I watched as Bertholdt threw more houses of Shiganshina into the air. Does he even know what he's aiming for?
"Oh man, look at all the houses in the air. Hey, Eren you think any of those could be yours? Looks like you finally have your roof over your head again. Get it?!" I gave Connie a deadpan look as he began laughing.
"Sasha, you mind smacking him in the head for me?" Jean requested.
"Ow!" Connie cried as Sasha bonked his head with her Thunder Spear.
"Now isn't really the time for jokes, Connie. Get serious before I beat it into your skull." I threatened him. Connie looked at me with wide eyes while still holding his head.
Connie nodded his head, "Yes ma'am." He answered quickly.
"It doesn't look like Bertholdt has discovered our location yet." I turned my head back towards Bertholdt.
"I think you're right. He's just scattering burning buildings around Shiganshina to turn into burning flames." Armin agreed.
"He's hoping for a lucky break in which either debris or flames will take us out first." I added. More debris landed nearby us. That was closer than before.
"Armin, you still haven't given us any orders. What are we going to do?" Connie asked again.
"Jean, can you take over for me?" We all looked at Armin in shock.
"What?" Jean asked in disbelief.
Armin hung his head in shame, "I don't know what to do. I know that I'll screw up. I made a mistake thinking we could talk to Bertholdt and look where that got us! Please Jean, you're better suited for this!" Armin pleaded with him. What did Bertholdt tell Armin when they confronted each other that is making Armin so unsure of himself now?
"Move! Make for the river! Everyone aboard Eren. Conserve our gas!" Jean ordered us. Armin and Mikasa jumped from the rooftop onto Eren.
"Eren, at some point we'll have to get Bertholdt's attention. But until then, we need to stay out of sight." Jean instructed Eren. I latched my hooks into Eren's flesh below and held onto a strand of his hair like the others.
"Hey Armin, I'm okay with judgment calls, but I don't have a genius plan on getting us out of this. In the end, you're the one we're going to be counting on." Jean reminded him.
I looked at Armin with concern, "In the meantime, try to calm your nerves. Commander Erwin put you in charge of us for a reason. Your big brain of yours has gotten us through plenty of messes and they've all worked. Yes, your plan to talk to Bertholdt failed but don't let one failure stop you. If mankind had accepted defeat decades ago then we wouldn't be standing here today trying to secure Wall Maria. We wouldn't have stopped the attempt on breaching Wall Rose. We would have been long dead before any of this happened. Don't give up hope, Armin." I encouraged him. Armin stared at me with wide blue eyes. He looked in awe at the words I told him. Hopefully I said something that lit that spark under him again.
We all still stood on Eren as we were now by the river. Bertholdt was getting closer and closer to the wall.
"Eren, yell at him! We can't let Bertholdt get any closer to the wall!" Jean ordered.
I covered my ears and closed one eye as Eren let out a loud ear piercing roar. I uncovered my ears after Eren was done. Bertholdt stopped and I could see his head turn towards us.
"Well, he heard you." Jean commented. Berthold then turned back and continued to move forward.
"And he ignored us just like that. We can't goad him on like we can with Reiner! What now?" I asked Jean.
"Yeah, at this rate he'll reach the wall." Connie stated.
"No way are we letting him! Hey Eren, tackle that lanky jerks leg!" Jean ordered. I looked at Jean with a look. Is he serious? There's no way a fifteen meter like Eren can have any hope in stopping a sixty meter like Bertholdt from moving! Eren let out a roar as he began running towards Bertholdt.
"Hey guys, do we actually have a plan for this?" Connie asked.
"With the steam he lets out, he'll make our ODM Gear useless. It won't connect!" Sasha reminded us.
"You think I don't know that? I'm well aware but we have to give it a try anyway. We can figure out his weakness as we fight!" Jean stated.
Mine and Mikasa locked eyes. Without saying a word we both knew what needed to be done. We nodded our heads to one another.
"Vivien and I can kill him. You just keep him distracted. Connie, Sasha give both of us your Thunder Spear." Mikasa ordered.
"Right." Connie and Sasha began to unhook their Thunder Spears and handed them to us.
"Listen Armin, odds are we're still gonna need a plan from you! So stop moping and start observing from afar. It's just like Viv said, we have to have hope that we can win this!" Jean ordered Armin.
"Right!" Armin agreed. Eren turned a corner and ran toward Bertholdt.
"Now, scatter!" Jean ordered. Mikasa and I took off in the same direction.
"Ready?" Mikasa asked me.
"Yeah. Let's give him hell." I answered. I adjusted the Thunder Spears on my arms. We have to do this.
