Sup, Stryker here. I usually don't do intros but I feel it necessary to mention to you guys that the outro to this chapter is pretty important.
That aside, please enjoy.
And then… there were two.
A Gundam and a Titan Shifter.
A Pilot and a Traitor.
A Soldier and a Warrior.
A Friend… and a Foe.
No words were exchanged between the Elites as they stood a respectable distance away from where the two behemoths were situated, with Levi frowning at the sight before them while Mike exhaled sharply, not enjoying the putrid scent of hatred emanating from the cockpit of the Gundam.
Hanji was lacking her usual enthusiasm as she simply frowned at the sight before her. Usually, the prospect of observing a Titan Shifter test itself against the might of a Gundam would've been… pleasing to her, to say the least, but even so, with the context of just who Mikazuki had to fight… Zoe found her enthusiasm quickly dying out as she felt a large amount of pity for her junior. She could only imagine how painful it must've felt for the pilot, to be facing off against someone he used to consider a friend…
"That's our cue. We should leave, now," stated Levi, with his words abruptly pulling Hanji out of her thoughts as she stared down at him, only to notice that he was staring up at the sky alongside Mike. Following his gaze, the bespectacled Elite blinked when she saw a Blue Flare being shot skywards from the top of Wall Sina, an order from the shooter for all soldiers to evacuate, posthaste. Mike was quick to give Ackerman an affirming grunt of acknowledgement before the short stuff jumped off the building and began to leave the area, though as for Hanji…
"Hanji. We're evacuating," stated Mike bluntly, to which the aforementioned woman blinked before shaking her head righteously to snap herself back to reality. At that, she blushed a fair bit in embarrassment before nodding meekly, eliciting a snort from Zacharius all the while.
"Y-Yeah… understood, Mike," responded Hanji sadly, with her slouching a little as she spared the scene before her one last glance, eliciting a raise of Mike's brow all the while. "Lead the way…"
"Is something wrong, Hanji?" asked Mike, with him tilting his head a little as he spoke. Her scent was mostly drowned out by the stench of the action happening around him, but even without it, he could tell that she was distressed, and upon acknowledging his words, the bespectacled woman chuckled bitterly.
"Yeah… it's just that… I know that Erwin has his reasoning for this, to pit those two against each other and all that… but this just seems… cruel, you know?" commented Hanji, with her frown somehow deepening as she spoke. Mike's response to this was to nod in apparent agreement, with him exhaling sharply as he turned back to see the two giants stand off against one another, before responding.
"Admittedly, it does sadden me as well, to know that Mikazuki is fighting against someone he used to hold dear. But you must remember that this-"
"Is for the greater good of humanity, blah blah blah. I know… I get that. But sometimes, I just wish that we could be less cruel in our methods…"
Mikazuki Augus was a walking contradiction, and he himself knew of this perfectly well.
Some claimed him to be honourable whereas many others called him boorish. Many viewed him as a threat whilst some saw him as a friend. He considered himself patient where others saw him as conniving… and he saw himself as an irredeemable murderer where others saw him as a beacon of hope for humanity. Simply put, nothing about Mikazuki was truly set in stone, as even his scent was incredibly difficult to pin down, so much so that even Mike has given up by now.
And even now, as he sat within the cockpit of his Gundam, with Mina alongside him, sprawled out on his lap, the pilot's self contradictory nature found itself resurfacing yet again as he stared out at the Titan Shifter standing before him, with her posture hunched over in panic and her eyes widened to the point where they seemed ready to pop out of their sockets. The sight of the Female Titan… nay… the sight of Annie Leonhardt staring at him in such a way made Mikazuki feel rather… uneasy as he grimaced and allowed his anger to falter, if only by a little…
… though not long after, his anger resurfaced once more as he acknowledged the fact that Annie had, seemingly, turned her back on all of them. He had given her a chance to show that she cared more for them than she did Marley… and she blew it. Her actions today, the simple act of her transforming within the confines of Sina, solidified Leonhardt's stance as one of Mikazuki's enemies, and the pilot would deal with her in the same way as how he's dealt with all of the others that had opposed Tekkadan in the past.
He would crush her with extreme prejudice.
Grimacing, Mikazuki practically snarled as he had Barbatos take a step towards Annie, who was still healing from the injuries she had sustained. Despite this, her injuries didn't stop her from taking a wobbly step back as she knew that, even at maximum strength, she wouldn't last too long against a pissed off Mikazuki piloting his Gundam, however damaged the unit was, though before the pilot could have his unit advance any further, he was halted when he felt Mina's smaller hand fall atop his own.
"... Mina?" mumbled Mikazuki as he snapped out of his stupor for the briefest of moments, with him glancing towards the aforementioned young woman shortly thereafter. He found himself raising a brow when he saw that… confused look that was present on Mina's face as she stared up at him, though he kept his composure in check as she spoke to him in a scared yet… defeated tone of voice.
"Mika… what… w-what do you mean… that… that's not Annie… r-right?" muttered Mina as she glanced frantically at Mikazuki, who appeared… unsure on if he should answer that question as he looked away silently, something that didn't bode well with Carolina as she seized both of his shoulders in a somewhat awkward manner thanks to how she was sitting on his lap and squeezed them both. "Mika… y-you're playing an elaborate prank on me… r-right? Please say yes… p-p-please…!"
"Mina…" was all Mikazuki could say at that point as he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, and by the time he reopened them once more, he found his heart breaking by a considerable amount when he saw… tears welling up in Mina's eyes. Tears that told the pilot that she was still in denial of this whole situation, but at the same time, she seemed to know that he was telling the truth despite her not wanting to believe it whatsoever.
"I'm sorry."
And right as those words left his lips, the cockpit flashed red as the Alaya-Vijnana system warned the duo of an inbound projectile approaching the Gundam at high speed.
Annie wasn't sure why Barbatos had stopped approaching her after just a single step, but regardless of the reasoning, she knew she had to make her move before whatever technical issues happening in its cockpit could be resolved.
Attacking it fair and square was very much off the table at this point, as the Gundam, even in its damaged state, had the power to eviscerate her within a moment's notice. Her best bet would be to outrun the thing, but that in itself was a massive gamble as well, as she had no doubt in her mind that, when combined with the power of the six thrusters attached to its body, Barbatos would be able to catch up to her within seconds, possibly less! Mikazuki's knowledge of just how Annie's mind worked didn't really do her any favours either, as it meant that he could predict her next move if given enough time, something that further stacked the odds against her as she looked around for a potential way around the unit.
It didn't take long before Annie's gaze fell upon a broken building that lay not too far from where she stood, and upon seeing it, she took note of a decently large chunk of debris laying on the ground. Gulping a little when she saw it, the Female Titan calculated the risk that came with doing what she was about to do, and after doing so, she found herself grimacing as she began to slowly inch her way towards the debris. She was partially aware of how the suboptics of her opponent were tracking her movement, even as the Gundam itself remained unmoving. Each step she took towards the chunk of debris felt incredibly sluggish, something that wasn't exactly unexpected thanks to how she had been dragged across a quarter of Sina beforehand, but this downtime allowed her to regenerate as much of her injuries as she could before she had to run from Barbatos.
About fifteen seconds later, Annie had found herself standing directly in front of the debris that she had been eyeing, and shortly thereafter, she glanced over at Barbatos one last time before taking in a deep breath through her nostrils… and right before she exhaled, she crouched down, picked up the large chunk of debris, and threw it directly towards the Gundam, with her hoping that the impact would shake its systems up enough to give her some time to escape.
Unfortunately for her, however, Barbatos was able to recover from whatever hiccup it had been experiencing briefly, with Mikazuki grimacing as he shot forwards to better control his unit while Mina cried out in instinctual terror. In an instant, the Gundam brought its right arm up, with it making use of the blue gauntlet on its forearm to defend against the inbound projectile, and upon hitting the unit's 'shield', the debris broke apart, clouding the Gundam's upper half in a thick cloud of smoke and dust all the while.
'Shit,' was the first thought that came to Annie's mind when she saw that her attempt to disorientate Barbatos had failed, and not long after, she found herself widening her eyes in terror when she saw the Gundam bend its legs at the knee before it sprung skywards, leaping towards her in an instant. Within the cockpit, Mina cried out once more, with her still wholly unfamiliar with the speed that the unit was capable of achieving as she clung onto Mikazuki for dear life, though vice versa, the pilot himself focused everything he had on crushing Leonhardt underfoot as the Gundam descended upon her.
Unfortunately for him, however, the traitor was able to dodge away from the impact point rather quickly, with her lunging to one side within a moment's notice. As she righted herself back up, the blonde Warrior turned back to see that Barbatos was already turning to face her, and as she did so, she activated her hardening ability on the lower half of her head, specifically around her mouth, something that didn't go unnoticed by the unit's pilot as he turned and swung a punch at the Female Titan.
As with the lunge attack, Annie was able to avoid the brunt of the punch by leaning to one side and twisting her torso away from the Gundam's fist, and it was certainly for the best, as the aftershock of the punch had left a decently sized imprint on a building twenty metres behind her, a testament to the damaged unit's strength. Regardless of its power, however, Leonhardt still suppressed her fears as she lunged forwards and hardened her shoulder, with her then using that shoulder to tackle into Barbatos' cockpit, rattling it slightly.
Mikazuki himself was mostly unaffected by the hit, though Mina, who was in both an awkward position (without the aid of the seat dampeners) and also unused to cockpit jostling, ended up crying out in fear as her arms instinctively went around Mika's body for support. Mina's actions resulted in the pilot being unable to recover fast enough, causing his Gundam to stagger back once or twice before Augus was able to have it regain its footing, and by then, Annie had used this blunder to her advantage and had turned on her heel and began sprinting towards the damaged gates of Sina.
"Kh!" groaned Mikazuki as he felt his anger rising by the second, and as he did so, he nudged Mina off him and activated all six of the unit's remaining thrusters. Carolina perked her ears up when she heard them warming up, though unlike her first time riding in the unit, Mika had not waited for them to warm up completely before he put his foot down. Rather, the moment they were ready for use, he stepped down, hard, on the acceleration stepper, causing Barbatos to go from stationary to mobile within the blink of an eye.
"GAH!" cried Mina as the G-force from that abrupt acceleration hit her in full, though as for Mikazuki himself, the pilot barely even flinched as he leaned forwards, ignoring how Carolina was clinging tightly onto him as the unit boosted onwards. It didn't take long before they caught up to Annie, who had glanced back just in time to see the Gundam right on her tail, and as it drew closer and closer towards her by the millisecond, the unit pulled back one of its arms and splayed its digits out, ready to bury them into her back within an instant…
… however, right as Barbatos was about to swing its arm unit, Annie… did something rather unexpected. Out of desperation, Leonhardt had dug her heels into the ground in order to halt her sprint away from the Gundam, and right as the sharpened digits of the unit were about to make contact with her back… the traitor jumped. Going against the momentum built up from her sprint, Annie Leonhardt had performed a leap of faith towards Barbatos, and by some ungodly miracle on her part, the Female Titan was able to jump straight over the unit's outstretched arm, something that shocked even herself as she landed behind the Gundam in a crouch, and as the unit itself dug its heeled feet into the ground to halt its charge, it turned back towards the Female Titan… just in time for it to throw a right hook aimed directly at its head unit.
"... hmph," groaned Mikazuki, with him feeling a begrudging amount of respect towards Annie as he felt the phantom pain of being punched via the Alaya-Vijnana system. For all it was worth, as an opponent, Mika could at least admit that Annie's technique was as flawless as it ever was, and if they had been sparring, he reckoned that he would've even found it in him to compliment her for being able to even pull that maneuver off… but alas, the two of them were not friends, not anymore… and where he'd actually compliment her, the pilot instead had Barbatos clench its left manipulator into a fist.
And mere moments later, Annie found herself widening her eyes in terror when she saw said fist rocketing straight towards her.
"... something isn't adding up here."
Those words were spoken by Armin as he observed the battle from afar, with his eyes reflecting an uncharacteristically calculating expression as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The medical team had evacuated all injured soldiers out of the region by now, and against the wishes of his superiors, Arlert had remained behind to observe the battle from afar. At first, the soldiers present were all convinced that the battle would be heavily tilted in the Gundam's favour, something that the blonde had agreed with initially, but after Annie's unexpected display of athleticism, the junior soldier found himself doubting that this would be so one sided.
Beside him was the MPB medic that he had helped previously, with him appearing rather concerned with Armin's words as he glanced in his general direction. Opening his mouth, the soldier seemed keen on asking the junior on what he meant, exactly, but before he could say anything meaningful, a nearby blast cut him off, with both soldiers having to bring their arms up to shield themselves from the aftershock moments later.
