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Ch.44- "Attack"

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The moon was large and full, the clouds so scattered that they cast few shadows on the land. From their vantage point, they should have been able to see the Reiss family chapel given that it was apparently the only man-made structure for several kilometers, but there was no chapel. There was… Erwin's mind floundered to think of a way to describe what he was seeing. Destruction, yes, obviously; a vast fissure split apart the land, leaving a chasm like some deep gash in the earth. The grass and trees and even soil itself that had fallen into the crevasse burned and belched thick, acrid smoke that partially obscured the strange catacombs of pillars revealed beneath the ground. Some were broken, some were whole, but they were all pale and milky white as the moon, and like the moon, they seemed to glow, leaving a shining, glittering snail trail behind it.

"What the hell is that…?" one of the officers behind him asked in a hoarse whisper, as though anyone else had any better idea.

It too smoked, leaving a cloud of cinders and ash trailing behind it. An arm rose from the smoke, almost human in as much as it looked like an arm and not a wing or fin, but no human arm could be so long and thin without having been stretched until the bones came apart and the skin tore. This… limb… reached up, nearly touching the stars themselves, going on forever, before slapping the ground hard enough for the earth beneath its palm to cave in and immediately catch fire. The mass of heat and smoke inched forward- it was dragging itself along the ground, and the ground rumbled with a deafening roar.

"If it's that big from a distance… it'll break through the Walls in an instant!"

"What now, Commander?" Erwin mentally shook his head to clear it. Whatever this… thing was didn't matter at the moment.

"We advance. Our mission has not changed; we must find Eren and Historia." And, god willing, someone who had any idea what was going on.

They had to keep their distance; all the grass and trees within forty meters of this manifestation of heat itself charred and blackened. Everything closer simply caught fire. Even from a good eighty meters away, they could feel the heat radiating from its massive body. The air around it shimmered, but eventually, they pulled ahead of the smoke enough to get an actual glimpse of the thing. If Titans were a twisted mockery of the human form, this thing was a twisted mockery of that.

Spindly, spider-like arms aside, there was nothing even remotely human about this monstrosity. Bloated and flabby, its rolls upon rolls of flesh undulated as it crept forward, scrunching up and stretching out like a blood red grub, so distended that its skin barely held it together. Most of the Scouts had broken off to evacuate the nearby settlements, but a portion of soldiers had been sent ahead of it in an attempt to lure it in a more favorable direction. They returned, coughing, their faces red and wet and stained with soot.

"It's no use, Commander; it's an Abnormal." He'd feared as much.

"Well, at least we know which way it's headed… Fall back, all of you."

"Sir! We've spotted Levi's squad! Eren, Historia and Hange are with them!" 'Oh, thank god…'

"Where?"

"This way, sir!" He wheeled his horse around to follow the officer. With smoke and steam so heavy in the air, he heard the wheels before he spotted any torches.

Approaching, the first person he noticed was Eren, who was- rather unwisely- standing up in the wagon, throwing punches and shouting insults at the mass of writhing flesh in the distance.

"Hey! Asshole! Stop, dammit!" The writhing flesh paid him no heed. "Hey, I'm talking to you! Why won't you listen, you tiny old bastard!?"

"Levi!"

"Erwin?" It wouldn't have been a stretch to say he sounded excited, for all of about a second before his usual apathetic tone caught up to him. "…damn, you look like shit."

"Thank you. How is everyone?"

"Fine- well, Hange's hurt."

A grunt from the wagon as they pushed themselves into a seated position. Dark as it was, Erwin could still see the massive dark stain covering the right shoulder of their otherwise pale shirt, and a bandage covering the right side of their head. They waved frantically at him with their uninjured arm, their voice verging on tearful.

"Papa Erwin! I missed you!" He could feel the looks the young Scouts were giving him, and pointedly ignored them.

"They're fine." He raised his voice for the others to hear him. "You've done excellent work, all of you."

