-R-

The warriors, Pieck Finger, Zeke Jaeger, and Porco Galliard. Each one of them baring one of the nine mighty Titan Shifter powers. Pieck, the wielder of the Cart Titan, able to her to retain her small but agile Titan for weeks or even months if need be. Zeke, the Beast Titan, the power that manifested the user's spirit animal in the form of a Titan, allowing Zeke to transform into a 17-meter-tall ape Titan with a throwing arm that could put most military bombardments to shame. Porco, the Colossal Titan, the tallest Titan power of them all, with body heat so intense that his mere presence could burn an entire city down.

These three Titan shifters were the pride of Marley, and they were entrusted with three tasks: obtaining information about Paradis's current power, rescuing the Armored and Female Titans, and securing the Founding Titan. However, due to recent events, they could only achieve one of two of these goals, and what they learned painted a grim picture of their future prospects of accomplishing the most important goal of retrieving the Founding Titan. And it was all because of Eren Jaeger, who bore a power that put every Titan Shifter to shame. This was the power of Ultraman.

Now, without anywhere else to go, and with all of their comrades dead, these three warriors were forced to shack up in a mud hut just outside of Wall Rose. However, there was one good thing about this situation, and that was their new, unexpected partner, Bemular. This being, with power similar to that of Ultraman, offered them protection in exchange for assistance in their goals, an opportunity the warriors simply couldn't pass up. All except for one.

While the warriors were in the hut, awaiting the return of Reiner and Bemular, Porco leaned against a wall, his forehead pressed up against his fist as he stared down at the ground.

"This is so stupid," Porco grumbled. "Why the hell are we just sitting around, letting those devils recover from the initial strike? We should be taking advantage of this opportunity and finishing them off!"

From across the hut, Zeke and Pieck were both sitting at a table watching Porco sulk in the corner.

"In case you've forgotten, Porco, they still have Ultraman at their disposal," Zeke said while taking a sip of coffee. "And Bemular said he has a plan, so I say we should give him the benefit of the doubt for now."

"He?" Pieck asked incredulously. "I thought Bemular was a girl."

"There's no way he's female," Zeke replied. "Have you heard his voice?"

"That helmet could be making her voice sound deeper than it usually is," Pieck noted.

Suddenly, the three Warriors heard the door open and then heard Bemular announce themself by saying, "You know, it's rude to speculate about someone behind their back."

The trio saw Bemular strut into the room proudly with their arms crossed behind their back. Reiner soon followed him, dressed in a dark grey shirt underneath a dark green sleeveless jacket, as well as a pair of brown pants. He had his Battlenizer clutched firmly in his hand as he walked in with a weary look in his eyes.

"Bemular prefers they/them," Reiner said. "They also don't like it when you prod further than that, so for your safety, I'd advice against it."

Bemular chuckled. "Goodness, Reiner, you're making me sound like some volatile psychopath. Do you really think I'd murder them just for misgendering me?"

Reiner gave no comment.

"What do you mean 'they/them'?" Porco asked. "What, are you saying you're some kind of hive mi-"

Reiner proceeded to chop Porco in the back of the head, knocking him out cold. "Dumbass."

"Thank you," Bemular said. They then took a seat at the table with Zeke and Pieck. "I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you all my plan to defeat Ultraman, and take care of your little Scout problem."

"Shouldn't we wait for Puck to wake up?" Pieck asked.

"Porco wasn't a part of this plan anyway," Reiner said. "Besides, we don't need him. Not when I have my Battlenizer fully stocked up."

"Not fully, Reiner," Bemular said. "The Battlenizer has six available slots. You're currently only using three."

"What? How did I not notice that?"

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that thing before," Zeke noted.

"It must be pretty weird to find out you're half alien," Pieck said. "Though it also makes me wonder how it never showed up in any blood tests…"

"That's because the Reionic genome only begins manifesting in hybrids at around twelve years of age," Bemular explained. "Reiner here wouldn't have started showing signs that he was a Reionic until around the time he broke through Wall Maria, and that includes in blood tests."

Reiner pondered this with a finger on his chin. "Now that you mention it, I do remember feeling a weird sensation in me while I was on the boat to this island. I thought it was just seasickness at the time, but looking back… do you think that could have been my Reionic genes awakening?"

