Chapter 19: Reputation
"Thank you" said Alphonse as an old woman handed him a bundle of flowers, they were passing through the town connected to Wall Rose; there area was bustling with people as groups of workers and soldiers passed through the tunnel into Trost district.
"No, thank you" replied the old woman "you boys helped save this town, its the least I can offer."
"Well isn't that sweet." Said Hange watching from the front with a soft smile on her face
"We're here to repair the gate and once we've done that we make our detour." Informed Levi as they came into sight of the gate into Trost, the large gate lifted above the entrence of the long tunnel and held up by massive chains.
Ed studied the feminine face on the gate above them Wall Rose... he thought about Rose back on their world, the last time he saw her was back in Reole stilling trying to rebuild the town. Ed made a mental note to tell her about the crazy cult that worshipped the Walls and how one of them had the same name as her when he gets the chance to see her again... hopefully with her fiancé back...
Levi, Hange, Ed, Alphonse and their escort of ten other Scouts rode their horses through the gate of Wall Rose into Trost, it was late in the morning, Ed and Alphonse watched as the residents of Trost still continued to rebuild their homes and their lives and it looked as though they were no closer to making a dent into the amount of work they needed to do than when the two of them were here last time; houses were stilling looking hand destroyed with their roofs caved in and walls barely being held up or completely destroyed, entire buildings and whole streets demolished because of the Titan attack not to mention the rubble that still lined the streets and blocking the occasional path and the worse part was the blood splatters which could be found either on the paths or on the walls of homes lining the street. All around the sound of hammers, saws and mummered instructions occupied the air as a small army of people worked enlessly to the seemingly unreachable goal of returning Trost to its former glory.
As Alphonse looked around he couldn't help but think of the time when he had returned to Reole during its reconstruction after its devastating uprising and much like Reole those responsible were monsters who wanted saw Humans as nothing more than something to be used or in this case devoured.
They arrived at the sealed breach, the open space was occupied by a platoon of Garrison soldiers and workers with pickaxes who were chipping away at the pillars and spikes which spurt from the ground, before them was what seemed to be the rest of the boulder which Ed had split off as well as some other bits of rubble and long stretch of steel girders.
"You guys are here to fix the gate?" said the Garrison captain, there wasn't anything too special about him; average height, middle aged ,stubble on his chin and balding and the guy never gave them his name "That letter from Commander Erwin said as much" he then pointed towards the rubble and large rock "Think you can use your magic to make a gate out of that? It's got to be about ten meters in length and width and two meters thick" he asked
Ed walked up to the pile of rocks; he clapped his hands together and placed them onto the rubble, the large bits of rock morphed together to form a large stone slab, similar to the one at the entrance of Wall Rose; it even had an engraving of the feminine face with a crown on it. "That ought to do it." Ed said dusting his hands off. To the side Alphonse transmuted the long steel girders into long steel chains.
"You guys just turned years worth of work in less than thirty seconds…" remarked the Garrison Captain rubbin the back of his head "Alright I'll have some of my guys hoist it up from the wall, there's more of the same material up on the wall; we'll need two gates if we're to properly secure this entrance again, there isn't enough space on the wall for you to make the complete gate, so you'll have to make about a quarter of the gate only and then I'll have some of the engineers lower it down, you'll have to complete while hanging from the other side of the wall and on top of that we still need to lure the Titans still inside the tunnel outside; I'll have a large group of my men hang from other side of the wall, think you can do work while having Titan pass under you?"
"We've got it covered" said Ed, he and Alphonse then fired the cables of their ODM gear onto the Walls and reeled themselves up to the top, they did as instructed; they transmuted a quarter of a large stone slab and the steel chains connecting it to the walls, they lowered themselves onto the other side of the wall as the Garrison engineers lowered the unfinished gate and large chucks of rubble down to them. As Ed transmuted the chunk of rock into the stone slab he occasionally turned his attention to the Titans inside the tunnel that were passing underneath him and walking towards the direction of the Garrison soldiers.
Ed wiped off the sweat from his brow as he merged the final piece onto the suspended stone gate; it took a good hour for them to finish the gate piece by piece all the while Levi, Hange and their Scout escort stood off the edge of the wall watching for the group of Titans in case they started wondering back in.
"Ok, it's done!" yelled Ed,giving the Garrison engineers the thumbs up. He and Al then reeled themselves back up onto the wall, the gate then lowered down, sealing the entrance from the outside. Edward and Alphonse then lowered themselves down onto the other side of the wall to meet the Captain again.
