt used a last ditch weapon in the form of a massive explosion of steam which launched Isabella into the air and out of the wall, allowing him to exit his titan before Levi can take advantage of his position and go save Reiner.
Isabella landed in a forest outside of the walls, crushing three titans on the way down. She groaned angrily and got back to her feet, then dug back underground to return to Shingonshina. She was digging so fast that she was practically swimming through the dirt and stone. However, while digging, she found herself in a Baragon nest, where a female and male Baragon were both guarding their pups. Isabella attempted to explain herself, but it was ultimately fruitless as the female blasted her with her Magma Heat Ray and then began to chase her through the ground.
-R-
Reiner struggled as the several weighted nets draped over him and the various harpoons launched into his un-armorded spots held him firmly in place. He was trapped, and completely at the mercy of these devils. As his eyes darted around the area, he overheard Hange's gleeful squeals at having caught him, before she jumped down from a roof to get a better look at him.
"Now, darling, behave yourself," she cooed playfully, before placing a hand on his face. "We wouldn't want to have to do something painful to you this soon." She then held one of her blades up to his eye. "After all, it would be such a shame to find out wether or not you can feel pain in this form while I don't have my notebook handy. I tend to take the best notes in the moment, so having to jot it down after the fact would just not be as effective. Oh, but I'm rambling again, aren't I?"
Reiner squinted in response to her, silently making his opinion heard. This wordless statement was picked up immediately by Hange.
"'Do your worst'?" Hange began laughing maniacally before a psychotic, drooling grin stretched across her face. "It would be my pleasure~"
However, she was suddenly distracted when she heard two of her comrades being cut down by Bertholdt, who proceeded to cut the harpoons in Reiner's arm, allowing him to break free from there. Hange jumped back and glided back to the rooftops as Reiner rose to his feet and began running down the street once more, crushing Scouts that didn't make it into the air in time. Bertholdt then landed on one of his shoulders and anchored himself to it. Mikasa proceeded to launch herself after Reiner, blades drawn as she tried to down him once again, only to be dodged masterfully as it continued to flee.
"Damnit!" Hange cursed under her breath. "How are we going to catch up with him now!?"
"NEED A HAND!?" Connie called. Hange looked behind her and up, and saw Jean, Marco, Connie, and an unconscious Krista riding towards them on top of a quadrupedal titan that was leaping from building to building before stopping in front of her.
Hange placed her hands on the sides of her head in shock and excitement as she saw them riding a titan, and only grew even more excited when Connie asked the titan to explain, and called it 'Ymir.'
"Y-you mean to tell me that-"
"Yeah, I'm Ymir," She said far more clearly than Eren was able to. "I already know you're gonna want answers, but right now, we don't have time. We need to stop Reiner." Ymir then plucked Krista off her back and handed her off to Hange. "Here. Take her to a medic, quickly."
With that, Ymir ran off, leaping from building to building once again in pursuit of the Armored Titan. As Mikasa soared through the air, she saw Ymir beside her, assisting her in her pursuit of the Armored titan. For the time being, Mikasa decided not to ask questions, simply appreciating that the new Titan Shifter in town was on her side at least for now. As they kept chasing him however, they realized that Reiner was headed toward Eren's house. Upon realizing this, Mikasa tried to speed up as much as she could and go for Reiner's exposed shoulder, but Bertholdt parried her attack as Reiner gew closer and closer.
-P-
Ymir opened Reiner's memories and could see that he was even closer to Eren's house than before. She clenched her fists nervously, then looked back past Annie, who was watching Bertholdt's memories to get some idea of what he saw in her, and towards Frieda, who was still watching Annie's memories. "Frieda, whatever your plan is, we're running out of time!" She called. "Reiner's almost at Eren's house!"
"Don't worry, I'm just about done," she replied.
"With what?"
"I memorized the exact points Annie's training involving escaping these situations with her powers so that we can pass it on to Eren."
