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Chapter Text

The ground beneath his feat shook slightly, as the hand of the armored titan clawed into the top of the wall.

Subsequently the monster pulled itself up only to pause moments later.

Almost innocently it seemed to admire the view on the other side.

Though he had no doubt that its focus quickly fell upon their horses, pondering the most effective way to turn their last hope of escape into red mush.

His opponent took longer than expected to realize it was not alone up here.

Their eyes met.

Had there ever been any doubt about the creature’s intelligence it would’ve been expelled at this very moment on top of the wall.

It felt like all it’d need to do was move a bit to the side and he would be in arm’s reach.

And then one small gesture was all it needed for the monster to crush all of his hopes and dreams in one decisive swoop.

The secret in the cellar would remain a secret forever and he’d never know if his father had been right all along.

The commander felt adrenaline pumping through his veins, but stubbornly put up a brave face anyways.

It would’ve only taken it mere seconds to get rid of him, but it didn’t.

Was it out of respect, fear, pity or arrogance? Or did it think even one-armed he’d still be too slippery with his ODM-gear?

It did not matter.

Instead, the armored titan simply took Eren’s bait and jumped back down right where it came from, not wasting another glance at Erwin.

How slightly disappointing that apparently, he was not even considered a life worth taking.

Terrified screams echoed over the planes as another barrage of stone shrapnel rained down upon horses and men alike.

Led by Erwin to their deaths their skills did not matter anymore.

Now it was all left to chance who would be granted the mercy of death and who would live just a little bit longer to start questioning their decision to choose this kind of ending for themselves.

But they kept charging nonetheless.

It was cold comfort that just as his comrades fell to the onslaught, so did the titans along his path.

When he finally reached their ugly leader, it was almost too easy.

Blades sliced through a huge hairy arm like butter, eyes were just begging to be blinded and the cut ankles just added the cherry on top, as he forced the beast on its knees.

“What happened to all the fun you were having?”

Would there be anybody left once he finished this mission? Did Erwin survive? Or at least that fucking quadruped, to witness first hand that they should not have underestimated the humans will to fight till the bitter end?

“Come on let’s try to enjoy this!”

Cut after cut…

He had that bearded bastard out in no time giving him a taste of his blade, quite literally.

“After transforming, if your body is severely damaged it’s too busy healing to let you resume titan form. Isn’t that right?”

Not ending this miserable existence here and then cost him enormous strength of will.

At least he could tickle the prick a bit more, “Hey, I asked you a question. It’s only polite to answer.”

It seemed like a miracle that Levi had made his way up to this point relatively unscathed.

Almost a mockery to the remains of those now littering the ground between here and the wall.

Someone out there had to be still alive!

Someone worthy to take this buffoon’s pathetic life and obtain his powers.

The titan corpse below him started to quake.

Something was coming. Something large and fast.

Fuck!

The quadruped!

Levi’s first instinct was to jump out of the way, but then his Ackermann reflexes took over.

He would not let his prey escape! Not as long as he was still breathing! Not if this might’ve been the last mission ever given to him by Erwin!

The quadruped succeeded in securing his ally in its mouth at the cost of an anchor finding its mark.

The gas mechanism activated and Levi instinctively reeled himself at his new adversary jumping up in the air from the sudden drift, as it dragged him along while trying to run away.

Was it actually heading towards the wall again?

Who cared! It would never reach it!

That much Levi Ackerman promised to himself.

This was most definitely not going as planned!

In all honesty she had not even been sure if she would be capable of saving their war chief from this monster in human form.

The Cart Titan was more of a supporting role than a head-on fighter, even if it was still a force to be reckoned with compared to humans.

Normal humans that is… This one was definitely anything but!

There was nothing human about how he was gliding through the air towards her, an almost maniacal glance in his blue eyes, as he focused in on Zeke: “Hold on. I made a promise to my commander that I would kill you no matter what it took. I promised and I intend to keep that promise!”

She was kind of glad that she did not really have much neck to cut through as his blades dug into her right shoulder instead. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw her own blood splattering through the air, while he was whirling around preparing for the next assault.

That one was a first since she got here. Up until now it had been strictly reconnaissance.

Some of the droplets found their way upon Zekes face who seemed to have made a decision: “Turn around… We have to get out of here for now,” He coughed up blood, “I will try to get you some ground support to help get rid of the monster.”
Ground support? Reiner and Berthold were inside the walls and needed their help, who else­ ­–

“Go now! Rip him to pieces!”

Dozens of titan heads turned their way, while the enemy cut through the cords of her carrier, probably to give him some more flesh to aim at.

She felt the weight lifting as it shattered loudly on the ground behind her.

Some of the rolling barrels and boxes made their new mindless pursuers stumble and crush before they could even start their pursuit.

Most of the others succeeded though.

Her instincts told her to run faster, as probably anybody in their right mind would, who did not want to end up as a titan snack, but the guy in her mouth urged her otherwise: “Slow down. Let them catch up.” His words came through heavy breaths, “You are not their goal. He is.”

And “he” made himself noticeable again by cutting into her now unprotected back. She shrieked and apparently bit down a bit too firm, judging by Zekes complaints.

Which was annoying in its own way since her only noteworthy weapon against the angry scout circling around her body was her mouth which was currently otherwise occupied trying not to crush the owner of the beast titan in it. If Zeke would’ve had at least one full arm left she might’ve tried putting him somewhere else where he could hold on to, but currently that was just not in the cards for them.

Well, all or nothing.

She stopped abruptly, sending a searing pain through her cut up shoulder.

Just as hoped gravity took the tenacious soldier with it.

He slithered over the grass before he came to an abrupt halt a couple of meters in front of her.

Noticing his deathly glare towards her she felt a shiver run down both her spines.

The ground vibrated under the masses of titans hurtling towards them.

For a moment she almost felt frozen in time.

That moment quickly ended with the turbines of his gear roaring back to life again.

This time she was kind of prepared, grabbing the rope still connected to her back and shoving it to the ground, only for him to instead cut into the arm responsible for doing so, severing her right hand completely from the rest in the process.

Probably Karma for internally complaining about Zekes useless arm stumps.

At least she had gotten rid of the anchor buried in her shoulder, as her pursuer crushed hardly into the ground, weakening the force a bit by rolling a couple of steps further away.

Finally, the first mindless had reached their destination. Another stroke of pain went through Pieck’s body as she got shoved to the side, struggling to remain standing with only one healthy arm and two legs left.

“Go. Now!”

Zeke seemed to be losing his patience.

More pushes from the side and one of the larger ones nearly trampling on her remaining hand made her agree to his plan.  

A bit pitifully she started to stumble away from the scene. Just as promised the other titans ignored her completely.

Nonetheless she felt watched by a predator as if the tiny human could jump out of the moving mass of grotesque titan bodies and end her and Zeke any moment.

And with them probably every hope of Marley to take down the devils of the island any time soon.

Despite her sense of dread, she could not resist to throw another glance at the wall.

No colossal in sight.

Did Bertholt actually loose or was there just no one else left to fight against so that he decided to take his well-deserved rest?

The uncertainty was eating her alive.

Zeke seemed to try his best to calm himself: “We will come back for them. If they won, they can wait a little longer while regenerating. If they didn’t, we will not want to fight in the current state we’re in. We do not want to lose more titans to the enemy if we want to save any face at all.”

The by now familiar tone of the enemies ODM gear whirred behind her and this time she decided not to look back and instead just limp away as fast as she could, leaving behind a fresh trail of blood.

 

“Hey why don’t you put up a fight? They pick on you because you won’t hit back. You’re fine with losing forever?”

 

The fight was over.

“You’re wrong. I’m not losing. Because I don’t run.”

Armin’s retort from the distant past echoed in his mind.

Judging by his friend’s definition they had won indeed.

None of them had given up, they had all fought together till the bitter end.

They defeated the colossal titan!

Now Eren should’ve felt triumph for dragging an unconscious Bertolt along with him.

But he did not.

It was not him who should be the one to celebrate. All the glory belonged to someone else who preferred to stay in the shadows and leave the fame to others.

Crestfallen he sacked down next to Armins scorched remains.

“Armin you are a hero. You were the bravest of us all.”

Of course he did not get any response from a corpse.

Nonetheless he kept talking, hating himself for not being stronger, “I should’ve realized. Of course this would happen. Still…trusting your plan was the only chance I had.”

He glanced over to Bertolt for a second, fume rising up from the wounds of the shifters freshly chopped off limbs. The living proof that Armins plan had been a success.

“But why, Armin? Why don’t you ever run?”

Once again no answer.

After a while Eren found the strength to look around for any signs of friends or foes alike.

No one, besides the two at his side.

Should he climb up the towering wall to his left for a better viewpoint?

A quiet cough let him freeze in his tracks. Was that? It couldn’t be!

“Armin!”

Immediately he returned to the blonde’s side.

“Yeah! Hell yeah! Come on! Just keep on breathing!”

The typical whirring sound of an ODM announced someone landing behind him. He turned around, hoping against all hope that it would be Levi with the syringe.

“Armin? That’s Armin?”

Only to see tears forming in Mikasa’s eyes.

Then she stumbled forward, before going down on her knees next to Armin.

“This can’t be. We won. Reiner is down. Bertolt is down. Why is Armin” she clenched her fists, while the tears started to run down her face, “like this? He can’t die here.”

Once more Eren scanned the nearby roofs for any signs of their allies, specifically the captain. Armin’s last hope.

But if Levi was not here yet who was to tell if he’d come at all? It had taken them everything they had to defeat the colossal and the armored with a lot of prepared strategy and they had his titan form and an Ackermann.

Were mere humans enough to win against a long-range titan with his army? Not to mention that Erwin had suspected the quadruped to be another of the intelligent ones.

“Damn it!” Erens fist shattered brown bricks. He did not care about the blood on his knuckles, while his own titan powers healing effect kicked in.

Armin grew weaker with each husky breath.

One did not have to be a medical professional to know this was bad.

Eren did not know how long he remained in his defeated position.

Probably just a couple of seconds, but it felt too long and he hated himself for it even more…

On one hand he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Armin alone during his last minutes, on the other someone had to do… something.

Finally, he made a decision and gathered the strength to stand up again, albeit shaky feeling the aftermath of the battle. Hesitantly he stumbled a couple of steps towards the edge of the roof, “I will look for the captain! I will…”

“No need,” Mikasa’s voice was barely a whisper.

Rage bubbled up in his chest as he turned back around, “What do you mean, no need? We have to save Armin, no matter the cost!”

With a sad smile Mikasa caressed Armins face and simply shook her head, “His breathing stopped. We were too slow. He’s gone.”

“No.” Then he screamed out his frustrations much louder, “You are lying! He’s stronger than that! He’s the strongest of us all!”

All he got in response was a sad smile, “Why would I ever lie to you about something like that?”

Of course, he knew her long enough to know she was speaking the truth.

Curse it all!

Erens desperate cry, full of pain, fury and regret echoed across the buildings.

For a second Mikasa seemed to hesitate before she straightened up.

Then she went in for a hug.

A small assurance that he was not alone in this world.

Her way of telling him that she’d always be there for him.

That she’d never leave him like Armin just did.

Eren felt her gently rubbing his back, while he bawled his eyes out on her shoulder.

He really wanted to believe in her, but he wasn’t sure if he could.

Almost longingly his eyes traced the bloody trail the quadruped had left behind.

Naturally he had considered chasing it, but since it ran for the hills, away from the walls, it was no immediate threat and impossible to catch up to.

Besides, there were a couple titans in his way he had to deal with first.

And after finishing that issue, there was also the syringe in his pocket weighing heavily on his conscience.

Maybe there was still life out there he could save with it?

Unfortunately, that fight with the quadruped had dragged him much further away from the buildings than he would’ve liked, forcing him to partially go back by foot, since there was nothing for his ODM gear to cling to and accelerate.

Reaching the first buildings not completely devastated by the beast titan, a familiar face awaited him, “So that’s how it feels giving meaning to your life. Was it worth it, captain?”

There was desperation in the soldiers’ eyes, like he needed some kind of reassurance.

Levi was too exhausted to care and he himself wasn’t even sure if he could give the answer expected of him.

Then his eyes widened when he spotted whom Floch was carrying along with him.

“Commander!”

Immediately he was at Erwins side checking for his breath, then he glanced down at the bloody bandages.

“Status report, soldier.”

Floch carefully placed his load against a nearby wall, before he saluted and tried to be professional, though his shaking hand gave him away: “The commander’s stomach is gouged and his insides are all torn to shreds. The blood just won’t stop.” After a short pause he added, “Honestly, I don’t think he has much time left. Maybe not even enough to get him past the wall back to the others.”

Floch did not even have to mention it, they obviously both thought about the injection.

Levi narrowed his eyes in thought, “Did they manage to defeat one of the titans?”

His subordinate averted his gaze, “I don’t know. After picking up the commander I saw you fighting in the distance. Thus, I decided to wait for you here, when I noticed you’d take a while walking back. I did not want to risk to move him any more than necessary, especially with you having the only means to save him.”

Was that hate burning in his eyes? A strange emotion to connect the word “save” to.

Either way Levi shared the estimation of the scout. Erwin was not long for this world and so were they, if their allies on the other side of the wall had failed.

As a result of Erwins suicide charge the horses were gone. They might be able to loot some functional gear from the corpses of their fallen comrades but that alone would not be enough to get them back home.

Even if they did, without Erwin, without any proof of success, how were they supposed to continue and find new recruits?

It would all be for naught if Erwin succumbed to his injuries before they even had a chance to find a titan for him to consume!

If Hange and Armins group had failed indeed, if worst came to worst maybe Reiner or Bertolt were at least stricken enough from their previous fights that Levi could incapacitate them himself.

One titan was worth more than a couple dozen human lives, presumably.

Though shitty calculations like that were not really his cup of tea. Let others deal with their details in the aftermath…

One of those being the guy bleeding out in front of him.

“Floch, does your gear still work?”

The anxious man nodded slightly, while he observed Levi withdrawing the syringe.

“We will have to take the risk.”

