"Eren… Eren!"
"...Kill them all…" Eren mumbled as in his dream he had been punching a Titan in the face while everything around him seemed miniscule, including the titan…
"...hear that?! I heard it!" A foreign, distant male voice entered Eren's ears and he blinked as he slowly regained consciousness. "It said it's going to kill us all!"
"Mikasa?" Eren glanced up to see that Mikasa had put herself between Eren and… between a line of Garrison troops who were either holding anti-titan blades or muskets in their hands, all of which were pointed at Mikasa and Eren, with roughly twenty feet of open ground between them.
"What is going on?!" Eren shouted at the line of soldiers, confusion and surge of fear overtaking his sense of self-preservation or decorum as a soldier. At the same time he realized that he and Mikasa had been backed into a corner, with their backs against Wall Rose and their front and sides blocked off by the firing line of Garrison soldiers.
"Huff… huff… THERE YOU ARE! TRAITOR TO MANKIND!" A man with a scraggly beard, sunken eyes and a thousand-yard stare burst through the line of soldiers to point a finger at Eren and Mikasa. "TITANS IN HUMAN FLESH! YOU SABOTAGED THE WALL CANNONS! YOUR COMRADES BROKE THE GATES!"
"Sir! I do not know what you are saying, sir!" Eren responded as he faintly recognized the rank of the newcomer as Captain of Garrison Corps from the insignia of his uniform, but otherwise Eren didn't recognize the man himself.
"LIES! We have eyewitnesses who stated that you turned into a TITAN! YOU AND YOUR KIND ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THIS! TRAITOR!" The captain was foaming from the mouth as he screamed, and it looked as if he had forsaken all reason. "We as humanity cannot afford to give quarter to your kind, just as you seek to eradicate us! Artillery! At the ready!"
"Wait! What are you saying?! I cannot understand what you are implying! I am a human!" Eren pushed past Mikasa, only for Mikasa to yank him back and stand in front of him as a shield.
At the same time, Eren glanced up the wall of Maria and noticed that there was an inferno of burning metal on top of it for some reason, and there were fresh-looking carts of artillery cannons that were being pushed towards Trost on the rail-lines that were on top of the wall, slowly replacing the destroyed cannons with fresh ones.
One of the cannons had been unpackaged already and had been pointed at Eren and Mikasa, with the cannon gunners looking pale and shaky as they aimed the cannon at the two teenagers.
"Silence, traitor! Artillery! Cannon- Fire!" The captain swung his hand down after seeing a 'ready' flag rise from the cannon crew.
The cannon fired.
Eren saw the cannon shell approaching him as if in slow motion, and realized that he had bitten his own hand, as if his mind worked on it's own accord-
There was a lightning-like flash of consciousness as Eren lifted his hand towards the cannon ball, causing the shot to detonate against his palm and send a shockwave through his arm- But more importantly, the shot had not reached him and Mikasa.
He looked down to see that the soldiers and buildings in front of him had become tiny, and their faces, already strewn thin with stress, now showed pure terror as some amongst them turned to flee, and the rest hurried to reload their weapons, the shots of which had sunk harmlessly into Eren's skin…
Eren woke up from his dream and realized that he was hugging what felt like a segment of bones that were the size of his torso.
…And a split second later he realized that he was hugging the huge pieces of spine at the nape of a skinless Titan's neck.
He realized that the titan was only partially formed, as the upper half of titan had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, half-baked with rib-bones visible and meat haphazardly strewn across the body like that of a skinned and tormented corpse or an anatomical model, and the body didn't have it's legs or even a waist, held up solely by it's rib bones.
The titan's left arm was lifted towards the cannon mounted on top of the wall, except that its hand had been blown apart and the stump was sizzling with steam..
"...I… did that?" Eren realized that his dream had suddenly become reality- Or rather, he realized that his dreams had not been dreams at all.
"RELOAD! RELOAD QUICKLY! BEFORE THE TITAN STRIKES AGAIN!" The screaming voice of the captain pierced through the steam that the now-dissolving half-a-titan was letting out, reminding Eren that he did not have the luxury of time to contemplate what had just happened.
"Mikasa! Are you-" Eren ran into the ribcage of the Titan, discovering that Mikasa was prone within the titan's chest.
"Eren! Are you-" Mikasa got up and grabbed Eren the second she saw him, and for a moment the two were lost in babbling over the other's safety, before sanity returned to them and Mikasa sent a dark look at the line of soldiers who were still obscured by the titan's steam.