"Kh!" tsked Armin as he held his arms up to shield at his eyes, with him lowering them moments later to see Annie leaping off the roof of a building, one that was quickly caved in when Barbatos moved in and punched it into oblivion. Thereafter, Leonhardt landed on the Gundam's shoulders before kicking off them and landing behind it, where she made an attempt at striking at its exposed waist. The strike did little to phase the unit, but Leonhardt being able to even pull any of what they were seeing off was… impressive in its own right.
"How is she doing this…?" muttered the medic next to Armin, who had fully expected Annie to fall within the first few seconds of combat. His words made Arlert feel rather… disappointed as he glanced over at his supposed superior with a rather neutral gaze, though not long after, he shook his head and explained the situation.
"The terrain. It's… suited in her favour, as strange as that may sound," stated Armin, with him narrowing his eyes at the sight of Annie's evasive maneuvers. The traitor bounced from foot to foot as she avoided several hits from the Gundam, though it didn't take long for one strike to connect, with Barbatos' manipulator crashing into one of Leonhardt's hardened arms, obliterating it in an instant and sending her soaring backwards. "The wide open battlefield gives her space to move and evade, and since we're not sending in any reinforcements to help distract her, Annie can move freely and focus on dodging."
"But… I do not understand… the reports I read all state that Barbatos was much faster than this!" cried the soldier as he flinched when the Gundam missed a punch that would've otherwise connected were it not for some… outside disturbance, and to that, Armin found himself nodding in apparent agreement as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Yeah… you've got a point there…" was all Arlert could say at that point as he acknowledged the truth behind those words. Though he hasn't really fought by it all that much, Armin had enough visual experience with the Gundam to know that its speed and agility far surpassed that of even the Female Titan. But even so, its movements were sluggish and delayed… was it damaged? The blonde vaguely overheard during one of their planning sessions that the unit's left arm was apparently heavily damaged, but even so, the right arm unit should be working normally… and yet, it lagged behind just as much as the left. Barbatos' footwork was also rather shoddy, as its stance wasn't as solid as it usually was.
'Just what exactly is going on with you right now, Mikazuki…? Are you hesitating to fight Annie with all your strength… or is something truly wrong with Barbatos?'
In hindsight… allowing Mina to ride with him in the cockpit was a horrendous idea.
It was honestly a spur of the moment decision back then, something he decided upon without thinking, but now that he was actually fighting, having her laying on his lap was very much a distraction to him.
Unlike the situation with Bertholdt, Mina was smack dab on the pilot's lap rather than standing by the back of the cockpit's empty space. In hindsight, the pilot probably should've told her to do that whilst they were in transit from Karanses to Sina, but his mind had been too focused on pummeling Annie that it had slipped it completely. The fact that Carolina's body was pressed up against the right side of his own made things more difficult as well, as, despite her not doing so intentionally, the young woman would frequently tighten her grasp around Augus whenever the cockpit was jostled severely, something that hampered the pilot's response and recovery time as he attempted to bury Leonhardt.
Of course, there were other reasons as to why he couldn't focus completely. Mikazuki was still a guy at the end of the day, and although he liked to think that he was immune to such things, his body still responded… positively to Mina being so close, though he was able to keep those thoughts at bay as he focused on killing Annie.
With a grunt, the pilot pushed one of the arm controllers forward and lashed out at the Female Titan, who managed to twist herself around the strike and managed to land a kick against the Gundam's hip. The unit barely flinched as Mikazuki grimaced and moved to lash out at Leonhardt with, though before the strike could connect, Annie lifted her other leg up and kicked off the unit's hip once more, in turn pushing herself away from Augus in the process.
Landing in a rather dramatic backflip, Annie recovered just in time to duck under a haymaker, courtesy of the Gundam before leaping backwards to avoid being crushed by its fist. The Gundam's balled up manipulator had buried itself deep into the ground and, upon being pulled out of it, the unit had a good chunk of debris in its grasp, debris that it flung towards Leonhardt, and the speed at which they were thrown made it feel as though she had been hit by a shotgun blast. The debris tore through the opposing monster's body with very little issue, injuring her greatly as she staggered back from the attack.
Despite this, she was quick to turn her attention back towards Mikazuki, or rather Barbatos, as she grimaced and got ready to disengage in some way, though before she could do as such, she widened her eyes when she saw the Gundam quite literally jumping at her with one of its arms pulled back. In a split second decision, the Titan Shifter dodged to one side, with her jumping to the left to avoid the punch, which had hit nothing, but the aftershock of the failed hit had caved a building that stood no more than ten metres away inwards on itself, somethin that sent shivers up both Leonhardt and Carolina's spines.
Whilst she dodged the first hit, however, Annie was unable to recover fast enough to pull away when she felt the Gundam reach forward and grab onto her ankle. Widening her eyes at this, the traitor flinched as she felt herself being dragged towards her opponent, and once she was close enough, she aimed a kick at Barbatos' head unit. The strike had connected, with it cracking one of the unit's suboptic cameras slightly all the while, though aside from that, the unit was barely affected by the hit as it simply swung her into the closest building.
Even with the foresight to harden her body before the impact, Annie still felt the full brunt of it, with chunks of smaller debris gouging into her flesh and the larger ones simply impacting her before breaking. After she had been slammed through the structure, the Gundam tossed her into the air, where she was caught by it once more, this time around the neck, and slammed into the ground twice over, and after the third and final slam, Barbatos raised her up and threw her towards a decently large structure.
Said structure just so happened to be the bell tower for the western wing of Sina, and on impact, Annie, who had hardened part of her body to survive the collision, had ended up demolishing the building as she quite literally broke it in half. Shortly thereafter, the top half of the bell tower began to fall forwards, with it crashing into the ground moments later, burying Leonhardt beneath the rubble all the while. To top it all off, the bell that once sat atop the tower came crashing down moments later, hitting the ground with an excessively loud BANG and launching a massive cloud of smoke skywards all the while.
The sound of Annie being buried under the rubble didn't sit too well with Mikazuki, with him frowning as he watched the cloud of smoke around the impact point settle. All the while, Mina observed everything happen with her eyes widened and her mouth agape, covered by her hand, and after a few moments of solemn silence shared between the two 104th graduates, the young woman glanced up at her friend and eyed him warily.
"Mika… is… i-is Annie…?" began Mina, with her glancing up at her friend worriedly as she spoke. She… wasn't thrilled to learn of what the answer to her question might be… but even so, her curiosity had to be sated in some way, even if it would only hurt her in the end.
In spite of her fears, however, Mikazuki ended up responding with a shake of his head, a gesture that looked so… defeated, so to speak, as he exhaled sharply and adjusted his grip on the arm controllers. As he did so, Mina felt her shoulders relaxing just a tiny bit as she felt relief flooding her system, though not long after, her relief turned to a small amount of dread when she saw the point where Annie had been buried at began to shift a little. Likewise, a low rumbling noise could be heard as Leonhardt shifted beneath the rubble, and not long after, the spot she had been buried under exploded upwards, allowing the traitor to pull herself out of the debris all the while.
"Annie wouldn't let something like this stop her. She's too stubborn to die," groaned Mikazuki, with Mina not knowing if him saying that was a sign of begrudging respect or him stating a fact. Either way, the pilot didn't say much else after this as he simply tightened his grip on his arm controllers, just enough to be noticeable, though even with his incredibly tight grip, Carolina still took note of how his hands seemed to… tremble just a bit as he watched Annie stumble into a kneeling position behind the smoke that was clouding her form.
'Mikazuki…' thought the pigtailed soldier as she watched Mikazuki glare at Annie via the optic-to-cockpit display, with the pilot's expression being virtually unreadable to those that knew little of him. With that being said, however, Mina knew him well enough to see that the young man was feeling… conflicted about the issue as a whole, and upon acknowledging this, she shifted her positioning atop his lap and leaned forwards to gently clasp her hand over his. Augus took note of the gesture almost immediately, and upon doing so, he glanced down at Carolina, who stared right back at him with a sad look in her eyes.
"Mika… you… y-you're shaking," commented Mina, with her frowning as she spoke. To this, the pilot simply nodded, with him gently readjusting his grip on his arm controllers as he spoke. He supposed that he was indeed trembling a little, though that was to be expected, really.
In truth, the pilot had been rather… scared of this whole situation from the get go. The prospect of actually fighting and killing Annie had sounded very good… about a week ago, when he had just learnt of her deception. But now, Mikazuki couldn't even bring himself to feel a drop of sadistic enjoyment out of the act of pummeling her. His adrenaline had been the one thing that was fueling him to go onwards with his attacks, and now that he had gotten the whole act of pummeling Leonhardt into the ground out of his system, and now that the adrenaline was no longer pushing him to fight her any more than necessary, Augus now just felt… empty inside as he found himself losing the will to attack Annie any further.
Mina's little comment was the thing that made Mikazuki realized just how reluctant he had really been during this whole dilemma. For as much as he wished to deny it, he still very much viewed Annie as a friend in a somewhat messed up way. His mind may have seen her as an enemy, but his damned heart, having been softened up over the past five years, still saw her as a friend… and the conflicting viewpoints that stemmed from logic and emotion didn't help him in any way, shape or form.
"... wouldn't you?" rebutted Mikazuki after a few moments of silence, eliciting a wince from Mina, who simply looked away as she allowed the meaning behind his words sink in. He… wasn't wrong there, honestly, as Carolina reckoned that she would definitely be shaking, were she in his position, and for as much of a hardass as the pilot could be at times, the pigtailed soldier knew that at heart, he was a major softy, and there was no doubt in her mind that this whole battle was affecting him rather severely, if not physically then undoubtedly mentally.
Their conversation was quickly cut short, however, when the on board radar alerted Mikazuki and Mina to some movement coming from Annie's current position, prompting them to turn towards it rather quickly. The sound of metal scraping against the ground could be heard as well, with the sound of chains being tugged on just barely audible via the cockpit's audio receptors. Narrowing his eyes at this, Mika tightened his lips together as he observed Leonhardt's silhouette with narrowed eyes, with him doing his best to predict her next course of action.
His mind was almost immediately filled with things that Annie would possibly do, with him predicting that she'd attempt to throw something at him through the cloud of smoke around her, hoping to catch him off guard. Regardless of whether or not it hit him, she would've earned herself a few precious seconds of time to retreat, something that wasn't on the table for Mikazuki at the moment as he held his Gundam at the ready, fully expecting a chunk of debris to be thrown at him as the seconds ticked by. Sensing the sudden shift in demeanor, Mina frowned and clung onto her friend just a bit tighter, with her not wishing to be flung around the cockpit any time soon.
Strangely enough, however, there was no movement to be heard from there on, with Mikazuki raising a brow at the lack of activity coming from Annie as his muscles instinctively loosened a little. What was Leonhardt playing at, he wondered… surely, she wasn't about to just stand there and play chicken with him, yes? Perhaps she was simply biding her time against him, or maybe she was expecting him to make the first move? Either way, Augus' patience wasn't exactly as long as it usually was, especially now, as he grimaced a fair bit and got ready to close in on his opponent.
Right before he could do so, however… the Alaya-Vijnana system abruptly flared to life, with it alerting the pilot to a projectile coming at him from the left. In an instant, Mikazuki turned towards the aforementioned direction… only to widen his eyes when he saw a bell being swung at him. The massive, two ton slab of metal came flying at the Gundam from its left, though before it could hit it, the pilot swiftly raised the left arm of his unit to block against the strike.
Having been caught off guard by that unexpected attack, Mikazuki had been unable to fully defend against the strike, and as a result, it had rattled both him and Mina up a lot more than he'd like to admit. Before it even hit his unit, Mina had screamed on instinct as she raised her arms up to shield herself, and likewise, Mikazuki, in a strange role reversal, grasped onto her with his right arm as his left arm braced for the inevitable impact, and when that bell struck… it struck hard.
"GAH!" yelled out both Mikazuki and Mina as the bell impacted the side of the Gundam. Barbatos itself was mostly unaffected for the unit… on a surface level, that is. Beneath that… things were looking rather bad for the unit, or at least its left arm unit. The aforementioned unit had been heavily damaged already, what with half a decade's worth of disrepair alongside the damage it had sustained amidst the 104th Expedition. Adding on to that the two tons of metal slamming into it at full force? Well… it was more than enough to break more than a few important bits and bobs within the arm unit as several internal fuses exploded and a multitude of gears, pistons and plates rattled themselves out of place, effectively taking the arm out of commission almost entirely all the while. The cockpit itself began to blare red as the unit's systems scrambled to stabilize its now scrambled systems.
Mikazuki and Mina weren't completely unaffected either. The strike from the bell had sent the unprepared duo slamming into the side of the cockpit as Barbatos stumbled to the right. Mina herself was mostly unharmed, outside of feeling a little unwell thanks to the jostling of the cockpit, but as for her friend, due to him shielding her with his right arm prior to the impact, the pilot had been slammed into the rightmost side of the cockpit with quite a bit of force, and on impact, he felt something fall loose beneath his skin as he gasped out in shock.