With a hand he signaled Floch to jump up the next roof.

Eyes closed with a look on his face more relaxed than Levi had seen him for months, maybe even years, Erwin seemed to peacefully doze off into an eternal slumber.

Unfortunately, it was not yet time for Levis friend to rest.

There was no alternative.

With that last thought Levi thrusted the syringe into his commander’s arm, before also jumping out of harm’s way while proclaiming loudly, “We are going to revive the person who can save humanity!”

Since there was not much else to do, he was plucking on his own bandages, while looking out for any red signal flares in the sky every few seconds.

Jean hated waiting and apparently, he was not the only one.

“Where is the signal?” Hange kneeled down to inspect their captive once more, making sure his regeneration would not proceed any further than necessary, “They are taking far too long!”

Reiner started to look more human again by the minute.

Not that that was a good sign, but at least currently it was only his face regenerating, while his limbs remained absent.

Which lead Jean to a completely irrelevant question in this dire situation: Did that smug bastard consciously decide what to regenerate first like the diva he was?

Hoping for their mercy when he looked more like their former comrade in arms than the actual monster? Or was it simply because he knew arms and legs would be cut off again right away by Hange?

Well, his former comrades’ efforts were in vain.

They were long past superficial shit like that, right?

He looked over to Connie and Sasha. Reiner had really done a number on potato girl.

Fuck!

All this sitting around, doing nothing but thinking and watching Reiner, while waiting for Mikasa’s signal flare was driving Jean crazy!

And it was clearly his fault that Reiner was still alive.

If it weren’t for him Hange would have turned the dude into minced meat right away and they all would’ve been able to relax instead of constantly throwing nervous glances towards the sky or the blonde.

The logical reasons Jean had mentioned back then aside, why did he even jump in for Reiner like that in the first place?

Secretly he knew this was not just a pure “For the sake of humanity we might need his titan powers later”-thing. Instead, it was dangerously close to “Please let him live, if only a little bit longer, I don’t want to see him die”-territory.

Stupid brain being unable to accept betrayal even when it was spitting him in the face and killing his comrades left and right.

At least he was not the only one who visibly sucked at drawing the line here…

What was up with that letter from Ymir? For Krista Reiner could still be loyal, huh?

Damn it all.   

Jean buried his face in his hands.

Hange was unsure how to proceed.

Should they stay put? With no clue what happened beyond the wall, maybe send a scout there? Should they fire a signal flare? Should they just kill their prisoner and get it over with?

They had seen the colossal disintegrate but that did not necessarily mean that there was no enemy left. Where was Mikasa?

And then there were the kids. Of course, it had to be them who had to fight the armored titan.

In a life-or-death situation it is much easier to decide to go for your enemy’s throat.

No time to think. No time to show mercy.

But once the battle is over, the adrenaline fades and all that remains is exhaustion and an adversary broken enough that you have to be afraid that he might kill himself before giving you the chance to do so, things tend to get a bit more complicated.

Nothing a kid their age should normally have to endure.

Heck, even Hange themself found it slightly unnerving basically torturing one of their former recruits who was like what… seventeen according to his made-up files?

And doing the math… How did one have to grow up to decide he’d turn into a titan and crush through a gate, dooming thousands of lives in the process with barely twelve years of age?

Or better yet: Where?

Yes, there were patriots inside the walls, but somehow their captives gave off different vibes.

“I’m back.” Mikasa’s words were so quietly spoken that for a second Hange thought they had imagined them entirely.

The reason was quickly deduced in the form of a burned corpse, carried by Eren.

Size and body shape would fit. This was not good. It felt like another punch in the gut, as if all their comrades dying around them was not depressing enough.

Their only silver lining seemed to be in the fact that Mikasa was carrying Bertolt with her as well, similarly disabled to their other captive.

Hange decided to grin and bear it, “Now that’s a welcome surprise! So, we’ve got two titans but no syringe?”

They shook their heads in unison while Eren carefully leaned the corpse against a nearby wall. Mikasa was much rougher with her living load, just callously throwing him next to Reiner like a sack of potatoes.

“Ok then let’s not drag this out any longer. We have to signal our fellow survivors that we’re still out here, don’t we?”

If there were any that is…

Mikasa just nodded and shot her red signal flare into the sky.

He had failed.

The only thing he was cautiously optimistic about was that Ymirs letter might actually reach its destination.

But other than that, everything hinted towards the fact that he’d never go back home.

Even worse, he had handed the armored titan to the enemy on a silver platter and probably the colossal as well, considering he was the one giving Bertolt orders most of the time.

The enemy may only have one syringe, but there were enough titans roaming around in the wilderness to still get another relatively loyal shifter.

Yes, it might be risky out of the island devil’s perspective, but based on Reiners knowledge most of the pure titans should have proper hatred towards Marley and would be oh so willing to tell its enemies anything they’d want to know in exchange for the capability to think and act for themselves again.

And while they were at it, if the hatred was deep enough, what would stop them from joining the “good fight” as well?

Thanks to the blindfold Reiner might not see what was happening around him but by now he could hear well enough to recognize not only Mikasa’s but Erens voice as well.

Hearing that Bertolt had succeeded in killing Armin was a mixed bag of emotions.

Difficult to imagine his comrade in arms, with whom he had been eating, laughing and fighting together for years, dead.

Burnt to a crisp.

Those damned titans, but the humans would prevail in the end.

They’d avenge Armin and retake those walls.

No! Stop!

For a second there he caught himself actually slipping over but that just would not do.

These were probably his last couple of hours on this earth.

A proud warrior of Marley would face his execution head on, not trying to hide in some ridiculous fantasy!

Next to him he heard Bertolt gulp back a sob.

Seemed like his ally had woken up and also realized the mess they’d ended themselves up in.

Reiner considered the chances of being able to save Bertolt, but quickly discarded the idea altogether.

In any other situation he might’ve been at least able to save himself with the beheading trick, playing dead possum, but they knew about that one as well…

For the moment he was absolutely powerless.

All he could do was hoping for Zeke and Pieck.

Their war chief was no one to be trifled with and Reiner had no doubt that at least on the other side of the wall things looked much better for his allies.

“There you are, you fucking brats! How dare you have me come all this way looking for you.”

“Captain Levi!”, multiple hopeful voices at once were thrown at the new arrival.

The way captain Levi landed sounded much less elegant than one would expect of the experienced soldier, but he was here and he was alive.

That much was undeniable.

And it was at this moment that Reiner knew there would be no one coming to save them.

Chapter Text

Levi let his eyes wander over the sight presented before him.

They could probably count Sasha out of this operation, judging by her unconscious state.

Meanwhile Jean was also wrapped in bandages but nonetheless seemed just as lively as Connie, who was currently sitting next to Sasha holding her hand.

Mikasa’s look was grim but otherwise the girl seemed to be ok, unlike Eren next to her who stared holes into nothingness. 

It might had to do with the scorched corpse at the boys' feet, which Levi strongly suspected to be all that was left of Armin.

“How are things on the other side of the wall?” Hanges left eye may be wrapped up, but something akin to hope lingered in her remaining one.

Being blunt was probably the best course of action, “I met Floch, but besides him the people present here are all that remains of the scout corps serving under commander Erwin. At least to my knowledge.” He clenched his fist in defeat, “The beast titan was saved by the quadruped and ran away.”

For a second Hange seemed to process the news, before giving off a small laugh, bordering on insanity, “So they are all gone, huh? I mean... we managed to secure both the armored and the colossal titan. That’s something, right?”, she pointed towards their two captives with one hand, “This was worth their sacrifices, wasn’t it?”

Levi took a few steps forward before he kneeled down in front of Reiner and Bertholt, both blindfolded and with neither legs, nor arms.

Just as ordered.

Their slight flinching at his approach didn’t escape his notice.

So, awake and listening in on their conversation, huh?

His gaze wandered to Reiners unscathed neck; no trace left from where he had tried to behead the bastard a couple hours ago.

What a fucking monster.

At least Bertolt’s blindfold was slowly getting wet, accompanied by gulped back sobs.

Whereas the blonde remained calm, as if he had accepted his fate.

Levi did not buy his act, but he remained silent about it.

Let them fret a bit longer, it was not like they had any right to complain and everyone here knew they were basically breathing corpses already.

The captain stood up and turned back towards the remaining survivors, “They will have to do.” He gave an appreciative nod, “Good job.”

In thought Hange gnawed at her thumb, “So the only question that remains is which one of them we choose.”

Connie rose his hand, visibly confused, “Uhm… Shouldn’t we first decide on whom we’ll inject the serum?”

“I already used it.” There was no reason to sugarcoat it.

“You did what? Shouldn’t we have had a say in that as well?!”, Eren’s bitter voice trembled slightly, but he was nonetheless much quieter than usual, as if a major part of his will to fight had left together with Armin’s last breath.

Levi simply glared back, “Erwin said I am the one to decide and so I did. Now our commander is waiting for us behind the walls, while Floch is keeping an eye on him.”

Jean blanched, “You mean you turned our commander into a titan without even knowing if we succeeded in securing Reiner or Bertholt?” he got slightly louder, almost panicking, “What if we would have killed them during or after the fight?!”

“Good thing you didn’t, hm? Now we even have the luxury on deciding the shape the future of the survey corps will take ourselves.” Levi rubbed his neck, “Maybe we should return to him and Floch so that you guys can see for yourselves, before making the final decision? Besides if anything happened to the commander, I do not think Floch could handle it on his own.”

Hange apparently decided to support his decision, while almost merrily announcing, “So, who wants to carry our traitors?”

“I’ll take Armin. I will not leave him here.” Eren stubbornly proclaimed.

“Sasha’s with me.” Connie seemed to be just as determined.

The others remained silent.

Hange sighed, “Mikasa could you please take Reiner? I’ll take Bertolt.”

Visibly disgusted by the thought alone Mikasa silently nodded and followed orders nonetheless.

“There you are, finally!”

Floch jumped up from his sitting positions, with feet dangling down the other side of the wall.

Almost accusingly he pointed down towards a ten-meter titan with an uncanny resemblance to their commander. Huge icy blue eyes stared up to them, while the creature itself did not move a muscle, both hands pressed against the wall, as if it was waiting for the perfect moment to climb it up.

Which was a foolish thought, since the normies did not have any capabilities to reach feats like the armored titan or Eren. At least according to Hange’s previous research.

“He’s been like that since you left, captain. Just staring and giving me the creeps!”

“That’s really the commander, huh?”, Jean gulped looking down.

“What happened here?”, meanwhile Connie, eyes wide in shock, focused in on the crushed buildings and the corpses spread in between them and the meadows on the horizon.

“They pushed forward and died. That's all. For the cause," Floch muttered averting his eyes from the sight.

It took the new arrivals some time to process the picture presenting itself in front of them.

Connie went down on his knees, “So it’s really just us then, is it?”

“This is all your fault! You did this! If you hadn’t destroyed the wall none of this would have happened!"

Probably because Mikasa had stayed right next to him for their entire trip up here, Eren did not have to reach far for Reiner.

He grabbed his handicapped former comrade and pushed him towards the edge of the wall.

With no arms or legs to stabilize himself, Reiner just landed hard on the stone, far enough for head and shoulders to protrude into the air, where the wall stopped and the potential downfall began.

For the first time the Erwin-titan below actually reacted. Even if it was just its eyes focusing no longer on Floch but on Eren and Reiner instead.

Meanwhile the enraged boy, tears in his eyes, ripped off the blindfold, grabbed Reiner by the head and forced him to look at the scene of destruction the beast titan had left behind.

“This is all your fault.”  Eren’s voice cracked, he let go of the head and slumped down, quietly processing, “They are all dead. Armin is dead. Why are you two assholes still alive?”

Reiner did not answer.

Instead, he simply focused in on the Erwin titan hungrily staring up to them.

“Hange, we need to make a decision,” Levi narrowed his eyes at Eren, “Preferably before the sentimental fool pushes Reiner down by accident and makes it for us. I decided whom to give the serum to. By all rights, you as Erwins surrogate should decide on the powers we give him. And thereby which future for the scouts.”

They felt the anxious faces of everyone turn from Eren towards them.

For a lack of a better reply, Hange escaped into their comfort zone: science.

The usual enthusiasm felt slightly hollow, though, “Their titan forms are both most fascinating specimen, each in their own right. The colossal is undoubtedly the more devastating one, but it comes with in an overall package of huge potential causalities on both sides. We all know Erwin is willing to make sacrifices if the numbers add up for him and with a power like that those calculations will undoubtedly appear much more regularly. Impartial extinction to everything in its nearby vicinity. Feeding Bertolt to Erwin seems undoubtedly like a power move which could push the corps to new heights, quite literally.”

Even with his blindfold on Bertolt got visibly more antsy, most likely feeling the gaze of her one remaining eye.

“But the armored titan is the perfect shield and protector”, a hoarse voice butted in, coughing and taking a shaky breath before continuing, “and much more durable than the colossal, as far as strategies go”, while talking, Reiner did not avert his gaze from Erwin, as if he was talking to his former commander as well, “You are no mass murderers. If you go for future strategies which actually involve most of your team surviving, lasting for hours and striking the”, he made another break, this time looking towards the horizon, as if seeing something they did not, “enemy with precision, the armored would be a much better fit to the survey corps. Much better for your image as well.”

What was the fucking idiot thinking?!

Why should anyone care about image issues while fighting for their survival?

Jean could not believe his ears when Reiner actively tried to promote himself as titan food.

Did the guy have a death wish?

“If you’re trying to buy time for your buddy, I am afraid I will have to disappoint you,” Levi followed Reiners gaze to the blue sky and watched its white fluffy clouds move on, as if nothing had happened, “The hairy one and his carriage are gone over the hills, but I did not let them escape without a souvenir. You both will be long dead once they are capable of returning. So, no reason for you to play the hero. You aren’t one, shit-face.”

Meanwhile Hange took the comment at face value, “Reiner has got a point, though. We should not discard the prospects of the armored titan form the get go. Any future fights will massively depend on what our commander is capable of. Erwin could work with both, no doubt.”

