A/N: It has been too long in here. I hope that some of you all are still here reading this and hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think in the comments and thank you for being here!
Chapter 49
"Get away from him!" Mikasa's primal voice cries out over the sound of war being waged around her.
Willow latches her grapples into the Attack Titan's back and steadies her stance. She grits her teeth as she bites back the tears hanging in her lashes. "I don't want to fight you!" Willow calls out to her with hands on the hilt of her blades.
She looks up to see the blade still in the Titan's nape since she was able to detach her hilt at the last minute. Eren will not be moving unless Mikasa moves the blade, but Willow knows that she won't attempt it since one wrong move could result in his death.
"I don't care!" Mikasa yells back at her with her swords drawn as she launches herself using her ODM gear down the back of Eren's Titan.
Willow swiftly connects new blades to the hilts of her swords just in time to lift her weapon up to block Mikasa's attack. She grunts as the sound of clashing steel rings in her ears. She pushes her sword against Mikasa and advances on her, using the gas in her tank to give her leverage.
Mikasa unlatches and flies back to regain herself. She is quick to recover and comes charging at Willow as she runs down the spine of the Titan with a war cry and blades drawn.
Willow lifts her swords and the two women begin to fight one another in a match of clashing steel. Willow huffs between each contact of her weapon since she's still healing and exhausted from her battle in her Titan form. A sweat licks her forehead as she battles against the ravenette who's moves are far faster than she can comfortably fight back against.
With a sudden burst of movement, Mikasa lunges forward, her blade slashing toward Willow's chest. Willow deflects with a swift motion, her muscles coil like a spring ready to strike. The collision of their blades sends sparks cascading between them, casting fleeting patterns of light.
Willow counters with a flurry of strikes, each blow infused with the strength and training she has placed on her body over her years fighting for Marley. Mikasa deflects gracefully, her movements fluid and precise, evading Willow's strikes with hair-point precision. The clash of their blades resounds like thunder, echoing between the buildings.
Mikasa's eyes gleam with a deadly determination as she executes a spinning leap, her blade aimed at Willow's exposed flank. The blonde twists, her instincts guiding her as she narrowly evades the deadly strike, feeling the whisper of steel against her cheek. In a split second, she retaliates with a fierce uppercut of her elbow, forcing Mikasa to unhook her ODM gear and retreat to safety. She notices Willow's refusal to use her blades on her, and grows even more frustrated with her adversary.
Mikasa turns back to her, roaring as she hooks her ODM gear onto the back of Eren's Titan to launch herself to continue this duel. She attacks with a frenzied whirlwind of action, causing Willow to lift her blades and defend herself from the multitudes of attacks that rain down on her. They move like a dance with one another, their blades a blur of steel and sparks.
Mikasa's attacks grow more ferocious as she sees Willow remain fixated on defense and refusal to use her blade for lethal force against the ravenette. Willow dodges and blocks, the force of each collision reverberating through her arms and into her very bones as Mikasa's strength intensifies. A thin sheen of sweat glistens on her brow as she keeps her blade on the task of defense.
"It doesn't have to end this way!" Willow begs her behind heavy hits of their blades clashing against one another.
"Yes, it does!" Mikasa returns with clenched teeth and a snarl building in the bridge of her nose.
"Think about this, Mikasa!" Willow tries to beseech her as they find themselves in a stalemate of pushing their razor edges against one another.
They stare at one another through the cross of their blades, Willow's teeth clenched and body shaking from exhaustion as sweat accumulates at her brow, while Mikasa holds a white cold stare of malice that shows no weakness and no hesitation.
Mikasa gains the strength on Willow and shoves her blades forward, causing Willow to stumble back and use her ODM gear to fly her off the Titan's back. She latches her grapples onto the top of his shoulder blade and flings herself back into the fight, lifting her swords over her head to deliver a blow onto Mikasa.
The ravenette moves with a lightning speed to whirl back and swing her blade to take in Willow's offence. She shoots herself in the air with the gas of her ODM gear, only to viciously come down in a spiral attack that resembles Captain Levi's signature move.
Willow's eyes widen at the attack, frozen for only a moment before she lunges herself out of the way, but not in enough time as Mikasa is able to slice her left hand off and causes her to drop her sword.
Mikasa takes this moment of Willow's shock to continue delivering blow after blow. She latches her grapples onto Eren's back, and using her gas, she propels herself away from Willow who remains on the Attack Titan's back. Mikasa then releases a wave of gas, driving herself down on Willow to strike again.
