Chapter 5: Charge
Edward looked back to see a long line of trainees run along the wall Looks like they found the will to fight after all he thought to himself, he felt a strange mixture of admiration for their will to move forward and a slight pang of guilt over whether he was too hard on them, that feeling quickly gave way to shock as he saw more Titans heading for them.
"They're coming for us!" Screamed one of the trainees.
"Just keep running, we'll evade them at the halfway point!" Ordered Jean.
They must gather around places with a high concentration of people thought Alphonse as he watched the incoming horde approach them I've gotta hold them off, so that the others can escape. Alphonse clapped his palms together but before he could use his alchemy to transmute a way down Mikasa leapt from the wall, a burst of gas from the exhaust pushed her into the air, she swung around an incoming Titan and carved out a large cut into its nape.
"Mikasa!" cried Armin, he fired the cables from his ODM gear in pursuit of her, he was followed by Mina going in to support her only surviving squad member.
Alphonse slowed down his running to watch the three of them glide away, he wanted to go after them but Ed moved him along; grabbing his collar and pulling him forward.
"Keep moving Al, they'll be fine" Edward turned his head towards the direction of Mikasa who had cut down another approaching Titan, all while being followed by Armin and Mina. "Looks like she can handle them." said Ed, reassuring Alphonse.
"Jean!" yelled Connie as he fired the cables from his ODM gear "I'm going after them, lead the others!"
Jean looked back at Connie who leapt off the ledge in pursue of the others, he tightly closed his eyes in frustration Damn it Connie, why is it me leading them? "Alright people! We're close to the half way point; prepare to switch to ODM gear on my order!"
We'll have enough gas to make it to the HQ, but not enough to completely takeout the Titans around the buildings Jean thought We'll just have to take out as many as we can and quickly retreat inside he then looked to the Elric brothers who were running some distances in front of them We're close to the edge, how are they going to get to HQ with ODM gear?
"Hey!" yelled Jean "how are you guys getting to the HQ?"
Edward turned back to look at Jean "Don't worry about us!" he responded "Worry about getting yourselves there and taking out those titans!" He turned his head towards Alphonse "Al! We're close to the halfway point! I'm gonna transmute a ledge, get ready to jump to building on the left, we can use the rooftops to get to the fortress!" Yelled Edward.
"Ready when you are!" Responded Alphonse, running behind Ed.
While they ran forward Edward clapped his hands together and skidded his left hand on the side of the wall; transmuting a small ledge for them to jump off "we're at the end, Jump!" Yelled Edward, the brothers jumped from ledge on the wall to the rooftops of the buildings; from there they began to leap from rooftop to rooftop toward the HQ.
"This is it! prepare switch to ODM gear" ordered Jean to the other trainees, he leapt from the edge of the wall and fired the cables of his ODM gear, he as propelled himself toward he turned his head to the left to see the Elric brothers rooftop hopping their way forward, he was amazed at how fast they were and how graceful they were in their jumps and landings They're done this before Jean thought to himself
As they jumped from roof to roof Edward couldn't help but be reminded of the time he and his brother were in North city looking for Scar and Mai though unlike North city this city wasn't too damn big for them to navigate through, though they were gonna need to be fast if they wanted to evade the titans along the way.
It all happened so suddenly; she was ready to fight the large Titan with nothing but her blunt and shorten blade when the Titan behind ignores her and instead strikes its own with a killer blow to its face, the sheer force of its punch had placed immense pressure on its footing that it cracked the ground underneath it, sending small bits of the ground into the air and Mikasa off her feet. She watched as the Titan which approached her was sent flying down the street, she looked up at the other Titan, observing its muscular features, its oily hair and sunken in green eyes.
Mikasa watched on stunned as the Titan furiously tore apart its own kind and let out a vicious roar when it had finished.
She was suddenly grabbed from behind by someone and swung upward onto the roof of a nearby building. She turned around to see Armin's face; he was accompanied by Mina and Connie.
"Mikasa, are you alright?" Asked a concerned Mina "we saw you hit the roof and fall."
"I'm fine" replied Mikasa in a monotone voice.
"Good, now c'mon you guys, we gotta get the hell outta here!" Connie yelled, his eyes caught sight of the two tall Titans just meters away from them "There's two fifteen meter class Titans!" The four of them turned their attention towards the two Titans
"wait" said Mikasa "that Titan, it's not going after us." They watched as the two Titans stared down each other; after a very brief period of silence before both Titans let out blood curdling roars. The group watched in stunned silence as the muscular Titan raised its hands in a fighting position and swung its left fist to deliver a devastating blow to the cheek, sending the head of the other Titan flying towards them and into the nearby church tower. It then crushed the neck of the headless Titan to finish off its kill.
"It knew to go for the weak point." Observed Armin "it's not reacting to us at all, if this were any other Titan it would have gone after us already."