I watched below as Eren tackled Bertholdt's leg. At first it appeared he actually moved him. That is until Bertholdt lifted his leg back. He swung his leg forward and sent Eren's Titan form flying into the wall. My jaw dropped seeing Bertholdt kick Eren like kicking a small rock.
"Eren!" Mikasa yelled out. We stopped on top of a roof as we looked at Eren resting on top of Wall Maria.
"He's not moving." Mikasa announced.
"He's still alive though. Focus on keeping Bertholdt off of him." Jean commanded.
"Jean, we really need a plan! We can't just keep charging at Bertholdt like this!" I argued with Jean.
"Yeah, I know! But we don't really have a choice right now! If we just sit on our asses and wait, nothing will change! We need to try!" Jean yelled back at me.
Jean took off back in the air. I gritted my teeth but followed right behind him with the others.
"He still doesn't know about the Thunder Spears! Myself, Connie, and Sasha will keep him distracted. Mikasa and Viv, go for the kill!" Jean ordered.
"Right!" The other three got up to the front of Bertholdt. They made it painfully obvious that they were a distraction. It should give us just the right amount of time though!
Mikasa and I circled the nape and each fired a Thunder Spear. A blast of hot steam hit us as Bertholdt began to use his defensive ability. I could feel my skin start to burn. My eyes widened seeing the Thunder Spears get blasted back past us.
"Shit!" I felt the heat of the explosion go off behind us. That was way too close. We almost got caught in that! I felt myself suddenly free falling as my hooks were blasted free from Bertholdt.
I sent my hooks back out and cushioned my fall as I slid against the tiles. I closed one eye in pain as I looked down at the red splotches on the back of my hands. I could feel my face sting as a gentle cool breeze hit my face. I'm covered in burns from the steam. I looked up to see the others made it okay. I was on a lone roof compared to the others.
My eyes narrowed on Bertholdt as he got closer to the wall. How the hell can we stop him? The Thunder Spears aren't even fast enough to make it before he starts erupting steam.
Crash!
My eyes widened as I heard something behind me. I felt the familiar thud of Titans footsteps. I slowly turned my head to look over my shoulder. The Armored Titan was now back in the fight and he's heading our way.
"Reiner's back on his feet. Now we have both the Colossal and Armored to deal with only seven of us left. Six if we consider Eren is out for the count." I muttered. Of all times for Eren to be knocked out, it had to be when Reiner got back up.
This situation sucks! It feels completely pointless right now! We have our backs against a wall! Too many Scouts have been wiped out, backup is not an option, the Beast Titan is laying siege on the other side and we're without command! Jean is trying his best but his best solution is to just keep charging! We need Armin to step up but he's too scared to do anything! How do we even win this? Is this where the Scout Regiment ends? Is this where my story ends?
"No matter what happens, you need to survive! You hear me? Survive!" Mom's words from five years ago echoed in my head. No…we can't give up here. We need to do this, no we can do this! I stood back up on my feet. My steele gray eyes held a fire in them as I stared at Reiner and Bertholdt's Titans.
"Everyone listen up!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. The rest of the Levi Squad turned their attention on me.
"We've come too far to quit now! We can't give up! As long as the rest of us still draw breath then there's still hope for humanity! Captain Levi hand picked us to be part of his elite squadron! We need to win, we need to survive! Armin, get off your ass and think with that giant brain of yours! Now's not the time to cower like a scared child! I thought you got past that after Trost! Reiner's back in the fight, we don't have any more time! Get a plan together with the others! I'll keep Reiner back for as long as I can!" I shouted to my squadmates.
I took off and flew past the buildings. My eyes locked onto Reiner's Titan form. I can at least keep Reiner busy while Armin strategizes a plan on how to take out Bertholdt. They can't come up with a plan if Reiner attacks from behind. I stopped on the side of the building as my steele gray eyes stared menacingly at Reiner.
"Hey," Reiner stopped moving and his glowing gold eyes stared at me, "Where do you think you're going? If your plan is to reunite with your other half, then think again. If you want to get to him, then you'll have to get through me first…Reiner." I unsheathed a blade in my right hand while the Thunder Spear was loaded on my left. I can't tell what Reiner is thinking in his Titan form. He always did hate it when I called Bertholdt his other half.
"I think you mean he has to go through all of us, Viv!" I looked behind me to see Jean, Connie, Sasha, and Mikasa heading in my direction. I let out a smirk seeing them. Guess that means Armin finally came up with a plan. A sudden gust of wind hit me as Reiner sped past myself and the others.
"He ignored us!" Connie yelled out.
"Damnit! We can't let him get through!" I yelled out.
"He really wants to get Eren." Jean pointed out.
"Then we'll just have to kill him!" My eyes widened as Mikasa charged forward. Not again!
"Mikasa! Don't go blindly charging in!" I scolded her. The last time she did this, Annie almost killed her! Reiner knows about the Thunder Spears now!