"Don't congratulate us yet," Levi groused, "I got a lotta things to fill you in on-"

"Start with that… I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'Titan'. What is that thing?" Levi glanced at the abomination as though it were a mildly interesting bird.

"Oh. That's His Majesty, Rod Reiss. We're gonna need your opinion on this, Commander…"

~o0o~

Despite the late hour, Orvud was wide awake and buzzing, refugees from all the surrounding villages and townships flooding into the gates. The distressed, angry voices of civilians could be heard loud and clear inside the Garrison base, adding to the commotion as soldiers ran to and fro, carrying crates of black powder and grapeshot to load onto the lifts. Of course, there were plenty of distressed, angry soldiers as well. Commander Hirsch, of the Northern Garrison, was still in Mitras, and had left his lieutenant in charge.

"What the hell are you thinking, Erwin!?" Officer Reyne was like a yappy little dog, yelling in Erwin's ear as he tried to lay out a plan, and when he continued to ignore the man, a meaty fist grabbed his cloak. His arm came up immediately, unconsciously, knocking the hand away.

"Don't touch me."

" 'Don't'- You should be glad I don't sock you in the mouth! You're telling us not to evacuate!? That Titan will be here by dawn! The people will die by the thousands!" He grabbed Erwin's cloak again in both hands, dragging him closer, close enough to see the terror in his eyes. But Erwin didn't care about that terror, not in the slightest.

"Levi."

"Yeah?"

"If Lieutenant Reyne presumes to touch me again, break his wrists." The Scouts stared at him in baldfaced horror, but though Levi's eyebrows shot up, he immediately relaxed.

"Can do." The Garrison officer released him at once, backing several steps away for good measure.

"Lieutenant, this Titan is an Abnormal." Hange's voice was tight with pain as a Garrison nurse wrapped a bandage thickly around the hastily stitched together flesh just beneath their clavicle. The dismayed expression they wore didn't seem to be from their injury, however. "If we evacuate the civilians into Wall Sina, it's going to target Wall Sina, then it's going to target everything else."

"B-but-"

"No buts," Erwin told him sharply. "This is what the districts were designed for. This is why there are canons atop the Walls. You have a slow moving target with a weak spot the size of a house; even a blind man should be able to hit it, but if by some whim of a cruel god you miss every shot, the Survey Corps is here to bail you out. So perhaps you should make yourself useful doing anything else, and let us formulate a plan." He could feel everyone staring at him, unease and confusion from the Scouts, offense that he would dare not mince words with them from the Garrison. Perhaps, then, they could feel his growing impatience and frustration quickly building from a simmer to a boil.

"…right. Let's go, people; I want every canon within two hundred meters localized and locked down on the southwestern side! Double time, men!" With a hasty salute, the Garrison soldiers quickly gave the gathered Scouts some much needed space. Levi's lip twisted in distaste.

"Damn, Erwin; who pissed in your porridge? I've seen you handle death threats with more grace than that." Without the immediate surge of fear and adrenaline Titans in the flesh always brought with them, the pain and exhaustion he'd been able to ignore up until this point came back full force, and Erwin reached up, resting his heavy head in his palm, leaning against the table as he waited for this latest dizzy spell to pass.

"I've had less than ten hours of sleep in the past four days, and if I have to deal with one more interruption, I am going to die, but not before I kill whoever is responsible for it."

"Then…" Armin's voice was quiet, as though he were afraid he might be considered that interruption. "Maybe you should sit this mission out with Hange, Commander. Both of you are injured, and we can't risk losing two of the Survey Corps' most valuable assets."

"Never!" Hange growled low in their throat. "Did you see that Titan!? You think I'm gonna pass up an opportunity like this because of a little blood loss? I will gladly take my chances!"

"As will I," Erwin agreed. "It's a safe bet to assume the Garrison won't even serve as a viable distraction, so unless we want Lord Reiss to tear down the Wall and unleash God knows how many more Titans on us, stopping him is going to fall on our shoulders." As usual.