"Not a doubt in my mind," Bemular replied. "But prior to that point, the only they'd find out would be if they specifically checked inside of his cells and noticed that his cells had a slightly higher than average amount of mitochondria per cell and slightly enlarged nuclei, and even then that could easily be brushed off as a bizarre mutation, and not a sign of alien life."

"Well, someone's gonna have some explaining to do when they come back to Marley," Pieck cheekily commented.

"Oh, um… about that…"

Reiner was interrupted however when Bemular decided to get the conversation back on track. "Let's try and focus on what's important," they said. "Reiner, can you hand me the map of the island?"

"O-oh, sure," Reiner pulled a brown, curled-up map out of a bag and handed it to Bemular.

The two laid it out for the two warriors to view for themselves. The map showed the entire island, with key landmarks circled and marked on it, and towards the center of the island were the walls. Bemular pointed to a marked spot between Wall Maria and Wall Rose.

"We are currently here," Bemular said. "And the Scouts are here, within Wall Rose. For this plan to work, we have to make sure that the Scouts take as much time to reach us as possible. Reiner, may I see the pieces?"

Reiner handed Bemular a handful of chess pieces, namely a king, two bishops, a pawn, a knight, and three queens. Bemular then placed each of them down on the board and began moving them around.

"Reiner and I will sneak over to the side of the wall opposite of the Scouts to begin our assault," Bemular said as they placed the king and pawn on that side of the wall. "Once we arrive there, we will unleash the three monsters that Reiner has stored in his Battlenizer." They then placed down three queens to represent the kaiju.

"Meanwhile, you two will be keeping the garrison distracted by harassing the Scouts at their base from on top of the walls," Reiner said as he placed their pieces on the walls themselves. "Zeke will throw down barrels of gunpowder, while Pieck will tear down all the cannons and kill all the garrison soldiers to prevent them from setting up a defense, and quickly run to and from the base to bring him any needed resupplies of gunpowder barrels when he starts to run dry."

Zeke and Pieck nodded as they listened to the two, however in the back of Zeke's mind, he had a sinking feeling that there would be a few issues with this plan. The two then watched Reiner hand Bemular more chess pieces of the opposite color, this time giving them a large handful of pawns, a queen, and a king.

"If all goes according to plan, the Scouts will be distracted by all of you at the start of the attack, leaving only one line of defense," Bemular then placed down the king at the center of Wall Sina. "The Founding Titan. This Titan was certainly powerful, but after seeing how it performed against a single adolescent Telesdon, I am confident that the selection of kaiju we have will be more than sufficient for our purposes."

They then demonstrated this by having the king confront the other three kings. "As you can see, even if the Founder killed one of the monsters, they'd never be able to kill all three. The Founder would be rendered defenseless as our monsters kill her with ease."

Zeke's eyes widened, not with surprise, but worry, as he realized that Bemular's plan didn't quite align with their goals after all. Pieck however, wasn't quite as worried about this.

"But that's not all," Bemular said. "Even if the Scouts do send Ultraman to intercept us, I know that he, or at the very least, his human host, holds a grudge against me, and it is likely that Reiner and I will be made a priority target by the Scouts. This is why we will not be participating in that battle. Rather, we will be launching an assault on Klorva district, distracting Ultraman while the Founder is killed by the monsters. Of the survivors of the battle, we will have one convene with us while the other two attack the humans." They moved one king to the two battling queens, and another to the army of pawns. "The Scouts will be killed, as will Ultraman. Then, the walls will be defenseless, and we will stomp them all into oblivion."

"So that's it, huh?" Zeke asked. "Kill Ultraman and we win?"

"Indeed. Ultraman is their greatest weapon, far more so than their pathetic little rumbling. Once he's out of the picture, the rest will soon fall."

"I see. But there's one problem with your plan," Zeke criticized.

Bemular lifted their head with intrigue. "And that would be?"

"Part of this plan requires that we kill the Founding Titan, but that's just not an option for us," Zeke explained. "The best case scenario is that the power ends up in Marley, which would be good for us if it weren't for the fact that that level of power is now in the hands of a newborn infant. At worst though, it will end up in the hands of another enemy nation, sealing Marley's fate in the process."

"Not necessarily," Pieck interrupted with a hopeful smile. "With Reiner's ability to control monsters, and Bemular's powers, we wouldn't need to worry about the Founder," she then turned and looked up at Reiner, her sweet smile still on full display. "Isn't that right, Reiner?"