"Gah! M-Mika…?!" cried out Mina as she heard her friend's pained gasp, only for her to widen her eyes in terror when she saw that Mikazuki had crashed into the rightmost optic-to-cockit display monitor of his unit. In his attempt to shield her from the impact, the pilot's shoulder had slammed straight into the glass at maximum speed, cracking it all the while. A few smaller shards of glass were stuck in his right shoulder as it slowly went limp around the young woman's shoulders, a sign to her that something wasn't right as she widened her eyes and stared up at her friend worriedly. "MIKA?! Y-YOUR ARM!"
"I… I'm fine…" assured Mikazuki unconvincingly as he glanced down at Mina neutrally, but even under that layer of neutrality, Carolina could tell that he was doing his utmost best to put up a brave front. After all, he was only human, and humans could only tolerate so much punishment before they were forced to retire early, and for as high of a pain threshold as the pilot no doubt had, it would only be a matter of time before he reached his limit.
"You… no! You're not fine, Mika!" yelled Mina worriedly as she watched her friend grab onto his right shoulder, only to recoil his fingers just a little when he felt a searing pain shoot through it. It didn't take too long for Carolina to realize that the heavy hit to the side of the cockpit had dislocated, or perhaps even broken, the pilot's right arm, something that was very much a bad thing for some very obvious reasons. With that being said, however, Mikazuki seemed adamant on ignoring it for now as he turned back towards Annie and grimaced.
"I-" began Mikazuki, with him wishing to assure Mina that his dislocated shoulder was nonexistent, though before he could even say such a thing, the Alaya-Vijnana system flared up, alerting him to an inbound projectile coming directly at Barbatos, this time from the front of the unit. Without even thinking, Augus slammed his foot down onto the leg steppers of his unit, in turn forcing the thrusters to activate and send his unit soaring heavily towards the left, and upon landing back on its feet, the pilot grimaced as he refocused the optical units onto his opponent, who had pulled the pseudo weapon it had back towards herself via a sturdy metal chain. Mina gulped a tiny bit as she watched her friend grimace at the sight that was laid bare before them, though she chose to say nothing as she simply clung onto her friend tighter than she used to.
Rather awkwardly, Mikazuki, ignoring the pain in his right arm, readjusted his unit's footing as he eyed Annie for any signs of an attack. Leonhardt remained beyond his unit's reach for now, with her wielding that pseudo weapon of hers in her hands with very little issue. If he had to be honest, the pilot had to admit to feeling a begrudging amount of respect for his opponent, as even he wouldn't think of using a large bell as a weapon against Barbatos, and he had to admit to being just a bit impressed that she was even able to swing it at him in the first place, but even so, his begrudging respect was overshadowed by his annoyance at his opponent for dislocating his arm and heavily damaging his unit's left arm unit.
"You…" muttered Mikauzki in annoyance as he stepped down onto the steppers of his unit, with him grimacing as he spoke. Mina… did not like the tone of his voice as she gulped and clung onto him tightly as she felt the cockpit rattling as the thrusters heated themselves up, and not long thereafter, Barbatos boosted onwards at maximum speed.
In response to this, Annie narrowed her eyes and swung her makeshift weapon at it at full force.
"She… she's actually fighting back?!"
"It would seem so."
Over by the distance, both Hanji and Mike could only watch on in abstract shock as they watched Annie Leonhardt combat Gundam Barbatos with that bell on a chain that she had dug out of the debris. Honestly speaking, Zoe was stunned by the level of ingenuity behind Leonhardt's actions, but even so, her shock was quickly drowned out by no small amount of second hand pain when she had seen her swing the 'weapon' at Barbatos' left arm unit, with the attack staggering it something fierce all the while.
Thereafter, the Gundam and Titan Shifter had went back at it once more, with the two of them exchanging blows with enough force to send shockwaves rippling through the entirety of Sina. Strangely enough, however, Barbatos' right arm seemed to be completely unmoving now, something that confused the two Elites greatly as they watched Annie swing that bell of hers towards the unit's right, and instead of defending against it, the Gundam was instead struck by the 'weapon', damaging its right side a fair bit as it staggered to the left, only to recover and boost towards Leonhardt and swing one of its legs at her, roundhouse style.
Leonhardt was able to duck under the kick with minimal issue before she sprung backwards to avoid any follow up attacks, and as she did so, she swung her bell weapon towards Barbatos in an upwards arc. The strike connected with the unit's head, scraping off the paint and causing it to stagger backwards briefly, where, during that time, Annie was able to lunge forwards and tackle the Gundam back with a hardened shoulder strike.
"But… why isn't he fighting back as effectively, though… and for that matter, what's with him not using his right arm?" hummed Hanji thoughtfully as both she and Mike raised their arms up to shield their ears when the Female Titan had made an attempt to swing her bell weapon at the Gundam, only for it to swat the attack away with its left arm and lunge forwards at Leonhardt with one of its arms outstretched. Hanji almost found herself smiling when she saw that the Gundam was quick to restrain Annie by grabbing onto the lower half of her face and slamming her into a building, effectively pinning her down.
In a panic, Annie made use of her free hand to strike at the Gundam's arm, though regardless of its damages, it was still sturdy enough to withstand her attacks… or at least one would think that, anyways. Narrowing her eyes, the traitor took note of the exposed forearm tubes that were peeking through the outer frame of her opponent, and without thinking, she grabbed onto them and pulled. Due to the disrepaired state, alongside the damages the unit had suffered, the pipes ended up being a lot flimsier than they would've been had Barbatos been properly maintained, and as a result, Leonhardt was able to rip them out with very little issue. Upon doing so, sparks began to fly from the damaged portion of the Gundam's left forearm, and moments later, the unit's grip on her face slackened, allowing her to harden her feet and kick its chest moments later.
Surprisingly enough, Barbatos had staggered backwards when the strike had connected, perhaps because of how she had kicked it directly in the cockpit, and thereafter, Annie hastily flipped backwards, with her rolling back onto her feet, before she tugged on the chain, sending the bell soaring towards her all the while. As it drew closer, the aforementioned bell impacted the back of Barbatos' knee, forcing it into a kneeling position and allowing Leonhardt to launch herself forwards. Hardening her own knee, Annie grimaced as she kneed the Gundam directly in the face, and although her joint was mangled after such a forceful blow, Barbatos had not gone unscathed either, as its mouthplate was dented by the attack.
Even so, Barbatos didn't flinch all that much from the attack as it raised its damaged but still (barely) functional left arm up to grab at Annie, though its damaged state made it a lot more sluggish than it usually was, allowing Leonhardt to kick at its heat unit with her other leg and launch herself backwards, away from the Gundam. Whilst she was still airborne, the traitor yanked on the chain, in turn yanking the bell towards her, and as soon as that was done, she swung it at Barbatos yet again, this time clipping its right side and folding the metal present on its rightmost chestplate, damaging the vents on it and causing a segment of its blue chestplate to break off in the process.
"What the fuck?!" proclaimed Hanji, shocked at what she was seeing as Mike grimaced, clearly sharing that sentiment as they watched Annie quite literally push the Gundam back. Zoe herself was stunned by the sight, more so because she had a lot of faith in Barbatos' strength, but as for Zacharius, he could only frown as he pondered on the reasoning behind the unit's sudden lag in power.
'It's possible that he's hesitating against fighting a friend of his…' thought the Elite as he watched the Gundam swing at its opposition with its left arm, only for Annie to duck under the strike and jump onto its back. Barbatos almost immediately tilted its Land Boosters forwards and blasted them off at full force, and shortly thereafter, the unit rocketed its back towards the closest building, slamming Leonhardt into it before turning around to see her crumpled against its side. 'Scratch that, he's not hesitating. But why is his performance suddenly so low…?'
That thought had to be cut short, however, when Hanji grabbed onto Mike's arm, getting his attention, before she pointed towards a seemingly random spot. At first, Zacharius was confused as to what she was trying to turn his attention towards, but shortly thereafter, he found himself frowning a little when he saw two figures boosting towards the battlefield. The stench of combat drowned out his otherwise superb sense of smell, but even so, the Elite could tell that at least one of the figures was Mikasa Ackerman, considering how she'd be the only one crazy enough to launch herself into the battlefield.
After all, Annie did have her brother trapped in her maw…
"What're they doing, we should-" began Hanji, only to be stopped by Mike as he frowned and held her back, causing her to gasp a little as she turned to face him. "Mike, what are you-"
"I'll go, Hanji. Head back and assist in the medical side of things. Your assistance there will be better than anything I can provide," ordered Mike, with him frowning as he motioned for Zoe to take her leave. Momentarily, Hanji found herself stunned at his words, though not long after, she grimaced and shook her head.
"You want to go into the fray, alone?! That's suicide, Mike! We need you almost as much as we need Levi!" proclaimed Hanji, with her reminding Mike of just how important he was to the Survey Corps. Deep down, Zacharius, regardless of how narcissistic it might sound, knew that she was right, but even so, the Elite wasn't willing to back down on this matter, as he found the lives of those younger than him to be more important than an old coot like himself.
He was, in a manner of speaking, last year's model, someone that was getting too old for this shit, more or less, and although she was still starting out as a soldier, Mikasa Ackerman had the potential to become much more than Mike could ever hope to be, and when it came down to the choice of himself or her being sacrificed for any reason whatsoever, Zacharius would sacrifice himself no matter what.
"No, if anything you'll probably need those soldiers more than you'll need me," grunted Mike, with him glancing back at his fellow Elite before turning back towards the battlefield. Hanji felt immensely conflicted on whether or not she should disobey his words and follow him into battle, but even so… she ultimately did as she was told as she knew that there was more than a slither of truth behind his words, though before he left…
"Mike!" called out Hanji as she reached behind herself, eliciting a raise of the aforementioned soldier's brow as he turned back towards her. When he did so, Zoe threw a pair of small objects at him, underhanded, and he caught them with little issue before observing them. "Call that insurance for if that bitch decides to use her lungs again."
"Hmph, clever. Thanks, Hanji."
Things were going rather badly… to say the least.
Annie Leonhardt was certainly a slippery one, and with her size and the open nature of their battlefield, the traitor was able to weave around the much larger and damaged Gundam with minimal issue. Add onto that her new weapon, a bell of all things, and she was able to deal some actual damage to the Mobile Suit with very little issue, and after a few moments of being dodged and attacked from seemingly all sides, Mikazuki found himself growing rather tired of this needless song and dance.
If only his arm had been unbroken… he would've been able to make use of his Gundam's right arm to fight back more effectively, but alas, it currently remained limp by his side as he attempted to make use of his unit's heavily damaged left arm to fight back against the Female Titan. Unfortunately, however, the left arm's movements were severely sluggish thanks to its damages. Against other Mobile Suits, the lag in its movements would've been trivial, but against Annie, it was just slow enough for her to dodge with very little issue and counterattack in half that amount of time, something that boded badly for the pilot as he grimaced and attempted another strike at Leonhardt.
Said strike was ineffective, as evident by how Annie was able to dodge away from it with minimal issue before she struck the Gundam directly in the cockpit. The strike rattled the cockpit up something fierce as Mikazuki was left briefly shaken up, with Mika's head impacting the cockpit seat rather harshly, causing some blood to leak from the back of his head all the while. Mina took note of this as she gasped and opened her mouth to point this out, though before she could do so, Leonhardt jumped back and swung the bell on a chain towards his unit, causing it to crash into the Gundam's legs and send it stumbling towards the ground.
As soon as they hit the ground, both Mikazuki and Mina both groaned as the former recovered in an instant and kicked down on the leg steppers of his unit, causing the boosters to roar to life and boost his unit back up to its feet. It did so in the nick of time, as mere moments later, Annie's bell came slamming down onto where Barbatos had fallen, demolishing the concrete all the while.
As his unit landed, Mikazuki found himself inhaling deeply as he did his best to ignore his pained shoulder and focus on the battle itself. It was a lot easier said than done, honestly, as the pilot found himself reaching his limits, something that wasn't particularly common for him as he grimaced and refocused on the battle, and as he did so, Mina found herself feeling a pang of guilt in her heart as she looked away from her friend and back at the optic-to-cockpit display sadly.
'This is my fault… I shouldn't have asked to follow him…'
Over by where Annie stood, the Female Titan swung the bell down onto the Gundam. Barbatos responded to this by raising its left arm up to defend itself, though its damaged joints didn't allow for the unit to do much against it, and on impact, the arm unit snapped down to its side, with the joints having given way by now, leaving the Gundam without any practical way to defend itself as Leonhardt rushed towards it moments later.
'I… I shouldn't have come with him! I should've just stayed behind!'
