Chapter 10: The fate of Humanity
Eren stepped forward, his tip of his boot were off the edge of the ledge and he saluted to the mass of soldiers, both Ed and Alphonse stepped forward; their feet still firmly planted on the wall and mimicking Eren's actions.
On the ground the commotion and talking started again; the cadets could hardly believe it, Eren was still alive and both the Commander of the Garrison and the Elrics were with him.
"What the hell?" said Connie, surprised about Eren survival; Armin had told everyone that Eren and most of his squad except himself and Mina had been killed by the Titans in the line of duty, but here he was standing on top of Wall Rose by the Commander's side. He was relieved to see that both Ed and Alphonse were alright when he heard the cannon he thought they'd died in that stand off along with Mina, but here they were standing next to the commander as well.
"Don't let appearances deceive you, these fellows possess abilities which are the result of great scientific endeavors; Cadet Yeager is the product of advanced scientific Titan research, he possesses the ability to shape shift and control a Titan body at will!" As for the Elric brothers they possess an ability called Alchemy; A form of science in their home world it allows them to breakdown and rebuild any manner of substances or objects, a form of science which they themselves are experts in!"
"The plan is as follows; Using their Alchemy they will carefully separate the boulder into two pieces, Cadet Eren Yeager will transform into a Titan and carry the largest piece of the boulder to the hole and the Elrics will then merge that piece of the boulder into the wall; sealing it completely! Your role will be to ensure their protection while they carry out this task!
Just behind the Commander, Mikasa and Mina listened in on his address to the soldiers in Wall Rose while Armin and the Garrison officers continued to detail the strategy "You're saying we don't have to engage the Titans?" asked one of the officers
"Sorry of interrupting you, it's out of place for a cadet" apologized Armin
"No need, just carry on with what you were saying" replied the Garrison officer
"Right, from what we know about the Titans they usually go for large concentrations of people in a given area; knowing this we could lure them into a corner away from Eren and the Elrics and later on concentrate cannon fire at them without possible putting soldiers at risk." Explained Armin "Now I'm not suggesting we leave them defenceless, they'll need a modest band of elite soldiers to act as their protection against any more Titans entering through the hole."
"Sounds good so far, we'll need to make some adjustments but we have the outline sorted out."
"The problems are however that we're making a huge assumption on whether Eren's Titan could pick up the boulder to begin with, while Eren only needs to pick up a large chunk of it we're still going out on a limb and the Elrics don't have the knowledge or training to handle the ODM gear which means they're at risk of being vulnerable to a stray group of Titans." Armin explained "I have my doubts about this…"
"So do I." said one of the officers "sending good people to what could be their death is not something you can take lightly, but quite frankly, as the commander said, we're running out of time; more and more Titans are passing into Trost and before long they could breach Wall Rose and there's one other problem; the fading nerve and grit of our soldiers."
On the ground, the Garrison soldiers and Cadets chatted amongst themselves, debating the plan that Commander Pixis had laid out to them.
"Can they really do it?"
"The kid can turn into a Titan and lift the boulder?"
"Did he say that those other two were from another world?"
"Have we found a way to seal off the hole in Trost?"
"Why can't we just use the Elrics to seal the hole?"
"This is bullshit!" shouted Daz, one of the cadets "I'm not going back into Trost on some suicide mission for something that sounds like complete crap! You must think we're fucking idiots, blades to be used and thrown away!"
Dissent was rising among the ranks as more and more soldiers began to question the judgement of the commander for coming up with what seemed to be an impossible task, arguments erupted among the soldiers; for some soldiers the claims of Eren being able to turn into a Titan and these mysterious other two being able to do this thing called Alchemy seemed like complete fantasy and a portion of the cadets who saw what the Elrics could do, they argued that the plan did have some credibility, but it seemed as though it wasn't enough to stop some soldiers from deserting.
"This is a load of crap" said one of the Garrison soldiers as he walked off
"Wait! I've seen them do it, they saved our lives!" argued Marco to the soldiers leaving the formation "Daz, where the hell are you going? You saw them too!"
"I can't go back in there!" Daz cried "If those two were smart then they'd refuse to go back in there too, whatever the hell they can do it won't save them when the Titans eat them."
"Desertion is a criminal offence! Punishable by death!" threaten one of the officers
"Screw you, I'm spending whatever time I have left with my family!" replied Daz
Ed and Alphonse watched nervously as a steady stream of soldiers were walking away "This is really getting out of hand" whispered Alphonse to Ed
"I hope the commander has a plan" replied Ed "otherwise this whole thing just got a whole lot harder to pull off."
"Traitor!" they heard, the voice sounded like that captain who they stood off against down there and the sound of more commotion among the soldiers.