"Actually, that's what I wanted to mention earlier…" Reiner replied

"What do you mean?" She asked.

Reiner sighed and took a seat, before clasping his hands between his spread legs and leaning forwards. "You see… I can't stay on Earth much longer."

Zeke and Pieck both looked perplexed by this, but he continued.

"You see, it turns out, there's a lot more to the universe than just our little world. When Bemular freed me from the Scouts' imprisonment, he told me about an alliance of several alien races that he joined, and they wanted me to join them because of my Reionic blood. I agreed to join them, seeing it as an opportunity to finally do something of value with my life, and they gave me two weeks, now thirteen days, to convince you all to join them as well."

Pieck was left speechless by this revelation, but Zeke, silently knew that Reiner wasn't entirely loyal to Marley the second he saw how close he had gotten with Bemular.

"But thinking about it now, I'm not even sure how I'd be able to convince you to join us. I already know the risks I'm putting my mom and Gabi through by leaving Marley for another nation, let alone one that isn't even on this goddamn planet. But asking you to put your families at the same risk. So, I've decided that I'm not gonna bother asking that of you. All I can ask is that you don't tell them what I did. Instead, tell them that you found my mutilated corpse in a basement somewhere when you were trying to rescue me. At least that way, I can rest easy with the knowledge that my little cousin and my mom won't be tortured to death or worse."

Zeke scratched his beard and hummed, contemplating this request, before he came up with an idea.

"Tell you what? Why don't you and I decide it with a fight?" Zeke asked. "If you win, we'll go with Bemular's plan, and then we'll all join that space colony of yours. But if I win, we go with the original plan of securing the Founder. After that, Bemular can go back to space, but you're coming back home with us."

"What?! But I already told them I'd be joining them!" Reiner exclaimed. "I can't go back to Marley now!"

"Well, that's too bad, Reiner, because the Warriors are a package deal. If you want one of us, you're getting all of us. One of us can't come? None of us will."

"But I-"

"Reiner," Bemular interrupted. "You still have a choice."

Reiner gazed at Bemular with wide eyes and a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"As a Reionic, you are far too valuable for them to kill if you anger them, and you are far too dangerous on your own for them to risk provoking you in any other way," Bemular placed a hand on Reiner's shoulder and gently squeezed it. "But no matter what happens, I'll be there to support you. To guide you as you keep moving forwards. Even if the world chooses to be your enemy, I will still stand by your side, because you are special. You are truly special."

Tears welled up in Reiner's war-hardened eyes, as they began to soften. Despite the short amount of time he knew Bemular, and despite their less-than-conventional relationship, they were right. They were always there for him. From the day that they first met, Bemular was only ever helping him, always pushing him to achieve his destiny. His mother was using him, the warrior corps would always push him down, and the other warriors never truly believed in him. But Bemular? Bemular was different. They cared. So, Reiner leaned in and embraced Bemular…

And Bemular grinned beneath their mask.

'Reiner is mine,' they silently taunted as they stared at Zeke.

And so, it was set. After Porco woke up and had the situation explained to him by Pieck, they all moved to a more dynamic arena. And what better arena, Bemular thought, than the place where it all began? So, Bemular transported everyone to the Shingonshina district. After Bemular killed all the Titans in the city, they dropped both men off in the town center, while they, Pieck, and Porco, all stood and watched them from on top of a vacant house.

Reiner looked up at Bemular, who gave him an approving nod. Zeke and Reiner took a few paces back from eachother, before turning around and sinking their teeth into their hands. Both men were enveloped in a bright light, and they both take on their respective forms. Reiner begins the battle with a head-on charge, hoping to be able to tackle Zeke and potentially bite off his nape. However, Zeke immediately countered this attack with a hardened left hook, sending him hurdling down the streets like an armored tumbleweed. Reiner rose to his knees, then watched fearfully as large pieces of his face plates were falling off.

'Damn it! That punch was way stronger than I thought it'd be,' Reiner thought. 'I have to find some way to avoid those swings, or he'll-'

Reiner was cut off by a hardened knee to the chin. Zeke then grabbed his hair and slammed his head into a building.

"You never were the best at hand-to-hand combat, Reiner," Zeke said. "As a titan, you'd always leverage your momentum to keep your opponents off balance."

Zeke then swung Reiner over his head onto another building, flattening it.