The blonde is better prepared this time and dodges her attack, but Mikasa shoots herself back before she can land one of her own. Mikasa continues this attack over and over, using her gas and grapples like a swing coming back and forth to deliver a new hit as she ensnares Willow between her wires.
Willow is taken back to when she was the Female Titan and Mikasa was demanding she give Eren back to her. When she was fighting her then, she had the same style of swinging herself back and forth using her gas to propel her attacks on her body. It was a technique that had her delivering massive damage without the need to unlatch or risk moving around too much. It was wasteful in gas, but it was effective in taking her down when Mikasa used it on her heels.
Willow squints her eyes shut as she stands her ground and takes each hit. Mikasa's fighting style is overwhelming with each twist and quick-changing motion she makes with her strikes. Willow barely has time to recover before she is on her again. She is stuck playing defense in this trap that Mikasa has lain her in. Willow has never been great with ODM gear or blades beyond what she needed to do to control a Titan, so Mikasa is the worst adversary for her to face.
Summoning her last reserves of strength, Mikasa unleashes a whirlwind of strikes that leave no room for evasion. The swelling of their clashing swords rings louder than Mikasa's heaving for air as her chest rises and falls with ragged breaths.
"Fight back!" Mikasa growls at her with a frustrated wail. "I know you're holding back! Fight back!" she demands with another vicious hit that Willow defends with her dulling blade.
Willow opens a single eye to look up at her when she blinks both of her eyes open with a widening shock. "No! Don't!" she cries out with a shaking voice, hand dropping her sword to hold up her palm outward.
Mikasa's eyes widen when she notices that Willow is not speaking to her and turns around to see the Armored Titan's hand reaching out towards her. Mikasa unlatches from the prison she entrapped Willow in and shoots herself from his grasp.
The Armored halts his reach when he hears Willow's voice. "I've got this! Handle the Jeagerists!" she commands him with upturned brows to convey how important this is for her. There is a moment of hesitation as she's met by dull glowing golden eyes that look onto her. She isn't sure what he is thinking in this moment and questions if he will respect her wishes, but he eventually turns away from her and towards the threat of flying Scouts.
Mikasa watches from above with a shocked expression at how Willow just protected her from being crushed by the Armored Titan's outstretched grip. She waits for the blonde to turn to her and can see the fatigue in her eyes that she truly doesn't want to fight her.
Below them, the Beast Titan begins stirring as he attempts to lift himself up. "No," Willow releases with a desolate breath. "He's going to scream!" She turns around towards the ravenette who still seems to be frozen by Willow's generosity towards her life against the Armored. "Get out of here!" Willow growls as she bites down on her thumb in a feeble attempt to turn into the Female Titan.
"God damnit! Not now!" she roars angrily as she desperately tries to turn into the Female Titan and override Zeke's scream. "Turn damnit!" she begs as she continues helplessly mutilating herself.
Mikasa's lips part as she sees the same struggle with Willow as Eren had when he was unable to turn to fight against her. The only difference is the conviction is there for her, but her body is too worn out.
And then, the worst happens as all around them, they are engulfed by the deafening sound of Zeke's scream shaking the ground around them. Willow's body trembles to her core as she feels the imposing power of the royal blood commanding her and everyone around her to his will.
An electric current flows through her, but her body cannot turn from its exhaustion. But soon, everything around them ignites in a blinding yellow light of lightening that crackles and booms with a deafening power that shakes the ground below them.
"Mikasa!" a voice calls out from above as Flock comes landing harshly atop the Attack Titan's back with the two of them. The red-haired man's eyes turn to Willow before turning harsh. "You!" he snarls as he begins charging to Willow.
The blonde doesn't even have a moment to react before he drives his blade into her stomach and charges her, pinning her into the back of the Attack Titan's head, and knocking out the blade out of his nape in the process.
Willow coughs up blood, and instantly the Attack Titan reaches back for Willow, taking her into his grasp and flinging her towards the wall. Willow doesn't have a moment to react, and she is crashes into the ground near the exterior wall by Zeke with a vicious speed that would have killed her had she not been a Shifter.
She rolls onto her stomach, coughing up blood as the open wound around her stomach doesn't seem to be healing very quickly considering all the damage she's sustained.