"...We have to fight our way out. They are determined to kill us both." Mikasa stated darkly and reached for her anti-titan blades.
"I think I can turn into a titan, somehow, and… I'll carry us out!" Eren told his half-thought theory and plan, as while he had faith in Mikasa's fighting abilities… He doubted that Mikasa could take down what had looked to be several squads of Garrison troops armed with guns. "If we attack those troops we'll be branded as traitors for sure, but… If I get us out of the immediate area, and I find you a horse, you could join the other refugees in march to Sina. I'll use the titan form to try to get back to Shiganshina District- I need to know what Father hid in his cellar-"
"No. I'll go with you. Even if it's to the titan-infested lands." Mikasa had a dark look in her eyes nonetheless and it looked as if she had lost all reason when Eren had turned into a titan- And it didn't look like she was listening to Eren any more once he spoke about separating from Mikasa.
Eren, meanwhile, couldn't come up with a proper plan, as even he realized how absurd his plan just now was. 'Armin… I wish you were here, we need your intelligence… Or… Maybe it's better he's not here- He'll survive. If he was here now… He'd die with us.'
"Cannon! Prepare to… AAAAH!" The captain's scream in the steam-shrouded distance turned into a girly shriek of horror for some reason, and Eren took his chance.
"Mikasa- Stay with me and I'll protect you." Eren told Mikasa a split second before he bit his hand again.
There was a flash of consciousness, and…
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Kitz Weilman was frozen stiff in terror, his hand once again up in the air to command the cannon to resume fire at the Titan infiltrator who had managed to worm its way to the Training Corps.
"What… is that…" Weilman looked up the wall… And saw a metal titan who stood on the wall.
Nay, the metal titan was standing on the wreck of the cannon, which it had crushed under its foot.
The wall-climbing metal titan's entire body was steaming from battle and the infernal creature was drenched in red blood and gore of countless civilians, to the point its gray armor had been dyed red. A balefully-glowing yellow halo of infernal fire rose behind the metal titan's head, and flames of hell were billowing out from cones that were pointing out from the metal titan's demonic body.
Most of the gunners on top of the wall were scrambling away from the demon-titan in terror, while the remaining fresh cannons that had been dragged to Trost District were quickly unpacked by the few brave gunners who stayed despite the Demon being mere meters away from them-
The metal titan suddenly moved sideways while keeping it's 'neutral' posture during movement, propelled by the red jets of demon-fire that came from its side and it's legs and sent it 'skating' sideways on top of the wall-
The gunners of the fresh wall-cannons screamed and jumped down from the wall as the metal titan swept the artillery train off the top of the wall by 'boosting' itself over the cannons, crushing them underfoot and sending sheared and bent metal and cracked wood to rain down on the portion of Trost District that had been built behind and within the confines of Wall Rose.
Weilman heard the screams of the wall-gunners who had been unfortunate enough to not have 3D-maneuver gear equipped when they had jumped off the wall, and as a result the screams of terror came to an abrupt halt as soon as the bodies of the gunners hit the cobblestone pavement below with sickening crunches.
"What… the devil?" Weilman could only mutter as his hand shook and his eyes dilapidated in sudden terror. "A titan… on the walls? A demon… How- how did it get there!"
"Looks like it jumped." Rico noted from the side. Her logical mind had overtaken her horror, allowing her to function despite the fact her face was pale as that of a corpse and her hands shook on the handles of her 3D-gear. "I think I saw it jump on the wall a moment after the cannon was fired at cadet Yeager's true form- One of the reports stated that the metal titan engaged the wall cannons through some sort of flare-thrower after one of the cannons missed a shot at the metal titan. The titan may have been intelligent enough to recognize the cannons from the sound and moved to strike preemptively, before the cannons could resume firing at it."
An explosion of steam came from the spot where the two traitorous cadets had been cornered to, and a thirteen-meter long male-bodied titan stood up to roar in anger from the spot. The female human-form traitor clung to the male-looking titan's hair as the monster roared its challenge against the entire humanity.
The Garrison troops that were present, most of them backline troops who had never seen a Titan in their life, saw the infernal titan on top of the walls and the thirteen-meter titan in front of them, then realized they no longer had cannon support… And the Garrison troops fled in terror.
"We're… all dead." Weilman fell on his knees as he realized that all hope was gone.