"Why didn't you just ask me to unlock Annie's memories?"
"We don't have time to make her question why she's remembering things about Annie's past, so I only memorized the point where Annie was actually training, with no dialogue referencing her," Frieda explained. "This way, it will be easier for Eren to figure out what she needs to do."
Ymir nodded. "Alright. You know what to do then."
Frieda took a deep breath, and began giving her order, "Ymir Fritz, I command you to gran Eren Jaeger only the memories of Annie Leonheart that I had been extensively studying, and give her the idea to use these memories to free herself and her allies."
Ymir's eyes began to glow light blue, as the sand around her began to twirl in a sudden swirling wind surrounding her.
"Your wish is my command…"
-R-
Suddenly, before Reiner could reach the house, a huge, skeletal hand suddenly burst out of what remained of the house. This surprise stalled Reiner long enough for Ymir to jump onto him and begin clawing at him, her powerful bite able to crack Reiner's armor and knock Bertholdt off. Mikasa meanwhile swung down to the hole that the hand had created and looked down to see Eren, Sasha, Gunther, and Armin. She was relieved that her friends were alive but was horrified to see the state Eren was in. Looking down into the surprisingly intact basement, she saw that Eren was pale and shivering, and her nose was bleeding heavily. Armin held her in his arms, as she was too weak to even stand upright.
"ARMIN!" Mikasa cried as she leaped down into the basement with them. "What happened to Eren?!"
"W-we got trapped down here," He explained. "S-so, she volunteered to use her power to help us escape and…" He brushed his thumb beneath her nose, wiping away some of the blood, only for more to take its place. 'It looks like it wiped her out…"
"Eren…" Tears welled up in Mikasa's eyes as she held her hand gently. However, they were distracted when they heard Ymir screaming as she was flung overhead and into a nearby building. Reiner then peered into the basement and attempted to reach down and grab them. Mikasa and Gunther managed to cut through his fingers, then fled the basement as Reiner began chasing after them, Mikasa carrying Eren on her back.
However, before Reiner could catch up with them, Jean and Marco suddenly swooped in and slashed at him, shattering their own blades in the process, but distracting him long enough for Ymir to rush in once again with a slash of her claws. She skidded in front of him, and he attempted to kick her in the jaw, only for her to dodge roll out of the way, and unhinge her jaws to bite down on the front of his neck.
Reiner managed to pry her off, but her attack left his head dangling lazily with most of the muscles and tendons ripped out and his back partially exposed. Jean immediately tried to take advantage of this vulnerable state. He zipped around Reiner, making his way up to the neck, prompting Reiner to cover his neck with his hand when suddenly, he howled in pain as he felt someone slash into the other side of it. Jean and Reiner both saw that it was Connie, who cheered as he swung past before Marco tackled him out of the way as Reiner swiped for him.
Ymir then leaped up and sank her teeth into that arm, grinding her teeth on his armor before properly sinking them into his flesh. Reiner stumbled forwards as Ymir tugged hard, about to tear it off, when Bertholdt suddenly flew in, about to slash her naip, but his attack was suddenly blocked by Jean, who proceeded to kick Bert down to Reiner's shoulder, then tumbling to the ground, where he managed to climb back to his feet just as Jean landed in front of him with a fiery look in his eye. Bertholdt responded to Jean's gaze by cracking his neck and spitting in Jean's direction before the two's blades clashed with eachother.
The two were constantly switching between ground combat and aerial combat, their steel blades clanging together as they slashed at eachother. Jean's superior speed allowed him to get a few more cuts in than Bertholdt could, but neither man was able to get a good hit on the other, not helped by Ymir and Reiner's continued brawl now more akin to a continued chase.
