A/N: I was going to wait to post this to give the previous chapter time to breathe, but today is Reiner's (and Zeke's) Birthday, so what better way to celebrate than to post a new chapter for you guys!
Chapter 48
The cell door screeches open, and to Willow's surprise the Scouts make no move to leave their imprisonment. She expected them to spring into action and head for higher ground where Eren and the Marleyan forces are clashing amongst one another, but they all remain planted in their respective locations. Maybe she shouldn't be shocked that they wouldn't so willingly spring out of their seats and follow her to what they believe to be their deaths; she doesn't have a track record with keeping people alive.
Willow grits her teeth and tightens her fists at her sides when she hears another thunderous clap of lightening, followed by the rumbling sound of buildings crashing above them. Pieck has entered the fight now, and they are battling against Eren.
"We don't have much time," Willow turns back to the Scouts. "We need to get going now!"
"Why should we trust you?" Connie questions her as they all remain behind the bars. "Why should we help you with Eren when all you want to do is kill him?" he begins yelling now. "We're not on the same side! This is your battle, not ours!"
Willow clenches her teeth trying to hold in her anger. "This war became your problem when you crossed the Sea and retaliated by killing thousands!" Willow reminds him.
"And fighting with Marley isn't going to change anything!" Jean chimes in. "Having them fight back against Eren is just going to keep them in power forever. Nothing will change!"
"I'm sick of it!" Connie yells at her. "Reiner breaking down the wall, you killing all those Scouts, Eren crossing the Sea. I'm so sick of the endless fights! Why should we do a damn thing for Marley when they are just going to continue attacking us!"
"We could use the rumbling to protect the island," Armin speaks up now and Willow turns her shocked eyes to him. "Nobody will dare lay a hand on Paradis for the next fifty years if we initiate the Rumbling!"
"Listen to yourselves!" Willow shakes her head in disbelief. "There won't be anyone left if Eren activates the Rumbling!"
"Eren can use the Titans within the walls of Shiganshina to crush the Marleyan forces that have come here and end this war," Armin tells her. "Once they are all dead, there will be no need to use the other walls."
"And what's to stop him from using the Titans in all of the walls?" she challenges him.
She scans the Scouts for their reactions to this, seeing that Armin—against what she thought to be in his character truly believes that Eren would only use the Titans needed to end this battle and not all of the walls.
Jean remains in the back, towering over the others with his jaw clenched, and she's not sure where he stands on this situation.
"You can't seriously think this is the right thing to do?" Willow beseeches Jean with a slight shaking in her head. She knows that he wants to do what is right for others, and that he cares deeply for those around him. She saw the way that he protected Hange during the retaking of Shiganshina, and knows that Jean is a good man.
"I've been calling Eren a suicidal maniac ever since we met in the Cadet Corps," Jean begins. "I always knew that shithead would lead us straight to hell if we gave him the chance." Willow holds her breath, expecting him to take her side in this. "But even knowing that, I was still jealous of him, for being cool enough to do it," she shakes her head at his words with slightly enlarged eyes. "It pisses me off just to say this, but I'm not ready to see Eren die just yet!"
"Me either," Connie continues. "I owe that guy a beatdown, but Marley can get the hell back in line!"
Willow looks away from them, knowing that she's failed in convincing them otherwise. If she fights now, she will have to fight against Eren, the Jeagerists, and now Reiner's old friends. If they aren't willing to help her, then they will be targets to her. They will pose a direct threat to her nape and her peaceful dream of living out the rest of her term with Reiner.
Willow turns to the ravenette in the room, "What about you, Mikasa?" she questions her. "There was once a time where you were willing to die at my hands if it meant getting Eren back," she says, thinking about their multiple altercations with one another and how they were both a thorn in each other's side to put it lightly.
"Are you willing to let Eren lose his humanity for this?" Willow asks Mikasa, but leaves the question open ended for the rest of them.