"...This doesn't look good." Rico agreed and adjusted her glasses shakily, all the while the Garrison rearguard began to break and flee. "If this keeps up… The events of Wall Maria will repeat themselves, and Wall Rose will be lost."
"It's… already lost… Humanity… has fallen." Weilman put his hands against the cobblestone road, shaky and defeated. "We've allowed titans to infiltrate within our midst…"
The twelve-meter tall metal titan on the wall noticed the thirteen-meter tall traitor-titan below it, and the metal titan lifted the strange contraption in it's right hand to point at the traitor-titan's neck-
The human-form traitor in the titan's hair looked up as if on instinct, saw the contraption pointed at them… And she yanked the male titan's hair.
The male titan twisted its head to the side, causing the red beam that came from the metal titan's weapon to miss the traitor titan's neck, and instead gouge a hole into the pavement while burning away some of the traitor titan's hairs.
The traitor titan screamed as the female in its hair pulled harder, twisting the titan's head to look behind and above it… And the fleshy traitor-titan saw the metal titan.
The metal titan had lifted the contraption in its left hand to point at the sky, and sparks of red began to collect in the weapon's tip
The traitor-titan saw it as well as it reached down-.
The Garrison soldiers, at least those who had not fled yet, stared as the traitor-titan threw a titan-sized handful of cobblestones from the pavement at the metal titan who stood on the wall.
Some of the thrown rocks impacted all over the wall, but a considerable chunk of them were true in their aim at the metal titan. However, the metal titan avoided being pelted by the rocks by jumping high into the air.
The metal titan used the energy of the jump to then dive down towards the traitor titan while unfolding the strange spike-weapon in its left arm.
An explosion rocked the ground and cobblestones and pieces of broken concrete flew everywhere as the metal titan crashed down and punched it's left-arm spike against the ground where the traitor had been- And as the dust settled, it became clear that the traitor-titan had managed to get out of the metal titan's way by rolling forward before the devastating spike-blow could land.
The traitor-titan got up, either not noticing or not caring that its roll forward had ended up crushing several of Garrison soldiers that had not managed to get away from it on time, and had also ended up shattering the building that had been behind the Garrison line. Or perhaps the titan had noticed the building, as the traitor-titan had used it to stop its forward momentum by crashing against it.
"Hiee!" Weilman curled up into a ball as the traitor-titan's leg landed mere meters away from him while the flesh-made monster turned to face towards the metal one. "Withdraw! Everyone- Withdraw! Run! Run to Shina! Rico- Go and help the… the…"
Weilman looked to the side… and saw that Rico had been pierced through by a piece of wood that had been sent airborne by the traitor-titan's crashing stop.
The spectacled woman held to the piece of wood that pinned her to the ground and mumbled to herself. "...And I had just… gotten my bedsheets right… What a… lame way to…"
The woman coughed blood, staining her jaw and chest deep crimson while she babbled in an utterly incomprehensible manner from shock and pain.
"...No, no, no…" Weilman, meanwhile, could do naught but curl deeper into fetal position on the street, locked up from sheer horror, all the while the living nightmare unfolded itself all around him.
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"-...Raven, I think that giant is different from the others. It's… more intelligent?-" Ayre's voice sounded slightly hopeful as Loader-4 faced towards the male-bodied thirteen-meter tall giant that had a face that was quite inhumane.
On closer inspection there was a girl in the giant's hair, who was seemingly talking to the giant while clinging to it's hair- But more importantly, the giant had assumed some sort of fighting pose, making a stark difference between it and the other giants who had either been utterly mindless in their approach, or had all but ignored Loader-4 until the moment the 'core had destroyed them.
"-...Heh…-" Ayre gave a small chuckle. "-...Raven? Don't you think those two look like us? With that girl in that giant's hair, and yourself as the giant?-"
"..." 621's expression, if one could call it that, was flat in response to Ayre's words, all the while the Loader-4 used the slight lull in fighting to cool down the Coral Rifle.
"-...It was just something that struck me, don't think too much about it.-" Ayre seemed to be a bit depressed but continued nonetheless. "-...But they seem intelligent. And we're on the other side of that wall now- It seems that the wall was built to keep those giants out, since I don't detect any on this side of the wall based on Coral responses. Well, other than the one facing us.-"
"..."
"-Yes. Let's try to make contact with them… Raven.-"
However, before any talking could occur, the thirteen-meter tall giant human charged.