Grimacing as she approached him, Mikazuki, without thinking, grabbed onto the right arm controller with his left hand and attempted to grab Annie with Barbatos' right arm. However, due to the awkwardness of trying to control a right arm unit with one's left hand, Mika was unable to stop Leonhardt from releasing her hold on the bell chain and leaping up into the air and landed atop his unit's shoulders. Pulling the arm controller upwards, Mikazuki attempted to pry her off its back, though Annie, having taken notice of Barbatos' limp left arm, leaned towards the leftmost side of the Gundam, out of reach of its right arm unit, and clung onto its back tightly.
'I'm… I'm useless! All I did was hold Mikazuki back! I… I… I can't even help him… I…"
Pulling her arm back, Annie narrowed her eyes as she shot it back forwards, slamming her hardened fist into the neck of the Gundam all the while. Moments later, she managed to worm her way through the wires of the unit and grab a fistful of internal mechanisms, including the pistons and cables, and upon doing so, she pulled back, hard, ripping out a chunk of the unit's internals all the while.
Within the cockpit, the lights flickered as Mikazuki winced at the alerts appearing on screen. Optical feeds to the unit's left optic began to fail as the internals were being ripped out of the unit's neck, and not long thereafter, an internal explosion could be felt within the cockpit as Mika winced and leaned away from it. Mina whimpered as this happened, though she said nothing as she watched Mika step down hard on the leg steppers, boosting the unit backwards and into a building to force Annie off his unit's back.
Annie, however, had seemingly seen this coming, as she flipped off the unit's back and watched as it slammed itself into a building, and by the time it had recovered, she was able to leap forwards and deliver a powerful kick to its head unit. Combined with the damage it had received to the left side of its neck, Barbatos head ended up snapping towards the right as the lights in its cockpit flickered and flashed red, alerting both pilot and passenger to the critical state of the Mobile Suit, though at the moment, Mikazuki was unable to properly respond to this as he grimaced and held onto his right arm in pain.
"... kh," was all the pilot could really say at that point as he grabbed onto his injured arm in pain, and whilst doing so, Mina glanced back at him with a panicked look in her eyes. It seemed as though his injury was getting the better of him, and the sight of this made her heart tighten with self-hatred as she grimaced and turned away from her friend and back at the optic-to-cockpit display of the Gundam.
Mina's eyes were quick to widen when she saw Annie approaching them, with one of her arms hardening as she pulled it back. It was apparent to her that Leonhardt intended on ending this fight by demolishing the Gundam with her own two hands, though her reason behind doing so remained a mystery to her. Even so… Carolina knew that allowing her former friend to do such a thing would be a bad idea, and in a panic, she glanced back at her friend, hoping for him to do something to stop her, though she found herself widening her eyes further when she saw that he appeared to be in a state of shock thanks to a mixture of his injured arm and bleeding head, leaving him incapable of piloting effectively as he grimaced and tried to refocus himself on what was going on.
He wouldn't manage it in time, Mina realized, as she turned back towards the encroaching form of Annie Leonhardt and bit her lower lip hard enough to draw some blood. She… hated this. She hated how she had caused most of this to happen. She considered herself to be the main reason behind Mikazuki's current condition, and the main reason as to why Barbatos had been damaged to such a degree, and she knew that, were it not for her presence, his rightmost arm would still be in working order. It was her fault for handicapping her in the first place, and she would do anything to correct her mistake…
… and right as she thought that, Annie swung her arm down at Barbatos…
… and at the same time, Mina, in a split second decision, lunged forwards and grabbed onto the arm controller with all her might, and right as she did so, the Gundam's damaged optics flashed green for a split second before it reached up and held its manipulator up… catching Annie's fist in its palm all the while.
It seemed as though Annie had not been expecting the Gundam to respond so quickly to her attacks, as, as soon as her strike was caught, she froze for a moment, allowing Mina to reposition herself into a sitting position atop Mikazuki's lap as she grimaced and attempted to pilot Barbatos in place of her recovering friend. Staring down at the controls, she attempted to remember how Mika would move the unit around whilst piloting, though after a few milliseconds failing to do so, the young woman instead opted to wing it as she slammed her feet down onto the cockpit steppers, in turn causing the boosters to roar to life.
As this happened, Barbatos boosted itself upwards and, perhaps unintentionally, headbutted Annie, causing her to stagger backwards all the while. Mina grimaced a little at this as she attempted to follow up on that attack, though before she could do so, she found herself pausing as she felt the Gundam swaying as it stood up. Her severe lack of experience with piloting made it incredibly difficult for her to get the unit to stand up properly, much less attack the Female Titan head on, and this fact left her somewhat vulnerable as Leonhardt steadied herself and turned back towards the unsteady unit with narrowed eyes.
"Kh, come on come on…" muttered Mina awkwardly as she attempted to steady Barbatos' footing, though without the input from the Alaya-Vijnana system, the young woman was unable to do so effectively, and as a result, she ended up causing the unit to trip over its own two feet, causing it to fall backwards, only to catch herself by accidentally activating the thrusters, boosting it back up to its feet all the while. Thereafter, Carolina grimaced as she finally got the Gundam somewhat stabilized, and although its footing was somewhat wobbly, the young woman was quick to grab onto both arm controllers and bring Barbatos into an offensive stance. "Alright… I… I can do this… I c-can do this…!"
As she said that, Mina braced herself as she watched Annie rush forwards, readying a strike as she closed in on her opponent. In a panic, Carolina attempted to lash out at her, though her general inexperience with piloting had caused her to react too slowly, allowing Leonhardt to duck under the hit and kick at the back of Barbatos' waist unit. Flinching a little at the impact, the pigtailed soldier turned around and attempted to essentially backhand her opponent with the back of the Gundam's right manipulator, though once again, she was just a bit too slow up the uptake, as the Female Titan was able to duck under the swing before she jumped up and rammed into the cockpit with her shoulder, rattling it slightly and causing the unit to stagger back a few steps.
"Tsk! You made this look easy, Mika…" complained Mina as she hastily repositioned Barbatos back into a sloppy combat stance and attempted to lash out at Annie once more, though as with her previous attempts, the young soldier's attacks were simply too slow to keep up with Leonhardt. That was to be expected, really, as even without the use of a Gundam, Mina wasn't exactly as well versed in hand-to-hand combat as her former friend was, and after a few moments of failing to hit Annie, and after the Female Titan was able to get a few good hits on the Gundam whilst she was in control of the unit, she found herself growing irritated at her former friend's slippery nature as she growled and swung another punch at her. "Stop flitting around, dammit! It's annoying!"
Annie, of course, was unable to hear this as she simply ducked under the punch as per usual, with her getting ready to counterattack whilst the unit was recovering yet again. Mina grimaced at this, with her having grown sick of Leonhardt's slippery nature… though before the blonde traitor could even move to counterattack, Carolina found herself widening her eyes a little when she felt a sudden warmth wrap itself around her left hand, and moments later, she felt Mikazuki's muscular frame press against her back as he leaned forwards and off his seat, having seemingly recovered, if only partially, from his head injury, as he kicked down on the leg steppers.
"M-Mika…?!"
And right as she said that, Barbatos' leg unit launched itself up at Annie, kicking her directly in the chest and sending her stumbling backwards. Thereafter, Mikazuki, still holding onto Mina's left hand, which in turn held onto the left arm controller, with his own, pulled back on the aforementioned controller, in turn pulling back Barbatos' arm unit, and launched the Gundam forwards, towards Annie, before swinging it towards her at top speed. Leonhardt noticed this almost immediately as she held both her arms up to defend herself from the attack, though even with the damages sustained by the unit's left arm, Barbatos was still able to send Annie flying back by the strike. At the very least, thanks to her hardened limbs, she was able to stop her arms from being obliterated.
"Mika…" repeated Mina, with her sounding less panicked and just a little flustered this time as she glanced back at him, and in response to this, Mikazuki simply frowned as he glanced back at her, seeming… almost ashamed of himself as he did so. But even so, he mostly ignored it as he watched Annie recover surprisingly quickly from that initial launch, and shortly thereafter, he turned back towards his friend and said something… unexpected.
"You handle the right arm. I'll control the left arm and the legs," instructed Mikazuki in a neutral tone of voice as he kicked down on Barbatos' leg steppers, and at that, Mina found herself growing rather… confused at what her friend wanted to do at first, though right as she understood what he wanted of her, the G force behind the sudden acceleration hit her in an instant, causing her to be thrown back against her friend as she held onto the arm controllers for support. On the outside, Annie could only flinch as she saw the Gundam suddenly burst towards her at maximum speed, and likewise, both its arms had been pulled back, seemingly for a double punch from both sides, a sight that made Leonhardt grimace within the nape of her Titan as she got ready to dodge…
… only to be duped when, instead of its fists being swung at her, at the last possible moment, Barbatos raised one of its legs up and kicked at Annie's Titan form, with the unexpected attack from him making Leonhardt widen her eyes in shock.. Shock that quickly became pain as she was sent careening into the closest structure, a building, demolishing it on impact. Mina winced a little as she pushed both arm controllers forwards, causing the arm units to return to their original position in the process, though not long after, she widened her eyes in shock when a chunk of debris was flung at her from where Annie had crashed into.
"Gah!" cried Mina as she instinctively raised her right arm up to block the attack, only to find some resistance whilst doing so. Shortly thereafter, she turned her attention back towards the optic-to-cockpit display, only to widen her eyes when she saw that she had unintentionally brought Barbatos' arm up to block the attack, something that genuinly caught her off guard, though her surprise was quickly squashed when Mikazuki followed up on her unintentional defense with a rapid offensive strike by kicking Leonhardt with one of his Gundam's leg units, sending her sprawling onto the ground all the while.
"Nice defense, Mina," praised Mikazuki as he turned his unit towards where Annie had landed at, eliciting a mild blush from the aforementioned soldier all the while. The situation was tense, sure… but even so, genuine praise coming from Augus was hard to come by, and just hearing him praise her was enough to make the young woman blush in satisfaction, though not long after, her attention was brought back to the issue at hand when she heard Leonhardt rising from the rubble, prompting the two to refocus on the fight moments later.
"M-Mika, is your arm-" began Mina, who was more worried for her friend's dislocated shoulder more than anything as she focused on Annie, who had wisely chosen to keep her distance now that Barbatos has shown itself to be fighting 'normally' once more.
"No. The pain is still here, but I'm getting used to it," assured Mikazuki flatly as he eyed his right shoulder uncertainly. To this, the pigtailed soldier frowned as she eyed it warily as well, unsure of what to say in response to that as she simply opted to nod as a response, though not long after, he turned back towards Carolina and offered her the tiniest slither of a smile, a sight that made her heart race a fair bit as she looked away quickly. "I can't control Barbatos' arms all that well now, but I can count on you to do it, right?"
"Y-Yeah! You can count on me, Mika!" assured Mina with a shaky smile as she lifted one of her hands up to offer her friend a confident thumbs up, though as she did so, she raised one of Barbatos' arms up and held its fist up at Annie, an unintentional sign of aggression all the while. The Female Titan seemed to take this as a sign to attack, something that made Mina shudder a little as she remembered how she was in charge of controlling the arms now, and by proxy she was also in charge of the unit's main source of offense whilst Mikazuki dealt with mobility, and as such, she kept herself tense as she got ready for an attack…
… one that never came, as, before Annie could make the first move, the Female Titan abruptly stepped to the side as a small yet noticeable projectile darted past where her head used to be. Both Mikazuki and Mina were caught off guard by its sudden appearance, but even so, they found their initial surprise being replaced by no small amount of bemusement when they saw that the 'projectile' was none other than Mikasa Ackerman, who, after missing her first swing, turned back around and launched herself at Annie once more.
The audio receptors for the Gundam had been damaged when Annie had ripped out some of the wires in its neck, but even so, both pilot and co-pilot were able to make out a few static-ey words being yelled by Mikasa as she shot herself back at their shared target.
"Bas… d! G… ack… EREN…!"
It wasn't much to go off on, but even so… her words, and the mention of Eren's name, was more than enough to give some context behind why Mikasa was here in the first place, and at that, something in Mikazuki's mind clicked.
"... so that's why she had her mouth hardened this whole time," muttered Mikazuki thoughtfully as he watched Mikasa avoid a swing from Annie's arm before she began cleaving her way up the length of the limb, swiftly making her way up to her target before slashing at her jaws, only for her blades to break on impact. Mina seemed mildly confused by this as she glanced up at her friend, though her focus on him was quick to break when the two of them heard something drop atop the unit's cockpit hatch, prompting them to glance back at the optic-to-cockpit display and see that Sasha Braus was present as well, with her standing atop the unit's chest and grabbing onto the edge of the cockpit hatch for support.