When none of them speak up, she puts her head down at her inability to convince them otherwise. "I'm not going to let him destroy this world." Flashes of faces she was never allowed to forget zap against her memory as she thinks of the smiles, and laughs, and moments that made her feel something beautiful. Both memories within the Scouts and in Marley, she is reminded of everything that is worth fighting for.
Levi's words on the stable ring in her ears that night when they looked into the sky.
"I choose to see the beauty."
"I won't let Eren move forward with this plan," Willow speaks up to them. "And I won't let Marley use Titans against anyone either," she promises them with so much conviction in her voice, that every other decree she's made was meaningless.
"Fight me if that's what you choose," she says and suddenly Eren's words have meaning to them. She blinks as she looks at his friends "I don't want to kill him," she admits to them, "But I will do everything in my power to save the ones that I love." She looks up at them now, "And I won't fault you all for doing the same."
Willow turns from them and leaves them with that. She grits her teeth as she heads up the stairs knowing that they will not have her back as much as she expected them to. She isn't sure how she will manage to fight against Eren and his friends, but she knows now what is right. She knows that this is her will—not Zeke's, not Erwin's—her's.
Willow makes her way to the armory, expertly dodging two Jeagerists who stand guard. She can hear the Armored and Attack Titan fighting one another in the distance, and she promises herself that the Female will join in that fight, but she wants to make sure that she is prepared for any outcome by getting outfitted with gear.
The Female Titan is agile and fast. In a fight against Reiner's Armored, she's been able to effectively evade and fight back. Though he can end her quickly with a single well-aimed hardened hit, she can outlast him in any battle of attrition. If she attains little-to-no damage to her Titan form, Willow is unsure just how many times she can go in and out of the Female Titan since she trained up her threshold to turn, and has the advantage there.
She has had four years protecting and fighting alongside Reiner. They know how the other moves and can anticipate attacks from all angles. They trust one another implicitly and she will do everything in her power to keep him safe.
It takes her a while, but Willow finally finds the old style ODM gear with blades. It took her embarrassingly too long to figure out how to use ODM gear, and she's not comfortable with the new set up to accompany guns and spears. She readies a cache of blades and takes in a deep breath. She still feels like an imposter wearing the Scout uniform, but in ODM gear, she can't help but feel at home.
Sailing down the sky with his parachute in tow, Reiner scans the area below him. From his vantage point, he can see Pieck and Galliard in their Titan forms fighting against a newly turned Eren. His golden eyes frantically search the ground floor for his companion, yet he cannot find the blonde amongst the battle. A constricting feeling coils around his heart as he thinks about where Willow is in this moment and wanting to know that she is safe.
He shakes his head of the dread clouding his judgement and focuses on the fight before him. His eyes reach Eren's as they lock onto one another. There is a connectivity of electricity crackling between them, and his heart races at how this battle will pan out.
Every time that Eren and Reiner have engaged one another, Reiner has been in a muddied headspace. He's clearheaded, with a purpose now that he believes in. There is a means to an end now with his life, and Eren is the obstacle keeping him from living out the rest of his term with Willow. He won't let him take that from him.
The Attack Titan turns to the descending Marleyan soldiers, preparing for a fight. Reiner lifts his cut palm, showing him that he is ready to fight back this time as yellow lightening encases his body and he's surrounded by the hardened flesh of his Armored Titan.
Heavily, the Armored Titan lands on the streets below. He is greeted by the Attack Titan roaring at him. He takes in a fighter's stance and braces himself for his charge.
The Armored returns the charge, lifting his arms to his head as he begins throwing punches at the Attack Titan. Eren is quick to respond—hardening his arms and blocking the attacks of the Armored Titan. He continues to rain down blow after blow onto Eren's Titan, gaining ground on him as he pushes him against the buildings and homes of Shiganshina.
The Armored uses his strength on the Attack Titan by tackling him into a building and showering them in debris. He continues to punch and hit his adversary, with Eren getting a few well-placed hits against the Armored's face.