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"Eren!" Mikasa called as Eren's titan-form roared and charged the metal titan, only for the metal titan to use its red jets to boost to the side, causing Eren's titan-form's charge to miss and end up with Eren's titan smashing himself against the side of Wall Rose. "Left!"
Mikasa pulled the titan's hair to the left, and just in time as the metal titan charged in, primed it's rod-weapon, and then tried to drive it into Eren's titan-form's spine from behind.
The warning Mikasa gave was enough to allow Eren to dodge the attack that he couldn't see, and the rod-weapon hit the side of Wall Maria, ramming the spike-rod against the wall-face and causing a pelting rain of wall-fragments and a large crater in the wall.
Mikasa almost jumped on top of the metal titan in an instinctive attempt to strike at the metal titan's nape as its 'helmet' passed Eren's titan-form mere meters away, but she lost the chance as the metal titan changed directions in an instant and boosted away with a snap-like motion that was so fast that it was hard for eyes to follow.
It was surreal for Mikasa to even consider that a hunk of metal like that could move at such speeds, but she was never one to allow her mental clarity be compromised by such things- If something threatened Eren, she would ensure that the threat was removed. Everything else was secondary, and thus couldn't shake her resolve.
"Eren!-" Mikasa called into Eren's titan's ear, but had to dodge back as Eren's titan reached up to scratch around its ear. "Eren! Be careful- What's wrong? Can you hear me?"
Mikasa leaned forward over the titan's head to look into Eren's titan-form's eyes, upside-down… And saw nothing but fury within them.
The titan's eyes locked onto Mikasa's, and Mikasa had to pull back as the titan punched itself in the face- Or rather, it tried to punch Mikasa, but ended up hitting its own face with the force of a battering ram.
Blood painted the side of Wall Rose in a shade of crimson as Eren's titan form's brains covered it with a splatter pattern, the results of the beast's mindless fury that had now become quite literal.
Eren's titan, now faceless and lacking a huge chunk of its head after eating its own punch, slumped down against the side of Wall Rose and slid down to sit against it limply.
Mikasa could only grip Eren's hair, feeling utterly numb and uncertain of what had just happened, and what she had witnessed.
It looked like the metal titan shared Mikasa's confusion as it came to stand in front of Eren's prone titan form, equally unmoving.
And then the metal titan spoke.
"-...Who are you.-" A voice with a strange, hollow and metallic undertone came from the metal titan. It was uncertain whether the speaker was male or female, but it was clear that whoever had been speaking has had their voice severely damaged- Possibly by fire or shrapnel if the rough, sigh-like rasp in the voice was anything to go by.
The words were a question, but the tone was not so- To Mikasa it was as if the metal titan was making a statement, which made her even more confused. 'It talks?'
A piece of burning debris from the wall-mounted cannons came crashing down in the background, casting the blood-drenched, steaming metal titan in an eerie, flickering firelight while a half-circle metal contraption rose from the titan's back to form a heat-glowing halo above the titan's head.
Mikasa's mind had shorted out a long time ago and could only stare at the monster, and draw her blades to point at the metal beast while standing on top of Eren's fallen titan form, hell-bent on protecting Eren to her last breath, no matter what form Eren took.
"-...-" It looked like the metal titan realized how strange either its statement or the situation had been, and gave a sigh that was almost resigned before stomping around a bit, and finally, abruptly, jumping up.
Mikasa stared up at the metal titan as it fired its boosters at the apex of its jump and ascended the rest of the way up the wall.
The metal titan crossed over it back to Trost and disappeared from sight, leaping over the Wall as if it was mere obstacle, and not the monument that had kept all of mankind safe from Titans for hundreds of years.
"...Well then." A foreign male voice came from somewhere in the distance and Mikasa snapped her attention towards it.
There was a bald man in Garrison uniform who was standing some distance away, and there was a pair of medics who were tending to a blonde woman near the bald man.
The blonde woman had been pinned against the road by a piece of wood and looked like she had passed out some time ago in a puddle of her own blood.
Moreover, the captain who had ordered Eren's execution had curled up into a fetal position at the bald newcomer's feet, and the curled-up captain was foaming from the mouth while shaking uncontrollably.
"I arrived a moment ago. Care to explain what happened… hm…" The bald man twirled his mustache and eyed Mikasa, who could only stare back, and then glanced down at the curled-up captain. "Well, it looks like Weilman here is of no use. Honestly, Weilman, you've always been as fragile as old straw when it comes to Titans… Well, you're always excelled in your ability to handle crowds and deal with lawbreakers, so I shouldn't fault you. Well then! How about you, missus in the titan's hair?"