"This isn't a mindless Titan; it knew the weak spots of its kind and purposefully went for it and the way it raised its fists, it's knows how to fight hand to hand, this kind has never been recorded before, a Titan with intelligence." added Mina, watching the Titan with a feeling of great unease.
"It's an abnormal then" said Connie" it doesn't matter now, we still have to get outta here!"
"Wait!" Yelled Armin "Mikasa' out of gas."
Connie turned around to face Mikasa, "Are you kidding me? We can't take out the Titans around the HQ without you!" Panicked Connie.
"Mikasa, take my gas." Said Armin as he removed his gas canister from his ODM gear "I haven't got a lot but it's the best chance you have." He then began to replace Mikasa empty canister with his " there's no point in me having it, but please use it carefully." Mikasa stared blankly at Armin.
I moved forward, not knowing the responsibility I had in leading those who had followed me, I gave up on my own life without realizing I was responsible for their lives too. thought Mikasa Armin don't do this... you're the only family I have left.
"Armin, don't do this." Said Mina, she then took one of her own canisters from her gear "I've got more than what you have in your, take one of mine" she said as she began to remove one of her canisters to give to Mikasa.
"No Mina!" Said Armin, turning to her, he had a look of mild anger on his face "it has to be me doing this, Mikasa, you and Connie need to get out of here and back to the HQ without me, I'll only hold you guys back." Mina looked at Armin, stunned by his answer.
"There" Armin said as he tested out Mikasa's gear "it's all working and I've replaced your blades with mine, I know you'll put them to better use." He then held up the short used blade that was in Mikasa' handle, staring at his own reflection" just leave this one with me, if it comes to it, I'd rather not be eaten alive by them." The three of them looked at Armin astonished of what he was saying "it's my fault Eren is dead, it should be him standing here, not me."
Mikasa took the blade from his hands and threw it off the ledge.
Armin watched numbly as Mikasa took the blade from him "but..." She knelt down beside him.
"Armin" she grabbed his wrist "I'm not abandoning you here" she pulled him up.
"Armin" he turned to face an outraged Mina "Eren gave his life for yours, don't make his sacrifice be for nothing!" She proclaimed as she held back tears once more.
Armin lowered is head and clenched his fist, he shut his eyes tightly to hold back his own tears "you're right, I'm so sorry..."
"It doesn't matter now, all that matters now is getting back to HQ." added Mikasa.
"Bu... But you can't go jumping around while carrying someone, not when there's Titans crawling around the area."
"We're not leaving you Armin" Mina said as she grabbed his arm "Mikasa and Connie, you two were top of the class, so it only make sense for you guys cover us."
"Right!" responded Connie.
Armin could only watch as the four of them rushed toward the ledge to escape, he turned to look once more at the abnormal Titan which attacked its own, his eyes widen as he formulated an insane plan "Listen!" He shouted, the others turned to face him "I have an idea, but it'll take you guys to do it, so you'll have to decide." He paused for a few seconds "it's a crazy plan but..."
The trainees began their approach to the HQ, thanks to that wall it looked as though no one was going to run out of gas before they reached the base, however they didn't have enough gas to engage in a drawn out battle against the Titans. Jean assessed the area; the Titans had the HQ and surrounding area swarmed, they'd need to take out some of the Titans to get into the building. We need to be fast Jean thought we'll each have to pick out targets and quickly escape into the building.
"Alright people! No drawn out battle" he ordered, yelling at the top of his lungs "pick a Titan, kill it and escape into HQ!" He spotted a Titan in front of the building, a class fifteen meter Titan That one he thought, picking his target I'll take out that one and hopefully breakthrough one of the windows of the H- his thoughts were interrupted as one of the trainees to his right was suddenly snatched by a Titan, his wails of terror pierced though the air, Jean turned his head to see the trainee caught in the grasp of one of the Titans "Damn it!" He was getting closer to his target and the HQ, he readied his blades and swung, cutting deep into the 15 meter class Titan's neck got it! He thought triumphantly as he crashed into one of the windows of the HQ.
Jean tumbled onto the floor of the HQ, as he got up from the floor other trainees began to crash through the windows along with more trainees following through the now broken windows.
Jean examined the trainees who had burst through the window, most of them had evaporating blood on their blades.
Have we done it? Jean thought, a smile of relief appeared on his face have we freed the HQ from the Titans? He turned to face the window, his face dropped as he saw a large group of Titans still surrounding the building and the other unlucky trainees who were caught by Titans being eaten only meters away from their salvation.
Jean body slumped as he placed his head in his hand, How many people could have made it if I just told them to retreat, not fight?
His thoughts were interrupted by a sound from under one of the desks in the room; he turned his head to see two trainees cowering underneath it.