The Attack Titan kicks the Armored Titan off him before he can lock him down for an attack. He is blown back and lands heavily on his back while his face is mangled from Eren's punches. Eren commands the Attack Titan to finish off the Armored when he feels a sensation creeping up his spine. He hardens his spine in response and returns with crystalized spikes shooting from behind to impale the Jaw Titan that comes rushing for him.
To Eren's chagrin, the Jaws dodges the crystal spike attack, and uses his taloned claws to shatter the rock. He moves quickly, kicking the Attack Titan into the grip of the Armored Titan who holds him down.
Reiner tries to look into Eren's eyes through their Titan bodies. He implores him to understand the fight that they are in now. With the Armored and Jaws fighting here, and the Cart and Female readying to join, he is outnumbered and outmatched. Despite his hold on the War Hammer, he cannot fight them all off along with the Marleyan forces that have come to provide aid. This fight is over and he needs to give up already.
But the stubborn fool won't go down without a fight, and Reiner's wordless plea is returned with crystalized spikes shooting out from his body. Both Reiner and Galliard are left impaled on spikes as an assembly of Jeagerists come flying towards them with Thunder Spears at the ready.
Both the Armored and Jaws are left helpless to react from the onslaught, when suddenly, the Jeagerists are neutralized by the crackling of yellow lightening, as they are vaporized by the sudden appearance of the Female Titan.
Reiner's heart thumps wildly in his chest as he looks onto his lover assuming her Titan before his enemy. Painful relief strikes against his chest to know that she is here and she is alive.
The Attack Titan returns her sudden appearance by turning towards her, lifting his arms up to her in a fighter's stance. Eren smiles to himself behind the tendons of his Titan in that she's made her decision to come out and play.
Back when Eren had infiltrated the Marleyan empire under the guise of a wounded soldier, he heard talk of the might of the Female and Armored Titan. Where Reiner acted as Marley's shield, Willow was its sword. He smiles to himself now that he will finally be able to see just how well Reiner and Willow work with one another.
The Female Titan returns his fighter's stance with one of her own. As if time stands still in that moment, the two of them look onto one another without a single move towards the other. Flashes of memories flood into Willow's vision of the last time they were in this position.
Stohess was in ruin, her mind was clouded with grief, and she allowed herself to fall to his power over her. She won't allow herself to be so easily bested this time. She's spent years building up her body's endurance against any type of attack she could face from him. She put her body through excruciating mutilation all to build up her ability to fight back against him, and win this time. Willow has found a purpose to move forward—with him standing behind her—and she will do everything in her power to protect that life she's made for herself.
The Female Titan makes the first move, roaring as she begins charging at the Attack Titan. She pulls her arm back, gearing to punch him in the face when he quickly dodges her. She returns with a swift slide of her leg, kicking him down. She reaches back before he crumbles to the ground, grabbing him at the back of the neck and forcing him into a kneeling position. She claws at his nape, hardening her fingers to dig Eren out of his Titan when he retaliates with a slew of crystal spikes spearing from his back.
She kicks back, falling to her knees but not in time enough before he's able to cut her left arm clear off. She lifts herself back to her feet, roaring at him before charging at him once more. The Attack Titan braces himself for her contact by shooting out a barricade of pointed crystals that she won't be able to cross to get to him. But to his surprise, she continues to charge through the trap, tearing her flesh into pieces before abruptly falling to her knees.
Eren grits his teeth behind his Titan form when he watches Willow pull herself out of the Female Titan and shoot herself into the sky. He looks up at her as their eyes lock onto one another before she returns his gaze with a snarl as she bites down on her thumb and encloses herself in yellow lightening.
Before her Titan is even fully formed, her knee meets the Attack Titan's jaw and launches him into a building. And quicker than she pulled out and turned, the Armored appears on top of him, straddling him as he begins pummeling into him.
The Attack Titan is overwhelmed by the Armored's assault on him, but he manages to gather his bearings and kick the heavy Titan off of him. He lifts himself to his feet and is greeted by the Female and Armored standing their ground.