Mikasa opened her mouth and closed it while hanging onto Eren's titan form's hair as the bald man turned to address Mikasa, as she was unable to formulate coherent words nor thoughts after witnessing what she had just seen.
"Commander Pixis!" A male form landed near the bald commander, accompanied with the familiar hiss of steam from the man's 3D-gear, and Mikasa recognized the newcomer to be the trainer-slash-instructor of 104th Trainee Corps, Keith Shadis- A familiar man to all of 104th, considering that the strict man had been training the 104th for several years now. "The situation is dire. Trost has been breached through both gates. 104th have engaged, and… "
Mikasa used commander Pixis's distracted state to slide down Eren's titan form to the point she was clinging to Eren's faceless titan-form's neck by the scruff of his hair- Where the nape of a titan's neck was, and from where Mikasa had seen Eren emerge before. However, this time the nape stayed shut, trapping Eren within. "Eren. Eren, wake up! I… I need you to come back to your senses, now!"
Meanwhile, Commander Pixis was stroking his mustache and eyeing up the scene after getting a report from Keith, seeing that Weilman was less than coherent at the moment and the blonde woman who had been found near Weilman was utterly unconscious while the medics dragged her away. "Say, Keith, did you happen to see what happened here just earlier? I believe that I saw some sort of titan jumping over the wall, twice, and that miss… you called her 'Mikasa Ackerman'? Yes, I believe that I saw Miss Ackerman control a titan to fight that jumping titan. By pulling the titan's hair, no less. I would attribute sights like those to alcohol, which I admit I've imbibed earlier this fine day before I heard about the events at Trost, so I would like to borrow your eyes to confirm what I saw was indeed reality."
"I… saw the abnormal metal titan as it flew over the wall, fought that other abnormal titan, and then jumped back to Trost." Keith told Pixis, causing the bald commander to nod and then make a gesture to instruct the instructor to continue. "...I also saw that titan punch its own lights out, I believe, before the abnormal metal titan jumped away. Ackerman's been hanging onto that titan's hair for a while now as well, for some reason."
"How curious… Ahem- Miss Ackerman, a moment of your time if you'd will!" Pixis cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at Mikasa, who was still clinging to Eren's titan form. "Please come here and explain your actions and your version of the events! Consider that an order!"
Mikasa glanced at Eren's titan's prone form that had not reacted to Mikasa's calls nor her pleas… And she decided that it would be better for Eren's long-term survival if she could explain that Eren was no threat to the Corps, even if it caused her to be separated from Eren for a moment.
Mikasa launched the hooks of her 3D-gear to a nearby building and swung herself towards the two officers, or three if one counted the one who was shaking on the ground, and holstered her blades as soon as Keith sent her a look that told Mikasa that her fate was hanging by a thread.
"So, miss, could you explain what has been going on here?" Pixis asked, prompting Mikasa to take a deep breath… And then explain everything that she had just seen, even if she felt insane just describing the events.
…And by the way Pixis looked at her afterwards, Mikasa felt as if Pixis would have shared her opinion of her own sanity if Instructor Keith hadn't been nodding slowly to Mikasa's tale.
"...I heard stories from the cadets who fled the battle that there was an abnormal titan who attacked other titans, and helped several cadets escape a death by titan in the process. For Eren to become something like that… Somehow it wouldn't surprise me. Grisha's always been an odd ball, from the moment I found that man wandering outside Wall Maria of all things. Figures that Eren would follow his father's footsteps in becoming weird as well." Keith noted from the side as Mikasa finished her explanation, causing her to snap her head to look at the instructor with newfound hope in her chest- Hope that she had convinced someone that Eren was not a threat to mankind.
"You vouch for this Eren Yeager then, Keith?" Pixis noted while bringing out a bottle from his pocket and taking a swig.
Mikasa smelled alcohol from the drink, making her worried that Pixis's drunken state might hinder his judgment. However, she knew better than to argue or vocalize her concerns, so she stayed quiet while the two officers talked.
"...Suppose I have to." Keith meanwhile grumbled in a way that could be presumed to be an agreement to Pixis's question, and then grabbed the bottle from Pixis, drawing a small smirk from the commander who didn't object to having his flask manhandled. "That lad's no genius, but what I saw and heard matches what Ackerman just spouted out. Doesn't explain why Yeager knocked his own lights out, or how he actually turned into a titan, if that titan over there is indeed controlled by Yeager, but lad's never been the brightest candle in the hall so I wouldn't put it past him to be stupid enough to miss a punch and hit his own face."