"Good work, you two been a great help to us, now all we'll need to do is open the breach, the engineers can sort out the rest." Ed clapped his hands together and placed them on the stone seal they had make to plug the breach, he opened a hole to the tunnel, the same height and width of the gate. As the entrance opened up Ed caught sight of the rubble that littered the tunnel Those guys have their work cut out for them thought Ed, he was then tapped on the shoulder he looked behind to see Levi with Alphonse standing next to him.
"So…" said Levi to Ed and Alphonse "That should be it then, let's make our way back-" he was interrupted by one of the workers
"Excuse, but could you help us get rid of these stone spikes and pillars around here? We're been trying to get rid of these things for almost a month now, but we're no closer to clearing them up as we were when we started" he asked
"Of course" replied Alphonse
"And could you get rid of that long wall and restore the road? And also the mess on that other street" asked another worker
"Could you also repair the roof of my house?" asked a random woman
Suddenly a growing crowd began to converge on them, asking them if they could quickly repair the damage done to their homes and neighbourhoods, they both looked at Levi who was standing next to them wondering if he'd let them help these people
Levi observed the faces of those Trost residents; their tired eyes and their dirted and bloodied hands from the endless hours of work, he sighed "It's your call" he said simply "We'll wait by the horses, just don't take too long." He, Hange and the other other Scouts all grabbed the reins of their horses and walked off towards the gate to Wall Rose
Hange looked over to Levi "Thought you said we'd only fix the gate and then leave?" She asked with a small grin on her face
"We can afford to wait" replied Levi, not turning his head to face her "beside, waiting until dark would be the best option"
The grin on Hange's face grew wider as she placed her arm on Levi's shoulder nonchalantly "You hide it but can be a real softy sometimes"
Levi rolled his eyes and brushed off Hange's arm dismissively "shut it, shitty glasses" he said slightly irritated
It was now late in the afternoon and the two had been working non-stop helping the citizens of Trost rebuild their damaged city, Ed was repairing the wall of a house, the whole place was barely being held up by its wooden pillars when he came to help; now it was once again something that could be called home.
"Thank you again" said the middle aged woman, she had brown hair done up in a ponytail and wore a red apron
"It's no problem, I use to do stuff like this back home for people" said Ed except this time I'm not trying to lure a serial killer out of hiding… he thought
"Here" she then gave him something wrapped in a thin brown cloth that felt tough and leathery; Ed opened the cloth to reveal a chunk of dried meat woah, meat! He thought surprised; for the past month he and Alphonse had eaten a mixture of soup with either peas or potatoes with bread, it was only very rarely they'd get their hands on some meat and even then it was thin strips of veal it's been too long... he looked up to face the woman, the hastily constructed houses quickly reminded him that the people in Trost were in a difficult situation. Meat was rare in this world and a lot of people were starving, perhaps it was the same for this woman and her family.
"I… I can't take this" he said "It's yours" he responded
"No, I insist" replied the woman "Please this isn't just for repairing my house; my son was part of the cadets, he may not talk to his parents much but I heard that it was because of you, your brother and that other boy that he and his friends were able to escape and it was because of you boys that we have our home back, beside it's not even mine anyways I just found it in a chest that must ended up here during the chaos."
Ed was speechless "Um… Thank you, Mrs Kirsten" was all he could think to say "I will, they'll definitely love this."
"Thank you again" she replied
Ed made his way to the others waiting for him at the entrance through Wall Rose; he had to pass through small crowd of people thanking Alphonse for his help
"Thank you for your help."
"You're welcome." replied Alphonse rubbing the back on his head "It was nothing, really."
"Hey" said Levi "You two, enough chatting with the locals, get on your horse already." Ed and Alphonse both got on their horses and joined their escort through the tunnel of Wall Rose. They travelled along the main path until they were out of sight by the Garrison soldiers
"What've got there, brother?" asked Alphonse as he watched Ed place something in a one of the pouches connected to his saddle
"Some old lady gave me some meat for fixing her house" replied Ed "Said we should share it with you and Eren."
Alphonse smiled at the thought "That'll be nice, it's been awhile since we've had a nice meal." He said
"We're out of sight, we'll head straight this way" Levi instructed pointing in the direction left to them "We'll then begin to gradually move downwards towards the wall, we'll get there faster if we rush" he then whipped the reins of his horse causing his horse to gallop, the others quickly then followed suit. By the time they had reached an open space of Wall Rose the night has come and hid them from the world.