Eren notices how the two of them stand next to one another, and how Reiner strategically places himself in front of Willow to protect her from Eren's next move. Like a deadly sword hiding behind its shield, Eren isn't sure which of them causes more of a threat to him.
Regardless of how hard the two of them will fight to kill him, he will not go down without a fight. He will not sit here caught up in his own fear like he was when he watched Bertold and Reiner break through the walls and decimate his home, or when Levi's Squad was murdered by Willow's vengeful romp.
The Attack Titan barrels towards the two of them, punching the Armored in the face with a hardened fist that crushes his eye socket. He's quickly returned with a smash to his own face by the Female Titan. He steps back from the hit, momentarily blinded when the Jaw Titan comes to aid by bouncing onto his back and makes an attempt to devour his nape.
Overwhelmed by the three of them, the Attack Titan shoots out more crystalized defenses that tear at their soft skin. He pushes out a strained roar, calling for the Jeagerists that attempt to reach the fighting Titans passed the gunshots of the Marleyan ground forces.
A few of the Scouts reach the fight and get the attention of the Female Titan, who is at the highest risk of their attacks. She backs up against the Armored Titan as he turns to fight the Attack Titan.
Eren watches as the two protect one another while seamlessly fighting their opponents. Willow protects Reiner from the Jeagerists while he protects her from Eren. He isn't sure why he's surprised with him perfectly they work with one another considering they had four years to perfect it, but he's more focused on how they trust one another. Eren begins to think about Mikasa in this moment, and how she always had his back in all of his fights, and wonders if she'd be here by his side if he didn't have her locked away.
He tears the images of Mikasa and mutes any fond memories that he has of them to focus on the enemy in front of him.
The Attack Titan creates a thick and heavy battering ram with the power of the War Hammer. He needs both of his arms to hoist the pointed cylinder when he begins charging at them. The Armored Titan's golden glare widens and turns around to push his lover out of the way from the attack, but isn't quick enough, and the two of them are impaled into one another.
The Attack Titan strains himself to angle the spike to point upwards and skewer the two of them in the middle of the street. The Female and Armored's arms and legs fall uselessly at their sides as they are stuck on their pike with no leverage to remove themselves from it.
Eren knows that he doesn't have long until Willow pulls herself out of the Female and turn again and goes to move a final blow towards her, but when he does, he's returned with a single blood curdling roar. Reiner, Galliard, and Eren are all left frozen by her Titan's visceral command:
"Now Peick!"
Before the Attack Titan can think to make a move, his head is blown to bits with a single Anti-Titan round from the Cart Titan that is perched atop Wall Maria.
The shot is clean and effective at freezing Eren's motor functions on the Attack Titan, but it was not a fatal shot. Willow pulls herself out of her Titan form, while commanding the Jaws to help chip the Armored from his imprisonment since Reiner cannot change after pulling out of his Titan.
She turns again without hesitation while Jeagerists zip past her like flies to rotting food. They circle her nape, but she shields any attacks on her back with her hand. She can hear the pops of gunshots playing around her as the Marleyan forces work to shoot down the small targets while she focuses on the one before her.
The Female Titan moves towards the Attack Titan as he's left standing motionless in front of her. She begins charging towards him when spikes begin to shoot from the floor around him. He continues to shield himself with the crystalized power of the War Hammer despite his skull being blown to bits, but Willow knows that this defense won't last long since it requires so much energy from him. She is able to dance around the pikes he creates and retreat back to safety next to the Armored Titan.
When the Jaw Titan frees the Armored from his pike, he turns to charge for an attack against the Attack Titan. He's more agile than the Female, and able to evade the quickly growing spikes with ease. She watches as he expertly uses his speed against the Attack Titan. He's forcing him to use up all his reserves as a defense so that Willow and Reiner will be able to work against him and deliver the final blow.
This battle is not like Fort Slava, where the three Titans were tumbling all over one another in attempt to do the most damage. Here they are working together and holding back their vanity to beat down their common enemy as a united front.