“How much can you guys even be in denial?! Why even consider what the enemy has to say? He’s obviously trying to prevent you from choosing the more powerful titan, because that would be the more devastating blow to his allies, whomever they may be! Only a demon can defeat these,” Floch pointed at their captives, “demons! If you see the colossal rise to the sky, it seems like all hope is lost”, he gave a crooked laugh, “The armored is intimidating no doubt, but it will never reach these heights. It will never spread that fear. That dread of certain doom”, Floch nodded towards their titan observer, “The colossal fits Erwin perfectly. Just as it should be! Let our enemies tremble in fear, just as we did!”

“What enemies?”, Connie seemed skeptical, “Most of them are titans acting on instinct alone. I doubt they really care of how intimidating we look. Wouldn’t the armored be enough for those and the safer option for us for longer lasting excursions?”

“My titan could last for hours, while you’d have the colossal only for a limited amount of time each day,” Reiner silently agreed.

“Ok, this is going nowhere!” Hange intervened, rubbing her temple, “instead of all this back and forth let’s put it to the vote. There are not many scouts from the Survey Corp left and since Erwin is currently unavailable, those left behind should be able to decide on what kind of future they want for us. You’ve all seen what these titans were capable of”, she gestured towards the destruction left behind by the beast titan, “Witnessed how it feels fighting them and the damage they did to their surroundings from the front rows. What do you rather want on your side of the battlefield instead, the armored or the colossal?”

“What will happen to the remaining one?” Jean couldn’t stop himself from asking.

Levis hand wandered to the handle of his blades, “Is that not obvious? Each minute they live further, they turn into more of a threat to us. The Beast titan is still out there. Aside from any potential allies in the reserve, we do not know about yet, he could also just use his powers to draw the titans in the surrounding area towards us. As exhausted as we are now, we would not be able to defend ourselves properly against that. I do not want to know, if those two have any further tricks on their sleeves, once they recovered a bit more. We give Erwin one of the titans. Kill the remaining titan shifter. Do what we came here to do and then get the hell out of here.”

“Honestly, considering we are going to take away his choice on which titan form to assume, I think Erwin should at least decide on the fate of the residual one. Maybe reaching Eren’s cellar will even give us new possibilities, a new serum or even ways of forcing him to talk and provide us with more information. Chances are high whom of those two remains will die today, but you’ll probably suffer from his presence at least a couple more hours.”

Levi sighed, “I will abide by your decision, Hange, but at the smallest hint of danger towards us I will cut them down.”

They gave him a small smile, “As I expected you would. Thank you, captain.”

Levi just nodded.

Hange rubbed their hands and in fake enthusiasm announced, “So let’s put it to the vote! As second in command during Erwins absence I’ve decided to give captain Levi two votes, since it was heavily implied that the choice of whom to turn was also including the choice of whom to feed to the turned one and I trust his neutral stance in this. I myself will stick to one vote, but will decide in case of a tie. Abstentions are allowed. I will not force a decision like that upon anyone.”

“I vote for the colossal!”, all eyes turned to Floch who immediately rose his hands, “Only a demon can defeat these demons and the colossal is a nightmare turned reality.”

“Then I’ll throw my two votes out there right away as well. I don’t trust Reiner one bit. Bertolt is a loyal fool and much more passive, thus it should be easy to keep him in line, until we decide what to do with him. Besides working with the armored seems much less like a headache than the colossal.”

“Bertolt deserves to die as soon as possible! It’s the least he can do for what he did! They both do, but him first. Let him be useful one last time!” Eren spit out.

Mikasa thoughtfully nodded in agreement, “I would not consider Bertolt as innocent as you say, captain. In our last talk he seemed… different. Determined. While Reiner actually seems like the more emotional of the two… Also…”, she glanced towards Eren, “Bertolt killed Armin.”

“I do not want to be burned alive like Armin, if I’m not out of the danger zone fast enough. I can still feel my burned throat from our last fight,” Connie bit himself on the lip, while hugging himself and looking towards the unconscious Sasha, “The armored is supposed to act like a shield, right? This might be the thoughts of a coward but I’d prefer a shield over a loose cannon on my side anytime," his voice started to tremble, "I mean Reiner did prove to us a couple of times, that before anything else he was good at shielding things and getting out alive. Sorry."

Was Jean just imagining things or was Connie deliberately focusing on Sasha to not look over towards their two captives?

Hange rubbed their neck while laughing awkwardly, “I guess it’s just you and me left, Jean. I’m really having a funny De Ja Vu here. Let’s ignore my tiebreaker for a minute, do you still think that we might be able to use him further?”

“I…” Jean felt a big lump in his throat.

“Just choose the armored titan.”

Once more their blonde captive garnered attention from everyone around, including his silently crying companion with the blindfold.

Reiner didn’t look up to Jean, but with visible determination he continued his piece, “As far as personal grudges go everything Bertolt did was under my orders, including the destruction of your walls five years ago. All he and Annie wanted to do was go home but I forced them to stay. I was the one suggesting the strategy today, so Armins death is on me, too. Not him."

“Reiner…” this time it was actually Bertolt jumping in.

Reiner decisively ignored his ally, "Thus, if you base your decision on emotional reasoning it should be focused on me alone.”

Why did they not gag those two again? They were speaking much more than should be allowed for your average death row prisoner, but for some reason no one interrupted their little back and forth.

Levi and Hange seemed to actually be kind of curious where the conversation went, while Eren was just sending death glares, Mikasa showed her perfect poker face and Connie seemed like he just wanted this nightmare to finally be over. Floch was the only one actively looking like he could explode at any minute now.

Reiner sighed, “Be honest, you don’t want to be eaten by Erwin of all people in front of all your former friends, after said friends actively voted for that kind of fate, do you?”

“I really don’t," Bertolt confessed, "But I think neither should you?”

“OK, what is it with you people constantly hesitating and hum and hawing over something so simple?!” Floch was positively fuming now, “Jean, just make your fucking decision and decide on the commander’s well-deserved snack! It’s not like the remaining one will see the next sunrise either!”

He had decided they all had to die.

Well, Armin was dead alright. The one person who had tried to talk him out of this.

Claiming to be oh so innocent while constantly using tortured Annie as a hostage against him.

Marco had wanted to talk about it back then, too, didn’t he?

But in the end, they had chosen to let him die.

And now the other party decided on their fates instead, how the tables had turned.

All for the sake of survival. A neverending circle.

Reiner was right, though. Bertolt really did not want to die. Not like this.

He might not have been as involved with them as much as Reiner had, split personality and all that, but it still hurt listening to them wishing him a death much crueler than a quick blade through the throat.

Reiner was right in a sense, that fighting pureblood titans the armored would probably be the better choice.

The colossal was best suited for war against enemies that could actually be influenced by fear and dread. For enemies who lived in bigger settlements where you could do devastating damage in a small amount of time.

His father came to mind. Staring up into the sky only to see the towering titan form of his son spread panic and annihilation among their people.

The potential of throwing a huge bomb on towns and then just quickly disappear into the masses again, without anyone being all the wiser. The thought of having a weapon like that in the hands of a man like Erwin was terrifying.

Opposed to that the remaining titan warriors would have a much easier time fighting and reclaiming the armored titan. It was too slow to avoid the Jaw titan entirely and damage control for the population would be much easier as well.

The preferred solution for Marley would be to convince the scouts to take the armored and then taunt Levi into killing Bertolt before they could feed him to anyone else.

They may have failed in the grander scheme of things but at least they could do damage control.

Bertolt had no doubt Reiner was thinking in a similar direction. Plus, maybe he actually clung to the naive hope that Zeke would still be able to arrive in due time, before Bertolt had to resort to their last option? It did not sound like there were any pure titans in the immediate area so they still had some time left.

But Bertolt also did not want Reiner to die. Yes, the blonde had been the one calling the shots, but there was a reason why Bertolt had continued to follow him for all these years.

He knew he should support Reiner in his undertaking to promote the armored titan, but it was all just too much.

With Annie being MIA, Reiner was probably the only friend he had left in this world.

Most likely this was mutually.

While it was sad hearing the 104^th speak in favor of them being eaten alive, in the end Bertolt had been much more careful to keep to himself in the last couple of years than Reiner, who took the brunt hit.

Heck, even after the betrayal it had been obvious to Bertolt that, while still shocking for them that big and shy Bertolt turned out to be a traitor, most of their anger was focused on Reiner because he had been too believable in his role as a trusted ally and good friend. Not at all surprising considering the guy had thought so himself half the time and his alternate personality had slipped in more and more over the years, much to Annie and Bertolt’s chagrin.

Bertolt did not have to see his friends face to know that it probably took all of Reiners will and pride to not succumb to his soldier personality.

That he was probably just as terrified as Bertolt while trying to cover for it and giving his best to draw all their animosities towards himself. Being a shield in more than one sense of the word.

Honestly there was no one really at fault here. In the end it was just this cruel world they were born into.

At this point no one but Reiner would care about Bertolt’s opinion.

Why should he waste his potentially last words on earth lying into his only friend’s face?

Instead, he decided to force one last sad smile in the direction of the darkness, where he had heard Reiners voice before, “To me you will always be a warrior and the best friend I ever had, Reiner. In the end I’m the one who decided to follow you and I would do it all again, no matter if the whole world turned against us. Whatever will happen form here on out it’s not you I blame for it.”

It’s this cruel world we live in…

“Unlike him I still totally blame you, you half-assed piece of shit!”, Jean snarled, before he went a bit quieter, “But I also don’t want to be reminded of your stupid mug, whenever our commander shifts into the armored titan. Bertolt still has a much less punchable face, since at least he had the decency to know where his alliances stood. You probably don’t know, but he had told Armin so as well, before he killed him like an hour ago. Besides we already beat your armored ass like, what, three times by now? Without Bertolt’s colossal always having your sorry back we would not have this conversation today.”

Was that an indirect compliment?

“I vote feed Bertolt to the commander,” Jean's voice shook slightly.

It still hurt.

Hanges voice lacked any warmth , “Then it is decided. I agree that the colossal titan will probably give us a higher edge than the armored. Especially if a man like Erwin uses it wisely.”

“Alright, then let’s get this over with.” Without further ado Bertolt felt Levi grabbing him by the shoulders and dragging him away.

Something huge below him shifted in anticipation.

“Bertolt, I’m sorry. For everything.” Bertolt had to present a really sorry sight since he heard the tears in his friend’s voice.

Noone said another word.

Somehow, he was glad for the blindfold.

No matter how strong, years of living, training and fighting together would leave a mark on anyone.

Somehow Bertolt doubted he would’ve been able to hold it together if he saw all his former friends just watch while he was about to be consumed.

He’d probably break down and beg for his life, which would make it even worse for Reiner.

There was no further warning. The captain pushed him over the edge.

Judging by the huge tongue, apparently the Erwin titan had been waiting for him with mouth agape. Then it bit down.

Chapter Text

“Alright then, let’s get this over with.”

Without further ado Levi grabbed Bertolt by the shoulders and dragged him to the edge of the wall.

“Bertolt, I’m sorry. For everything.” Reiners eyes filled with tears and his voice sounded brittle.

To his surprise Connie noticed that the shifter was not the only one.

Almost subconsciously he touched his own cheeks to feel the water running down.

Reiner actually turned more antsy the closer the captain got to the edge, but there was just so much a man could do without arms or legs, or an enormous armored titan shape, to save his last remaining ally.

The scene conjured up memories of a not too distant past where Reiner had thrown himself between Connie and a titan, taking a bite to the arm. No hesitation at all, followed by the idiotic plan to jump out of the window with the culprit titan in tow. What would have happened if they hadn’t stopped the guy back then? Would he have revealed the armored titan, destroying years of carefully woven deceit on a whim?

Reiner let out a grief-choked wail, dragging Connie back into the present.

Considering the guy currently had no limbs available it was actually impressive how Eren now actively had to hold the shivering body down, to prevent it from accidently plummeting down the wall.

There had been no screams from Bertolt, but it was obvious the former owner of the colossal was gone.

Connie knew they were enemies but he couldn’t prevent himself to feel for his former comrades and listening to Reiner losing it over Bertolt’s death was hard to bear.

He dared to glance to the side only to notice that Jean was suddenly also intensely focused on his feet, visibly paler than before.

Levi actually did the little detour to appear next to Eren.

With a non-lethal blow to the neck the captain knocked Reiner out cold, before jumping down the wall to retrieve their commander.

„It hurts. It hurts so badly.”

He turned around towards the somewhat familiar voice only to stare right at a huge titan visage.

One half made of muscles framing a silver eye, the other bare bones and a hollow socket where once an eye used to be.

In the remaining one, fixated on him, tears were forming.

And then the haunting sight was gone.

Blue sky, white clouds, the sun still bright…

Instinctively he used his right hand to shadow his eyes from the light.

A hand he was not supposed to possess.

“It hurts”, someone groaned beside him, “it hurts so badly.”

Not feeling the motivation yet to straighten himself up he simply turned his head in the direction of the girl only to identify her as one of Levis Squad.

Sasha Braus.

“You’re awake. About time.”

This time he recognized the voice immediately and forced at least his upper torso to straighten itself up, only to face his captain who was sitting tailor-fashioned right at his feet, looking grim as usual.

Erwins forehead wrinkled in confusion, “What happened?”

“What do you remember?” Levi narrowed his eyes.

His commander rubbed his jaw.

That was the crux of it, wasn’t it?

“Everything that you thought had meaning. Every hope, dream or moment of happiness. None of it matters as you lie bleeding out on the battlefield.”

Right. He had held one last speech in front of his soldiers.

“None of it changes what a speeding rock does to a body.”

The beast titan had been their enemy. Throwing rocks at them as if it was some sort of twisted game.

“We all die.”

And men and horses alike started to die like flies. Just as expected.

 

“But does that mean our lives are meaningless? Does that mean there was no point in our being born?”

They had come here, because they wanted to reclaim the wall and to find out the truth about the world. To prove his dad was right.

“Would you say that of our slain comrades? What about their lives? Were they meaningless?”