The instructor took a swig from Pixis's bottle before pouring some over Weilman's hair, seemingly shocking the prone captain from his frothing state, after which the Instructor gave the bottle back to Pixis.
"Ah, welcome back to the realm of sanity, Weilman. What little of it remains, at any rate." Pixis noted as he took back his bottle and slipped it into his breast pocket. "It looks like Keith and I have some planning to do with mr Yeager and miss Ackerman, so I'd prefer if you returned your focus to keeping the evacuation in good order."
"That- thaththat! The TRAITORS-!" Weilman began and pointed at Mikasa, but Pixis reached to pat Mikasa's shoulder, prompting Weilman to shut up.
"Don't worry about that. Captain, you have your orders. Off you go." Pixis noted.
"But-"
"Weilman." Keith rubbed the bridge of his nose, and the sheer annoyed exhaustion in the instructor's voice seemed to cause Weilman to realize that he was back-talking to the commander of the entire Garrison Corps.
"A-At once, sir! However! I recommend the commander to execute that woman and that titan at once! They are traitors to mankind, and-"
"I'll consider it. Very good." Pixis made a shooing motion, prompting Weilman to send Mikasa a gaze that was a mixture of existential terror and a terrible worry- Most likely over the perceived possibility that Mikasa might also suddenly turn into a Titan out of the blue.
However, the captain ran off to direct the evacuation as ordered, leaving Mikasa alone with the two officers.
..:At least for a moment, before a wet 'slurp' came from behind them and the trio turned to see Eren plop out from the prone titan's neck with roughly the same beauty and grace as a worm crawling out of an infected wound.
The blood and viscera-covered young man began to slide down the titan's back while completely out cold… At least until Mikasa snatched him mid-slide, having fired the hooks of her 3D-gear to the decaying titan's flank and boosted over to Eren before her rational mind had caught up with her body's motions.
"Good catch! Bring him here, if you will, Miss Ackerman!" Pixis's voice recalled Mikasa, and she returned to Keith and Pixis with Eren over her shoulder, albeit not without some apprehension over the possibility that the two officers would have Eren be killed or worse.
There were a large number of Garrison soldiers who were hurrying over as well, and from the looks of it the newcomers weren't inexperienced rearline troops, but looked to be front-line veterans- Likely Pixis's personal guard who were catching up after Pixis had seemingly ran off with few medics in tow.
The sight of the veteran Garrison soldiers made Mikasa uneasy, as she knew that the veterans wouldn't run in terror from merely seeing a titan, and thus if Eren suddenly transformed again… He would most certainly get killed.
"Now then. You said that this 'Eren' lad can transform into a titan at will, and retains his sanity afterwards?" Pixis asked while eyeing Eren's unconscious body. "I believe that we should wait for him to wake up before we confirm that. And ask why he thought it was strategically advantageous to punch his own lights out- Distracted or not."
Mikasa bit her lip a bit as she had 'altered' her version of the told events by explaining that she had distracted Eren by accident in the middle of the intense fight against the metal titan, and Eren had reacted on instinct, resulting in an accidental case of 'self-inflicted friendly fire'.
She had a hunch that Pixis's easy-going stance might change quite radically if he learned of the blind hatred Mikasa had seen in Eren's eyes, the hatred that was entirely similar to the hatred harbored by other mindless titans, or the fact Mikasa felt as if Eren hadn't been in control of the titan at all…
Of course, another worry that gnawed Mikasa was that Pixis might have also seen through Mikasa's lie- The commander looked to be much, much sharper than he let on, and if he knew Mikasa had lied about something as crucial as that…
"Keith, please take miss Ackerman and mr. Yeager to somewhere nearby to rest, and grab some of the veterans here to stay with you… just in case. Send me a runner when mr. Yeager has woken up." Pixis instructed Keith, who nodded and saluted, putting up an air of professionalism now that the veteran Garrison troops had caught up and were present behind them. "I have a plan for closing off the breach once the civilians have evacuated…"
"And that metal titan?" Keith noted, eyeing the top of the wall where the wrecked cannons had stopped burning and merely smoldered quietly.
"Dunno. Seeing how this day is going, I'll probably bend over and try asking it to stop." Pixis shrugged, causing most of the veterans to double-take the commander as he walked off while pulling out his pocket-flask again.