The roar of the Armored Titan shakes the buildings around them when he sees the state that Willow is in, and he turns his attention to attacking Eren now that Willow is no longer on his back. Mikasa and Flock barely evade his hardened fist as he swings at the back of the Attack Titan and sends him hurling towards the ground.
The Armored Titan begins to tenderize the flesh of the Attack Titan's face until it is an unrecognizable mess of blood and gore. Pure Titans swarm all around Reiner and he couldn't care less because all he can think about is avenging his lover for the pain that Eren has caused her.
But the Armored's assault does not last long on the Attack Titan, as the Beast commands Falco's Pure Titan form to take the Armored for himself. The Titan clumsily launches himself towards the Armored Titan, but Reiner's quick to pin him down to the ground, struggling now to hold down both Eren and Falco's Titans.
Standing only meters away from Willow is Gabi. Willow shakily lifts herself to her feet, cradling the open gash in her stomach with blood-soaked hands. "Are you alright?" the blonde asks the young girl with a weak voice.
"Willow!" Gabi responds with widening eyes at the sight of the Shifter. Willow's face is flushed of all color, her lips stained crimson, and her stomach actively spilling blood passed the weak barricade her hands are providing. Even as a Shifter—unless she gets her wounds tended to immediately—she is knocking on death's door.
"I'm fine," Willow lies, "But you, you're not a Titan?" she assures herself as she waddles towards the young girl.
"Falco had some of the tainted wine, but I'm fine—I didn't have any."
"Good—ah!" Willow groans as she falls to her knees, Gabi catching her and keeping her upright from falling on her face.
"We need to get you somewhere where you can focus on healing!" she shrikes as she realizes how bad of shape Willow is in.
Willow wearily turns her gaze back up to Reiner's Titan struggling to keep Falco and Eren from moving under his grip. She coughs another round of blood, trying desperately to will her voice to call upon her Scream. Her Titan was given the power of the Beast's scream, and though it may not be as effective as Zeke's considering his royal blood, if she could just manage to scream, then maybe she can save Reiner.
The Attack Titan is able to get his legs around the Armored and kicks him off of him in order to flee, but the Armored responds quickly by grabbing his heel and pulling him to the ground. Unfortunately, in doing this, Falco's Pure Titan is able to break free, immediately driven by the command of the Beast Titan to devour Reiner.
"No!" Willow attempts to cry out, but it comes out so weakly that she doubts Gabi can even hear her, let alone Falco.
Another deafening shot rings out, and Willow eyes shoot upward towards the exterior wall to see the Cart Titan has taken another shot at the Beast. The blonde's eyes fall down the wall and back to the Beast Titan, seeing the huge gap in his nape from the blast. She lets out an uneven breath, thinking that this must be it. That must have been enough to kill him.
Willow's sense of reprieve doesn't last long as she turns her attention back to Reiner. She watches in horror as the Armored Titan stops his defense against Falco, and seemingly is allowing the Pure Titan to gnaw of his nape.
"No!" she yells once more as she attempts to crawl towards them, but her body is too badly injured and not healing fast enough. "Reiner! No!" she growls out her plea as she sees what he is doing. She knows that he is sacrificing himself to allow Falco the chance of a few more years of life. She knows that he doesn't have it in him to kill the young boy, but she cannot stomach the thought of losing him.
"He's going to let Falco take the Armored!" Gabi voices Willow's dismay.
"Reiner! Please!" she wails, but she knows her voice holds no strength to be heard over the sounds of the Pure Titans laying waste to the city.
But to Willow's shock, Falco's Pure Titan pauses on devouring Reiner's when behind a veil of steam, emerges Porco. Willow can see that he is saying something, but she cannot hear him from here. His body is bloody and bruised, and he's hardly in any shape to fight off Falco or Eren.
The Pure Titan lifts himself off the body of the Armored and begins charging towards the bloodied Warrior who shimmies towards the battle. Willow gasps as the Titan launches himself at Porco, devouring him in the blink of an eye.
Willow doesn't even have a moment to process the grief of watching him die as the Armored punches the Attack Titan once more. Eren uses his crystalized hardening to entrap his assailant's fist, and when he's ensnared, Eren makes his move to jump out of his Titan form and begin running towards the Beast Titan in a full sprint.
Willow's eyes widen and when she turns her head back to the Beast, she realized that under the shroud of steam, Zeke's partial body lies, alive and well.