"Mi…Zuki! W…ve probl…! An… Er… in he… mo…th! Nee… help br…g through he… ha…d ski…!" proclaimed Sasha, with her voice, due to her closer proximity, coming through clearer than Mikasa's, but even so, it wasn't all that good as it still came in fragmented. Regardless, whilst Mina was momentarily confused by Braus' words, Augus was able to piece together what she meant as he had Barbatos expel some steam from its vents, including the mouthplate, causing Sasha to squeak and swing off to avoid being blown off the unit's chest by the steam, as he grimaced.
"Mika, w-what's wrong?!" inquired Mina as she watched Mikazuki spring forwards, towards Annie, with a frown, and at that, the pilot could only grit his teeth as he closed in on the Titan standing before them menacingly.
"She's got Eren in her mouth."
And for as… horrified as Mina felt at that statement thanks to a mixture of her being shocked that her former friend would do such a thing, alongside her terror at Mikazuki having almost killed Eren on a handful of accounts… the young woman couldn't help but feel disgusted at her former friend for shoving Jaeger into her mouth in the first place.
The sudden arrival of Mikasa Ackerman on the battlefield had really put a damper on Annie's plans, but nonetheless, she found herself grimacing within the nape of her Titan as she swung her arms wildly at the top graduate, attempting to swat her out of the air all the while.
Originally, her plan had been to leave the area as soon as humanly possible, something that had been thrown off kilter when Barbatos had arrived. The unit's presence made her retreat substantially more difficult… for a time, anyways, as through an insane stroke of luck on her part, the traitor was able to find something that could damage the Gundam rather substantially. In her mind, it had been nothing more than luck that had allowed her to fight back against the unit to such a degree, and after being able to push it back this far… Leonhardt had to admit to getting a little… rash as she decided to push her advantage as far as physically possible.
People were just… like that, really. After getting a taste of success, one can't bring themselves to stop pushing their luck. The dopamine rush made it so that when Annie had the upper hand, she found herself unable to pull away as she continued to attack the clearly damaged Gundam, with her breaking through its hardened exterior and ripping apart its circuitry piece by piece. It all just felt so… cathartic to Leonhardt, especially after having been beaten down as much as she has by this damnable machine, so much so that she had chosen to fight rather than flee, something that could've served her well right about now…
Regardless of her terrible choices in life, Annie still found herself ignoring most of her thoughts on the current matter as she focused on swatting Mikasa away from herself. That matter was a lot easier said than done, however, as the top 104th graduate was a slippery little bugger. She didn't hit as hard as Barbatos, that much was obvious, but she was still a deadly foe, and if she wasn't careful, she would no doubt fall to her via death from a thousand cuts.
Swinging her fist at Mikasa, Annie failed to strike her as the soldier twisted around the strike and rolled along the length of her arm. Thereafter, the junior kicked off the length of her arm before attempting to slash at Leonhardt's jaw, though it was a mostly futile effort, as the strike only caused her blades to be broken as she grimaced in anger.
"Dammit…!" growled Mikasa as she kicked off Annie's face to put some distance between herself and her opponent, though before she could get very far, Leonhardt managed to snatch her out of the air and grasp onto her tightly in her hand. Ackerman gasped as this happened, with her attempting to use her broken blades to wretch herself free to little avail, though before the Female Titan could crush her in her grasp, a newcomer swung in and slashed at her fingers, severing them in one fell swoop. Annie felt her shock rising as she turned to see who had severed her fingers… only to see that said person was none other than Mike Zacharius… who was now aiming a flare gun at her face.
"...!" Annie didn't even have time to react before Mike fired a flash flare right in her face. The powerful light being emitted from the blast was more than enough to blind Leonhardt as she staggered backwards and grabbed at her eyes. At the same time, Sasha Braus swung in and snatched Mikasa out of the air before she could become nothing more than a stain on the ground. Grabbing her by the wrist, Braus swung the both of them back up into the air before nodding at her comrade, who mirrored the gesture before she was thrown into the air by the bumpkin, allowing her to replace her broken blades and boost back into the fray moments later.
Before the soldiers could reengage the Female Titan, however, Barbatos boosted into the fray as well, with the unit crashing straight into her with minimal issue. The unit's entire body slammed into the traitor with the force of a tidal wave, causing Annie to stagger backwards as her vision restabilized, though not long after, the unit launched a punch aimed at her head that shattered part of her skull. Shortly thereafter, another punch was directed towards the bottom of Leonhardt's jaw, cracking some of the 'armour' around it as she felt herself being uppercutted by her opponent, though before she could be sent flying by that attack, the unit sprung its left arm unit up and grabbed onto her ankle before it could fly out of reach, and threw her down onto the ground roughly ten metres away from its position.
"Hmph," grumbled Mike as he turned back towards Barbatos with a raised brow, with him raising a brow when he saw just how strangely the unit was positioned. On a surface level, the Gundam looked to be just as passive as it always was… but Mike, being who he was, knew better, as he could see, and smell, that something about the unit's combat stance was off. For a start, the Gundam's scent was very much all over the place, with traces of damage to be detected everywhere on its chassis as it stood in an offensive stance. Likewise, although Mike could very well smell hints of Mikazuki present in the unit's chest, he could also, strangely enough, sniff out the scent of one Mina Carolina in there as well, confusing him greatly as he wondered why her scent was even present in the first place.
Regardless of the reasoning, however, Annie was quick to recover from that strike as she fell into a more defensive stance that seemed rather pointless, considering what she was going up against… but even so, she did manage to damage the Gundam, mainly through absurd luck but it was still substantial enough to take into consideration, and not long after, Barbatos made its move, with it boosting towards Annie at top speed within the blink of an eye.
The soldiers allied with the Gundam had to hold their arms up and make some emergency landings to avoid being flung off to parts unknown thanks to the aftershock of the unit's thrusters, though after they recovered, they had turned back to see the Gundam closing in on Annie, who was slowly backing away as she eyed the unit's left arm unit. It seemed as though the Gundam was about to throw a left hook, something that the Female Titan seemed to be anticipating as she got ready to dodge to the right…
… though mere moments before the hit could connect, the Gundam abruptly slammed its heels into the ground, stopping its progress forwards as it grinded to a halt. At the same time, a sizable cloud of smoke was emitted as the dirt beneath the unit's feet launched skywards in the Female Titan's general direction, clouding it in a dense smokescreen all the while. Having not expected this, the traitor shielded her eyes and swung an arm to dispel the smog, though right as she did so, her outstretched arm was abruptly caught by Barbatos before she was pulled in towards it.
In an instant, the Gundam brought its head down onto Annie's, headbutting her at nearly full force and cracking her skull in the process. Leonhardt would've screamed, had her jaw not been sealed shut by her own hardening ability, though as things were now, she simply held it in as she hastily regained her footing… only to lose it once more when Barbatos abruptly slammed its knee into her chest and forced her onto her back, causing her to land with a thunderous THUD.
'Barbatos' response speed… it's… different from last time!' thought Annie as she attempted to get up, only for the unit's knee to slam down onto her chest, pinning her down, before its left arm reached down towards her mouth. It didn't take long for Leonhardt to realize that Mikazuki had learnt of Eren being trapped within her maw, and upon realizing this, the traitor began to panic as she lashed out at the Gundam in a panic. At first, Barbatos seemed content with ignoring her as it reached down to grab the lower half of her face to rip it off, though when she grabbed a hold of one of the pipes on the back of the unit's shins and pulled hard on it, the pilot took notice and grabbed onto Leonhardt's hand with its right arm unit.
There was a mild lag as the unit's arm shifted a little, though not long after, Barbatos effortlessly ripped off one of Annie's arms, specifically the right one, whilst pinning the other beneath its foot. As for Leonhardt's writhing head, it was easily held in place by the unit's right manipulator, which clasped onto the top of her head tightly to keep her pinned down. As for the left manipulator, it simply reached down and dug its sharpened digits into the crystal-like armour surrounding Annie's mouth. Though damaged, the sharp digits were still strong enough to bypass the traitor's defenses and pierce the crystal armour, and as soon as they were broken through, Barbatos shoved three of its digits into Leonhardt's mouth before using its index digit and thumb to grab onto the outer sides of her jaw.
And with a single pull backwards… Gundam Barbatos ripped Annie's entire jaw off her skull, causing her to scream jawlessly in pain as she writhed harder under the unit's grasp. Barbatos' damaged optics stared down at her, uncaring, as it stood up, releasing its hold on her skull as she did so, and in its left manipulator laid the remains of the Female Titan's lower jaw, which had dissolved away to reveal…
"EREN!"
As yelled out by the top graduate of the 104th, Eren Jaeger's drool-encased body laid atop Barbatos' manipulator, unconscious, as the unit allowed Mikasa to land atop its hand and check on her brother. It watched as she checked for his heartbeat, only to find herself beyond relieved when she heard it beating steadily, though not long after, and before Sasha and Mike could even begin to move to her side, the Gundam abruptly clenched its manipulator up into a loosely balled fist, encasing Mikasa and Eren inside its fingers, and held them away from its chassis as Annie Leonhardt's jawless, one armed body suddenly sprung towards it.
"What in the-" began Sasha, shocked to see that, even after going through so much, Annie was still very much able to move, though she said nothing else as she watched the blonde traitor struggle furiously to grab at the Titan Shifter and his sister, who were both secured in the Gundam's grasp. Neither acknowledged Annie as the latter simply held her brother close, and even as Barbatos elbowed Leonhardt, forcing her to stagger backwards, before kicking her in the stomach, sending her through several buildings, she remained focused on her brother.
After punting Annie backwards, Barbatos was quick to set both Eren and Mikasa down onto the closest uncollapsed building. Sasha and Mike were… surprised at the level of gentleness behind the gesture, something that didn't come naturally to Mikazuki, but even so, they said nothing of it as the duo rushed in to check on the unconscious Titan Shifter, and a quick sniff, followed by a grimace and a sigh, from Mike was quick to put him at ease as he almost smiled.
"Good… he's still alive, though we should rush him to the medical ward as soon as possible to get him cleaned up," stated Mike, with him motioning for Mikasa and Sasha to take their leave immediately. Ackerman responded to that with a firm nod of her head, with her departing as quickly as possible, and Braus offered her superior a rigid salute before doing the same.
In an instant, the two were gone, leaving Mike behind on the battlefield as he turned back towards the aforementioned field… only to widen his eyes comically when he saw Annie Leonhardt's Titan form being thrown in his general direction. Swiftly, he sprinted off the building before he could be crushed under her massive form, with him leaping off it in the nick of time as Leonhardt came crashing down atop the structure seconds later. Despite her harsh landing, however, Annie still made an attempt to lunge after Mikasa and Sasha, presumably to retrieve Eren from them, though before she could do so, Barbatos' damaged left arm sprung out and grabbed onto her ankle as tightly as it could muster, with sparks being emitted from its digits as it grabbed onto the joint tightly, and with all its might, it heaved the traitor skywards and flung her as far away from the fleeing juniors as it could manage.
Mike had to pause to perform a double take at what he had just seen, but even so, his double take was quickly interrupted when the air around him was suddenly pushed back, with Barbatos boosting back towards Annie in an instant. Zacharius found that notion to be rather… unsettling, as he never did take Augus to be the kind of person to willingly charge into the fray to fight a friend… but even so, some things tended to change… and Mikazuki was just as susceptible to it as anyone else.
Shaking his head at that notion, the Elite sighed gruffly as he leaned down in order to prepare himself to jump after the Gundam. In truth, he was confident in the unit's performance and capabilities, but after seeing the Female Titan put up a solid fight against it, Zacharius found himself growing concerned over Barbatos' current capabilities. He thought it would be best if he shadowed the unit and lent his support whenever possible… though before he could move to do just that, the sound of thrusters approaching his position caught his ear, prompting him to pause briefly as he turned to face the inbound soldiers, which turned out to be the gathered members of Squad Mike!
'Has this battle really stretched on for so long that my team has managed to arrive here so quickly…?!' thought Mike, silently shocked at how long this was taking as he watched his team, led by Tomas, boost towards him. The Elite group stopped in front of their Captain and saluted him swiftly, only to be put at ease with a wave of his hand, and moments later, Henning stepped forwards and commented on the battle taking much longer than even he could've expected. Gelgar agreed with that sentiment while Lynne winced a fair bit when she saw what appeared to be a portion of Barbatos' chestplate laying on the ground, having been torn off during the battle, though as for Mike himself, he found himself remaining silent briefly as he let his soldiers speak their minds…
Even with a damaged arm unit, Barbatos had been able to throw Annie incredibly far, with her landing near the ravine in Sina, where she skidded to a halt near the edge of the ravine. Shaking her head as she recovered from that launch, Leonhardt lifted herself back on all fours (or threes in this situation) as she focused her healing on her torn off arm, which let out a massive amount of steam as she hastily accelerated its healing.