Once the pikes are no longer being created from the ground, the Female and Armored face the Attack Titan.
The Female charges him with her fists up. She begins beating him down with strike after strike against his face. She hardens her fists with crystalized armor and continues to make contact with his face, slowly tenderizing his face with each hit.
The Attack Titan moves to retaliate, but before his fist can connect with her face, she quickly dodges, only for the Armored to appear behind her and ensnare his fist and a deliver a blow of his own.
The Female moves out of the way as the Armored takes out the spike that he was skewered to and turns the crystal onto the Attack Titan, charging at him and impaling him with his own defense.
The Attack Titan returns with a blood curdling howl as the Armored continues to drive the weapon into him and pinning him to a building.
Reiner attempts another wordless plea to Eren who's somewhere in there. He knows that Eren has suffered in his life because of him. He knows that his ignorant actions have led to the death of so many innocent lives. But he has lost this fight, and it is over. It is finally over.
But he will not go down without a fight, and the Armored is once again impaled with an onslaught of crystalized thorns lifting from the ground all around him.
The Female Titan makes a move to devour Eren within his Titan's nape, but a small spear shoots from his nape and pierces through her mouth and head.
Willow is forced to pull herself out of her Titan and immediately turns into the Female with ease. Her body is not suited to withstand as much damage as the Armored is, so it is easier for her to just pull herself into a new body.
The Jaws comes from behind while Eren is distracted for another attack, but Eren is quick to react, grabbing the Titan by his mouth, cracking it in his hardened grip, and hurling him across the city, skipping his body from rooftop to rooftop like a rock against a calm water's surface.
The Female watches as the Jaws is flung across the way and crashes into a building. She winces behind the tendons reaching around her eyes knowing that the Jaws is out for the count after a hit like that.
The Armored reacts quicker than the Female can and tackles the Attack Titan into the ground. "Eren, I just want to be done with this," Reiner tells him with words that he knows the boy cannot hear. "Let it end, already."
The Attack Titan is able to maneuver himself from under the Armored Titan, only to have the Female enter the fight and punch him in the temple, causing Eren to be temporarily blinded for a moment as his Titan is brought down to the ground.
While he is incapacitated, the Jeagerists move in to aid Eren once more. They begin to zip around the two Titans that fight, shooting their guns and thunder spears at them.
The Armored is quick to defend the Female from a thunder spear that threatens her nape by reaching for the shell and allowing it to blow in his grip. The blast destroys his hand, but the Female quickly returns the favor by roundhouse kicking a group of soldiers moving for his eyes.
Eren looks through the eyes of his downed Titan onto the two of them and in an almost dance-like fashion, the Armored and Female work together to fight. The two Titans stand back-to-back with their fists up and protecting one another. He watches as each move is a calculative step to ensuring the safety of the person that stands behind them.
Watching their perfectly coordinated attacks, he can see that they know how the other one moves before the move is made. Four years of battling alongside one another, Willow and Reiner have not just grown close, but have become an extension of the other.
He sneers at this and lifts himself to his feet. He may have to fight the two of them, but he will not let them stand in his way. If Reiner is anything like Eren, he knows that he has one weakness, and that is the ones that he loves.
While she is distracted with a pestering Jeagerist, the Attack Titan reaches out for the Female's face, entrapping it in his grip and crushing it like it were a sweet fig, watching her tendrils spill between his fingers.
The Armored returns with a woeful cry before reacting rashly and launching himself at her attacker. He tackles him, forcing his heavy hardened body onto him and pinning him to the ground. The Armored's hand shoves the Attack Titan's head onto the bricks of the street below and exposes his nape to him.
The Armored moves to devour the Attack Titan's nape, when he is met with resistance once more. The Attack Titan roars as he reaches back for the Armored's jaw, curling his fingers into his mouth in an attempt to separate the jaw from the rest of him.
Willow pulls herself from her Titan and readies herself to turn when she hears a bang, and dust and debris blind her. Before her body can be pulverized by the attack, the discarded body of the Armored desperately reaches out for her and shields her from the falling shards.