"Anyone wishing to leave shall be pardoned!" yelled Pixis
Both Ed and Alphonse snapped their heads to face Pixis, stunned by his announcement, Eren however kept his composure, looking ahead and still firmly saluting the soldiers.
"Those who have witnessed the horrors of facing the Titans should not be forced to face such horrors again and shall leave with my permission" Pixis announced "Of course, Those leaving will be allowing their parents, siblings, children or any loved ones experience that same horror in their absence!"
They watched as the soldiers who were leaving stopped dead in their tracks, turned around and walked back into the formation "Holy crap… he did it." Whispered Ed he guilt tripped them into staying...
"Now think back four years ago, the operation to retake Wall Maria, I bring this up because you all deserve an explanation"
Four years ago, didn't Armin mention something about this? Thought Alphonse
"Officially it was a large scale military operation to engage the Titans in an open battle and retake Wall Maria, but as many of you must already know it was nothing more than a sickeningly successful purge of a fifth of humanity's population."
"What?" yelled Ed and Alphonse in unison, they stared at the commander in shock.
The commander ignored them and continued on with his speech "A thinly disguised exercise in population control because the central government knew they couldn't support humanity's entire population within Wall Rose and we must of known this in our hearts but kept quiet about this because their deaths allowed us to live; we all bare this collective sin! But I tell you this, if Wall Rose were to be breached it would be a disaster on a whole other magnitude, the lands of Wall Sina couldn't support half of the human population, if we're to be pushed past the brink then humanity shall only have itself to blame!"
Ed and Alphonse listened to the Commander, dread filling their bodies as the full magnitude of the situation these people were in was being revealed to them, Armin had told them that the situation for them was dyer but hearing about this had placed it into perspective for them; they weren't on the brink of extinction, no, they were hanging on a cliff edge by their fingers, what was left of humanity was one disaster away from the end and the thought of the government sending a fifth of the population out to die was sickening, it was a clear gut retching disregard for human life.
"If we don't draw the line in the dirt here then humanity shall fall, so I ask you if we die, then let us die here!" proclaimed the commander, finishing his call to arms.
The Elric brothers still watched the commander, their arms had fallen to their sides stunned by his words, the full weight of what happens next now, in part, depends on them and if they can do their part successfully; for the sake of everyone left in this world and for sake of achieving their own goal. Eren, however still stood firmly; he questioned whether he could pull off his part of the plan, unlike the Elrics who seemed to be masters at what they do he was still trying to understand his abilities but that didn't matter now he had to do his part in making false hope real.
Maybe ten minutes had past since the address by the commander and now preparations for the plan that Armin and the Garrison officers had put together were quickly coming together; equipment and ammunition were being lifted up to the wall, cannons were being put into place, the group of six met up one last time before the plan was finally put into motion, Ed and Eren watched as Commander Pixis spoke to some of the officers, two of whom were the ones they saw next to the Captain during the standoff.
"Hey" said Armin looking at Eren, Ed and Alphonse "I'm sorry I got you guys into this mess, I was just trying to save our lives and now I've thrown you back into danger again."
"Stop apologizing, Armin." said Eren "The fact is you're a strategist in your own right."
"Look Armin, if Al and I didn't want to be here then we would have left," said Edward "but we're here to help and if it's making sure that gap in the wall is sealed up then that's what we'll do, hell we'd do it regardless of whether it was your plan or not at least this way it wouldn't be so much of a suicide mission."
Armin was stunned by what Ed said; that regardless of the plan they'd still put there lives on the line, he guessed that they must be extremely brave and selfless to do such a thing, but he wondered whether there was something more in it for the Elrics to risk their lives in the effort to help them against the Titans and coupled with Ed saying that they could just leave if they wanted to made him suspicious.
"Hey Ed, Alphonse, I know you said that you were here to help, but why? Not that I'm not grateful for the help you guys have offered but you would have had to drop everything from your lives back in your world to get yourselves involved in a fight which wouldn't of been any of your concern."
They were a little taken aback by Armin's question Eren, Armin, Mikasa and Mina now looked at them, waiting for an answer, they thought back to when they had to hide that Alphonse was just a soul strapped to a suit of armor because of human transmutation was illegal and a taboo. But here there was none of that, they could just be open about their intentions and explain everything…but it just wasn't the right time.
"You're right, Armin; helping you guys in stopping the Titans does help us in other way, Al and I will explain it to you guys it's just... we'll do it after we've finished sealing the hole." He replied
"We promise." Added Alphonse "We'll sit down and talk after this is all over."
Armin nodded in response.
"Eren, I'm coming with you." Said Mikasa
"No you're not." Growled Eren "You've be assigned to decoy squad, you'll do your part."
"No, that's just not an option, I won't leave you this time" she said, she then moved a few steps backwards, avoiding a head butt by Eren.