And paid the price…

“They were not! Their memory serves as an example to us all!”

Still as long as there was hope they had to fight, for what remained of humanity to have a chance and for him to finally stop asking himself if they were actually “all” of humanity or if that had been a misconception all along.

 

“The courageous fallen. The anguished fallen. Their lives have meaning because we, the living refuse to forget them and as we ride to certain death, we trust our successors to do the same for us!”

He had entrusted everything into Levis capable hands, hoping their diversion, their very lives, would give his captain the chance to actually reach the enemy and incapacitate him. Levi had asked him to give up on his own dream and die and so he did.

 

“Because my soldiers do not buckle or yield when faced with the cruelty of this world. My soldiers push forward! My soldiers scream out! My soldiers rage!”

In their charge towards certain death their chances of survival had been practically zero.

He knew he should have died with his loyal soldiers on the battlefield. It was only fair.

For a while Erwin just sat there, staring at a hand, that shouldn’t be. Letting his last memories settle in.

“You used the serum on me.” It was the only logical conclusion.

“You were the best option,” Levi leaned away, “There were not many left to start with.”

Erwins eyebrows pulled together, the crease getting deeper and evident, “Who is left?”

“From those fighting the beast titan? Only you, Floch and me, as far as we can tell. Apart from that Hange,” Erwin let out a huge breath, “Eren, Mikasa, Connie, Jean and Sasha.”

The brief relief was quickly replaced by growing horror.  

“Nine people.”

His hand started to shake.

They had been one hundred at the start of the mission.

Ninety-one lives added to his pile of corpses and he kept standing on top of it.

“Do you understand now, why we need you?” there was a wary undertone in Levis voice.

Erwin slowly nodded.

So many new lost lives they had to give a meaning to…

“I had a dream,” he mumbled more towards himself than to the captain.

“I am not following.” Levis carefully neutral voice indicated he was afraid Erwin could’ve lost his marbles.

“A dream about the colossal titan. It was crying. It felt”, Erwin absently rubbed his arms, “surprisingly real.”

“Sorry I am the wrong go-to guy when it comes to titan shenanigans. Eren’s probably useless too.”

Levi started to inspect his last remaining blade, which had visibly suffered from his fights this day,

“Maybe you could try Reiner too, before you finish him off. He’s just over there,” he pointed somewhere behind Erwin, “I’m basically watching both of you and Sasha, while the others are sweeping the area for other survivors," with a hint of deprecation he added, "Hange told me to use this chance to rest.”

At the mention of Reiners name, Erwin suddenly felt a spike of compassion he was quite sure couldn’t hail from his own emotions.

As if Erwin himself could feel compassion for the person indirectly responsible for the loss of so many lives under his command.

For some reason the crying colossal from his dreams came to mind. Luckily the unnerving sensation only remained for a brief moment, before subsiding again.

Levi didn’t notice the sudden inner turmoil in his commander and continued, “Even conscious that guy hasn’t really been all that talkative. Aside from his spontaneous decision to promote himself as the better titan snack that is... After you did the deed, I knocked Reiner out to make life easier for all of us. I think some of our survivors do still have issues seeing him only as the enemy, especially if he has emotional breakdowns like that.”

Erwin nodded, “So, you managed to capture the armored titan? What about the beast or the quadruped?”

Levi grimaced, “Those cowards ran away.”

Erwins mouth felt dry. So the mission on their side of the wall had failed...

“And”, the commander almost did not dare to ask, since he’d honestly never expected he’d actually reach that point after their suicidal charge, “the basement?”

“We decided to wait for you to wake up.”

Erwins fist tightened, while part of him was still incredulous about the fact that he had a right fist to begin with, “Then let’s not wait any longer. Could you please call the others?”

Levi fired his green signal flare.

They had all gathered back at the wall around the commander and Braus. The enemy shifter was placed a bit to the side, this time blindfolded, gagged and apparently still knocked out cold. Or he pretended to be… Who knew…

“So, to sum it up: The fighting ended four hours ago. You looked for survivors but didn’t find any up to this point. We resealed Shiganshina’s gate and thus successfully secured Wall Maria. I am left to decide what to do with Reiner, while the Beast titan, along with the quadruped escaped. Captain Levi decided to use the serum on me and you fed me the colossal titan shifter.”

“Damn right they did. Could’ve been a lot faster about it though” Floch spit on the ground, “Nearly letting the enemy talk them into giving you the armored titan instead. Not only that but the bastard is still alive!”

“There is not fault in weighing your actions carefully before deciding. Since I already was a titan, you had no immediate time limit as far as I can tell. Besides we know Eren's father had turned his son into a titan at one point. The assumption he might have more of the serum down in the basement is not without merit.”

While the reasoning did make sense up to a point, Floch couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else afoot. He felt like he was the only one left out of a joke at his expense, especially when it came to the rest of the former 104^th.

Freaking Connie had even cried for the enemy!

Of course, it did not escape Floch’s notice that the glances they threw towards the enemy shifter weren’t solely those of sheer hatred any sane person would feel towards him.

Braun was like a festering wound. The longer they let him live, the more he got into their heads and they would have to cut away afterwards.

Maybe Floch hadn’t been solely spared to help awaken their demon commander? Maybe this was his second purpose? To avenge mankind and protect his allies from the influence of the enemy?

Erwin was enough. They did not need any more titans. They should not become dependent on the weapon of the enemy!

That was probably why every fiber in his being urged him to go over to Braun and put a blade through his throat. Who in their right mind would fault him for killing that monster?

Floch flexed his fingers.

The dead demanded satisfaction! Hundred years of peace destroyed in the blink of an eye, when the armored titan decided to initiate a massacre inside the walls, spoke for themselves.

“Now that we know that Erwin’s alright. Let’s check out that cellar.” Hange proclaimed.

Erwin nodded in agreement, “Eren, Mikasa, you two can come and guide Hange, Levi and me. The rest of you stay and keep an eye out for hostiles, especially the beast or quadruped. Sasha and Reiner will also remain here. If he makes any suspicious moves, you may kill him, but I’d prefer if you waited until after our visit to the basement. I do not intend to waste a perfectly good weapon for our cause.”

With that they scattered and Floch found himself alone, with only Connie and Jean standing in the way of his newly discovered mission in life.

That had to be why he survived like a coward when everyone else died… To get another chance at showing that he had the guts to do what had to be done!

“Well, take us to your house.”

“Yeah, right.”

The walk through the remains of Shiganshina was quiet. The two kids obviously lost in memories of the past. Of a better live.

Must be nice to grow up on the surface.

The warmth of the sun...

The fresh air...

Feeling safe...

That is until the titan attack of course, which had left its obvious marks on this abandoned place, no matter how peaceful the ruins appeared nowadays.

Their walk was mostly quiet, until the duo stopped abruptly in front of them.

“Is this the place?”, Hange seemed to study their surroundings curiously.

What a surprisingly placid view of a house smashed by a rock.

Nature had partly reclaimed it, a lush green on grey stone under the late afternoon sun.

No titans in sight, just a pair of white birds happily flapping away.

“Luckily for us the fires burnt out before they got this far.”

Levi just kicked some of the remaining debris while listening to Hange.

Soon after they stood in front of the wooden hatch leading down into the cellar.

“This is it. The stairs to the cellar are beneath that door.”

“The basement Grisha Yaeger left behind.” Levi threw a quick glance over his shoulder towards Erwin, who scraped a hand through his blonde hair, “All right. Time to open it.”

After a quick team effort, they found themselves slowly descending stony steps.

At the end of the staircase another door awaited, this time with a keyhole.

“Do it, Eren.” Erwin blew out a long breath, excitement in his voice.

Eren screwed up the door opening and Levi had to lend a helping leg to open the damn thing.

“This looks like a normal doctor’s study," Hange inspected the dusty shelves, "There isn’t a single thing here that would rouse my suspicion, as I’m sure your father intended.”

“Right”, Levi studied the labels of two unsuspicious bottles, “If you wanna hide something from the interior police, you wanna be sure not to give them any leads.”

“Something has to be here,” Erwin clenched his fists, “I know it. Everybody, get to work!”

In the end it was Mikasa who discovered a keyhole at the side of the work desk. Eren’s key fit it perfectly.

“It’s empty?!” the boy panicked the moment they opened the drawer.

“Look closer. There’s a false bottom.” Levi rolled his eyes, while loosening up the thin layer of wood to reveal three books beneath.

“Let me see.” Erwin was actually tapping his foot and immediately grasped one of the books the moment they were revealed.

With trembling hands he started to browse through it.

A smile creeped upon his face and grew larger with every second, while his eyes got that sparkle, Levi hadn’t seen in a while.

To be more exact the last time Levi had seen this expression was back when they first heard from Connie, that the titans whom they had slaughtered for years like carrion were most likely humans.

A treacherous little voice in the captains head dared to ask, if it had been the right decision to bring his commander back to the living, that Erwins priorities might be slightly twisted, but Levi supressed it right away.

“What does it say?”, Eren grew visibly impatient and was reaching towards one of the books himself, but Hange signaled him with one hand to wait. Earning themselves a glare from the boy.

Levi moved behind Hange, which led Eren to reluctantly retrieve his hand.

“It’s a diary from Grisha Yeager. About his life outside the walls," Erwin gave off a quiet incredulous laugh, "Among fellow humans,” even though a wide grin spread over his face, tears glittered in his eyes, “My father had been right all along.”

“This is all so messed up.” A crouched Connie hugged his legs, while looking towards the horizon.

The sun was slowly setting, sending streaks of red and orange over the sky.

Jean spotted a flock of birds rising from the woods.

A balmy breeze wafted through their hairs and his nose caught the scent of flowers and blood.

Yes, messed up indeed.

He glanced towards Connie, a picture of misery.

Ironically his first instinct was to muse about how “soldier” Reiner would’ve cheered them up.

Probably because the guy was “resting” just a couple steps away from them, though Jean had successfully avoided looking in Reiners direction since their watch had started.

In the end the scout simply settled on a slightly awkward pat on Connies shoulder, “We’re still alive. That has to count for something, right? No matter what happened, we have to move forward as best as we can.”

And not just them. Now he couldn’t help but actually peek towards his former comrade, only to spot some unexpected movement in the corner of his eye.

“Floch?” he frowned, “What are you doing?”

“Wait! What are you doing with that blade?!” Connie, alerted by Jean, jumped up from his sitting position.

Floch’s face was distorted in hatred, while placing one boot on Reiners bare stomach to prepare for his Coup de grace, “Saving humanity. The dead demand compensation! We only need Erwin, no other demon spawn!”

The sudden additional weight made Reiner audibly suck in his breath, or at least as best as he could with the gag in his mouth. So apparently the guy had woken up on schedule for his premature execution.

“Can’t you wait with that until Erwin and the others return?”

Floch just shook his head, his hand trembling while holding the blade, “I cannot,” then he bellowed, “You guys care too much about this monster! I can’t risk this bastard surviving on another vote or some shit! The time to act is now!”

And with that he swung his blade down.

“Reiner!”, Connies scream was basically confirming Flochs claim that they cared way too much about a certain blonde fool.

“Fuck! Reiner!” Jean joined in nevertheless trying to bridge the distance with one last desperate jump, clashing into Floch pretty much at the same time the guy’s blade touched Reiners neck.

It was a bloody mess.

Not at all comparable to the smoothness with which the captain had attacked Reiner earlier.

Probably because the blade didn’t remain in the neck, to stop the immediate bloodstream, but was still held by Floch.

Warm liquid splattered on both their faces, as Jean dragged the latter to the ground with him.

“Jean.” He heard Connie sprinting the small distance towards them.

A heavily breathing Floch below him glaring daggers at his fellow scout, Jean dared to take a look at Reiners still form.

The head was still partly attached… that was something, right?

To his own annoyance Jean felt actual concern rising when he could not immediately discern if the guy was still alive and kicking or not. Because of course they had no clue where the limitations in Reiners abilities laid.

“Get off me!”

After a moment of hesitation, Jean stood back up and allowed Floch to do the same. However, Jean positioned himself immediately between the other scout and Reiner.

“That wasn’t so difficult now, was it?” Apparently Floch was under the assumption he’d already won. With a confident grin he shook the blood off his blade before sheathing it again.

Jean dared to throw a glance back at Reiner.

By now Connie was kneeling next to their captive.

Considering Reiners lack of wrists and the bloody throat Connie instead opted to rip off the gag to check for breath while whispering, loud enough for Jean and unfortunately Floch as well, to hear, “Reiner, please if you’re still in there, talk to me.”

There was no reaction.

“You’re wasting your time. The demon is gone.” Floch laughed, though he tilted his head nonetheless to peak over Jean’s shoulder, “He has to be, right? With a wound like that to the neck. Captain Levi had just missed him barely last time, right?”

He found his answer in the form of fume slowly rising from the wound.

Jean let out a huge breath he hadn’t notice he had held in up until this point.

With shaky laughter he assessed, “Man you really are a fucking cockroach, aren’t you, Reiner?”

Flochs eyes went wide while he witnessed the wound slowly starting to close itself bit by bit, accompanied by more fume, “You can’t be serious.”

“Right,” Jean rubbed his own fortunately still attached neck, “you weren’t with us when we fought him in town. We literally blew his head off and the bastard still regenerated and continued to be a pain in the ass. “

“Whose head did you blow off? What are you talking about, Jean?”

Jean froze in his movement at the sound of the hoarse voice.

“Fuck, I can’t feel my legs. Or my arms, come to think of it. Why is it so dark? Did we win?”

Connie blanched, merely whispering, “Oh no, please not now.”

With visible anguish Reiner turned his head in Connies direction, “Don’t worry”, he coughed up blood, “about me… too much, Connie. I’m tough. It’s probably just from shock. Give me a couple minutes”, he had to take a break, before finishing his sentence with a confident, bloody laugh, “and I’ll be good as new,”

Apparently, the guy did not realize that he was currently not much more than a torso with an almost attached head, while his cut throat slowly continued to reassemble itself.

The blindfold didn’t help much in this situation either and just added to the absurdity of it all.