Mikasa fired her Thunder Spear once she was close enough. It took out the back of Reiner's left knee as he ran. He stumbled and destroyed a line of buildings as he fell to the ground. I furrowed my brows in confusion. Reiner didn't try and stop Mikasa?
"Hey!" Jean yelled as we caught up with Mikasa. We landed on a nearby rooftop as Reiner began trying to get up.
"You're lucky that Reiner's Titan is slower than Annie's! The last time you pulled that stunt, Annie pulled on your wire and almost killed you!" I scolded loudly at Mikasa.
"I know that but our job is to protect Eren and Armin!" Mikasa argued.
"Yeah, we know that." Jean agreed.
"We only have three Thunder Spears left. That's all but…" Connie trailed off.
"We've gotta try anyway because there's no other way we win unless we fight." Sasha agreed.
"Attacking his nape directly even with the Thunder Spears wasn't enough last time. But does anyone else think he's acting weird? He saw what the Thunder Spears did but he ran right past us thinking we couldn't hurt him. He didn't attempt to stop Mikasa at all when she gave chase." I stated my thoughts out loud.
"Now you mention it, that is odd. He should have but he didn't. We almost killed him earlier with the Thunder Spears. The top portion of his skull was blown clean-" Jean's eyes widened, " That's it! He somehow survived that but his brain was completely obliterated. His Titan powers regenerated his brain but it's possible he has no memory of how he got this way! If Eren's any clear case, Titan power can only heal physical injuries. Not psychological ones." Jean announced.
"In other words.." Connie trailed off.
"We're fighting a Titan with short term memory loss right now. That gives us an edge." I stated.
"In that case. I have a plan. Sasha give your last Thunder Spear to Mikasa." Sasha nodded and began to unequip the Thunder Spear attached to her gear.
"We need to make all three of the spears count. Sasha and I will distract Reiner. Connie and Viv, you two need to target both sides of Reiner's face. If we take out the joints and muscles holding his jaw together then it leaves him wide open. Reiner is completely armored on the outside but his insides are not. With his mouth wide open, Mikasa can line up a shot. We can blast the bastard right out of the nape from the inside out." I gave a smirk at the plan Jean just concocted.
"That sounds like a genius plan to me, Jean. You sure Armin didn't tell you to do this?" I teased him. Jean returned my smirk with his own.
"Give me some credit, Viv. I can come up with a good plan myself every once in a while." Jean defended himself.
"Let's do this then." Mikasa said with determination. We all nodded and went off to our positions. Connie went to the right while I went to the left. Sasha and Jean headed to Reiner from the front.
"Reiner!" Jean yelled as he and Sasha dashed to him. Reiner smacked his hand along the rooftop causing debris to go flying. Connie and I came from either side of Reiner with the Thunder Spears aimed.
"Agh!" I heard Sasha cry out in pain.
"Sasha!" Connie yelled out.
"Connie, focus! It's now or never!" I yelled at him. I fired the Thunder Spear from my side and Connie did the same. Both spears embedded into his jaw. I pulled back the pin the same time as Connie. Two explosions went off and Reiner's jaw dropped.
"Mikasa! Go for it now!" I yelled for my sister.
My gear pulled me back as Mikasa dashed forward. She stood directly in Reiner's agape mouth.
"Reiner! It's over!" She cried out. She fired the Thunder Spear into the back of his mouth.
An explosion went off and I could see Reiner's human body get launched out of the back of his nape. We did it! We got him out!
"Nicely done, Levi Squad!" My eyes widened hearing Hange. She whizzed past Reiner in the air with her ODM Gear. Reiner cried out in pain as Hange sliced off his arms and legs with her blades. Probably to ensure that he couldn't turn back into his Titan form while he was healing.
"Hange!" We yelled out in surprise. A sudden tremor shook the ground beneath us. I looked up as Bertholdt's Colossal Titan began to collapse.
"They did it." I muttered as the Colossal's body fell. A giant dust cloud headed our way. I put my arms in my face as the dust blew past us. Once the dust finally settled I was able to drop my arms. I stared at the now evaporating Colossal Titans body.
"Eren, Armin!" Mikasa called out and rushed off in their direction.
"Now then." I turned my head over to Hange. She tied a cloth around her wounded and bleeding eye.
"We have a traitor to deal with." I looked down to see Reiner laying on the ground. His four limbs were cut off and the top portion of his head had regrown but his hair was completely gone. His eyes held defeat in them.
I used my gear and glided down to the street below. Reiner looked up as I stared down at him.
"Reiner." I said. My stern steele gray eyes met his defeated golden ones.
"Viv." He replied back. It had been so long since I've heard his voice.