Chapter 3: Who are we?
Edward studied the city, standing on the top end of the slanted rooftop; it looked as though the whole city was encased in a tall circular shaped wall. It reminded him of the wall of Briggs in the north, except on an impossibly larger scale. He observed the structure and design of the buildings; trying to figure out what time period this world was in.
The stone and dirt roads and these houses look almost medieval or maybe even a later period, No vehicles just wooden carts so far, no streets lights or lamps or any sign of electrical wires or gas piping anywhere and the air...
Edward then inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth.
Its similar back in Resembool where there's hardly any industrial factories or vehicles passing by, but Resembool is in the countryside and this place looks to be as densely packed as a city.
He then looked back at Mina, who was sitting against one of the windows jutting out of the roof, her crying lessen after a while but she still had a trail of tears flowing from her eyes which she tried to rub away. He began to study what he heard her call the "ODM Gear", which they must use to get close to those "Titans" as she called them.
Weird, they seem to be behind in technological advancements on all fields when compared to ours but yet these people were able to develop some kind of grappling hook device and it must be powered by something that allows them to move at incredible speeds.
Alphonse knelt down on both knees in front of Mina; maybe close to an hour ago he was at home smiling and enjoying the time he spent with his brother and close childhood friend Winry. Now he was on a rooftop surrounded by giant man eating monsters and has to comfort a young soldier over the death of one of her comrades all the while feeling responsible for his death; his thoughts were consumed with what he could have done better, he thought about what to say to her and what excuse he would use to justify his failings.
If I had only reacted faster, if I had only taken out those giants sooner, if I had only just remembered those Alkhestry lesson I could... I could have saved him.
"I'm sorry, Mina" Al said softly, his voice aching with sorrow, Mina looked up to face him; her silvery grey eyes staring into his eyes which a slightly darker shade of gold than his hair. "If I had just been faster" he clenched his fist in frustration as he looked away from her gaze, he didn't want to see those eyes look at him accusingly. "If I had just remembered I could of-" his apology was cut short when Mina suddenly threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Alphonse was dumbstruck and didn't know what to think.
"Thank you, if you hadn't shown up I'd be dead." She replied, her voice cracking slightly. Al was taken aback by her reaction, but he unclenched his fist and gently placed one hand on her back to reciprocate the hug.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry." Alphonse muttered still wanting to apologize.
"Hey" Said Ed, watching the moment unfold while he walked back to them, the two of them separated from each other and Ed knelt beside Al to face Mina "I'm sorry about your friend" he paused for a few seconds "Are you alright to talk now?" He said, trying to match the softness of Al's voice.
"Yeah" Mina replied as she rubbed her eye slightly.
"Alright, first things first, were there anyone else with you?" Ed asked, so far there were three people accounted for; one alive and two of them dead he needed to know if there were others who they could help, perhaps they might not be too late in saving the two who were ahead of the three others.
Mina's eyes widen at the sudden realization, she had been so preoccupied; Almost being eaten, the two them showing up suddenly and the death of Mylius and Nic that she had forgotten about the rest of her squad "Armin and Eren!" She exclaimed "They were ahead of us; Eren's had his leg bitten off and Armin was close to him, last time I saw him he was on the roof of one of the buildings."
"Right that other guy and his buddy!" Ed replied, quickly remembering.
The three of them quickly got up, ran to the top end of the curved roof and began to scan the rooftops of the other buildings "Hey!" Ed yelled "There's a blond hair guy sitting there, is that him?" He pointed to one of the buildings in the opposite street, Mina turned the direction he was pointing, and it was Armin.
"Yeah, that's him!" she replied, she reached down for the handles of her ODM and aimed them at the other roof. There was a weak click of the trigger which failed to be accompanied by the loud boom of a grappling hook being fired out of the barrel; Mina quickly realized that her gear didn't work after she collided with that brick pillar.
Crap I can't get to him if my gear isn't working she thought, she then remember Mylius, his gear. She looked down at his body, Alphonse had placed Mylius' hands together at the center of his body, and she walked up towards him and knelt down for a few seconds staring at the peaceful image of her deceased comrade.
Mylius… I'm sorry about this but I promise I won't forget you, Nic and Thomas... Mina thought solemnly.
She gently rolled his body to its side and began detaching his gear from his back; she placed it off to the side and carefully rolled him once more onto his back, placing his hands together on his chest, looking down at his peaceful form with a solemn expression.