"But my titan can easily cancel all that momentum with sheer brute force and its low center of gravity, eliminating every advantage you had against me."

As Zeke continued beating Reiner to a pulp, smashing his armor to bits and leaving him no opportunity to fight back, Porco and Pieck both realized that Zeke knew going in that he wouldn't lose.

'So that's why Zeke was willing to risk so much on this,' Pieck thought. 'He knew that Reiner couldn't beat him and that he'd get his way in the end.'

With one last hardened punch to the face, Reiner was out cold. All the armor on his face, neck, and shoulders was reduced to rubble, and he couldn't move his body. Zeke crouched over Reiner's body and looked directly at Bemular with a smug smile.

"I won," Zeke declared. "Killing Ultraman can come later. Our priority will be capturing the Founding Titan, as it should be, and afterward, we shall depart ways."

But it wasn't over. Not yet. Reiner was still conscious in the Titan body, and he was overwhelmed with a flurry of emotions. He was ashamed of himself for letting Bemular down when he could have done so much more. After what Bemular told him, he was already letting them down. At the same time, he felt angry, he felt hateful, and he felt frustrated that he couldn't defeat Zeke no matter how hard he tried. All of these emotions ultimately caused something to snap within Reiner.

Zeke let out a confused grunt as he felt Reiner begin to rise back up to his feet. Zeke shrugged and stood back up alongside Reiner, believing that this wouldn't change anything about the outcome. He hardened a fist and swung it at Reiner, but then to his shock, he blocked it with one hand, standing tall as he did so.

"W-what the-?"

Before Zeke could finish that thought, Reiner headbutted him, sending him stumbling backward. As Zeke shook off the hit, he gazed back at Reiner, and his eyes widened when he saw him begin to transform. All the Armor on his body turned from an off-tan color to pitch black, and to Zeke's shock, it began to regenerate, until it was completely mended. Reiner's eyes also began glowing white and his hair stood up tall, as a dark aura formed around him.

Zeke was unsure of what to do at this point and simply waited for Reiner to make his first move. To Zeke's surprise, Reiner's first instinct was to dig his fingers underneath a house and attempt to lift it. And what was even more shocking was that it worked. Zeke tried to move out of the way, but was too slow, and was crushed by the house that Reiner threw at him.

The Armored Titan let out a scream, but it was different from normal, sounding more manic and enraged, as he scratched at his own face and began punching himself, before charging at Zeke as he was getting up and tackling him. Reiner effortlessly ripped Zeke's arms clean off, then began mutilating Zeke's titan while roaring and screaming.

"REINER, WHAT THE HELL'S GOTTEN INTO YOU!?" Porco screamed. "CUT IT OUT! YOU'VE MADE YOUR POINT!"

"He can't hear you," Bemular said. They then pointed at Reiner, or more specifically, the misty black aura surrounding him. "That aura you see surrounding him is a clear sign that Reiner has entered a Reionic Burst state."

"Reionic Burst?" Pieck asked.

"It's a state in which a Reionic loses all self-control and fully succumbs to their base destructive instincts," they explained. "In this state, they are incredibly powerful, as are any monsters they are currently controlling, but they cannot distinguish between friend or foe."

A chill went up the warriors' spines as they looked back at Reiner, who ripped off Zeke's fully hardened head and began smashing it. They watched as the hardened head shattered to pieces from the monstrous force of his fists.

"We have to stop him!" Pieck exclaimed. She then leaped off the building and transformed into the Cart Titan. "Puck, let's go!"

Porco nodded and jumped down with her. As Pieck ran at Reiner on all fours, Porco transformed into the Colossal Titan, decimating the entire city block in the process. Pieck attempted to use the steam as cover, but then to her shock, she saw Reiner leap up over the cloud. He leaped so high up in fact that he landed on Porco. Reiner then slammed both his fists into the Colossal Titan's head, which knocked out several massive teeth and caused it to fall down to the ground.

Pieck had to avoid being bisected by the falling teeth as she ran to rescue Zeke from his Titan body. After she dug him out of his nape, she saw the Colossal Titan lying on its back and the Reionic Burst Armored Titan falling down onto it like a meteorite. Reiner eventually landed with enough force to level multiple city blocks. All of the Colossal Titan's limbs shot upwards on impact before falling back to the ground.