"Hey, you guys were part of the support squad?" asked Jean dazedly.
They nodded their heads in response; quickly Jean leaned down and picked one of them up from the desk by the collar and threw a hard blow to the cowering trainees' temple. He was quickly restrained by Marco who held him back.
"You cowards, you left us on our own! People are dead because of you!" He viciously shouted at them.
Suddenly that sound of more glass shattering caught the attention of everyone in the room. Marco let go of Jean, they looked to see who it was; at first they expected it to be more trainees from breaking though, but the gold hair and eyes were unmistakable; it was the Elric brothers. They both tumbled across the floor and slowly sat up, they gasped for air trying to catch their breath after their long run through the titan infested stretch of city.
It's a good thing those things are slow thought Ed Otherwise we couldn't of made it. Ed sluggishly picked him and Alphonse from the floor, Al rested his arm on Edward, they smiled at each other through their labored breathing. Everyone else in the room stared at them with wide eyed awe.
"Hey, aren't those the Elric brothers? Whispered one trainee.
"They actually made it?" Whispered another.
"These guys must be fast" whispered a third.
"How the hell d-" but before Jean could finish his sentence, the sound of what could only be described as incoming cannon fire closing in on the building was heard.
"Take cover!" Yelled a trainee.
A powerful crash on the left of the room had sent everyone ducking for cover as bits of wall was thrown across the room; the force of the crash had pushed Jean and others onto the ground.
Jean picked himself up and faced the now large gaping hole in the wall, his eyes met with the large unblinking eyes of two titans. Almost everyone in the room began to panic and head for the door out of the room and deeper into the building.
"There's too many of us in the room!" Yelled a trainee.
"They're gonna get in!" Cried another.
"Where's Mikasa?!" Shouted one of the trainees in the panic.
"Forget her, she and the guys who went after her are dead!" Responded another.
Edward and Alphonse clapped their hands together, preparing to fight the titans once more or at least hold them long enough for the trainees to escape. In the exhausted state they were in they couldn't possibly hope to clear out the titans who were trying to claw their way in.
For Jean everything just seemed to slow down, the trainees running out of the room and the Elric brothers clapping their hands together, he could only stand and stare at the large emotionless faces staring back at him, he was paralyzed with fear, lost in their hungry eyes.
I guess it's time to face reality
Was I really so foolish as to believe?
No, I guess on some deeper level I had known all along
There's no winning
Not against them
That's when he noticed it; a fist. A large titan sized fist suddenly being pressed into to the cheek to the titan on the right, it's cheek producing ripples as the fist impacted.
"Wha-"
Boom!
The two titans who were peering in through the large hole were sent flying to their left, that's when another titan came into view, those who were left in the room observed the titan, its oily black hair, its sharp jagged teeth, its incredible muscular form and its radiant green eyes. It let out a deafening roar at the other titans and stormed on wards to finish them off.
Everyone who was left in the room watched, stunned by what they were witnessing: a titan attack other titans.
Suddenly the sound of glass shattering caught the attention of everyone in the room, it was Mikasa followed by Connie and Mina who was carrying Armin.
"Mikasa?!" said Jean, surprised at her survival.
"Man... we just made it" exclaimed Connie "we were pretty much running on fumes, but we made it!" He placed his blades back into the metal containers, while he was told to cover Armin and Mina, Mikasa had been the one to clear a path for them and shifting the focus of the abnormal on the HQ,Connie turned to face Armin who was hopping off of Mina's back; he roughly placed his arm around Armin
"You're a damn genius!" Praised Connie "you're crazy plan worked!"
Jean watched them, stunned by their survival; he had thought they were dead, deviating from the path and into the titan hordes.
"You guys... you made it"
They all turned to face Jean and the other trainees who were staring at them and noticed that they weren't the only ones who made it; the Elric brothers were here too.
"Alphonse, Edward!" Mina called out "You guys made it!" She was surprised and greatly relieved to the two who saved her were still alive and managed to get to HQ
"Damn! You guys made it too!" Said Connie, pleasantly surprised by their survival "guess that explains the pillars on those buildings."
"Mina, it's great to see you again!" Responded Alphonse "I'm glad you made it" he smiled, relieved to see that the only person he was able to save was still alive.
"We can talk about his great to see each other another time" interjected Edward" but what about that titan over there" he pointed towards the abnormal titan
"Oh, that titan got some kind of bone to pick with its own kind" proclaimed Connie pointing at the Abnormal "and the best part? It couldn't care less about us! He's our ticket out of here!"
Jean was astounded by what he was hearing "listen to yourselves, we can't rely on a titan, it will never work!"
"It is working." Retorted Mikasa in her usually authoritative tone "whatever it is, if we allow it to continue its little rampage, if it can keep the titans occupied, this will give us a chance to escape. This is our best plan for survival."