Both Ed and Al watched silently as she attached all the necessary components to her body. She then walked back towards the edge of the roof, aimed the handles at the rooftop where Armin sat and pulled the trigger. Two long cables fired out of what looked to be two small barrels from the sides of her hips and latched onto the roof, she sighed in relief.
"I'll go to him, you guys stay here" said Mina, looking at the two of them. She then jumped off the ledge of the roof, the cables pulling her forwards as a stream of smoke poured out from a device on her lower back. She landed on the ledge of the other roof and walked towards Armin, she knelt down in front of him and placed her hands at his sides, he felt sticky for some reason. "Armin! Armin, are you ok?" She asked "speak to me, Armin, where's Eren?" Armin continued to stare into nothingness with an empty look on his face; his eyes wide and his mouth agape. She then started to lightly shake him, hoping it would wake him from his daze, his eyes then turned towards her.
"M...Mina" he whispered, she let out a sigh of relief and tightly hugged Armin, not caring the gluey substance that coated his uniform "I'm... am I dead?" Before she could respond she caught something out of the corner of her eye, splashes of blood, she quickly pulled back and checked if Armin was bleeding, he wasn't. It wasn't his blood. Oh God... she let go of Armin and slowly shuffled her way to the edge of the roof and peered down to the ground Please God no… please don't be dead… as her eyes scanned the floor she caught sight of the upper half of an arm laying on a small pool of blood. She immediately moved back Eren... no…
Sudden the sound of cables zipping from behind caught her attention; she turned to see Connie, Krista and Ymir along with other cadets landing on the ledge of the same rooftop as them, walking towards them.
"Mina, Armin are you two ok?" Connie asked with a concerned look on his face "Are you two hurt? Where's the rest of your squad?! Where's Eren? What the hell happened over there?" He said pointing at the mess of walls and spikes. The two of them were hit with a barrage of questions from Connie "Was that always there?"
"Our squad?" Armin turned to face Connie, then Mina who sat beside side and then it hit him, the memories of the horrible events that had transpired flooded back to him. He broke down and began to scream "You useless dolt!" he cried "just die!" He started to cry heavily, his hands on his head as pulled at his hair, both Mina and Connie were taken aback by what they saw.
"Hey, Calm down Armin" said Connie, he then turned to Mina "where's the rest of the squad."
She turned her face away from Connie and stared at the ground, her face filled with anguish "They're… They're…" she muttered as she felt throat dry up and a new flood of tears creeping to her eyes as the agony of losing another friend dawned on her once more.
"They're dead, Connie" interrupted Ymir who was standing on the top of the tiled roof, her backed faced towards them "can't you tell? These two are the only survivors."
"Shut up! If that's the case then why are Armin and Mina here in one piece?" Connie retorted.
"Who knows? Maybe they managed to escape while the rest got eaten, using their deaths as cover, though if Eren death prevented two of his squad members from sharing the same fate then I guess you can say his death wasn't completely all for nothing." Ymir responded.
"It wasn't like that!" Mina yelled angrily as she turned to face Ymir, slamming her fist on the tiles. Almost instantly the anguish she was feeling was swept aside for anger at Ymir's suggest; she never would have let her comrades die in her place let alone use their deaths for such a cowardly advantage. Ymir looked at her with a blank expression as Mina stared her down with gritted teeth and tears just on the edge of her eyes.
"You bitch" growled Connie, seeing that her remark had painful struck both Armin and Mina "want me to shut you up for good?"
"Stop it you guys!" pleaded Krista on the verge of tears, stepping in to separate Ymir from Connie and Mina "We've lost so many friends so quickly, we'll all just panicking, it's natural." Ymir then roughly placed her arm around Krista and smiled.
"That's my Krista" Ymir said almost laughing, leaning in forward near Krista's face "when this is all over, why don't we get marr-" Her attention was caught when she spotted individuals watching them, she pointed towards them "Who the hell are those guys?" The group turned their attention towards them.
Connie jumped from the rooftop and using his ODM gear propelled him to the rooftops of the opposite building where they were, Mina quickly followed suit."Hey, you guys shouldn't be here, all civilians were meant to evacuate Trost, why are you up here? The gates probably closed by now, you're stuck in the middle of a battlefield!" Connie exclaimed.