"And how are we supposed to manage that, sir?" Jean asked him. "All the trees that Titan passed immediately burst into flames. I'm pretty sure the same thing will happen to us if we get too close to it."

"Oh! Not all of us!" Sasha Blouse piped up. "Eren would probably be okay! Remember, Connie? When the Colossal appeared at Trost, Eren went right after it and was fine!"

"Oh yeah, that's right! There was so much steam, but Eren didn't have a single burn on him. He's, like, heatproof or something."

"No!" Mikasa moved to stand between Eren and the stares fixated on him, her dark eyes smoldering. "It's too dangerous!"

"This is dangerous for everyone involved, Mikasa; not just Eren." Erwin told her stiffly. "Even if he isn't completely immune to extreme temperatures, he's the only one who's all but guaranteed to recover from any life-threatening injuries."

"But-!" This time, it was Eren himself who spoke up.

"No 'buts', Mikasa! You expect me to just sit back and continue being worthless while everyone dies for me again!?" He bumped her aside with his shoulder, stepping forward. Determination burned bright in the depths of his emerald eyes, but the rest of his face looked almost pained. "I'll go wherever you need me, Commander."

"Good, because we need you front and center. Regardless of how big and misshapen this foul miscreation is, it's still a Titan, meaning it should still have the same weak spot as any other Titan. ODM gear would burn and warp under those temperatures, so you're going to have to reach its nape manually." Levi frowned at those words.

"What, is he going to climb on top of it and rip the nape out with his hands and teeth?"

"There might be another way…" Armin mused. "When we were acting as bait outside the forest on the last expedition, some of the Titans began climbing the trees to get to us. Call it instinct or intelligence, but for the most part, they try to get around obstacles rather than plow through them. Once Lord Reiss reaches the Wall, it's highly likely that he'll try to climb over it. And when he does, he's going to raise himself up. If we're already on the Wall, Eren can jump onto him from there."

"That still doesn't explain how he's going to tear the nape out without ODM gear," Levi complained, but Erwin shook his head.

"Yes, it does. In fact, he might not even have to touch the nape himself." He grabbed a pen that had been lying on the table, flipping over the nearest map. Writing with his left hand had been hard enough when his fingers weren't clumsy from bandages and pain. He held the pen against his palm with his thumb. It was crude and uncomfortable, but it worked well enough for what he was doing, scribbling a vaguely humanoid head and neck. As the others crowded closer to see, a few of the recruits quickly stifled their snickers. He ignored them.

"It's been dragging its face on the ground for the last twenty kilometers. Perhaps it was trying to protect itself, or maybe its limbs are simply unable to support its weight. Regardless of the reason, that amount of friction over the course of hours is going to take its toll. Its jaw has probably been ripped off at some point, and because it isn't stopping, it won't be able to heal." Drawing two halfway decent eyes, he added a gaping hole beneath them. "Even if it still has a face, it's not going to have a mouth. Meaning that if Eren can fill its throat full of gunpowder…"

"…it goes 'boom' and the nape gets blown to smithereens," Levi concluded. "Your drawing is shit, but your explanation is good." He glanced up from the paper, eyeing the stained bandages that were growing looser with every motion. "What happened to your hand, anyway?"

"That's a story for another time. So, Eren… do you think you can do it?" Eren stared at the paper, but his eyes were unfocused. Whatever he was seeing wasn't on the page.

"Whether I can or not doesn't matter. I have to."

~o0o~

The sun had just begun rising in the west when they stepped off the lift and onto the Wall. The rolling hills were still misty, giving the landscape a dreamy quality, akin to a watercolor painting. It would have been so soothing to just stand there and watch the sun crest over the false horizon. The black smoke drifting across it on its own wouldn't be so bad, but the abominable mass it rose from turned any sense of calm to revulsion, a gross smear across a masterpiece.