Panic begins to set in as Reiner is helpless to reach Eren, the Cart is being attacked from above by the Scouts, and Porco is gone. There is no one else available to stop these two from connecting but her. Her heart is pumping up the thin walls of her throat and she feels like she's going to puke. Every fiber of her being is aching and screaming for her to halt her movements and rest, but she knows that she cannot.
Willow looks down at her cache to see that she has hardly any gas and no blades in her reserves. The only blade that she has is less than a foot of chipped steel.
"Gabi," Willow snaps at her quickly, "Do you have any weapons on you?"
"What?" she questions with eyes as wide as dinner plates. "No, I—"
But Willow tunes out her voice as soon as her question is answered, silencing the girl as she wearily lifts herself to her shaking legs.
"What are you doing?" Gabi's voice shrikes at Willow's hard-pressed glare.
Willow won't be able to win in a fight with the gear that she has, but she has no other choice. She has to make a swift and precise move. She gets into position—tightening her fists against the hilt of her blade. With the shitty weapons that she has, she will have to make the strike count. She only has one shot, and one chance to make this assault.
She waits for the opportune moment, closing her eyes and allowing the hot breeze from burning buildings blow through her curls. She regulates the beating of her erratic heart and steadies her breathing. Once a wave of serenity washes over every part of her body, she opens her eyes and moves to strike.
Willow kicks herself forward, pressing on the last reserves of her sputtering gas as she propels herself towards Eren and Zeke. She cannot attack them both, so she opts for the only option that she sees fit. She lifts her broken blade behind her head with both of her arms. As if sensing her attack, Eren turns his head towards her and his turquoise eyes meet her blue.
For a moment, time must stand still as she's faced with an image of the two of them sitting at the table in their last conversation with one another. She wonders why this image choses to strike her in this moment, but she doesn't allow it to deter her. And so, with all of her strength, she swings down her attack onto Eren's neck, severing his head with a single blow.
The last thing that Willow sees is Eren's severed head twisting off of his body before her own body comes crashing down to the ground with a heavy flop as she loses all her gas.
She quickly lifts herself onto her hands and knees, turning her attention to Eren and Zeke, when to her dismay, she's greeted with the sight of Zeke cradling Eren's head in his outstretched palm. Willow doesn't allow herself a moment to question or think anymore as she forces herself to her feet and begins running towards a defenseless Gabi as all the walls begin to crumble down. She knows that she will be unable to reach the girl before the boulders of the walls crush her body, but she will die trying.
But her body is spent and any reserves of adrenaline have run out. Willow's vision blurs as she watches the brunette run towards her. Willow falls to her knees, her world spinning before she loses all control over her body. She falls to the ground with everything around her fading into darkness as the chaos of the walls falling rages on.
Willow is unsure of how long she has been out when she opens her eyes, having the vaguest memory of a sandy location with aurora's gliding through the sky above her. Had she heard Eren's voice then? She couldn't bring herself to recall what type of reverie she just had, because when her eyes focus onto the now, she realizes that her hands and legs are bound by some type of fabric.
She panics against her binds, writhing in an attempt to free herself when a voice speaks up over the rapid beating of her heart. "Don't struggle against it, you'll just slow down the healing process."
Her eyes lift up towards the voice, seeing Jean standing before her. Her heart sinks down to her stomach as she looks up at the Scout. Her eyes fall to the blood-soaked fabric wrapped haphazardly around her torso in an attempt to keep her insides from spilling out. She turns her gaze from the bandage to see that Armin, Mikasa, and Conny also stand around her, with a passed-out Falco next to her.
"Falco!" she calls out to him when her eyes meet his bound and unconscious frame. She messily lifts herself up into a seated position as she attempts to reach him. "Wake up!"
She notices that they are in the tower of the City Hall. She can hear the rampage of the Rumbling and Pure Titan's destroying the town below them, but it is muffled from their heightened location.
"We need to do something with them," Conny speaks over Willow's attempts to shimmy her way towards Falco. "We should figure out who we want to feed them to."
"You can't be serious," Mikasa retorts.
"Why not?" Conny presses her. "I'm giving my mom a fighting chance in this. The Female Titan will do for her. I say we find Commander Pyxis in this mess and feed the kid to him."
"Wait!" Willow reels at this information as her head shoots up to the Scout. "You can't do that to Falco! He's innocent in this!"
"Innocent?" Conny scoffs down at Willow. "He's a Warrior Candidate of Marley. He was training himself to be a murderer like you!"