In an instant, however, she had to roll away from her current position before she was crushed under the feet of the attacking Gundam, which slammed into the spot she had been sprawled out on moments prior. On impact, the edge of the ravine crumbled, causing Barbatos to drop into the aforementioned ravine moments later, though surprisingly enough, it kept its balance as it sprung from the murky waters of the ravine and rushed towards Annie at full thrust speed.
The unit started off by swinging a right hook at Annie, who was able to just barely dodge under the strike, before lunging to the left to avoid a downwards swing from the unit's left arm. Thereafter, she made an attempt to sprint past the unit, though before she could do so, Barbatos' leg lashed out and sweeped her legs out from under her, causing her to crash to the ground moments later. She would've gasped if her Titan form could vocalise words, though as things were now, she simply rolled to one side before her skull could be crushed under the Gundam's manipulator and flipped herself back up to her feet, where she aimed a kick directed towards Barbatos' now lowered head unit.
Before the strike could connect, however, the unit raised its left arm up to block the attack. Internal circuitry sparked as several minor fuses blew thanks to the strike, though it didn't seem to care as it grabbed onto Annie's ankle and swung her to one side, effectively throwing her in the process. The Gundam ended up throwing Leonhardt into the ravine, which reached up to her knees, soaking her in the murky waters all the while.
The traitor recovered relatively quickly from that toss, with her getting back up and staring at the Gundam, only to widen her eyes when she saw it coming at her once more. The unit lunged at the Titan Shifter with one of its arms, its left arm strangely enough, pulled back and got ready to punch her head off, though the lag in the damaged arm's performance allowed Annie to dodge it with a bit of effort. Another strike aimed at her abdomen via the unit's right arm wasn't dodged, however, and on impact, it sent her crashing into the edge of the ravine, with her breaking some of the concrete in the process as she winced at the impact.
Moments later, the Gundam boosted in, with it aiming a punch at Leonhardt's head, though she was able to lean away from the strike before jumping up and hardening her knee, using it to strike the cockpit with all her might. The strike rattled the pilot and his copilot quite a bit, with Mina being thrown back towards Mikazuki as this happened, causing Barbatos to pull both its arms back in the process. Thereafter, Annie kicked off the concrete behind her and launched herself up higher, allowing her to launch her foot at Barbatos' head unit, with her simultaneously kicking it in the face and using it to launch her away from the Gundam all at once.
The Female Titan landed not too far from Barbatos, back on dry land, and immediately turned towards the gates of Sina. It was probably in her best interest to retreat now, she reckoned, and without a second thought, she sprinted towards the half-broken gate at full speed… only to be stopped not long after when the various members of Squad Mike appeared before her, having boosted in at top speed to slow her advance. Leading the charge was Nanaba, who swung in at maximum speed before boosting down and between Annie's legs, faking her out as the Female Titan swung her remaining arm at her, hoping to swat the Elite out of the air in one fell swoop.
Whilst her arm was still outstretched, Gelgar, Tomas and Lynne swung in after Nanaba, with the two of them boosting towards the top and bottom of the Female Titan. Gelgar made way for the Titan's outstretched hand and slashed between her middle and ring fingers, slicing it in half from there before retreating, causing Annie to recoil briefly, while Lynne and Tomas swooped down to slash at the traitor's legs. At the last moment, however, Leonhardt did manage to harden her skin, and while that did save her from being attacked by Lynne, Tomas was fast enough on his draw that he managed to slash at Leonhardt's ankle before it could fully harden, with his slash just barely missing her achilles tendon as the tip of his blade nicked a tiny portion of it whilst passing by.
Staggering backwards briefly, the Female Titan frowned as she focused on healing her injuries as she put some distance between herself and the newly arrived soldiers, though right as she did so, Mike and Henning, who had used the distraction from Nanaba, Lynne, Tomas and Gelgar, swung in from behind her and aimed twin slashes at the traitor's nape. She noticed it just in time to fully harden her nape against the attack, though the strike was still strong enough that she felt the impact through the coat of armour. In response to this, the traitor turned and swung her regenerating hand at the two, though the attack was easily dodged, and worse still, Henning, who had seemingly anticipated this strike from Annie, swung his blades in an X pattern as her hand drew closer to him, with him slicing straight through the Female Titan's fingers before they could impact her.
After effectively slicing off four out of five of her fingers, Henning retreated from the traitor's range, with Annie's grimacing with her partially regenerated jaw all the while. Whilst she was focused on Henning, however, Mike had circled back around to her and forcefully landed atop Leonhardt's shoulder, catching her off guard briefly and allowing Zacharius to use his broken blade to slash at one of her eyes, blinding it in one fell swoop. The cut wasn't all that deep, but it was still enough to render it useless, however briefly, as the Female Titan brought her hand up to grab at Zacharius in anger, only to find that he had retreated whilst she was processing that pain.
'Tsk… so annoying!' thought Annie, with her grimacing as she attempted to fight back against these tiny yet skillful soldiers. She just needed an opening before she could wipe them all out… but she had to be patient with that… she had to…
"HOLY SHIT!"
… huh?
Blinking a little when she heard Henning swear out loud, the Female Titan watched as the entirety of Squad Mike vacated the area. At first, Annie found herself confused by this, not that she was complaining as this just meant that she'd have more breathing room to escape the place… but not long after, the traitor found herself widening her eyes when she saw a shadow being casted from above her.
Turning on a dime, she had fully expected Gundam Barbatos to be present behind her, and as such, she was ready to dodge.
What she didn't expect to see, however… was an entire ship being thrown at her from the ravine. Said ship was almost thirty metres long and no doubt weighed more than a few tons… and currently, it was flying directly at her from above! Widening her eyes upon seeing this, Annie didn't even have time to process its descent towards her before the thing came crashing down upon her body.
"I… I-I think that was a little too much, Mika."
"Hrg."
Not much else was said between Mikazuki and Mina as the former boosted the unit they were piloting together out of the ravine, with it landing back on dry ground moments later. As it did so, steam began pouring from the various vents along its body, cloaking it in a white cloud before it was dispelled when the unit walked through it, with it approaching Annie's buried body steadily.
In all honesty, something about piloting Barbatos like this felt rather… nice, so to speak. Having Mina constantly on his lap was a bit of a pain… one that he wasn't entirely opposed to… but even so, having to worry about half of his unit's efficiency instead of all 100% of it was certainly a nice change of pace for once. Controlling the leg steppers was a complicated affair, with there being a multitude of steppers that controlled the leg units movements, and having to control it whilst also controlling the arms tended to be a bit of a hassle.
Sure, Mina wasn't exactly the best at piloting, but seeing as how this was her first time thus far, Mikazuki would grade her rather high. B minus, perhaps? She was able to control Barbatos' arms surprisingly well, and whenever she seemed to be messing up on the controls, the pilot would assist her with his still intact left arm, which helped her move the heavily damaged left arm unit of his Gundam around with relative ease.
Throwing the ship had been Mikazuki's idea, as the damn thing had no real use for anyone at the moment, and in his mind, it would've been payback for what Annie had done to his unit with that damn bell. Mina had been, understandably, wary of the plan as she was still a little uncomfortable with hurting, or even killing, someone she used to call a friend, but even so, she relented after seeing the amount of effort Squad Mike was putting into stalling Leonhardt for as long as humanly possible, and after exerting a bit of effort in doing so, to the point where the Gundam's systems, specifically for the left arm unit, began to go into the red, the unit lifted the almost ninety ton ship up into the air and threw it at Annie.
On impact, the ship broke apart with very little resistance, with Annie being thrown onto her back in the process. Thereafter, the wooden structure hit the ground, splintering into millions of tiny fragments in the process as it skidded across the concrete ground. Any and all buildings that were in its wake were demolished as soon as the shipwreck slammed into them, and as for Leonhardt herself, she was buried under the wooden wreckage, most likely too injured to even move at this point, a thought that brought some solace to Mikazuki as he sighed and tapped the main cockpit monitor several times over.
"She's finished," grumbled Mikazuki as he stomped his… their Gundam towards where Annie was laying at. As an extra safety precaution, the pilot tapped another button on the unit's cockpit monitor, causing a bit more steam to burst out of the vents, specifically the chest and shin vents. The steam from these aforementioned vents pushed away the cloud of dust that surrounded Leonhardt's buried body, allowing the pilots to get a good look at her mangled form buried beneath, and when they did, Mina found herself bringing her hands up to her mouth in a form of shock whilst Mikazuki simply frowned and looked away with a mixture of guilt and sadness.
"Kh…" groaned the pilot as he acknowledged just how injured Annie was from that heavy hit. Chunks of wood, both big and small were stabbed through her body, with one particularly sizable chunk being stuck in her rightmost eye socket, and the entirety of her left arm had been severed on impact, with its dissolving remains laying not too far from where she was at. At best, only her right arm, which was in the process of healing, remained partially intact, not that it really made much of a difference as she was unable to move all that much thanks to the debris sticking out of her body. "I should be happy, seeing her like this… but I'm not."
"..." nothing was said by Mina as she fidgeted with the arm controllers uncertainly. The adrenaline rush that came with piloting the Gundam with her crush had faded by now, and with it, the pigtailed soldier began to feel some remorse for what she's done to her friend. Sure, Annie no doubt deserved this for what she's done. Killing dozens of soldiers during the 57th Expedition was no small matter, after all… but Leonhardt always had reason behind why she'd do things, and Mina was certain that she had cause for attacking them as well, and until she knew what that cause was, the young soldier refused to see her as a complete enemy.
A mild rumble within the Gundam's internal systems snapped Mina out of her thoughts, however, as she winced and turned her attention back to the optic-to-cockpit display screen, where she saw that Barbatos had planted its foot down onto the Female Titan's chest, pinning her down all the while. Thereafter, Mikazuki grabbed onto the left arm controller of his unit and pushed down on five buttons present along its grippers. This gesture caused the unit's digits to flex, albeit with quite a bit of lag behind its movements, before it balled itself up into a fist, and not long thereafter, Mikazuki grumbled as he pulled the left arm controller backwards, albeit with quite a bit of reluctance.
"Mika… w-we don't have to…" began Mina, only to trail off a little when she saw Annie, having noticed Barbatos' movement with her one good eye, look away in defeat, seemingly inviting him to strike her down all the while. To this, the pigtailed girl paled a little as she turned towards her friend in a panic, only to find that he appeared very hesitant as well. "Mika…"
"I… I'm ending this," groaned Mikazuki, with a mild tremor audible in his tone of voice as he spoke. To this, the girl atop his lap simply winced as she saw his leftmost hand shudder a little whilst he contemplated sparing or killing the traitor… though after a while, he seemed to make up his mind on the matter as he began to shove the arm controller forwards…
… and the strike could land, Annie inhaled deeply before letting out an ear piercing scream.
This one in particular was much louder than the one from back in the forest of giant trees, and it was enough to shatter the lights present on the Gundam's chest and knees as even Mikazuki and Mina flinched and grabbed at their ears upon hearing it. Squad Mike did so as well, with none of them having seen this coming, with all of them recoiling in pain as the one standing closest to Annie, with that being Nanaba, feeling blood drip from her ears as she grabbed at them in pain.
Mike, however, seemed to be the least affected by the scream as a whole, even if he did recoil from it, though regardless, and after letting out that cry, Annie Leonhardt lunged up to her feet, somewhat shakily, and grabbed onto a thick, broken plank of wood that laid by her side, and with a mighty swing of her arms, she swung it at the Gundam's head unit.
Line break
"Gah!"
That cry in particular came from Mina as she felt herself being thrown back into her friend's chest, prompting him to wince as he felt her back falling flat against him. Thereafter, the two soldiers recovered just fast enough to turn back towards the cracked optic-to-cockpit display, only to flinch when the solid wooden plank slammed into the side of his Gundam's head unit. On impact, both pilot and copilot flinched as the unit's head snapped to one side, and at the same time, the Gundam staggered to the side as it recovered.
Not even a moment later, Annie slammed a fist into the side of the cockpit, specifically its already heavily damaged right side, and on impact, the strike, whilst injuring her fingers, had also dented the cockpit quite a fair bit, to the point where it was bent inwards a little as a few components of the cockpit found themselves rattled up. Mina gasped at that as she flinched away from the damaged portion, and likewise, Mikazuki grimaced as he grabbed onto the left arm controller and swung it towards Leonhardt, though due to the excessive damage, the arm was unable to swing at full speed, thus allowing Annie to duck under the hit.