The Garrison soldiers were finishing loading the canons, about a hundred lined up along the Wall. Older, less effective ground models set up at the Wall's base; they may not have been as accurate as the newer models, but their target was the size of a village. Erwin ran his fingers over the flare guns holstered at his hip. He couldn't change out the canisters in any kind of timely manner, so he prepared two. One for each signal. Hange had considered another way they might more efficiently subjugate their target, so their plan had become a two-pronged attack.

"You gonna tell me what happened to your hand, now?" Levi was double-checking his ODM triggers, his fingers thumbing the shift switches with a fluid speed that would make Mike have made him envious. Erwin glanced down at his hand. The bandages had become so loose that they were just getting in the way now. Lifting it, he began pulling them off.

"You know what you did to that Interior MP to get him to confess?" he asked, his words muffled by the linen strips between his teeth. Levi nodded, his expression growing stormier by the second. "Well, you're better at it than they are." Gray eyes widened, immediately darting to his ravaged fingertips before narrowing as his lips drew back from his teeth in a vicious snarl.

"Who?"

"It doesn't matter. Zachary is dealing with them, and he's better at it than you."

"Erwin-"

"On your way here, did you… pass by Calaneth?" That threw the shorter man for a loop.

"What? No, we were by Yarkle; we came here from the west." Suspicion dawned on him immediately. "Why?"

"No reason."

"Is this about the gimp?"

"It's not important. Focus on the mission."

"You want me to focus on the mission? Go sit your crippled ass down somewhere-"

"FIRE!" Reyne's voice preceded the thundering booms of dozens upon dozens of cannons firing, so close together that the sound of each shot merged into one. Even standing nearly forty meters away, Erwin felt the vibrations in his skin, wincing as they pressed on his ears. The silence that followed lasted about a minute as the canons were cleaned, primed and reloaded. Then the thunder rang out again. Another minute of silence, and more thunder. Three volleys in as rapid succession as was possible with the soldiers available to them. The air was so thick was gunpowder most everyone was left coughing and wiping their eyes. It would have been even worse if they weren't upwind.

"Well, did that accomplish anything…?" Erwin muttered, mostly to himself, as the smoke cleared. As if on cue, an arm rose from the smoke. In the light of day, its reddish hue looked more the color of meat that had begun to spoil. Some of the flesh had been stripped away by the barrage of cannonballs, white steam and crimson blood pouring from the wounds. But still it reached out, tortuously slow, almost mocking them as it grasped a handful of earth that immediately caught fire and pulled itself that much closer. "No. Not even a hindrance."

"I expected as much from the field canons, but aren't the Wall canons literally designed for this? They worked fine in Trost- what the hell's the problem?" Noting Levi's sneer, Erwin huffed, shaking his head in disdain.

"Unprepared soldiers and shallow leadership. The Titans have always attacked from the south. A northern Garrison in the Interior? New recruits would be more effective, but this is the best we're going to get."

"I mean, at least their plan makes sense on paper. 'Hit it 'til it dies' usually works on most things. Unlike some people whose recent plans just boil down to 'Nah, it'll work; trust me'." Erwin turned his entire attention to his lieutenant.

"Do you have a better plan?" Levi glanced up at him.

"No."

"Then trust me."

"Erwin~!" Hange's cheerful, sing-song voice cut through the tension crackling between the two men. They half limped, half jogged over, their right arm bound in a sling. "I brought the goodies! All the gunpowder, ropes and netting we could find. We've still gotta assemble it, but that shouldn't take too long. We also finished our secret weapons!" Moblit was wheeling one over. It was a wheelbarrow with a large barrel and two ODM holsters tied down within it. Hange beamed at it, the same way they had when their first capture canons had been created.

"I'm honestly so proud that we managed to cobble this together in a few hours. I would've done so well in the Garrison Engineer Corps… alas…" They sighed, turning their attention out to the field. "So, how's the bombardment going?"

"Imagine a swarm of cicadas pissing on it."