"No damn it" he said aggressively "get it through your head; I'm your little brother and I'm not your responsibility!"
Watching this, Ed was reminded of the time when he constantly berated Winry for worrying about him and Alphonse, looking back on his actions he hated how he treated her concern for him, he should have been grateful for it. Eren should be grateful for his.
"Ackerman!" said a voice from behind them, they all turned around to face him, and it was one of the officers who were talking to the commander a second ago. "You're coming with us; I want you on the elite squad defending Cadet Yeager and the Elrics." Mikasa sighed with relief "You'd proven yourself during the evacuation to be extremely skilled." He then turned to face Ed and Alphonse "Also, Elrics, I'm giving you this" he handed Ed a pistol "It's got a flare inside, purple smoke, if we're separated during the operation find a safe place to hide and fire this flare, a squad will head to your location to provide support." They both nodded and Ed placed in his empty left pocket. "Another thing you should know; yellow flare means mission success and a red flare means mission failure, if we fire a red flare, then that's our Queue to retreat. "
"Now c'mon, let's move out!" he ordered; Eren, Mikasa, Ed and Alphonse alongside the squad of Garrison soldiers assigned to protect them on the walls of Trost district to the shortest distance to the boulder, while Armin and Mina ran to the corner of the wall to be part of the decoy squad.
"Alright, let get one thing straight" said the Officer, who they found out is Ian Dietrich, "I don't care what you boys are or what you can do, my top priority is getting sealing that hole and if you can do that then I'll have you defended to the last man, now can I count on you boys?"
"Yes sir" replied Eren.
"You can count on us, we'll get that wall sealed." added Edward.
"Good" replied Ian "now it's important that we stick together, I don't want our forces to be separated and spread thin, act as a unit and that way more of us can make it out."
Eren looked off to the side at Trost district; he spotted a large stone wall along one of the main roads to the HQ How the hell did that… did they do that? He thought, looking at the Elrics
"Are you sure you'll be alright, Eren?" asked Mikasa.
"Yes, damn it now could you stop asking me!"
"Hey" said Ed who was running beside them "She's only worried about you; you don't have to be an ass!"
"Mind your own business!" responded Eren.
"Now's not the time to be bickering" said one of the other officers, she was a female officer called Rico Brzenska
"It's nothing like that!" responded Eren.
"Hey, I'm just gonna let this out there" said one of the other officers, his name was Mitabi Jarnach "The fact that the fate of humanity rests on the shoulders of you little runts doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence".
"Don't call me a little runt." Ed responded, annoyed by the insult, though Alphonse did note that Ed didn't blow a fuse like he use to.
"Hey, All of you!" shouted Ian "stop it; we're almost in range of the boulder!"
They all looked ahead and before them was the giant boulder which was getting larger and larger the closer they came to it.
"There's something you boys should know, so pay close attention" said Rico, the three of them turned their heads to face Rico "A lot of good people are going to die today in trying to pull off this mission and make no mistake their blood will be on your hands."
"Sorry, but I don't take lectures about the value of life from someone who egged on an order to have a cannon fired at us" retorted Ed, Rico scowled at him and Eren was stunned by Ed's disrespect towards a high ranking military officer
"If you want an apology Edward then I'm sorry, but you better listen to me when I say this; those soldiers are putting their lives on the line for you boys, I've known many of them since they were just cadets and yes they're soldiers and each one of them is prepared to die but they're still people not just small pieces pushed around on a map of the battlefield; they're captains, corporals, Lieutenants, they have hopes, fears and dreams which they'll never experience should they die today and friends and family who'll they never see and by the end of this operation their deaths had to of meant something, it can't be in vain."
"Brigadier General Maes Hughes" Ed responded, he turned to face Rico who was perplexed by his response "we know what it's like to lose people close to us and have them sacrifice themselves for our sakes; Al and I had to give meaning to their sacrifice and we will do the same for your men too." Rico looked at the boys and gave a nod, appreciating their commitment. Eren, who was listening in, admired Ed's self-confidence; he himself wasn't too sure whether he could play his part in the operation, but he at least felt a little at ease knowing that the burden of the mission didn't fall mainly on him.
"Cadet Yeager" said Rico in a tone which was consistent with her serious expression "can I count on you too?"
"Yes, sir!" he said, he felt disappointed that he couldn't give the kind of speech and guarantee as Ed had given to Rico, but he would do everything in his power to see that the sacrifice done in his name wouldn't be in vain.
"IF WE SUCCEED TODAY, THEN THIS SHALL BE THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF THE WAR BETWEEN HUMANITY AND THE TITANS WHERE WE TOOK BACK LAND, TOOK BACK OUR HOMES FROM THE TITANS!"