It was a harrowing sight to behold, seeing just how powerful Reiner truly was with his newly unleashed power. But he was too out of control in this state, and there was nothing she or Zeke could do to stop him. But then, she looked up and saw someone who could stop him. Looking down on the ensuing battle was Bemular, who had survived the Colossal Titan's explosion unscathed. They had a straight posture with their arms crossed behind their back and their tail gracefully swaying from side to side.

"BEMULAR!" She cried out as she looked up at them. "YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! HE'S GOING TO KILL PUCK IF YOU DON'T STOP HIM!"

Bemular slowly turned around and looked down on Pieck. Then, they let out a soft chuckle.

"Why should I?" Bemular asked. "After all, this is what you all get for trying to steal him from me."

Bemular then looked back at Reiner as he continuously pummeled the titan that was four times his size while unleashing constant screams of insanity.

'Damn,' Zeke thought. 'They must have been planning this from the start! They knew about this power, and must have expected Reiner to act like this! That's probably why they gave Reiner that little speech back at the hideout, too.'

"PLEASE, BEMULAR!" Pieck once again pleaded. "YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE HERE WHO CAN STOP HIM! WE'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT, JUST PLEASE SAVE PORCO!"

There it was. That's exactly what they wanted to hear.

"In that case…" Bemular swooped down to Pieck and grew to about her height so they could talk to her at eye level. "I want you to tell Marley that Reiner Braun died a true hero, fighting tooth and nail to ensure a brighter future for Marley. Tell them that his death allowed you to learn the name of the Colossal Titan's killer, a man by the name of Eren Jaeger, who uses a power called 'Ultraman' to fire beams of light from his hands, and who towers above the Colossal Titan."

Zeke froze up when he heard the name "Eren Jaeger," but Bemular didn't give him time to contemplate that.

"Finally, tell them that the Founding Titan is showing signs of becoming active and that you must stage a full-on military assault before it releases its full power." They then charged up their claw and aimed it at them. "You will not be taking Reiner with you, and you have proven yourselves so useless to me, that I no longer want any of you. If you try to break this deal or tell them that Reiner is alive, I will make you wish you couldn't regenerate, and consider your limited lifespan a mercy. Am I clear?"

Pieck silently and fearfully nodded. Bemular smiled.

"Good."

And with that, Bemular flew over to Reiner, before growing to fifteen meters tall. As Reiner continued to wail on the Colossal Titan, Bemular violently rammed their claws into an unprotected part of Reiner's back and unleashed a red shock into it. The red energy surge coursed through the Armored Titan, causing it to wail in pain. As it screamed and screamed, Bemular dug their other claw under the armor covering the nape and with some effort, managed to pry it off. Bemular then quickly pulled Reiner out before the armor could regenerate, and with that, the Colossal Titan stopped screaming and slumped to the ground.

Bemular shrank down to human size once again, now cradling Reiner in their arms. Reiner was still dressed in his clothes, but he looked unrecognizable as a human. His skin had turned grey, with red and black patterns on it. His wrists and shoulders had sharp spikes jutting out of them, piercing through his clothes, he had two horns growing out of his forehead, and he had visible veins all over his body.

However, as Reiner slowly came back to consciousness, he slowly reverted back to his normal self, until he completely resembled a human again. Pieck and Zeke cautiously approached the two while Porco's Titan evaporated behind them. Reiner groggily looked into Bemular's eyes.

"Bemular…? I… What happened?"

Bemular smiled at him. "You won. That's what happened."

Reiner let out a sigh of relief, then, with a content smile, said, "I think I'm ready. Let's go now."

Bemular smiled. "If that's your choice."

'All mine…'

Bemular helped Reiner back onto his feet, then quickly dusted him off and patted him on the shoulders. They then activated the communicator in their helmet.

"Mothership, this is Bemular," they said. "Reiner's ready."

After sending out the message, a ring of light formed around the two, as they were being beamed up to the mothership. As they began to disappear in the beam of light, though, Bemular left them with one final warning.

"Let this be a warning to all of you Marleyans: Attempt to take Reiner from me again, and we will do that," Bemular pointed to the evaporating body of the Colossal Titan. "To your whole worthless country."

And on that final note, Bemular, Reiner, and Marley's hopes of defeating Ultraman, disappeared.

"What now?" Porco asked.

Zeke sighed and looked up to the sky. "We need to go back to Marley. They need to know about their fallen warrior…"