From a normal person’s perspective, it would’ve probably been quite terrifying to wake up in darkness and not be able to feel any of your limbs.

Instead, Reiner solely focused on the fact that he didn’t want them to worry too much.

His next words came brittle, probably because of the slowly healing throat, which really didn’t profit from its owner continuing to talk, “I… I heard you two screaming my name… You and Jean.” His face contorted with pain, “You really think I’d kick the bucket… that easily? Leave you all alone to fend for yourselves?” Reiner slowly shook his head, “While I do intend to die fighting, today is not the day.” Floch was glaring daggers from his position behind Jean, while oblivious Reiner simply gave his best ensuring grin, teeth and lips smeared with his own blood, “There is still some breath left in this proud soldier.”

A tear-stained Connie sent a worried glance towards Jean, unsure how to react.

The other simply took a deep breath and closed his eyes while mumbling a silent little, “Shit.”

Chapter Text

„What the hell? What happened to you two?” Eren was the first to appear on the scene closely followed by Mikasa.

Floch and Jean both swung around towards him the moment he arrived, as if caught in the act.

Their uniforms and faces were stained with fresh blood. Probably not their own considering a lack of wounds, aside from those they already had beforehand such as Jeans broken arm. Sasha was still sleeping, happily mumbling something about scalloped potatoes. Connie on the other hand kneeled next to Reiner, one hand on his shoulder, as if he was trying to calm the guy down.

The fuck?!

The whirring sound of another ODM-gear announced the arrival of their recovered commander, “Well, this is certainly unexpected,” Erwin rubbed his chin while seemingly taking in the view, “So did he actually try to make a move even in this sorry state?”

Jean dusted off his clothing with his healthy arm, before he answered with a strained voice, while throwing a glare at Floch, “Kinda the opposite actually.”

“Please don’t be too harsh on them, commander,” a much too chipper sounding Reiner decided to throw in his unasked-for opinion, back in his big-brother act as if anyone had missed him turning into a huge ass armored titan, “We’re in a rough spot. It’s only natural to lose your cool from time to time. I might not remember much but I’m sure they gave it their all.”

Part of Eren actually expected someone to hold him back, but since no one did he effortlessly passed the distance between himself and Reiner.  Only to then launch a satisfying blow straight into the guy’s face, carrying with it all the hatred, frustration and desperation he had gathered today.

“How dare you act like you’re still one of us! Not after the shit you pulled!”

Jean flinched at the sound of Erens fist letting out his frustrations on their enemy. The disgustingly crunchy sound let him suspect that he broke a nose, if not more.

Part of Jean really wanted to join his fellow scout, while another just wanted to stop the angry shifter.

In the end he simply froze uselessly on the spot and watched.

Today had been too much. He needed a fucking break from all this madness.

Considering the fact Reiner just took the hits without complaints Eren had probably shaken the guy out of whatever twisted state of mind their enemy had been in before that, or Reiner was simply to confused to react.

Sure, Eren had mentioned Reiner losing it during the abduction, but this was the first time Jean actually witnessed it in this severity himself.

“That’s enough.”

Jean hadn’t even noticed captain Levi getting past him to effortlessly catch Eren’s sweeping fist in midair.

Erwin sighed quietly, “While we all know about the shifters healing powers, I would prefer we’d not find out his limits today. He already turned into the armored titan multiple times and from the looks of it nearly got beheaded thrice after all. I would like to have at least one last chance to talk to him.”

Levis narrowed eyes hinted towards Erwin’s captain not being the biggest fan of the plan, but he remained silent. Maybe they had discussed this topic already before their arrival.

“A shame though,” Hange kneeled down next to their captive to check on him, nudging his face with one finger, “Judging by the fresh blood on his neck it seems like you guys were really going for it. Say what you want about him, but his body is pretty damn impressive when it comes to not dying. Think we could try out this kind of regeneration on you as well?”

“I’d rather not,” arms crossed in front of his chest Eren was visibly pissed that they had dared to drag him away from his living punching bag.

“So did you find another serum?”, Floch seemed to be in a sour mood as well.

Erwin shook his head, “We did not. But,” he interrupted whatever Floch wanted to reply to that, “we did however discover new information about humanity living outside these walls and I highly suspect him to be our currently only living witness and prove, that we are not alone in this world.”

Even Jean noticed the strange sparkle in the commanders’ eyes focused on Reiner and a shiver ran down his spine.

“But let’s not talk about all that heavy stuff on an empty stomach!” Hange intervened, “Sit down you guys and make yourselves comfortable. I’ll make you a fine, warm soup! Ah and we might want to move Reiner out of earshot to discuss our findings afterwards. No reason to tell the guy what we know, if he himself is not willing to talk.”

The sun departed to a silver sliver of waxing crescent. It was a cloudless night, giving way to a starlit sky.

Enough illumination to notice any enemy approaching from the grassy planes where Levi had last seen the Beast and quadruped flee.

The only other light source on top of the wall was their comfy little fire Hange used to make a nutritious potato soup on.

Of course, the promise of food had awoken even Sasha, who was now eagerly observing every stir of Hanges spoon.

Levi was currently taking first shift, having dragged Reiner with him to give them some privacy.

Sasha glanced in their captain’s direction, worry on her face, “Are we going to give Reiner some of the soup as well? He does have to eat, even as a shifter, doesn’t he?”

“Not if he’s dead,” Floch admonished her, the fire throwing swirling shadows upon his face, “Then it’s just a waste of precious resources.”

For a moment sadness seemed to shadow Sashas eyes, but then she just turned all her attention back on the spoon without further comment and her face brightened up a bit.

“So, can we finally talk about what we found? Those are my fathers’ diaries after all. I have a right to know what he left me!” Just like everyone else Eren had wrapped himself up in his comfy bedroll and shifted closer to the warm glow of the fire, eager flames reflecting in his eyes.

Hitting Reiner seemed to have helped to get Eren out of this strange hollowness he carried around with him like a second skin since Armin’s death. Of course it was not totally gone, it probably never would, but for now he seemed to focus on his anger and the things he could do to not break apart entirely.

At least that was what Connie would’ve done in his situation. That was how he himself kept fighting titans, even though the memory of his mum just lying in their crushed house and staring at him with huge accusatory amber eyes haunted him every night.

Erwin nodded, “You all do. You all fought bravely today and you all deserve to know what we were able to uncover because of it.”

Hange threw in some additional spices, “So how do you want to do this?”

Erwin opened the green diary with a peaceful smile on his face, which was creepy in its own right, because Connie couldn’t remember when he had last seen the man smile like that, “How about a little bedtime reading?”

Then the smile vanished and made way to a much more sinister look, “Be warned though that everything you are about to learn will be considered classified. Talking to outsiders without permission will result in punishment. Never forget our allies sacrifice which helped us get to this point.”

Together with the other younger scouts Connie swallowed hard, but nodded.

They had to know. There was no way around it.

Erwin cleared his throat, almost suspiciously eager to share their findings to the group, now for the first time looking more like an enthusiastic teacher than the iron commander of the scouts. There were actual tears sparkling in his eyes as he revealed the truth, he’d so long been searching for, in a determined voice, “Mankind isn’t gone, beyond the wall countless humans live in comfortable refinement…”

The occasional aromatic smell of soup wafting towards his nose made his stomach growl and complain that, aside from his hot cup of coffee this morning, he didn’t have anything to eat for basically a whole day of constantly almost dying.

For whatever stupid reason Reiner felt ashamed and blushed slightly, even though Levi did not comment on it. Most likely because the soldier did not give a damn.

Reiner also felt unusually cold and couldn’t stifle the occasional shiver. Probably a combination of being bare-chested, a cut up limbless body, repetitive blood loss, overstrain of his powers and the natural forces such as freshened wind and the nightly drop of temperature.

In their titan training they hadn’t focused on how much their bodies could actually endure as opposed to a normal human body, because usually the advice would be to end it before one was too weak to elude the enemy and potential torture.

So much about dying with dignity and pride.

Which rose another good question: Why wasn’t he dead yet?

Yes, he did understand the logical reasons from Erwins point of view. The armored titan was a decent weapon worth gambling a couple of lives for until you found someone who could effectively use it.  But that wasn’t the real issue here.

Currently it was in Marleys best interest for Reiner to die, because this weapon was not supposed to end up in enemies’ hands, especially not in the hands of someone as dangerous as Erwin Smith.

Yes, doing it himself cost a lot of guts Reiner apparently didn’t have, but Floch’s attack would’ve theoretically been the perfect opportunity to just leave it to someone else and maybe even encourage some infighting amongst the enemy about disobeying orders.

All Reiner had to do was let go and it would have been over.

Maybe he even would have, but then he heard Connie and Jean screaming his name.

The two fools apparently worrying about the asshole who nearly killed them today.

He was such a coward!

Nearly immediately afterwards Reiner transferred his consciousness into his body saving himself in the process, just in time when Floch’s blade hit home. To be forced to do this multiple times in one day… Using this kind of emergency tactic repeatedly was bound to have some consequences.

Fortunately, all he currently felt was a small migraine and he probably wouldn’t live long enough to notice any long-lasting aftereffects.

“Seems like everyone is up to date now. About time,” Levis voice was cold as ice, “You’re in the right mind to talk to Erwin?”

Right mind? What was he on about?

Oh… Had he switched to the soldier again? Strange… he couldn’t even remember…

He had to stop this mess as soon as possible.

Once again, he was dragged over the stony ground, not entirely sure if he could heal the fresh scratches on his skin right away. This shifter body was definitely reaching its limits.

It was a scrap of comfort when he felt the warmth of the fire before he even noticed voices quietly mumbling at his arrival.

To sit somewhat upright he was propped against a pile of bags.

“He’s all yours, commander.”

Judging by the clanking sound of dishes Levi was getting himself some of that soup and then sat down somewhere close to the next speaker, “Thank you, captain. Floch, you will take the next watch.”

“Me? But commander…”

“You defied orders from your superior,” Erwin did not seem to tolerate any backtalk, “Take the time to clear your head a little, soldier.”

“Sir, yes Sir!”

Reiner heard retreating steps and assumed Floch went where him and Levi had been not too long ago.

Afterwards tense silence hung in the air and even if he couldn’t see, he could feel multiple gazes resting on him.

It was only interrupted by the occasional clunk of Levis spoon and him slurping in the soup a little bit too loudly.

Honestly if Zeke had claimed this morning Reiner would be judged at a campfire, while his jury was comfortably eating soup he would have laughed and taken it as a really bad joke, but here they were.  Judging him. All his former friends from the 104^th. All, except for Armin and Marco, whom he got killed.

Of course it was Erwin who took the lead in their conversation: “Reiner Braun, I assume you are aware of the precarious position you’re currently in?”

Damn the smell of the soup was much worse right next to it. He’d heard Hange had tried themselves in torture but he had not expected it to be like this.

He clenched his teeth.

While his front could slowly start to warm up a little thanks to the fire, his back still felt cold, the bags having obviously been specifically dragged here at his arrival and thus not giving any residual warmth. He wished he could lean in a bit further, but unfortunately that was outside his current crippled capabilities.

There was no reason for talking. He was a dead man.

“While we do not know exactly how you did avoid our lethal blows to the neck before, Hange suspects that one has to make a conscious effort to do so, just like with hardening armor or growing claws to climb the wall or regenerate only specific parts of the body, as opposed to the instinctive healing Eren usually does. Are we right in that assumption?”

Of course he did not answer.

Just like the spinal fluid, fighting techniques like this were obvious military secrets of Marley. He had failed enough as a warrior as it was. There was no reason to extend the list of his failures any further by providing the enemy tips on how to make their titans more effective.

“No answer. I see. Then let me phrase this differently: Do you want to die?”

Reiner got even colder than he already was, when the commander asked him the exact question, he had asked himself not too long ago.  

Once more his stomach grumbled and he wished he could punch himself in the guts to make it stop, alas there was nothing he could do about it now. No arms and all that.

He hated how helpless he felt.

“Jean, would you be as kind as to remove his blindfold? I want to look the man in the eyes, who killed so many of my loyal soldiers.”

A couple seconds later Reiner felt warm fingers nestling with the piece of cloth in front of his eyes, before taking it away. The much too bright light of the fire made him squint, before he could focus upon Erwin, who was sitting behind it, directly opposite to his sworn enemy.

Around the blonde all too familiar faces.

Reiner felt overcome by a slight dizziness, while his heart started to beat a bit faster.

So, it was true that Zeke had wiped out almost the entire scout regiment, huh?

And unlike Bertolt and Reiner he actually got away with it. As was to be expected of their war chief.  

Still, the fact that his former friends, whom he personally had failed to kill, could now sit around this fire and watch his every move with wariness was probably one of the few times, where Reiner was momentarily relieved, he had failed.

“Care to answer my question, Reiner Braun? If you do not, I will let Hange have some fun one last time to winkle out as much information from your body as we can, before we feed you to the next random pure titan we encounter.”

Reiner froze when he heard the term. When did they learn about pure titans?  They had also known about the titans in the wall and thus discovered his secret hiding spot, even before visiting the mysterious cellar they had mentioned a couple of times during his capture. What the hell was going on?

Someone next to him was fidgeting around after Erwins threat and a quick glance to both sides revealed that Jean and Connie were actually sitting right next to him. Jean to his right, Connie to his left. When had that happened?

“So? I am waiting… It should not be that difficult to answer considering you still sitting here is already confirmation to a certain extent. If you were really a hardened warrior and Hanges theories are correct you would’ve let Floch finish you off. I doubt Marley likes it, when its weapons fall into the hands of us disgusting island devils.”

Ostensibly Reiners' poker face suffered from his own exhaustion, because Hange gave away a cheerless laugh, “Seems like three years of training and dreaming for freedom actually helped a bit against Marley brainwashing. I am almost one hundred percent sure; if they were willing to send child soldiers to do their dirty bidding, they would probably also teach them some kind of lethal emergency protocol, should they fall into the hands of the enemy and be unable to free themselves in time.”