Willow frantically looks around, trying to figure out what has happened when she looks in the direction of the attack to see the Beast Titan atop Wall Maria; crushed boulders in hand.
There was a time when Willow was behind that attack, where she watched the carnage that attack did to Erwin's forces in Shiganshina, and the naval forces at Fort Slava. The blow was vicious and effectively destroyed everything in its wake. When behind the attack, Willow was always shaken by the power that it held. Now, in line of it, she won't be brought down.
Her heart is racing and Willow tries desperately not to focus on what it means to Captain Levi with Zeke being here now. She knows the captain would have sooner died than allowed the blonde to leave his custody, and she won't allow that vile thought to coil around her head as she shuts it out.
Zeke turns his throw to the airships above them, sending shards of rock from below to eviscerate the crafts. The wreckage of the planes come raining down in hellish flames as the smoke paints the sky blood red around them.
While Zeke is distracted by the air forces, the Attack Titan makes his way towards him while Willow looks down on the barely moving Armored. He's sustained way too much damage and doesn't have the fortitude to pull out of his Titan form and turn again, so she knows that this fight is up to her now.
Willow turns to Eren, biting down on her thumb and turning into the Female Titan once more. Before she can even completely form into her body, she launches herself into a charge to fight him. The Beast is quick to respond with a rainfall of boulders that cut through her soft flesh like paper. She falls to her knees before she can reach Eren.
Reiner watches from behind the Armored's eyes as Willow pulls herself out of her useless Titan's body.
"No," he calls out to her wearily behind the body of his Titan. "You can't fight him like this."
Willow tears herself out of her Titan, only to again assume the Female with another thunderous clap. The Attack Titan turns back to look at her to see that she doesn't even get three steps in before the Beast sends in another wave of boulders that destroy her body.
She grits her teeth at this, knowing that she will get nowhere with Zeke continuing this attack on her. The Jaws attempts a move on the Attack Titan again, but is just as quickly destroyed by the Beast's offense as the Female Titan is.
The Female Titan roars; an angry and woeful roar before Willow pulls out of her Titan form and envelops herself in it once more. And again, without a second wasted, the Female Titan is reduced to a massacre of muscles and tendons and blood.
"Why are you doing this, Willow?" Reiner thinks to himself. "What are you trying to prove?"
And that is when the deafening shot is heard as it rings out in the open air around them. Reiner jumps at the familiar sound of the Anti-Titan round only to see that it was directed at the Beast's nape.
Reiner's jaw is left unhinged as he watches the Beast Titan plummet from the height of Wall Maria, only to realize that Willow was knowingly allowing herself to be gutted by Zeke so that Peick and the Marleyan forces could get a good shot on him.
The blonde looks onto the steaming carcass of the Female Titan as Willow pulls out of her nape. He watches her carefully, seeing that her body is spent and she can't take much more damage anymore. He'd be shocked if she can even turn again.
Willow stumbles out of the Female Titan and looks up at the Attack Titan. He makes a move to grab for her, but the Armored is quick to defend her, charging at the Attack Titan and crashing him into a building. The Attack Titan kicks the Armored off him and flies him into the adjacent buildings.
He lifts himself to his feet when he notices that the Beast Titan is moving again. Eren smiles to himself that his plan is not foiled and begins walking towards the Beast.
Willow turns her head over to Reiner, seeing that the Armored is struggling to heal fast enough. The Jaws is equally as destroyed and the Cart is preoccupied by the Jeagerists.
She bites down on her thumb with all the resolve left in her broken and aching body, and to her mortification, she cannot turn anymore—her body is spent. She figured as much since she managed to get nine transformations out of this fight, but after the damage that she has endured, her body is too sore and shaking, to continue. But this isn't the end for her as she looks down at her hips to see that she isn't out of options just yet.
She tugs on the hilts of her swords on each side of her. She clips the blades onto the hilts and unsheathes her weapons. She closes her eyes and tries to steady the wild beating of her heart as stray golden curls blow softly in the hot wind.