"Do what you want with me," Willow tells him earnestly, "Just leave Falco out of this—he's just a kid!" She sees her pleas are falling on deaf ears so she turns her gaze towards Jean. "Jean, please! Take me all you want—I will go willingly, I don't care. But please, let Falco go! He doesn't deserve this!"
Jean looks away from Willow as if her words bring him physical pain. Willow turns her gaze to Armin, to Mikasa, to anyone that will listen to her.
"We need to think this through," Armin finally speaks up. "Eren has unleashed the Rumbling on the entire world, not just Marley's forces. We can't let him continue this. We need to stop him, and we can't be doing that with two Shifters who don't know how to use their ability." He continues as the Scouts look at him. "Reiner and the Cart have nothing to fight for with the Marleyan forces being abolished, but if we kill them than we will be giving them something to fight us over. If we give them Willow and the kid, then maybe they will be willing to help us."
"Armin is right," Jean speaks up with a graveling voice as if his body protests against his words. "I don't think Reiner will take kindly to us feeding his lover to someone," he finishes with a disdain in his voice that is palpable.
Willow breathes heavily as she watches the exchange of words between the Scouts who contemplate her life before her.
"Willow is enough of a consolation prize." Conny returns sternly. "The kid is a new Shifter, so he'd be as helpful to us as anyone else. I say we feed the kid to my mom, and leave Willow as a bargaining chip to Reiner," Conny decides.
Jean shakes his head at this, "Commander Pyxis is out there, we need to be smart about who we give the kid to."
"What are you saying?" Willow's voice wavers as she looks onto the Scouts with wide disbelieving eyes. "Listen to yourselves!" she scolds them. "He's a child!" she attempts to gesture at the unconscious boy, but the pain of her body forces her to hug herself inward instead.
"Don't act like you're all high and mighty over this!" Conny snaps at her. "You've killed countless of innocent people!"
"Then take me!" she snaps back at him with equal amounts of vitriol in her tone. "Give me to whomever you see fit, but leave the kid out of this!" They turn their heads from her as if to continue their conversation but she spits out, "The kid means something to Reiner too! He'll be just as good of a bargaining chip as me!"
"You've been a Shifter for years and know how to use the Female Titan in a way that we need," Armin tells her before looking away from her; unable to look her in the eyes as he says, "It needs to be him, Willow. I'm sorry."
Willow falls back to sit on the back of her calves as she shakes her head in disbelieve at this conversation. Her lips open and close as she contemplates what she can say to them to get them to rethink this decision.
She doesn't listen to the fighting between Conny and the others over whom they should chose to take over the Jaws. The ringing in her hear keeps their conversation deaf to her. She doesn't know what to do, and as she wracks her brain to think of what to say, she comes up with nothing.
But soon, their conversations are quickly silenced as the brick wall of the building crashes open. A Pure Titan blows through the debris, reaching for them to get a frantic taste. Jean quickly spring into action, launching himself at Willow and tackling her to the ground and out of harms way. Mikasa is quick to use her blade against the Titan's nape to slash and kill it before it can kill them.
They both grunt, and when they recover from the brunt impact, they see that Conny took the moment of chaos to swipe up Falco and fly off with his ODM gear.
"No!" Willow awkwardly scrambles to her feet as her hands remain bound behind her back. "We need to get him back!" she turns to Jean, but the look in his eyes has her taken aback, as the clear sense of this being over painted over his features.
"We are going to need to take them all out," Jean says with a growing lump in his throat. "We can't—" his voice falling short as he swallows hard, thinking about Commander Pyxis and how they need Willow in this.
Jean turns to Armin, "She's in no condition to fight with us right now." He sighs, as he closes his eyes, wishing that things were different and that he had more options than the one he's been backed into.
He steps towards Willow, reaching around her to untie her bounded arms. She reaches for her wrists, rubbing them when she looks up at him, unsure of what to say to him. "You can't go anywhere with an empty tank of gas and numbs for blades," he says to her in a tone that almost sounds like a threat. "Stay here while we handle the Pure Titans and we'll replenish your supplies when we're finished."
He steps to join Armin and Mikasa, but Willow calls out to him before he can leave. "Jean, what about Falco?"
Jean glances over his shoulder, but doesn't give her a look of his entire face. "We need to take this one step at a time, but for now, I need to put my friends to rest."