It wasn’t even that he didn’t want to answer anymore, Reiner was actually at a loss for words. He’d only been gone to Marley a couple of months. How did the scouts discover pretty much everything their king tried to hide from them for hundred years in that short timeframe? Or was it all in that cellar and they bluffed half of it to get him to accidently reveal or confirm the truth? But then what about the wall titans? Wasn’t that one of the most well-kept secrets of their crazy church? Bertolt and him had been careful not to reveal anything about that, specifically targeting the gates. And they had gotten themselves a serum to turn their commander into a titan. This was all before the cellar. There should not be many people inside the walls to own stuff like this, since Paradis nowadays lacked the capabilities and technology to produce it.

Levi let his last remaining blade slide out of its sheath a bit, “Should I do a countdown for you, asshole? Quit wasting our time.”

“Just answer Erwins damn question, you stubborn fool,” Jean whispered under his breath, replacing the dread in Reiners chest with a somewhat warmer fuzzy feeling. Even if in reality the other scout still sounded pretty pissed at him and probably only wanted to get this awkward farce over with.

Seems like Erwin and his entourage were quite a sadistic bunch forcing a dead man to admit his crimes and reminding him that there was no way out, no matter his personal feelings. Part of him really did not want to entertain Erwin but as long as he did not betray any secrets of his country, why not be honest for one last time?

They all knew who he was now, so there was no real reason to pretend anymore…

“Your assumption that Floch could have killed me is correct”, too afraid of what he’d see in their faces he instead focused on the flames, “It would have been the preferable outcome, but I failed.”

“You think your allies might come to save you?”

Reiner sneered, “While Zeke is usually the type to plan far ahead, I doubt even he would have expected to lose the armored and the colossal to mere humans in one day. So, there shouldn’t be any more of his titan traps.”

“You mean the one where he surrounded us with pure titans appearing seemingly out of nowhere?”

Reiner gave off a harsh laugh, “Come on, commander, you’re smart enough to have figured that one out by now with what you know, “his chest tightened at the thought, “It’s difficult to gather that many humans at once outside the safety of the walls. Making them survive underground for days until the right moment even more so…”, he heard some terrified gasps in the crowd, but continued nonetheless, “If you search the battlefield, you will probably find remains of improvised air ducts and collapsed underground caves. Maybe even a couple of those who succeeded in doing what I couldn’t before their time came, even while pumped full with Marleys drugs.”

“You bastards! You mean… All these titans appearing this morning outside the walls… they were human up until the very moment we saw them?!” Eren was getting louder again, before collapsing into himself, mumbling much quieter, “We could’ve saved them if we had only noticed or known earlier.”

They really could not. Zekes spinal fluid was like a death sentence once it had been administered. It was a pretty common tactic for Marleyan warfare and a popular punishment for disobedient Eldians.

“We must’ve ridden right past them,” Connie assessed mournfully.

Yes, they did, as was intended.

One of the logs couldn’t hold its weight anymore and crushed down, producing additional sparks flying upwards into the night sky. No chance in hell Reiner would look up now.

Let them think he was a coldhearted bastard, that might raise the chances of someone losing his or her patience again and killing him, before he could turn into titan food.

“I really should have killed the damn bearded bastard when I had the chance.” Even captain Levi sounded bitter.

“So, in the end it was Zeke who was calling the shots today? The beast titan?”

This time Reiner actually noticed the small hint of triumph in Erwins voice.

Damn it all, he had said too much already, hadn’t he? But they had already known about the pure titans and what good would it do to put a name onto one of the titans faces, if you never left this godforsaken island?

Zeke was a name like any other. Noone would care if they found out the armored titan was called Reiner, when it was currently not busy getting their loved ones killed…

It’s nice to have a name for your foe, but that’s it.

Unless… they knew something he didn’t…

For a second there his sight got blurry and his headache got worse, but he did his best to not let it show while growling, “Just kill me already… and even if you can’t right now and apparently neither can I, talking to me is useless. I have no intention of betraying my country.”

“Ah, a true patriot, aren’t we? But will that really help you in the end? Everything that you thought had meaning. Every hope, dream or moment of happiness. None of it matters as you lie bleeding out on the battlefield.”

Could you still call it a battle if one party had already lost and couldn’t hurt a fly anymore?

“At least in that regard we are all the same. We all die. Even if some of us are a little bit more stubborn about it than others.”

What was their commander on about? Jean had really no clue.

Truth be told he was still too busy processing the overload on information they had just gotten. Did Reiner just accidently reveal that Erens half-brother, who apparently had royal blood flow through his veins, was the beast titan? He was not entirely sure what that information meant for them, but in the diary the owl-guy had been quite specific about trying to hide that secret, which was probably why Reiner had no clue about the value of that information either.

It was obvious the guy tried his best not to screw up any further, even when he was at his worst. One could almost feel sorry for him.

Was that cold sweat running down Reiner’s much paler than usual forehead or something else?

Shifters might be able to turn into terrifying monsters but in the end that did not change the fact that they were still human, Eren was living proof of that. Not having noticed anything abnormal for years.

Reiner might try to act all tough but sitting right next to him Jean noticed the occasional shudder going through his body and the lips being a little bit too much to the purple side. The scratches from where he was dragged over the wall had not healed yet and his face still showed signs from when Eren had decided to let out his frustrations. That and the quiet rumbling of Reiners stomach was starting to get on Jeans nerves.

Besides Levi they had all finished eating like half an hour ago. There was no reason to keep the rest of the stupid soup warm or the lid open for that matter!

Finally, Erwin broke the silence again, quieter this time, pointing at the little pile of diaries next to him, “You know just today I read that as a titan shifter apparently it is possible to inherit the memories of the person you ate and took their titan shifter powers from. What a cruel yet fascinating joke.”

Jean stopped throwing glances at Reiner and focused on Erwin instead. Their commander was really much more emotional and talkative than usual. Like a person who just had a big weight lifted from their shoulders only for it to be replaced by another even heavier one, with which they still had to learn how to struggle with.

“You were busy elsewhere, but today I told my soldiers to charge into certain death with me and they did,” finality and pride lingered in his voice, “To the last man. Their loyalty unbroken. They never yielded to the cruelty of this world and died entrusting what was left to the living. To us as it turns out.”

“What about the living who don’t want you dying for them? Those who would rather sacrifice the rest of the world than lose you?” It wasn’t Reiner, but Eren who asked, seemingly lost in thought on another battlefield. He barely acknowledged Mikasa putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Erwin threw a warning glance towards Levi, “Most of them will have no choice but to accept your decision. They may judge. They may call you a hero, or a villain, but in the end the only person who can decide on what value you put on it, is yourself. But once it comes down to give meaning to someone else’s live after they are gone one has to rely on the living, to not forget them.”

He sighed, “I may not be able to look into my fallen soldiers’ heads, but I know that Bertolt was exactly the kind of loyal soldier a commander like myself would hope for. His loyalty to you unbroken until his very demise,” Erwin’s fist tightened, “I say you specifically, because it definitely was not Marley. As the colossal titan he had a higher body count under him than I ever did but he still pressed forward.”

Levi next to him narrowed his brows, visibly not liking their soldiers to be compared to the enemy.

“From what I heard, I doubt a man like Zeke will remember him for long. Neither will the people who send you on this suicide mission. Don’t let his memory, your last loyal soldier, be forgotten with your death. You say you don’t want to die, then prove to me that you’re worth to me more alive,” Erwin smirked, “From one fellow Eldian to another.”

Considering their commander had learned the term only a couple of hours ago Jean was honestly impressed how effortlessly the man made it seem like this was information he’d known for a while now.

It certainly threw Reiner off his game that he wasn’t this mysterious unknown force anymore but part of a people that could turn into titans and was thus discriminated all over the world.

Jean himself was not sure how to feel about this newly obtained knowledge.

Even after listening to the journal entries part of him refused to believe, it just sounded so batshit crazy and went against every belief he grew up with.

But Reiners reactions hinted strongly towards it being true.

It was probably the first time their captive stopped glaring at the fire and raised his head to look Erwin straight into the eyes, his own golden ones glowing feverishly, “And how, pray tell, am I supposed to do that without turning traitor to my own country?”

“Is it really your country though or is it the people you left behind?”, Hange interjected.

Reiner simply glared and Erwin sighed, “Ok let’s start easy, shall we? I don’t need any military secrets from you. For one thing they would probably be outdated” he flashed Reiner a cold smile, “moreover you don’t look like you carry any higher rank outside the titan unit you were given control of which was basically disassembled by us.”

Reiner clenched his teeth and his breathing got a bit faster, meanwhile Erwin exuded calmness and focus, “I made it my mission in this life to atone to my father by showing the world he was right,” he tightened his fist, “We are not alone. For hundred years our king told us lies and eliminated anyone who had a critical mind.”

He took a deep breath before focusing not just on Reiner but each and every one of them around the fire, “My father saw hope in the fact that we are not the only humans out there and so I will try to do the same. I want us to become a part of this outside world, but one of equal standing, so that we don’t have to live in fear behind any kind of walls ever again.”

Once more Reiners gaze was focused on the flames.

“These books,” Erwin patted the top of the pile, “are the perspective of one person. A man who declared himself a patriot, which means while understandably enraged, he is not exactly neutral. When you destroyed the gates, he had already lived here,” he side-glanced Eren, “for approximately thirteen years. A lot can change in thirteen years’ time,” He scraped one hand through his blond hair, “Now that we know there’s an entire country out there that wants to do us harm, we will have to make a decision on how to press forward, sooner rather than later.”

To Jeans surprise, despite there being obvious doubts about Erwins current approach, there was determination not only in their commanders but most of his fellow scouts’ eyes: Eren, Mikasa, Hange, Levi.

Jean didn’t really feel all that determined, more like a confused mess.

At least Connie seemed to share that feeling as they exchanged quick glances. Sasha had apparently decided to use all this tension in the air to get herself a second supper, professionally avoiding any eye contact, while doing so.

Erwin admitted, “I do not intend to base this decision entirely on dusty books of one man with obviously more radical world views, when there is other, living, sources available. As someone who was willing to sacrifice his life, his friends and his sanity to Marley I am sure your worldview will probably differ greatly from Grisha Yaeger and after seeing both sides of the coin I should have a clearer picture of the path we shall take.”

“This is insane. I killed your people,” Reiner’s voice sounded weaker than before.

“So did I. Loyal men and pure titans alike. “

“But once you know what you want to know you will still kill me, won’t you?”

Erwin nodded, “There is a high probability, yes. But look at it this way: Since you are unable to do the deed itself every minute you are the one keeping the armored titan is a win for your country. Because that means we will not be able to turn someone else and start training them. The longer you stay alive the higher the probability that Zeke will return trying to retrieve you. Besides I doubt anyone present would like your powers to be inherited by some random innocent eldian newborn, who could then potentially kill their parents and everyone in their close vicinity by accidently turning into the armored titan. It’s a win-win for all parties involved.”

Jean wasn’t so sure about that and the way Reiner bit his lips suggested that the titan shifter had his doubts, too.

“It’s a gamble. You can’t even know for sure if what I’m telling you is true or not,” Reiners voice was barely a whisper, as if he had problems getting the words out.

“Like I said I do already have other sources for reference, not just these books and there are enough titans around to switch my sources whenever I want to. Hange…”

“Yes commander?”

“While we’re returning keep a look out for one of the smaller ones. I think it would actually benefit us to have some quick emergency plan,” The obvious threat hung uncommented in the air, “Yes, Connie?”

The other scout had hesitantly lifted his arm, “If we need another titan, couldn’t we just feed him to my mum?”

Jean’s throat felt constricted at the sight of his fellow scout. Connie was obviously not very hopeful about the likelihood of his wish being granted, but he had to try nonetheless.

As expected, the commander quashed the objection, “Moving your mother into a more convenient location would be rather tedious. I’d prefer a titan who is easier to manage. Besides it’s still only a precaution. In the end we should aim for a pure titan who has a higher probability to be originally from Marley. They are bound to have a grudge and potentially useful intel. If he doesn’t act up and forces our hand the best option is probably to keep Reiner alive until we ride to the drop off point and turn one of the titans there. They should be the newest additions who never even got past the wall, with the newest intel about what happened in Marley. Alternatively, we might be able to acquire additional serum and use it on one of our own trained soldiers. Apparently, Zeke had that stuff in abundance for his strategy this morning to work.”

“Sure. Sorry for… asking, commander,” Connie quietly withdrew from the conversation and instead rubbed his arms, as if getting some warmth back into them. Jean wanted to lean over to signal his friend he was there for him, but unfortunately Reiner was in the way.

Wait, was Reiner nodding off in the middle of the conversation, while everyone else was focused on Connie?

Erwin turned back to their captive, “So, what do you say, Braun, do you accept my –”

“Damn it.” Jean should’ve seen it coming.

Erwins words didn’t reach their intended target, because said target had closed his eyes, the head sagged down as if someone had cut a string. The face much paler than usual and heavy sweat pearled down not only Reiners face but what was left of his body.

The next time he awoke he was actually feeling much warmer than before, wrapped up in blankets, close to the fire? He was positioned so that he looked right up into the stars. So, he couldn’t have been out cold for too long, could he?

There was no new blindfold or gag. That was a plus he supposed, but it confused him nonetheless.

Not too far away from himself he could hear silent snoring, apparently the scouts had decided to call it a day.

“You finished with your beauty sleep, big guy?” Jean’s voice was much less tense than the last time he heard it.

To notice him waking up this fast the scout must’ve observed him closely.

“I guess… What happened?”

“A certain someone decided to disrespect the commander and fell asleep in the middle of his speech.” Jean tried himself at a lighthearted laugh, but it sounded forced, “No worry he took your last nod as an approval of his plan not to kill you for now.”

“My answer would not have changed anything either way. I am completely at your mercy.”

He turned his head towards Jean and almost immediately regretted it with the scouts face being contorted by anger, “I take it not everyone agrees to this decision?”