As she did so, the traitor twisted around to the back of the Gundam and glanced up at the pipes, pistons and hoses connected to the lower portion of the unit's back. Narrowing her eyes at this, the Female Titan made a swift, split-second decision to grab onto them and pull. Mikazuki took note of this almost immediately thanks to the on-board alert system, though due to Mina's current disorientation, they weren't able to respond as quickly as he would've liked, and as a result, before Barbatos even had the chance to turn around to pry the traitor off its back, Annie had managed tear off a handful of hoses and a piston connected to the lower portion of the Gundam's spine.
ALERT. SPINAL SYSTEM DAMAGED. REPAIRS NEEDED.
Turning on a dime, Mina, with a frown, attempted a punch aimed directly at Annie's head, though before it could connect, Leonhardt ducked under the hit, more so thanks to the pigtailed woman's inexperience in piloting, and maneuvered herself back towards the Gundam's front.
ALERT. SYSTEMS CRITICAL. REPAIRS REQUIRED.
Grimacing at this Mikazuki made an attempt to swing the unit's left arm at her before Annie could do anything, with him guiding Mina's hand to swing at the traitor. Before he could do so, however, Leonhardt, exploiting the slow swing speed of the left arm unit, swung her fist out towards the Gundam's cockpit, and at that point in time… Mikazuki could only widen his eyes in shock when he saw that her hand wasn't exactly empty.
REPAIRS REQUIRED. REPAIRS REQUIRED. REPAIRS RE-
In an instant, the cockpit monitor went silent as it exploded upwards, something that caused Mikazuki to gasp out in shock while Mina screamed and held her arms out on instinct, and not even a second later, a large metal rod came ramming through the rightmost side of the cockpit, with it bolting upwards and slamming straight into the top of the cockpit moments later. Mikazuki himself leaned to the left to avoid being struck by the metal rod, which the Alaya-Vijnana system was quick to inform him was a piston that had been ripped from the Gundam's spinal column, with him clinging onto Mina tightly, almost to assure himself of her safety.
"Kh!" growled Mikazuki as he leaned forwards to grab onto the leftmost arm controller of his unit, only to come short of doing so when Annie abruptly rammed into the cockpit with her shoulder. Both the pilot and copilot were sent crashing back into the cockpit seat, with Carolina slamming straight into her friend's chest before rebounding off it, and not a moment thereafter, Leonhardt grabbed onto the centermost hatch of the cockpit and used it to pull herself up towards it, where she promptly hardened her knee and slammed it into the left side of the unit's chest.
Annie's strength came primarily from her legs, and as such, it came as no big surprise that the strike from her knee had much more of an impact than the strike from either of her fists, but even so, neither Mina nor Mikazuki could've expected it to hit so hard that they were both flung towards the right side of the cockpit, though Mikazuki, having been grabbing onto the left arm controller by then, managed to stop himself from slamming into the side of the cockpit a second time.
Mina… wasn't as lucky, however. She hadn't been able to brace herself against anything, and as such, she slammed into the side of the cockpit with quite a bit of force. Mikazuki, too lost in the moment, didn't take note of how his friend had gone limp in his arms as he growled a grabbed at Annie via Barbatos' left arm unit, only for the Titan to hoist herself onto the unit's back and stay out of reach.
Thereafter, Mikazuki grimaced and turned towards the right arm controller, hoping that Carolina could do something to pry her off… though at that point, he noticed that the pigtailed young woman had been completely still in his arms, and at that, he widened his eyes as he gently grabbed her by the shoulder and hoisted her up so that he could examine her. As he did so, the dread began to fill in the pilot's stomach as he saw that Carolina had crashed into the side of the cockpit with quite a bit of force, so much force that she had cracked the optic-to-cockpit display screen rather severely.
And to make matters worse, unlike Mikazuki, who had crashed shoulder-first into the display screen moments prior… Mina had crashed head-first into it with such force that she was now bleeding profusely from her head, something that made Mika widen his eyes in panic as he looked around the area for a way to staunch the bleeding. The fight was all but forgotten in his eyes as he did so, with him ignoring how the piston that had been shoved into Barbatos' cockpit had been ripped out all the while. Moments later, the optic-to-cockpit visual feed for the right optic turned to static, with the Alaya-Vijnana system warning the pilot that something had been stabbed into the unit's right optic, though the pilot, once more, cared little for this as he looked around for a way to halt his friend's loss of blood.
'Your hands.'
Blinking a little at that sudden data stream from the Alaya-Vijnana system, Mikazuki instinctively stared down at his hands and saw that the bandages that Mina had wrapped around them were still present and accounted for. They weren't really all that dirty, as Augus had washed them as frequently as possible, and he never removed them, more out of sentimentality than anything… he'd never think that they could be instrumental for saving his friend's life! Without thinking, he began undoing the bandages from his hands, ignoring the multitude of warnings that were popping up on the unit's monitor as he did so, and as he pulled the last bandage off his left hand with his teeth, the pilot, in spite of his current situation, glanced closed his eyes and spoke to his unit via the Alaya-Vijnana system.
'Thank you, Barbatos. And I'm sorry. Stay together… just a bit longer, alright?'
'It's not fighting back…?'
Those were the only thoughts that ran through Mike's head as he watched Annie Leonhardt land atop the Gundam's shoulders. As she did so, she ripped out the metal rod that she had used to stab into its cockpit and slammed it straight into the unit's right optic, blinding it on that side before reaching down towards its neck and ripping off one of the pistons present there. As she did so, Barbatos simply staggered around awkwardly, with it barely keeping itself on its feet as it backed up into a building, and as it did so, Leonhardt leapt off its shoulders and landed on the ground.
As she did so, the Elite watched as the Gundam's singular remaining optic went dark, with it flickering before its head unit leaned towards one side, similar to how a dead person's muscles slacked as the life left their body. Upon noticing this, Mike grimaced as he realized that both the unit and its pilot could very well be dead by now, and with that in mind, the soldier took a step forwards and got ready to jump into the fray with his men, only to realize that his team were all indisposed. Glancing back at them, he saw that, at best, only Tomas and Lynne seemed to be partially recovered from that high pitched cry, though Nanaba, Gelgar and Henning were still struggling to recover.
Noticing his gaze, Tomas, who had been struggling to stay on his feet, hastily saluted Mike, fully expecting to be commanded into battle once more. Likewise, Lynne, despite falling to one knee, offered Zacharius a thumbs up to show that she was in the game as well. To both… the Captain could only frown as he shook his head at the former, who raised a brow at the gesture, before he motioned for them to retreat. They would do no good on the battlefield, not while their ears were ringing or, in Nanaba's case, bleeding.
"WHAT ABOUT YOU, SIR?!" yelled Tomas, who was unable to properly control his volume thanks to his inability to properly hear, to which Mike snorted and pulled two items out of his ears. Earplugs, a parting gift from Hanji… and the sight of them made Tomas widen his eyes before he chuckled and nodded at his superior's ingenuity. "WELL MET, SIR, BUT ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN BRINGING IN THE TRAITOR?! IT JUST ELIMINATED THE GUNDAM!"
That was a fair concern… one that Mike responded to with a nod, even if he wasn't exactly confident in that as he grimaced. Tomas wasn't particularly convinced by his superior's words, but even so, he had faith in him, and as such, he turned towards Lynne and motioned for them to retreat. As with him, she was initially skeptical as well, though after a quick, reluctant nod, she turned towards their comrades and moved to help them evacuate the area.
At the same time, Annie had begun running towards the damaged gates of Sina, with her having seen this as a good opportunity to escape with her tail behind her legs. Mike didn't intend on giving her any leeway, as he grimaced and shoved the earplugs into his ears once more before boosting towards the fleeing traitor. For all intents and purposes, this would very well be his death's sentence… and yet, he embraced it with all that he had.
For he was a soldier, and his job was to die for the cause.
The bandage had been wrapped tightly around Mina's forehead, and in spite of the lack of medical knowledge that the pilot had with him, Mikazuki couldn't help but feel relieved as he leaned forwards and breathed in heavily. He knew that the wrappings wouldn't do much to staunch the blood flow… but even so, it was better than nothing, and with his friend (hopefully) stabilized, the pilot leaned back in his cockpit seat and took a brief respite.
His respite only lasted all of two seconds, however, as the pilot glanced up to see that Annie, who had been attempting to flee whilst the unit was disabled, began combat against an unseen soldier. Said soldier moved with elegance and grace… but even Augus knew that it wouldn't be long before he was defeated. At best, he was stalling for time. At worst, he'd be dead within the next minute. Neither was of any real interest to the pilot as he closed his eyes and… rested.
He was so tired… he just… he just wanted all this to end. This pointless battle brought about by Annie's ridiculous loyalty to a family that only saw her as a Warrior and nothing more… it was absurd. Mikazuki shouldn't have responded to that accursed flare… he should've just remained where he was at Karanses and let the soldiers handle this situation. If he did, he wouldn't be in this mess of a situation.
If he did… Mina would still be alright…
"... what do I do… what do I do… what do I do…" muttered Mikazuki repeatedly, with him finding himself directionless for the first time in five years. His ability to be independent had increased whilst he was away from Orga, but now, he was stumped as to what his next course of action should be. He… he just wanted to lay down and sleep, preferably forever, at this point, as he grimaced and held onto Mina's unconscious body tightly, but deep down, he knew that was not what he truly wanted to do.
"What should I do next… Orga…?"
…
…
…
"We'll do what we've always done, Mika."
Blinking a little at those words, Mikazuki Augus stared down at the flickering cockpit monitor and widened his eyes when he saw that it was playing back a recording from Orga Itsuka. At first, he was confused as to why this was happening… but then, he realized… the Alaya-Vijnana system…
"We'll crush everyone that gets in our way."
"That… gets in our way…" echoed Mikazuki, with his tired eyes regaining a new glow of energy when he heard this. Thereafter, Augus glanced up and saw that the Female Titan once more, and this time, he found himself gaining a new level of vigor to combat it, no holds bar this time, as he brought his arm towards the left arm controller of his Gundam, grabbing it tightly as he did so. Likewise, he placed his feet down onto the steppers before sighing deeply to himself, with him making sure that Mina remained firmly on his lap before he reactivated Barbatos once more. "I understand, Orga.
"We can't stop moving forwards. If we do, we'll never reach the place we truly belong… and even if I'm on another world, I will never stop moving forwards…
"Not now, not ever…"
Mike… was really struggling to hold the Titan back on his own. Even as an Elite, the soldier was only able to do so much against an intelligent Titan, and as the seconds ticked by, he felt his fatigue catching up to him as Leonhardt continued to swat his repeated attempts at slowing him down away.
His attempts at slashing at her heels had failed, she had been able to avoid the blasts from his Flare Gun… and she was able to harden her body quick enough to defend against any and all of his attacks. Such speed was commendable, if incredibly annoying, but even so, if this kept up, the traitor would be able to escape into the district of Stohess, and though they had soldiers waiting for her there, just in case, the property damage would certainly not be a good thing to stare at, especially considering how all of western Sina had been leveled by now.
Grimacing, Mike made an attempt to swing in to slow Annie down once more, at least long enough to allow for reinforcements to come in to assist him, though before he could do so, the scent in the air abruptly changed, with it going from a mostly neutral scent, one that was to be expected when on the battlefield, to one that reeked of murder. And not long after… the sound of thrusters could be heard in the background, and upon hearing this, both soldier and traitor widened their eyes at that, with the former boosting backwards to avoid being rammed into paste by the encroaching monster while the latter only had a split second to react before the Gundam crashed into her back.
Annie had the foresight to harden her back before it impacted, but as Barbatos slammed shoulder-first into her back, causing her to slam into the ground moments later, the unit was quick to flip back onto its feet and grab onto the back of her neck with its manipulators, and not even a moment later, it threw her to its left, effectively cutting off its escape route all the while.
For all it was worth, Mike found himself gulping a little as he saw just how damaged the Gundam currently was, and he only flinched just a bit more when he saw the unit rip the metal rod out of its right optic like it was nothing, allowing it to clatter to the ground moments later as it watched Leonhardt get back up to her feet, dazed but still in the match.
In just a few moments, she would've wished that she wasn't, especially as the Gundam, in an instant, boosted in front of the Female Titan at breakneck speeds…
"How dare you…"
Mikazuki threw a hard left hook.
"How dare you."
A backhand with the Gundam's left hand.
"How dare you…!"
A punch to the stomach with its left manipulator, and all the while, his right hand twitched a little as the rage piled up within the pilot's heart.
"How dare you!"
A punch to the traitor's face at full force, sending her soaring backwards. Annie recovered relatively quickly mid-flight as she attempted to stand back up, only for Barbatos to rush in and punch her one more time with its left manipulator, cracking her skull and forcing her back once more.
"HOW DARE YOU?!"