"Ooh, so we actually get to use these babies! Exciting~" Levi recoiled from them with a repulsed sneer, but Erwin fought back a smile. He was glad Hange was acting like… well, Hange. It made things feel normal again. This wasn't a situation that could spell the end of humanity; it was just a normal mission. When he closed his eyes, he could imagine hearing Mike and Horace and Cecile's voices in the distance, calling out orders, organizing things… in that split second, everything was right. And when he opened them, he wished he didn't have to.

"Jean, Sasha, Connie; you'll be handling that side with the Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir!" The recruits jogged off, and Levi followed behind at a slower pace. A glint of gold caught his attention, and he approached one of the Scouts winding ropes.

The last time he'd seen Historia Reiss, she was wearing a long white, silk dress that made her look otherworldly in the moonlight. Up on the Wall, she was dressed in a far more sensible blouse and pants, her ODM gear fastened over it. Her hair was tied back now, and she went about her task with a single-minded focus. He could easily imagine this girl was a princess, soon to be queen. She looked exactly like a princess in a fairy tale would look. It was harder to imagine she'd actually placed tenth in her graduating class.

"If I may, Historia, assuming we live through this, you're going to be the queen of the world inside the Walls. Naturally, that plan falls flat if you die here, and everything we have done thus far will have been for naught. I can't have you fighting on the front lines." Inhaling deeply, she looked up at him, her eyes the same color as the sky above them. It was a shame that such an adorable child had to endure such a cruel, unhappy childhood.

"If I may, Commander, surely you don't believe the people are naive enough to follow a queen in name alone?"

"And what exactly are you suggesting we do to remedy that?" She climbed to her feet. She was tiny, even smaller than Levi, but her voice, her posture, spoke of strength beyond that of most people.

"For a hundred and seven years, my father's family has done nothing but sit back and watch as humanity languished within these walls. If I just sit back and do nothing, then I'm no better than them. I need to go out there so that the people can see that, not only do I stand with the Survey Corps and believe in what they do, but also that I give enough of a damn about my people to fight for them. Even if I don't end up destroying the weak spot, we need to convince everyone I did. That way, they aren't bowing to some stupid little girl or military figurehead; they're bowing to the person who saved their lives."

Those first few times he saw her, Erwin had been taken aback by how similar she looked to Marie when she'd been young. The same beaten gold hair, the same fathomless blue eyes, the same delicate frame and doll-like features that made all the boys want to rush to protect her. But as Historia spoke, he noticed something else. It was the set of her jaw, the furrow of her brow, the dark look in her eyes as she explained to him the truth of the world he was too stupid to understand and silently demanded he fill those giant eyebrows with some brains. She was right, of course. That was what drove home the similarity, just how right she was. Erwin sighed quietly.

"I understand your feelings, Historia, but I cannot allow you to fight." Her face fell.

"Commander, please-!"

"That being said, it's not as though I can physically stop you with the state I'm in. All you'd have to do is step slightly out of my reach…" Her dismay melted into relief.

"Thank you, sir."

"Don't thank me. This isn't a favor." He leaned down slightly to lower his voice, wincing as the movement sent a sharp ache through his bruised stomach. "Do not die, Cadet Reiss. That is a direct order. If this plan goes south, you are to pull back immediately. We have come too far and sacrificed too much for you to throw it away now." When he straightened, her face had been arranged into an expression of staunch determination.

"Yes, sir! I won't fail."

Volley after volley of shelling did nothing. It was fortunate that they finished their preparations, for as Lord Reiss drew near, the wind changed directions, blowing smoke and steam directly into them. Erwin had to give the northern Garrison credit- they might have let their skills go to seed over the years, but they remained steadfast, firing off one last volley even as their skin blistered from the heat. Sadly, bravery was not often rewarded in this cruel world, and as one of those emaciated arms, utterly massive to them but too small and thin for the rest of its body, rose up far, far above the Wall, the resulting gust knocked several soldiers who had been too close off the other side.

The Wall cracked and crumbled as ten-meter long fingers dug into it, sending rubble crashing down onto the rooftops below. As it pulled itself up, the distinct stench of Titan blood filled the air, so strong Erwin could taste it. The Colossal Titan had been approximately sixty meters, just tall enough to peek its head over the Wall. Whatever they would later name this abomination towered more than twice the size of the Wall. It was seated on its haunches.