Jean sighed, looked upwards to the sky and rubbed his neck, “Don’t get me wrong. I still fucking envy Eren to get those hits in, but if I’d hit your stupid face right now, I’m not sure you’d survive it. So, I will refrain from doing so. Because I am,” he hesitated and licked his lips, “actually kind of glad we didn’t have to kill anyone else today. Most information Erwin revealed to you, it was news for us, too,” he shook his head in disbelief, “Still got to get my head around the fact that you’re apparently part of a whole ass nation that wants us dead simply because of some genetic bullshit.”

Expecting the conversation to be over, because what else was there to talk about, Reiner decided to look back up into the stars, until a familiar smell wafted into his nose and he felt additional warmth not too far away from his face.

He raised an eyebrow at Jeans next words, “You hungry? There was still some leftover soup and we don’t want to waste any precious resources.”

Of course, his goddamn stomach had to growl again taking away the stubborn “No.” on his tongue.

Turning into a titan and fighting hours on end did use up a lot of energy.

Luckily his crippled self still had a convenient excuse, “I wouldn’t have any way to eat it.”

Although it was simply a logical conclusion it still got on Jeans nerves.

Because, even if the guy was their enemy, they should’ve paid a little bit more attention to his health.

They were no monsters, damn it!

Avoiding the elephant in the room he decided to ramble first, “Erwin gave his ok for you to at least grow your legs back, because otherwise getting you from point A to point B would be an unnecessary hassle. We still do not really have a way to counter your titan powers so the arms will have to stay gone for now. Alternatively, we could do the whole prevent-him-from-hurting-himself-package but that would also be fucking awkward.”

“Still doesn’t solve the food issue, though,” there was no humor in Reiners voice, just fatigue.

“I know! Damn it!” Jean admitted loud enough, that he quickly glanced around himself afterwards to make sure he didn’t accidently wake anyone up.

Since no one else wanted to get involved with making sure, that the enemy shifter wouldn’t kick the bucket in the night, Jean had volunteered himself to have an eye on his former friend.

Unfortunately, thanks to Reiner, he himself had currently also only one arm available.

On the bright side they had at least left them the pile of bags as a potential backrest.

“Ok, let’s get this over with. Is it ok if I lift you up to a more comfortable eating position?”

Reiner just shrugged. Of course, the bastard was no help whatsoever once again!

It was slightly awkward to drag the man in an upwards position with just one arm available.

It did not get less awkward when he positioned himself next to Reiner and dipped the first spoon into the soup.

It was humiliating.

For a second Reiner considered pretending to faint, just to get himself out of this situation, but what good would that do?

It was obvious Jean didn’t feel comfortable either, so the titan shifter forced himself to put up a brave front and accepted the first spoon of soup.

The moment he felt the warm liquid and pieces of potato touch his tongue vivid memories of Bertolt being crushed in the commander’s titan mouth forced themselves into his mind.

“Crap! Watch it!” Jean instinctively jumped away, dropped the spoon and started to wipe spit out soup off of his bandages.

Guiltily Reiner averted his gaze, “I think I should go to sleep. Don’t worry I will be able to grow these legs back till tomorrow. No need to eat.”

This was wrong. Jean stood upright looking down to whatever was left of whom he once knew as Reiner Braun.

His own clothes, now soaked in soup, quickly forgotten.

As a scout Reiner had always been a tower of strength, as an enemy a force to be reckoned with. He would have deserved to die on the battlefield.

As a soldier or a warrior, who cared, just not… like this.

And once more Jean found himself indecisive.

Part of him still wanted to punch Reiner, because the guy fucking deserved it.

Jean glanced around to make sure no one else was awake and the night watch out of sight.

Then he knelt down to Reiner’s left side to put one hand on his former comrade’s shoulder.

It hurt to see that the other actually flinched at the unexpected touch, “For what it’s worth I am sorry you had to watch Bertolt die like this. You kind of forced our hands, but still… I do understand how seeing your friends get eaten by a titan can destroy your appetite,” Jean stopped himself in his tracks as he noticed Reiner looking even more downtrodden than before.

How was one supposed to cheer someone up who was basically responsible for hundreds of people having to witness similar scenes? Simple answer: He couldn’t, not when the wounds were this fresh, literally only a couple of hours old.

“Sorry, man. From what I’ve heard and seen today you’ve probably also had it rough, but I can’t just forgive and forget.”

“I do not expect you to.”

Jean sighed and tightened his grip slightly, while gazing up to the stars, “But that counts for the bad and the good. I can’t just forget our years together in the 104^th either and,” he dared to smirk at Reiner, “I think you’d be lying if you’d say you did.”

“Doesn’t really matter anymore now, does it?”

Jean pushed Reiner a bit to the side. Then he grabbed his own sleeping bag from the ground, slipped in and leaned back against the bag pile right next to the moping blond, before stubbornly positioning his right hand back on his former comrade’s shoulder.

The scout couldn’t bring himself to do more.

There was just too much bad blood between them, but at the same time Jean also wanted to give Reiner at least a little sign that, despite their current situation being undoubtedly really fucked-up, he wouldn’t be entirely alone.

It was the humane thing to do, because somehow Jean suspected things would only get worse once they got back to Trost.

Fake or not Reiner had been like a big brother to all of them for years and would have done the same back when times were simpler. Or maybe even now should he decide to switch personalities again... damn him...

Besides it was kinda obvious that if Jean didn't do it there wasn't anyone else left who would look out for this pitiful stubborn asshole.

“You going to do that the whole night?”

“Only until you tell me that you’re ready to eat the rest of your freaking soup.”

Chapter Text

It was his time for guard duty.

While the older generation huddled together a bit further down the wall whispering to themselves, most of the younger scouts gathered around the glowing embers of the fire hoping for a snatch of sleep. Probably no easy endeavor considering their circumstances.

Apparently, Jean went against the flow and approached Reiner instead. A bowl of Hanges left-over soup in hand.

Deliberately Connie decided to take a little stroll further down the wall to give them some space.

Not necessarily because he thought Jean needed it, it was mostly for himself. Because he considered himself a self-centered bastard like that. Still a naïve kid trying to get his mom back. Pretty much his only relative who was left alive.

If one could call being turned into a pureblood titan alive, that is…

Connie sighed and sat down on the edge of the wall, one leg pulled towards his chest with his chin resting on the knee, while the other dangled down.

His gaze wandered over the gentle green hills, towards the dark wooded mountains. As long as he only looked into the distance and ignored the much closer crushed buildings and outlines of corpses of horses and men soaking the ground with their blood it was actually a somewhat pretty sight. The trees swaying slightly under a night blue firmament sprinkled with millions of shining stars and a lonely, barely visible crescent.

His mother probably had a similar view of the sky right now. A silent involuntary guardian of their former devastated home forever destined to stare upwards with huge amber eyes.

Could she actually enjoy this simple moment of peace like him?

Ymir had hinted towards the experience of being a pure titan to not be a pleasant one, but at least his mum was incapable of suffering through the horror of hunting and eating other people.

That was something, right?

And here he was after having suggested just that. For her to eat a guy to save herself.

To be there for him again.

Would telling her that Reiner deserved it make her feel any better and less guilty about it?

Considering his mum was no monster but a human being and no fan of cannibalism probably not that much…

Besides, Erwin was right, his mum was no soldier in the literal sense. There were others out there who could use the titan powers much more efficiently than her. For the next thirteen years…

Fuck!

Connie wiped away his tears with his knuckles.

And then there was the slightly disturbing fact that, right after having suggested to save his mum he had felt guilty about it. Not just because of Erwins reprimand but also because Reiner had been sitting literally right next to him. That Reiner had feinted not long after hadn’t really helped suffocating that guilt either. And then he felt guilty about having felt guilt.

It was stupid really, but since then Connie had actively tried to avoid getting into the closer vicinity of their captive.

How was one supposed to act next to a guy whom you had suggested not once, but twice in one day to be eaten alive by a titan?

Aside of getting lost in his depressing thoughts there was not much to do for guard duty.

Not having anything serious to do was a good thing, but Connie would’ve loved a little diversion, anything really, because the thoughts keeping him company were no welcome ones.

He glanced over to Erwin, Hange and Levi wondering what the future of the scouts would look like after being nearly wiped out in one single day.

“Why not use the same route we came from with the cover of the night? We could use Eren to get there and once we are behind the treeline the trees should give us ample advantage should we encounter resistance.” Levi glanced towards the woods almost longingly. He had the growing suspicion they would’ve given him much less of a headache then whatever Erwin was brewing in that head of his.

“Two reasons: First, I don’t know what Zeke is planning but he must’ve noticed that we arrived through the woods at night and by now him and the quadruped most likely have finished regenerating.

All we currently know about the beast titan is the fact that he’s a good climber, a great shot, can control other titans, including ones capable of attacking in the night, that he can turn alleged cover into smithereens in seconds with his throws and that he loves to lay out preemptive traps along the route he suspects his enemy might go. We basically gave him half a day to plan and prepare.”

Hange nodded in agreement before adding, “Secondly, the quadruped also seems to be an effective scouting unit at his disposal and it could be observing us. Ready to inform him the moment we step on those empty fields between here and the mountains. For all we know the beast titan himself could hide in human form between any cluster of trees along the way and attack us once we’re too far out in the open to find any valuable cover.”

“What if the furball simply ran away with his tail between his legs as the coward he is?”

Hange rubbed their chin, “Do you remember that time Ymir decided to go with Reiner and Bertolt?” They held up a piece of paper with two fingers, “In this letter Reiner gave us for Historia Ymir basically confirmed that her being there helped them to stay alive, probably because otherwise Marley would have switched their titan warriors the same way we acquired the colossal. All his treachery aside I don’t think Reiner would fake this letter and actively try to make us pity them. He seems well aware of the bad blood between us and convinced we’re going to off him the moment we find an actual worthwhile chance to replace the armored titan no matter what he does.”

Levis eyebrow rose as if to say We are going to do just that, aren’t we? but he remained silent.

Erwin nodded, “As far as we know Zeke has nothing to show for himself, not even a scapegoat for the failed mission or the information what happened to three of their titan warriors. Judging by Reiners reactions their intel on our operations is seriously lacking. Bertolt did not know what happened to Annie. Reiner did not know we knew about the titans inside the walls. Additionally, our traitor seemed really surprised about me using the terms Pure Titan and Eldian. Thus, it is also relatively safe to assume, they are unaware that we had a serum to turn me into a titan to inherit the colossal. They also seem to deliberately avoid using any sort of advanced modern technology in their fight against us, treating us like uncivilized cavemen.” Erwin lowered his brows, “Information about the enemy is a vital part of war. Zeke should be aware of that value as well. I doubt he wants to come back home empty handed if he intends to continue to push his agenda, whatever that may be.”

“So, to sum it up you suspect he might make one last attempt to get rid of us instead?”

“Or at least capture one of our guys for information. If they are watching us, they might’ve already noticed Reiner being our captive and Bertolt missing.”

Levi glanced over to Erwin, dripping sarcasm, “Or you growing back an arm, which is a totally normal human thing to do. Or the sudden appearance of a random titan outside the walls which was obviously not one of his since I slaughtered them all.”

“I’m not sure if he paid that much attention to our commander? Did he?” Hange seemed unsure, “I mean how far are the first good observation spots from our position, considering the beast titan trashed most of it in throwing range? From there we should look like ants to them, not a good basis for locating missing limbs. Or do they have tools to look this far into the distance?”, their voice became slightly hysterical, “I mean Yeager claimed in his diary that they built flying ships a decade ago, who is to tell what they can or cannot do now?!”

“Hange, calm down” Levi rolled his eyes, “we still won today. Whatever they had going for themselves it was not enough.”

Erwin rubbed his chin in thought, “Which is why I need you and Eren to be at your best for our trip home in the early morning. I wish I could train with the colossal beforehand but given its size that would be a dead giveaway of our trump card and I am still unable to assess the severity of its exhaustion-factor.”

Hange nervously glanced in the direction of their fallen comrades, “We will leave a couple hours before sunrise. Enough time for our people and especially titan to get some rest but also still enough darkness that normal titans will not awaken yet. Unfortunately, in the short timeframe available to us, we were only able to fetch two horses close to the walls after Zekes onslaught.”

Levi shook his head, while focusing on Erwin almost accusingly, “I still can’t believe that they actually survived that crazy charge of yours.”

Hange nodded, “We were lucky probably thanks to the fact that titans only have an appetite for humans and it’s not just the scouts who were trained to fight and survive outside the walls.”

“Still, two horses for ten people, of whom three are severely wounded or crippled… It is not the optimal foundation for a ride through titan territory, to put it mildly.”

Hange nibbed on their thumb in thought, “While we were eating soup I talked to our former locals and they were confident they knew a couple of spots Bertolt missed where we might be able to procure a wagon and all necessary equipment. Our horses are trained to adapt and while 20 kilometers per hour on average might not be ideal it is still much faster than by foot, especially with wounded soldiers. There are some slightly overgrown old roads from the time before the wall fell, we could use. With this we should still be able to get back to Trost the same day even with a little detour to avoid the beast titan and any potential allies of his.”

“Now if someone could go convince Eren to leave behind the bloody corpse, things would be just dandy.” Levi glanced back to the camp, “While I do understand him not wanting to abandon Armin, the brat should be old enough to realize carrying around literal dead weight is a liability. There is no use in risking your life for the dead who wanted you to survive. I don’t see anyone else doing it and Eren is not the only one who lost someone today.” At those words Hange looked away, suddenly immensely interested in their shoes, while Levi continued, “He’s got to realize this universe isn’t all about him, his friends and his childish antics.”

Hange sighed while rubbing her neck, “Speaking of dead weight, what do you intend to do to Reiner once we arrive at Trost, commander?”

Erwins brows narrowed, “If we go by our laws, he’d get a public execution for sure, which would be impractical to our current plans unless it involves other titans which we do not want inside the walls close to our citizens. They are probably still traumatized by the encounter with Annie. Historia may be our ally, but in the end the one really in charge is still the military under premier Zachary,” he sighed, “One would think preserving a weapon like the armored titan and the knowledge a captured enemy could bring to the table about our vastly unknown foe would be top priority to them, but once it comes to punishing his enemies their current head is a total wild card. If Zachary wanted to, he could easily rile up the public to throw all practicality in the wind and make it a disgusting spectacle to punish the one literally responsible for opening the gates. People love to find an easy scapegoat for their misery instead of trying to understand heavy politics.”