"No torches" ordered Levi "not until we no for certain that we're alone" he looked over to two other Scouts "you two, you're with me, we'll check if the wall is clear." He pulled out the handles to his gear and fired the fires onto wall, reeling himself upwards. The two other Scouts quickly followed suit behind the Captain. While they waited Hange talked to both Ed and Alphonse.
"So you two have definitely examined the piece of Wall?" asked Hange
"Yes, It's like you said; its atomic structure is similar to a diamond, only more dense." Replied Ed "I've never seen anything like it, it's a whole new element."
"This time we should be able to perform Alchemy on the Wall." Said Alphonse
Levi and the two other Scouts lowered themselves down to the group "All clear" he said "You're free to investigate without any Garrison soldiers catching you in the act." Ed and Alphonse walked up to the Wall; they clapped their hands and placed them on the Wall, a hole formed before them, they looked through it expecting to see through the wall into the area of Wall Maria, instead they saw nothing, just darkness.
"What the hell…" said Levi staring into the hole "Are the Walls hollow?" there was whispered chatter among the rest of the Scouts
"Someone light a torch" ordered Hange, quickly one of the Scouts gave her a lit torch, she moved forward slightly into the hole.
That's when they saw it; they all gasped and staggered back "What the hell!" Yelled one of the Scouts, Hange quickly stumbled back, almost dropping the torch in shock, some of the Scouts quickly took out their blades.
It was a toe, a large skinless toe which must have been almost their height.
"The Colossal Titan!" said one of the Scouts "It's inside the walls!"
Quickly Ed and Alphonse closed up the hole, when the hole was sealed they themselves stumbled away, their eyes then scanned the wall upwards this must be the Titan that made a hole in Trost but what is it doing inside the Walls?
"Something's not right" said Hange putting the torch out
"Of course not, the Colossal Titan is in the Walls" responded Levi, unsheathing his blades, he looked towards the two other scouts who had their blades out "You two you're with me, if it starts to break down Wall Rose then we're going to take it down, I want you two acting as diversions while I go for the nape and drag the son of a bitch shifter who caused all this out." The two of them nodded in response "Hange you take the boys and the rest of the men, head to Karanes and inform Erwin, we found the Colossal Titan."
"Wait Levi" responded Hange "I don't think that's the Colossal Titan"
"What' do you mean that's not the Colossal Titan?" said Levi perplexed
"Reports say that the Colossal Titan stuck its head over the wall in Shiganshina, meaning that the Colossal Titan is about approximately sixty meters in height, these walls are fifty meters." She then scanned the walls left and right, a terrible realisation dawning on her.
"Edward and Alphonse follow me" she said and ran off to the left, Ed and Alphonse quickly followed her
"Ah what the hell" exclaimed Levi "Stay here and keep an eye on that thing." He told the other Scouts, he then ran off after the three of them, Hange kept on kept on running along the wall with Levi, Ed and Alphonse tailing her until she suddenly stopped and turned to face them
"If I'm right about this, then there should be another Titan here too." She said "C'mon" she then fired the steel wires of her ODM gear onto the walls and reeled herself upwards until she was almost at the top, the others followed her up the wall "If my measurements are correct… then the face of the giant titan next to one we found should be here" pointing to an area to her left "But… there's only one way to find out…"
she looked to the Elrics, they gulped down hard at thought of what she wanted them to do, they slowly pressed their hands together and gently placed them on the wall, forming the same one meter hole. Under the moonlight they saw what looked to be the left half of an exposed set of teeth, the left half of a skinless nose and a large half opened eye… which moved ever so slightly to look at Hange.
"Close it" ordered Levi "Now!"
Ed and Alphonse quickly sealed up the hole, the four of them reeled themselves down to the ground, all of them were stunned by what they've just seen
"The Walls are comprised of Titans, giant Titans." Said Hange to no one in particular "Giant Titans are what's separating Humanity from other Titans who want to eat us…" they then began to scan the long wall
"How many do you think are in these walls?" asked Ed "thousands? Hundreds of thousands?"
Hange began to add the numbers in her head; the circumference of Wall Maria, Wall Rose and Wall Sina and on top of that the length of the walls that surround the districts, she came to terrifying realization "over half a million" she said "five hundred and eighty five thousands to be precise."
"There are over half a million Colossal Titans just waiting in the Walls..." Said Edward, repeating Hange observation to himself "They're just standing there dormant for now but..."
"But if they all decide to wake from their little beauty nap" finished Levi "then Humanity gonna be in some real deep shit."