And as his anger reached its boiling point, Mikazuki lifted his dislocated arm up and grabbed a hold of the right arm controller, ignoring the searing pain in his shoulder all the while. It felt as though his entire right arm had been dipped into lava as he moved it, but he cared not for any of that as he grabbed tightly onto the controller and forced it to strike Annie in the stomach. Its manipulators dug deep into her flesh as Barbatos ripped out one of her ribs, and thereafter, it stabbed it into her collar before kicking her back.
Before she could even recover from that, the Gundam boosted straight into her once more, with the sheer strength behind the impact causing her to stagger backwards, though before she could get too far off, it sprung its right arm forwards, grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her towards its head, slamming the side of its head unit into her skull all the while. The outer armour of the Gundam collided with her skull with the force of a tidal wave, destroying half of it in an instant as she was sent spiralling backwards.
Another strike was aimed at Annie's chest, followed by a rising knee to her abdomen, forcing her to lean forwards and fall on all fours. As this happened, Barbatos reached down and grabbed onto the back of her neck, where it then hoisted her up and over its head before tossing her towards the closest building. Leonhardt landed with quite a heavy thud, demolishing the building all the while.
Shaking her head as she recovered from that launch, Annie turned back towards Barbatos… only to see that it was launching itself towards her once more. Not giving her time to react, its right manipulator slammed into the side of her face, destroying her lower jaw as she staggered backwards. As this happened, Mikazuki felt something tearing through the flesh of his right arm, though he ignored it, even as Annie raised one of her arms to block another hit from his Gundam. Even when hardened, Barbatos' right arm ripped through her flesh like it was nothing, with its powerful punch collapsing Leonhardt's arm into itself before she was sent soaring backwards from the strike.
Landing on her back, Annie made an attempt to get back up, though it was thwarted when Mikazuki had Barbatos land directly on her back, severing her Titan form's spine beneath its feet all the while. Thereafter, the unit picked her up and held her up to eye level with its right arm, and moments later, she instinctively swung one of her slowly regenerating arm stumps at his unit's face. On impact, the partially hardened stump of flesh barely made the unit flinch, but even so, the silence that followed was excruciatingly deafening, so much so that even Mike, who was watching from the sidelines, felt chills going up his spine as the seconds ticked by.
And not a moment later… the green optics of the Gundam began flickering, with the once green glow now bleeding into red as the unit's pilot felt his anger surging by the second. Slowly but surely, he tightened his grip on the traitor's neck, just tight enough to make it hurt, but not enough to actually kill her, and not even a moment later, he slammed her into the ground.
Annie had enough precognition to harden her entire back as this happened, with her managing to survive the impact as she jawlessly cried out in pain, though the Gundam wasn't finished with her just yet. As soon as she hit the ground, Barbatos fired up all of its thrusters, in turn sending it boosting through the grounds of Sina, dragging Annie Leonhardt on the ground alongside it. If she could, Leonhardt would've screamed as she felt her back being torn asunder by the friction between it and the concrete beneath her, though as things were now, she silently took in the pain before she felt her back being slammed into the Wall of Sina.
On impact, the entire Wall shuddered briefly as a sizable crack began forming along the length of the structure, causing several of the Wallists that were able to take note of this to scream out in shock as they saw the unthinkable happen. Likewise, the soldiers up top felt their balance being thrown off as they struggled to keep on their feet, with one in particular nearly falling off the edge on accident, only to be saved by his compatriot at the last moment.
By the base of the base of the wall, the Female Titan went limp briefly before lifting her head up to see that the Gundam still had its manipulator wrapped around her neck. That aside, it was also holding her up to eye level whilst keeping her pinned to the wall. Upon realizing this, Annie, in one last act of defiance, reached up with her partially regenerated arm and smacked Barbatos' own with her stump. The gesture didn't do much, but it did tell the pilot that she was still very much willing to fight, and as such, he had to beat the fight out of her to make her yield.
And right now, only one thought came to his mind as Mikazuki Augus prepared to do something stupid…
Without hesitation, Augus slammed his feet down onto the steppers at the base of the cockpit, causing all the thrusters to explode to life as they began to build up power. Annie was confused at why it was doing this at first, though not long thereafter, the traitor found herself widening her eyes in shock when she saw that the Gundam was now boosting itself skywards, with it dragging her along with it. As it did so, the unit dragged her back against the wall, creating a massive crevasse along its length as it did so, and all the while, the unit's grip around her neck did not falter.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" proclaimed Hanji from ground level as she and her fellow soldiers watched this happen, with Squad Mike sharing her sentiments almost completely. Erwin… said nothing, even as he watched the Gundam effectively carve a path into the Wall, though he knew that the repercussions of this would not be light on any of them.
As the Gundam dragged Annie up the length of the Wall, the soldiers up top scattered, with them knowing that if the unit managed to hit them on its way up, they would be done for. Some even lunged off the edge of the Wall to save themselves when the Gundam came close to the 40 metre mark, and by the time it reached the top of the wall, the edge of the structure exploded outwards as the back of Leonhardt's skull impacted it.
"Holy whoa!" cried one of the soldiers that just barely avoided being hit by the debris, with him landing on his back as this happened. The other soldiers present, however, remained silent as they watched the Gundam kick off the edge of the wall, causing even more chunks of the structure to break off in the process, and launch itself back towards Sina, where it then positioned itself atop Annie's body as it began descending downwards, using her Titan frame as a shield as they fell.
The ground came quickly as the pilot had employed the use of all six thrusters to increase the speed and severity of the final blow, though before it could come, several of the soldiers present ordered for their men to evacuate. They did so without question and fled the area in an instant, with none of them wishing to be near the epicenter of this potentially titanic blast…
… and then… it happened.
Barbatos and Annie Leonhardt hit the ground, with the very earth itself shaking beneath them on impact. A massive crater formed beneath the unit's feet on impact, with it taking up almost one tenth of the space in western Sina, and the aftershock of their landing had caused every structure within a mile radius to be destroyed by the shockwave.
The dust that shielded the two combatants from their 'audience' was thick… and yet… those that paid attention could just barely make out the silhouette of the Gundam in a kneeling position. Sparks burst from most of its joints as it lowered its head down into a dormant state, and at the same time, its cockpit hatch shifted open, allowing its pilot to emerge from the unit's chest all the while.
One of the unit's manipulators was held aloft from its side. Its right manipulator… and atop it… was what remained of the Female Titan. Or rather… atop its manipulator was the dissolving neck of Annie Leonhardt's Titan form. It was… the only thing that had survived the fifty metre fall, something that Mikazuki had been hoping for when he performed that maneuver in the first place, but even then, it had been a risky maneuver on his part.
Various other body parts belonging to the Female Titan littered the area around them. The traitor's torso had been liquified on impact, though her head and legs were visible in the distance, with the former laying not too far from Barbatos' kneeling form while the latter were by the unit's side. Those were mostly irrelevant, however, as the pilot held onto his dislocated shoulder in pain before he jumped off the cockpit of his unit and landed atop the palm of its manipulator.
Upon landing atop it, Mikazuki glanced down at the dissolving neck of the Female Titan, with it evaporating into nothing but smoke as the seconds ticked by. Moments later… it was gone, and with it out of the picture, only the Titan's host remained.
Annie Leonhardt.
It was obvious to Mikazuki that the battle had taken its toll on her. The traitor's attire had been mostly burnt off by now, with her MPB jacket gone, burnt up whilst she was still in the nape, and her parka shredded, though more than enough remained to protect her decency. Her leggings had been burnt off in random spots as well, giving her an overall undignified appearance, though then again… dignity was the least of her concern at the moment, and it wasn't as though the pilot was faring any better at the moment anyways, what with his dislocated arm, bleeding head and the thick layer of sweat covering his body from overexertion.
Regardless of outward appearances, the pilot ignored the pitiful state that his former friend was in as he simply eyed her down harshly. For her part, Annie had the decency to look away sheepishly as she lowered her head in shame, and at the same time, Mikazuki reached into his pants and pulled out his pistol. Using his teeth, Augus was able to pull back on the slider before aiming the weapon at his… enemy's head, and at that… Leonhardt didn't even seem to care as she closed her eyes and accepted her fate.
A fate… that didn't come. Mikazuki told himself to pull the trigger. He… ordered his body to move. And yet… it did not. His body asserted a force that went against his typical killer instinct, something that was not common for him as he struggled to overpower the emotions that were keeping him from pulling back on the trigger.
He was not winning.
After a few moments of silence, Annie quickly took notice of her former friend's reluctance as she turned to stare up at him. Noticing his quivering hand, the traitor frowned and gripped tightly onto the barrel of the gun, almost daring the pilot to shoot her as she did so, and whislt doing so, she closed her eyes and spoke.
"I… broke your arm. Gave you a head injury. Killed dozens of our comrades… and I've been actively trying to kill you. you have every right to kill me, Mika," assured Annie solemnly as she forced him to take aim, and her words just sounded so… defeated… hollow as she spoke. something that sat badly with Mikazuki as he looked away and grimaced. "You promised, didn't you? To kill me. Make do on it… and just… end my torment. I've failed as a Warrior, as a Soldier, and now… as a Friend. To continue living would be to live in eternal shame."
"..."
Mikazuki's thumb pulled back the hammer.
"..."
His thumb then released the safety…
"..."
His index finger tensed…
"..."
And shortly thereafter…
"... no."
Annie found herself widening her eyes when the pistol barrel was suddenly ripped from her grasp, and not long after, she was struck across the cheek with the handle of the gun with the force of a tidal wave, breaking her jaw as she fell to one side. Thanks to a combination of fatigue, pain and being hit in the head, Leonhardt felt her consciousness fading away as she landed atop the unit's manipulator, though before she lost consciousness, she watched as Mikazuki fell to his knees and grabbed onto his dislocated right arm in agonizing pain, and moments later, he glared at her with… tears(?!) falling from his face and onto the metal chassis of his Gundam.
"That would be… the easy way out. And you don't deserve it, Annie Leonhardt."
As those words left him, both Mikazuki Augus and Annie Leonhardt collapsed atop the palm of the Gundam, with the soldiers present on the battlefield rushing in to restrain the both of them all the while.
And all the while… amidst the several soldiers that were moving in to retrieve the two abnormals from the battlefield… only Hanji Zoe took notice of the evaporating smear of blood that was present on Barbatos left optic, with it almost appearing as though the Gundam was crying as it held the two former friends in its manipulator stoically.
Sup. I did say the outro was important, and it's in relation to the somewhat... shoddy quality of the chapter.
Long story short... this chapter's writing period was incredibly messy. I kept redoing the chapter and taking breaks in between writing since I couldn't properly articulate what I wanted to write out in words. It's honestly a miracle that I even managed it in the first place. Then there's the fact that I wrote this chapter in two different areas, at home and in an office building.
That aside, I've been stressing out over whether or not people will enjoy what I've written here since it's not as one sided as one would expect, but only time will tell if you guys enjoyed the chapter, yes?
Oh and uh... whilst writing this chapter, I got COVID-19. Yeah, bummer. I'm recovered now but it really forced me to sotp writing for almost an entire week. Got back to writing the moment I recovered.
So uh... yeah that's basically me trying to tell you guys why this chapter isn't all that good. The build up was definitely more of a journey than the actual fight, but even so...
Review replies!
Guest (Mrwaitwhat): ah I see... I thought you misinterpreted the first few chapters back when I saw your first review!
quadehays4: cliffhanger... over! And probably not in a good way
Guest (Sauronwashere): THERE WILL BE BLOOD SHED!
BanzEye: I believe Barbatos' theme would be either the main theme of IBO or Surface of the Iron Blooded Orphans, depending on your preferance. And regarding Mina knowing about Annie, I wouldn't say she knew. More like she suspected until now.SilentGentlemen: well he didn't show them everything, per say... but he did his best! And regarding Marley... stay tuned.starscreamer11: :)cassnova5424: she did fuck up... until she unfucked up... for a momentTouhoufanatic: well as of now, the right arm has run out of 170mm shots. The left arm's ammo has been melted into its interior after being struck by lightning.
Guest: well, she wasn't exactly mauled... more like incinerated.
Dead344156: I just enjoy cliffhangers!
Guest (Guestleo): ... both Renn and I have given up on trying to decipher your riddles. You just... keep doing you I suppose.
Drake016Pha: hah... break. What's that?
Originally, Nac was meant to appear, but he was cut for the sake of time, though his scene will be rewritten for a later chapter. Likewise... to those wondering why Barbatos didn't completely steamroll her, Renn and I have been planning on showing that Barbatos was degrading over the years. We did sprinkle a few hints here and there in previous chapters, but this chapter would've been the perfect time for us to show that the Gundam was in heavy disrepair. Also as ana dded crutch, Mina was there to handicap Mikazuki, even if she did shine a little in the end.
That, and I'll be honest here, just having Mikazuki and Barbatos breaking in to snap Annie in two wouldn't make for the most entertaining of chapters to read or write.
See ya'll next chapter!