A chorus of screams rose above the district of Orvud as people there witnessed their first Titan in the flesh, so loud the soldiers could hear the faintest echoes of it high as they were. If only they knew this was their king, their omnipotent God. Behind Erwin, Hange screamed as well, but theirs was filled with joyful excitement.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god! Look at it! LOOK AT IT! It still has a complete digestive tract! Oh my god, does it have an anus?!"Indeed, all the skin and muscle and most of the bone protecting its front had been scraped away, just as Erwin theorized, revealing its entire thorax. Hundreds of ribs framed organs that looked familiar on a human, but as far as they knew, had no place on a Titan. They didn't breathe, so why would it need such massive lungs? They didn't digest what they ate, so what purpose did those kilometers of intestines currently spilling onto the Wall have? Those were questions for Hange to ponder; the only thing that mattered now was its head.

Its jaw had in fact been ripped off, as well as most of its teeth and nose and even eyes. Blood and marrow and steam poured from the cracked and broken bones, saliva from its mouth, and some strange clear fluid from the exposed folds of its brain, creating a foul lake atop the Wall that grew larger every second. It unleashed a low keen that vibrated through the Wall as it moved its head back and forth, blind. It was already regenerating, building new bone that was quickly covered by muscle fibers that knit together before their eyes. They only had one chance. At least the Garrison was falling back eagerly. Eren was thankfully behind them all as he transformed; they had enough trouble seeing, they didn't need to be blinded by the light as well.

"All set, Commander!" Hange's contraptions- at least the one he could see, manned by Armin- were rearing to go, the motor spewing iceburst exhaust as they waited for the triggers to be deployed. Erwin unholstered the front-most signal flare, wondering for one terrifying second what would happen if it was the wrong one before pushing that thought far from his mind. His arm ached as he raised the gun above his head.

"On my mark!" His fingers hurt as he curled them around the trigger. The gunpowder and steam and smoke burned his throat, and when he swallowed, he tasted blood. "NOW!" A pop and a plume of red smoke, bright against the gray and black and white, rose into the air. The ODM hooks shot out, sinking into the heel of the Titan's hand. As Armin released the handles, it began reeling itself in at max speed.

The speed, as well as the heavy cargo, caused it to wobble and tilt, but it still struck true, colliding with the hand hard enough for the wood to splinter. As soon as the first few grains of gunpowder touched that ultra heated skin, the explosions rang out on either side. Given that this monster's wrists were as big as cottages, a single barrel of gunpowder wasn't enough to completely blow them off, but the concussive force, along with the wooden and metal shrapnel, sliced apart the flesh and cracked the bones enough that all the weight leaning on them did the rest.

They snapped like massive trees splitting apart, and with a bellow that could probably be heard kilometers away, the Titan fell onto its forearms, driving the cracks it had already formed even deeper into the Wall. Its head was right there, but it was already attempting to push itself back up, so much steam blasting from its ruined wrists that it washed over them where they stood. The air was so humid it was hard to breathe, and as Erwin tossed aside the spent signal gun and grabbed the other, he could feel how slick his grip had become.

"Eren! NOW!" A green pillar cut through the steam, and Eren's Titan roared in affirmation, a bestial shriek that continued echoing even as he ran past them. For their tiny, human bodies, the Walls were wider than most streets, but if the fifteen-meter Titan tripped on the rails or stumbled over a cannon, he would fall off. But a cadet with poor balance wouldn't have ranked fifth in their class, and Eren's Titan moved as nimbly as any soldier would, vaulting over the straining arm and dunking a good two hundred kilos of gunpowder into Lord Reiss' gaping mouth.

They waited with bated breath until the flames and smoke erupted with enough force to knock Eren off the Wall and somewhere into the district, reducing the terror that loomed above them to gobbets of meat and skin and bone that flew as high as thirty meters before beginning to rain down along with the blood already painting the Wall and the ground below. Beside him, Hange swore loudly.