Willow imagines all the times she felt like flying with her ODM gear. All the showy moves that Hal would roll his eyes at, all the Titans that tasted the edge of her blades, all the memories come crashing through her head like waves in the sea.
But she doesn't let them drown her like they always had back then because she knows how to keep herself afloat now.
Willow launches herself with her ODM gear, latching from building to building as she uses the gas frivolously. She unlatches her hooks, flinging herself weightlessly in the air—flying freely—before pulling her blades behind her head, and launching her strike onto the nape of the Attack Titan.
With a loud war cry, Willow's blade pierces his skin before he can harden against her attack, and the Attack Titan is rendered completely still and frozen to her will. The sliver of her blade licks at Eren's nape within his Titan, and he's left wide-eyed and for the first time in this fight… fearful.
Everything around her goes still and quiet as the wild beating of her heart deafens the sounds of her surroundings. Willow's hands are stained with blood that's not evaporating, and she wonders if it's Eren's. Her chest is lifting and falling with heavy shallow breaths that burn her lungs. Her hands are trembling and she's brought back to the first time that she stood at the nape of an Abnormal Titan. She was so scared back then. Maybe she still is now.
"Eren," her exhausted voice cracks out of her throat with a heavy sigh. "Stop this," she begs him. "You've been bested."
The Attack Titan trembles under her with a shiver of trying to swat her off of him, but he's completely rendered incapable of moving. "Zeke's been disbanded, you have nothing left," she tells him between clenched teeth. "It's not worth it," she tells him with a heaviness weighing on her chest as her strong voice softens with empathy. She shuts her eyes to avoid the tears from spilling down the sides of her cheeks. "Please, Eren. Stop this."
His Titan returns her plea with another attempt to free himself that results in a faint quiver under her blade. She grits her teeth in frustration at his damned self-sabotage. "Want to know why you can't move?" her voice now adopting a primal hate, "My blade is piercing your neck and severing your ability to control your Titan. I move my blade a centimeter—a damn centimeter—" she snarls, "and your life is mine. Your Titan will be nothing but steam lifting to the sky, and your dreams will be for nothing!" she growls at him.
"I don't give a shit what Marley wants to do with the Founder—" she continues. "I'd rather watch you die than allow you to unleash the Rumbling on those innocent people."
Willow isn't sure how Eren will be able to signal to her that he concedes with her, but she figures the trembling of his Titan under her blade is a clear indication that he is still fighting against her. She honestly never imagined herself in this position again—atop a Titan with her blade in its neck. Her hands are shaking as she's brought back to so many hateful memories that she left buried deep inside of her, hoping to never resurface again.
Tears begin beading at her eyes as she thinks about everything that has come to pass. She sees their faces now, and allows them to plague her mind for the first time in years. She doesn't shut them out and she doesn't try to pretend or validate what she did that day.
Hal.
Malik.
Derrek.
Petra.
Eld.
Gunther.
Oruo.
Commander Erwin.
So many countless lives ruined and destroyed by her, and she will not justify it. She'll finally let it out and let it go. "I know that you're hurting," her desperate voice calls out to him over the sound of gunshots and cries of pain in the distance. "I know that you think it will never get better."
"It's never going to end."
Tears fall down her cheeks now. "I'm sorry, Eren," his Titan stops trembling in her grip as she loosens her hold on her blade. "I can't take it back—neither of us can. But we don't have to lose our humanity to protect the ones that we love. It doesn't have to be this way. I'm sorry. It shouldn't have been your burden to shoulder alone," she admits. "You're not a monster, Eren," she tells him as much as she tells herself.
Willow no longer feels resistance against her blade and she takes in a deep breath as she moves to pull the knife out of his nape. But when she grips the hilt, her body is smashed into something hard, causing her to plummet off the Attack Titan. She opens her eyes, quickly latching her hooks so not to fall to the ground. When Willow looks up at her assailant, she sees Mikasa, blades in hand and chest heaving with hate.