The two watched for a few seconds as the guy continued going on a tangent about how this place wasn't safe. He was shorter than them, his hair was so short he might as well of been bald and he had a round face with hazel colour eyes and an average build. Before the brothers could explain themselves, Connie caught sight of the cadet's body behind them and the dried blood on Alphonse's hands; he looked at them with wide eyes "Di... Did you do that?" He then raised his blades at them.
"Wait! You got the wrong idea!" Alphonse said trying to reason with him, Edward pushed Alphonse back slightly as he stepped forward to confront him.
"Connie!" yelled Mina who just landed on the ledge preventing a fight from breaking out "these guys saved my life and they tried to save Mylius too; they used some kind of power that allows them to make walls and pillars in seconds" she then pointed to the ground "Look!" Connie turned to the direction she was pointing to, he lowered his blades and looked in wide-eyed awe at the mess of walls, pillars and spikes that littered the road "I don't know how but they make them by just putting their hands on the ground."
"They can't have..." Connie muttered as he stared at the cluster of walls and spikes.
"If they couldn't then I'd be dead" responded Mina with a fierce resolve, fuelled by the anger she felt when Ymir accused Armin and her of cowardice.
Ymir and Krista also approached them and began to observe the brothers' handy work, Connie then turned his head back towards them, his eyes still wide and his mouth slight agape, he was almost terrified to be in their presence; if what Mina was saying is true than he wondered whether these guys were humans "Just who the hell are you guys?"
"I'm Edward Elric" he responded, he then placed his hand on the other blond haired guy's shoulders "and this is my brother Alphonse Elric" The group of trainees examined the boys; they must have been about their age, the way they were dressed you'd assume they were maybe the sons of one of those rich merchants and lived a comfortable life inside Wall Sina; their leather black shoes and what they assumed looked to be finely crafted trousers and shirts was something you wouldn't see the average person in Wall Rose wearing. Both of them were about the same height with medium build and had golden eyes but they identified Edward as the one with the pony tail and antenna stick out of his hair, had rounder face and was wearing a white button shirt while his brother Alphonse was the guy with the shorter hair and broader face had a plain orange jumper.
"We're not from here" said Alphonse "it's a bit of a long story."
"So this is your handy work I'm assuming" said Ymir pointing at their mess. Ed and Al looked at her; she was maybe a little bit taller than they were with a slender build, had slightly messy brown hair, freckles on her face and golden eyes like them. She was standing next to another girl; again slender build but she was short, very short, she had big blue eyes and long blond hair and there was also something weirdly angelic about her.
"Yeah" replied Edward, looking at the mess they caused "It's basically an ability we have..."
"Hey, you guys!" Came a voice behind from them; it was one of the other trainees "We got the signal" the trainee informed them.
"Looks like we're falling back" remarked Connie, he then scanned the rooftops "hey, where's Armin?"
"He left; all he said was that he was heading to assist the rear guard." replied the trainee "Hey who are those guys?"
Before the either Ed or Al could reintroduce themselves, the sound of a loud bell rang through the air.
"That's the signal to withdraw, no time to reintroduce yourselves" replied Connie, he then turned to the Elric brothers; after listening to them talk he quickly figured that they seemed human and if they saved Mina than they had to be on their side "You guys are gonna have to come with us" he walked towards the ledge. "Alright one of you is gonna have to grab on from behind me." Edward grabbed hold of Connie, he wrapped one arm around the stomach and other above his chest "Hold on tight" said Connie as he pushed off the ledge.
"AHHHHHH!" Edward screamed, Alphonse watched as Edward zipped off on the back on Connie, he was then tapped on the shoulder by Mina.
"We should get going" she said.
"Oh, right" responded Al, he then looks down to the ground that's a high drop...
He looked down at his dried blood stained hands; he rubbed them together getting most of blood off of him. He approached Mina who was standing on the ledge, one foot ready to push off and Al began to wrap his arms around her. Almost immediately he realized just how uncomfortably awkward it was as he wrapped one arm around her stomach, the other arm carefully above her chest with his chest pressing against her back, he blushed profusely from the embarrassment he was feeling "S... Sorry" he said apologetically.
"No no, it's... Uh... its fine" replied Mina stuttered, her own cheeks red with embarrassment. "J- jus- just hold on tight" and with she pushed her and Alphonse from the ledge.
"Wooooahhhahhhhh!"