"Fuck! The body is beginning to regenerate! That didn't destroy it."

"All units! Deploy ODM gear to finish it off!" Levi was off to a running start before the words even left his mouth, leaping off the Wall before even deploying his hooks. They sank into a chunk of flesh the size of a wash tub, reeling him in, and he severed it immediately. As the Scouts scrambled to bisect the right part, Erwin and Hange were left staring at the massive torso slumped but still twitching, still steaming, against the Wall, waiting.

"What do you think will happen if we're unable to fully destroy the weak spot?" he asked, pushing his hair back from his face. The scalding blood plastering it to his skin was already evaporating, but it was still uncomfortable. Hange was trying to wipe their goggles clean, but only succeeded in leaving ugly red smears across the lenses.

"Honestly? I have no idea. Nothing like this has ever happened before; usually, the moment the nape is removed from the body, the body begins decaying. I guess its possible the body will continue functioning independent of it, like a chicken with its head cut off… or it could be a worm situation and another Titan might grow from said weak spot, meaning we could have two of these fuckers on our hands." Erwin frowned, tearing his attention away from the behemoth long enough to scowl at his new second-in-command.

"You'd better not be praying for that to happen…"

"What?! No! Of course not! That would be so unethical! …even if it would be an unparalleled scientific discovery-"

"Hange-"

"-I mean, just imagine the applications in our field-"

"No-"

"-we could potentially duplicate Eren-"

"Hange, if I wanted to put up with another Eren Yaeger… I'd I kill myself." They flinched slightly.

"That's a little harsh."

"No, it isn't. The only person who has caused me even remotely as much grief as this boy is Levi, but at least Levi pulls his weight. Levi actually manages to kill Titans, not continuously get kidnapped by them; this is the third time in four months Eren has been kidnapped by someone who turned out to be a Titan, and this is the third time the Survey Corps has had to pay in blood to get him back because despite being fifteen meters tall and nigh indestructible, he can't do the one thing he spent three years training for!" Hange opened their mouth to argue, but stopped suddenly, really taking in his appearance as the fog clouding their goggles began to clear. Their face fell slightly, and when they spoke again, their voice was much more subdued.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe Eren has been an unwitting harbinger of bad luck for us… but it's up to us to dig deep and find that silver lining, you know? Yes, Wall Maria fell. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, and even more are suffering… but the people responsible for us being in this situation in the first place are gone now. The Royal family that wanted us to die inside these Walls is a memory, and the power to control Titans lies in the hands of the Survey Corps!"

"Technically, that power lies in the hands of a child." This time, Hange scowled at him.

"Oh, fuck off, Erwin! I'm trying to be positive-!"

"I know. And you're right. I only…" He trailed off, wandering away from them, closer to the Titan. It was hard to see with all the steam, but… it seemed to be getting smaller, its skin and bones darkening. Hange jogged past him.

"Is it-?" They cried out as one of the arms, only held on by a bit of skin and sinew, fell off in a shower of cinders.

"They did it… Fuck…" Erwin breathed, lowering himself to sit atop the Wall. Hange dropped down beside him, and for a moment, the two of them simply watched the giant corpse burn up in silence, breathing hard. A screaming wail broke that silence as Hange put their head in their hand and began sobbing. "Hange, what-"

"I can't fucking do this again, Erwin! I had no idea what I was doing once this last week! I have been freaking out this entire time, but I couldn't let anyone know I was freaking out because I was supposed to be in charge! My entire squad save Moblit is dead! I almost died in that cave! I almost died in Trost! A rifle went off right next to my fucking head- a few centimeters to the left, and my brains would've been splattered all over the street, but the whole time, I had to pretend like everything was fi-i-i-ine…!" They screamed again, doubling over and weeping into their knees. Erwin shifted to face them, rubbing their back in spite of the pain shooting through his fingertips.

"I'm sorry, Hange."