Eventually, Jean managed to break Bertholdt's blades while the two were in the air. Realizing the bad situation he was in, Bertholdt used his ODM gear to swing through the air, latching onto a nearby roof and slamming Jean through it, resulting in both of them landing hard into the one-floor house. Jean tumbled and coughed up blood as he crashed into a dining room table, scaring away a family of rats. He then looked up and saw Bertholdt also beaten up by his landing, but able to get up quicker thanks to his heightened regeneration. He reached to unsheathe another set of blades when suddenly, both of his arms were severed from behind.
Bertholdt wailed in agony as Jean widened his eyes, seeing Levi standing behind Bertholdt with a pair of bloody blades. Both of his legs were then sliced off, leaving Bertholdt to writhe on the floor as blood gushed out of his shoulders and hips.
"You're lucky Erwin wants you alive," Levi snarled, before turning to face Jean. "Can you stand?"
Jean grunted as he supported himself on a couch arm. "Y-yes sir!" He grunted, clutching his pelvis.
"Good. Let's get you out of here," Levi replied. As Jean passed him towards the door, Levi gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder. "You did well, soldier."
Jean sighed softly. "Thank you, sir." With that, he limped onwards, eventually being picked up by Marco and Connie while Levi strapped the limbless Bertholdt to his back and carried him away.
-I-
Meanwhile, Isabella rose from beneath the ground covered in soot and scorches. She kicked Baragon in the face, forcing him back underground, before kicking dirt over the burrow. Having made the executive decision to not try going underground after her fifth Baragon nest encounter, she decided to simply jump the wall. She stepped back a few hundred meters, sprinted at incredible speeds, and then hopped right over the wall, landing right in Shingonshina. She announced her presence with a mighty war cry while baring her teeth and claws… and received no response.
She awkwardly looked around and scratched her head, thinking maybe it was hiding or something, but no. It seemed that the Colossal Titan was gone. Shame. Isabella would have liked to settle the score. However, seeing the Armored titan chasing after several of the Scouts, she figured she could take out some of her frustrations picking on it for a bit. So she zipped over to it and snatched it off the ground, the little human riding on it falling off as soon as she grabbed it. It wriggled and writhed fearfully in her hand as she playfully flicked it on the head, and put the top half of it in her mouth a few times just to scare it.
She giggled as she watched it freak out, before looking down and noticing that the Scouts were apprehending that one human that was riding on the Armored Titan. Isabella shrugged and then continued to play with the Armored titan, before handing it to the humans after hearing one that called herself "Hange" ask for it quite politely once you get past the shouting.
With her job now done, Isabella curled up and went back to sleep. Or at least she tried to but she was kept awake by Hange screaming with excitement begging Moblit to get her notepad.
-G-
Several hours later…
The red lights on Gigans body turned back on as Gigan reactivated. He yawned and stretched his arms before standing back up, feeling quite refreshed after a long night of slumber. He then unfolded his metallic wings and took to the skies, first and foremost going to Shingonshina to check on the Scouts.
Upon arriving, however, he found that the city was in even greater ruins than before, with most of it completely decimated. He then noticed Isabella standing guard over two cages which, upon scanning them, he found contained Reiner and Bertholdt. He then overheard Commander Erwin and the other higher-ups of the Scouts debating what should be done with the girl known as Ymir. He was confused by all of this, so he tried calling out to Eren, hoping to find out what was going on, but received a response from Isabella.
[She can't talk right now,] she said. [She's in a coma.]
{She who?} Gigan asked.
Isabella raised an eyebrow in response. [Um… Eren? The girl you were trying to call?]
{I think you're thinking of the wrong person, because as far as I know, Eren's a guy.}
[Not from what I heard.]
Now even more confused, Gigan had Pelops do a scan of the city to find Eren. Pelops' scans turned up negative initially until he picked up on a girl the exact same age as Eren, and with strikingly similar physical traits, in a coma in a nearby safe house. After discovering this, Gigan then slowly looked back down at Isabella with only one question on his mind.
{What the hell happened last night?}
[A lot.]