"I was not at ALL in control of any of these situations! All of this came down to pure, dumb luck!"

"That's not true. There's always an element of luck in everything we do, but luck is wasted without skillful leadership. You did exceptionally well on your own." Sniffling, they shook their head.

"I don't care. I don't ever want to go through this again…" They looked up at him, tears welling in their goggles. Despite the scars and the fine lines and the gray hairs peeking out her and there, Hange looked so much like they had when they were younger in that moment. The fear and misery and horror in their eyes now was the same as it had been when they first realized what being a Scout truly entailed. "…please," they whispered, "don't die. Don't get arrested again. Don't lose another limb. Don't ever leave me in charge." Their lip trembled as the tears began leaking over the marred skin on their cheeks. "I'm not you. I can't do what you do, Erwin…" Every movement, no matter how slight, hurt, but Erwin pulled Hange into as tight a hug as he could manage given their positions and his one arm.

"Yes, you can. But I have no intention of dying- or relinquishing my position- for a very long time."

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BIG, ACTUAL IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm going to be going on hiatus for a while. I need to make it as clear as possible that I am not abandoning this fic- I am going to finish this story if it kills me (and some days, it feels like it might). Unfortunately, I haven't been making good progress on the upcoming chapters; they're missing large sections, and they feel rambling and disjointed. I'm worn out physically from chronic pain, and also I'm just burnt out mentally, both on writing and on AoT. I think it's because I don't have any friends familiar with the series who I can bounce ideas off of, but also, it's definitely because the upcoming section in canon is literally just a Spongebob "Two Months Later" transition. And sure, the nitty gritty of planning a mission isn't important in a story about teenage shonen protagonists, but it sure as hell is important in a story about the military commander actually planning the mission. I've written four more chapters following this one- they're just really bad and incomplete, and sadly, I don't know how long it's going to take for them to get good and complete. But they WILL- I have been updating this fic every week without fail since last June (barring one other short hiatus), so you know I'm good for it. If you aren't already subscribed, I suggest you do so now, so you'll know as soon as the hiatus is over.

K, actual A/Ns: Rewatching these episodes for this chapter gave me traumatic flashbacks to Attack on Titan: Final Battle. You know what's worse than playing this fucking mission? Playing this mission on the Switch with broken things regarding this part of the anime. First, can I just say how much I love Erwin's doodle of motherfucking Salad Fingers when he's trying to get across his plan? That drawing looks far too competent in the manga; I thought Moblit did it. In the anime? *chef's kiss* Perfection. Second, does their fight with Rod take place several weeks after he's freed from prison? Because Erwin goes from a massive black eye that's nearly swollen shut to not a single scratch on him over the course of one episode. Secret Ackerman confirmed? I know the animation staff was overworked and Isayama also forgot that Erwin had been roughed up in the manga, but the artists at WIT are better than him, so they couldn't give him a little discoloration to remind us that yes, he was beaten and probably tortured just a day ago?

Also, I guess we just aren't going to acknowledge the fact that Titans can apparently survive without their nape as long as that particular section isn't severed in exactly the right method? Considering Hange's whole deal it that they're so horny for Titans, you'd think they'd have something to say about… literally anything they've seen in the last month or so- like, a Titan with boobs, or a Titan that can continue to function even after its weak spot has been completely removed from its body- but no, it's better to take the Steven Universe approach to writing and keep your mysteries as mysteries by never having any of your characters ask any questions that any other human would ask.

Also also, Musical Bear- see, I was actually toying with the idea of scrapping everything that happens in-canon after RtS (because I hate it and think the series went downhill from there) and creating an entirely new scenario that fleshes out the world beyond Liberio and the people of said world instead of just painting everyone with the same racist idiot brush. If I do that, it's going to be a separate story, rather than tacking 50 more chapters onto this one. That being said, while I have ideas for a sequel, they're messy and rambling and disjointed, and honestly, I'm having enough trouble with this fic to even consider a continuation now. It's still in my mind, of course… haunting me…