Levi tilted his head in thought, letting hatred and exhaustion take over for a bit to challenge Erwin and his newly found strange obsession with the survival of their prisoner, “Maybe we should just let them have him? After all Reiner Braun did indeed initiate mass murder on our people.”

“You might be right; if the military insists, we should give them some satisfaction.” Levis eyes widened in surprise. He had not expected Erwin to give in so soon. Not after his big speech not too long ago at the fire.

“If we actually want to try the diplomatic route this might not be the best course of action.” Hange’s face distorted in disgust, “especially if Zachary should decide to use that obnoxious chair again.”

“Traitor or not, I do not intend to have any of my former scouts ever sit on that piece of garbage,” grim determination reflected in Erwins icy blue eyes, “I had something else in mind should things not work out in our favor… such as a public hanging or beheading maybe to get everyone off our backs for a while?”

Levi was skeptical, realizing where Erwin was going with this, “Good luck convincing the titan brat to agree with that shitty plan, without him going completely nuts beforehand. I think there is a high chance he’d take a public execution as a welcome escape into the afterlife." He gave a long sigh, "If he goes along with your plan hanging might work if we get him down fast enough, but who knows if his abilities can even handle a complete decapitation, without an attached titan corpse? Besides we’d probably have to silence Floch as well for such an approach.”

Hange laughed awkwardly, “There is no reason to silence anyone! This is just a theoretical worst-case scenario which will probably never come to pass! I’d hate to try to deceive our own people after everything we fought for. Most likely everyone in Trost will show reason towards the saviors of Shiganshina and we can just proceed as planned with gathering information first and then feeding Reiner to one of the titans outside the walls when the time is right second, can’t we?”

“That is if we even make it till Trost in the first place.”

„Hey, Jean. Wake up, man! Preferable before Eren or Floch see you like this…” Connies voice was a panicked whisper in his left ear while he felt a hand nudging his arm.

“Hm?” Jean blinked drowsily, his head leaning against a comfortably warm and soft pillar.

Oh wait… this was most definitely not a pillar.

“Shit.” Jean was awake immediately and quickly switched back to an upright position. He silently cursed while scraping a hand through his brown hair, “Fucking exhaustion.”

Connie, who was kneeling right next to him sighed with a bitter smile on his lips “Relax. I was the one on watch and haven’t woken anyone else yet. Our superiors are further down the wall out of sight. Consequently no one should’ve seen you and I would never think it was anything else but an accident that you ended up nodding off… like this.”

On Reiners shoulder he meant…

Jean rubbed his temples with two fingers, “Sure spell out my crimes out loud, buddy. I must’ve nodded off because the bastard refused to eat his soup.”

“That soup?”

Connie pointed towards an overturned bowl and its contents spilled all over the stone. Probably a direct result of Reiner keeping his promise and growing those legs of his back. Of course, Jean had not anticipated this scenario, when placing the bowl right in front of their prisoner.

What a crappy way to wake up.

Jean sighed, “Now that’s really wasted resources.”

“What?”

“Forget it.”  

At least Reiners calm, rhythmic breathing hinted towards the guy still being dead asleep which was kind of impressive considering the situation they were in.

Carefully Jean slipped out of his bedroll. Halfheartedly he threw the thing as an improvised blanket over the now freshly regrown muscular limbs of the shifter.

He made a mental note, that they should probably ask the commander if they could get Reiner some new trousers before going back. Those ripped up scraps the guy was currently wearing were barely covering the necessities.

“It’s kind of crazy how fast he was able to grow those back, once we gave him our ok, huh?” Connie pointed out with a worried look on his face.

Since his comrades’ shift was only supposed to last two hours the guy was probably right. Eren had taken way longer back when Reiner & friends tried to kidnap him. But their allied shifter hadn’t been able to do an effective hardening at the beginning either and now here they were having blocked the whole gate with Erens crystalized titan remains.

Being no specialist on the topic, in the end all Jean could do was shrug, “I guess it’s training and maybe a mixture of which kind of titan you get? Since they do show strange abilities even in human form, like Annie with her cocoon or Reiner with his I’m-a-stubborn-bastard-who-survives-no-matter-what-you-throw-at-me-attitude it probably wouldn’t be farfetched to conclude that even there their abilities might differ depending on their role and experience?”

Connie grimaced, “Well, this also means it is even more important to watch him and make sure he doesn’t regenerate far enough to be able to shift again.” He cleared his throat, “If he’d stayed awake and noticed you getting sleepy, he could’ve used that chance to add arms to the mix, become a titan and kill us all.”

“Yeah, yeah. Got it,” Jean rubbed his neck while yawning, “Who needs sleep nowadays, am I right?”

It was still dark when he was woken up by an almost gentle kick to the side.

“Wake up, fucking titan brat.”

The captain seemed to be in a shitty mood. Reiner blinked the sleep out of his eyes only to notice that they were alone on top of the wall. No trace of the other scouts.

 “Where?”

“Not here.”

To further his confusion Levi pointed towards the ground where Reiner noticed a neatly folded pile of clothes and boots, “Based on your former ally’s estimation these should be around your size if you didn’t have an enormous growth spurt the last four months.” He glared down to Reiner, who was still sitting on the ground.

The warrior swallowed, “Where did you get these?”

Levi rolled his eyes, “Obviously some spares from someone who doesn’t need them anymore, courtesy of your ugly furry friend.” Then he sighed and added grudgingly, “To not draw too much attention during our trip and our arrival we would like you to act like a scout crippled from battle. Most people have never seen the faces of our traitors or at least don’t connect your looks to your name, so we should be able to avoid a spontaneous mass panic. Should be manageable, yes?”

Reiner absentmindedly glared towards his arm stumps, “That’s a lot of borderline crazy demands from a soon to be dead enemy, captain. Especially from a cripple.”

Levis eyes narrowed, “How fast can you actually grow them back?”

“Huh?” The question caught Reiner off guard, part of him sure he misheard something.

“Tsk! Did you lose some braincells during our last fight? Your arms. How long would it take you to grow one of them back? The others reported to me that all it took was Connies shift for you to gain a fresh pair of legs.”

Reiner glared back, “Trade secret.”

With an annoyed sigh Levi added, “You have about half an hour. If you can do it till then I will not have to ask one of us to change your clothes making you even more of a bother than you already are.”

Reiner felt himself blush at the thought, absurd as it was, before he gathered himself and faced Levi with a grim grin, while a drop of sweat ran down his temple, “You’re not just trying to find an excuse for your commander to cut me down right, captain?”

Levi kneeled down in front of Reiner, intruding the warrior’s personal space while leaning slightly forward, before adding smoothly, “I’ll only cut you down if you decide to use my mercy as an opportunity to turn into a titan,” his eyes narrowed further, “Even the knowledge that you can’t turn with cut off limbs comes from you, so I do not trust it. Eren may not be able to do it currently, but that does not necessarily mean you can’t either. Back on the wall you turned into titans after Mikasa cut off your arm so where exactly is the line here?” He prodded Reiners chest with one finger, “And what’s with this whole not dying part when we clearly severed your spine and pulverized most of your brains on different occasions? I wouldn’t be surprised if this little rest you had tonight is all you needed to summon the armored again once you see an opportunity. I meant it when I said I think you’re the more dangerous one to keep around alive. Bertolt would’ve been nothing more than a lost puppy.”

It had not escaped Reiners attention that Levi had switched his gear to a new fully functional one.

The scouts’ hands rested on the handle of his blades, prepared to act immediately if necessary. Meanwhile Reiner himself just sat on his ass, no arms, legs looking out of whatever was left of his former trousers which had mercilessly been cut away. They had turned into awkward looking brown shorts, partly soaked in his own blood too, thanks to the little Floch incident.

Honestly, the warrior wouldn’t mind a change of clothes to feel a bit more human again. Hunger aside, the sleep had done wonders and he was indeed relatively sure he could switch into titan form again if they let him regenerate a bit more.

Each titan had their own pace when it came to their abilities in human form. Pieck for example took much longer to regenerate her human body compared to the others but in exchange outlasted everyone when it came to staying in her titan form for days if necessary. He had no clue about Erens limits, especially with the guy owning two instead of one titan.

Concerning his armored titan which was basically focused on soaking in and taking damage of course Reiner himself had probably one of the most durable bodies, in and out of his titan shape and was one of the quickest to recover from damage. The whole transferring consciousness thing was just an added bonus to that, discovered by one of his predecessors by accident and then passed on to the next generations of armored titans via a mixture of memories and Marleyan records.

But would it be wise to risk trying to change into the armored titan?

Somehow the glare in Levis eyes who didn’t leave him out of his sight for the whole regeneration process promised certain death and Reiner had no doubt that the smaller man was just waiting for someone to give him a reason to let out his frustrations.

Had the other scouts been asked to leave for their own safety in case Reiner actually tried to pull something? It was almost absurd how much faith Erwin put in Levis capabilities but having been on the receiving end already Reiner would also never dare to underestimate the smaller man.

He took almost exactly half an hour before flexing the fingers of his new right hand.

It took the shifter multiple tries to get up on his shaky legs, before he awkwardly grabbed one piece of clothing at a time to change into the familiar scout uniform and boots. All the while trying to ignore the death glares from the sidelines. Jean had been right, being able to only use one hand was a pain in the ass but it was better than having to rely on others.

The outfit was a bit too tight but it would do much better than running around half naked.

No ODM-gear, but he had expected as much.

“Great job,” Levis praise sounded fake to the core, “Now stretch out that new arm of yours.”

Reiner hesitated and one of the captains’ hands immediately went to the handle of a blade.

They were alone on top of the wall. The shifter much wider and undoubtedly taller than the other man. Only one arm, but no shackles. How far could he push his own powers? Fast enough to avoid Levi’s blade, which had effortlessly driven Zeke and Pieck away on its own?

The blonde sighed and closed his eyes, before he obediently held his arm towards Levi its hand clenched into a tight fist, teeth basically grinding on each other already preparing him for the upcoming pain.

 “Tsk. Part of me was really hoping you’d try something.”

“I know.”

Mere seconds later his freshly grown arm clashed motionlessly to the ground while Levi sheathed his weapon. Reiner was almost proud for successfully suppressing a scream upon the abrupt rush of pain.

At least the captain had been nice enough to roll up the sleeve beforehand, so that the clothing itself was still fully functional. Though quite bloody with fresh red life juice dripping from the new stump.

Apparently, Reiner had not recovered completely because for a second there his view got a bit blurry and he almost fell down on his ass again, had the captain not spontaneously lunged forward to steady him with one hand.

“Really appreciate your cooperation here, Reiner!” Hanges cheerful voice from behind, accompanied by the whirring sound of their ODM-gear, sent a shiver down the shifter’s spine.

Had they used their gear to cling to the wall out of sight to listen in on the conversation?

“And thanks a bunch for confirming our suspicions that you can indeed regenerate much faster than our Eren currently can. Or has that something to do with the fact that you consciously prevented your body from regenerating and somehow stored its energy for later use? Make yourself appear as a cripple to have your surrounding underestimate you when it counts?” Apparently, they were mostly mumbling to themselves and didn’t expect a real answer from their captive.

While they actually made an effort to bandage the fresh wound Levi had just cut and Reiner clenched his teeth to not show his pain, he was not really sure what to do with himself.

Could it be he subconsciously held back on turning into a titan not only trying to convince them but himself as well that he was currently not capable to do so? He knew the moment he did turn; this shaky ceasefire would be over immediately.

He hated to admit it but he actually liked listening to his former friends talking and joking normally with each other in his close vicinity, without trying to blast him apart with their thunder spears for a change.

He’d missed that since Bertolt and him had revealed themselves and now there was no more Bertolt.

Just him.

Admittedly Reiner usually pretended to be unconscious or asleep but still… Listening to their voices calmed him down and made it so much easier to lie to himself and think that maybe one day things could return back to how they were.

A big lump formed in the back of his throat and fear washed over him like a bucket of ice-cold water as he realized that he had no plan on how to get out of this mess on his own.

Without Bertolt or Annie to drag him back to reality, constantly interacting only with the scouts, memories and thoughts started to resurface. Memories most definitely not helpful in his current situation.

He’d even go as far as call them dangerous, because he had an inkling that Erwin, especially with pieces of Bertolt’s memories, might actually try to use this to his advantage.

Which most definitely would not be in Reiners best interest.

From somewhere inside the walls someone shot a green signal flare.

“Now it’s just Reiner and Levi left on top of the wall.” Pieck passed her binoculars over to Zeke.

The owner of the beast titan shook his head in disbelief, “Would you look at that. They allowed him to pretty much regenerate completely aside from the arms. Ah! Cross that! He actually grew back one of those as well and gets a fresh change of clothes.” He squinted, “You think he betrayed Marley?”

“I don’t think so… I mean… he did fight them yesterday, didn’t he?” Pieck did not like the direction this conversation was taking.

“Did he though?” Zeke pursed his lips, “We can’t tell for sure, since it all happened behind walls. We heard his signal, yes, but then we were busy elsewhere and apparently their failure was spectacular.”

“He would’ve warned them about you if there would’ve been any betrayal involved. Besides, we did return in time to see him watching them pushing Bertolt down into a titan’s mouth. The Reiner I knew would never willingly let them kill Bertolt.”

“Cute little Reiner from the old days wouldn’t, but can we say the same for big boy Reiner now? If you live with the enemy for years without being discovered, pretending to care and cry for people whose blood you basically spilled yourself, you have to be at least a somewhat decent actor. Crocodile tears should come easy to him nowadays don’t you think? Or maybe he broke down after Bertolts death?”

“We saw that one guy who attacked him later that day.”

“You mean that one guy who failed to kill him, because two others intervened? Maybe they are having an internal dispute about how to handle their former enemies?” He grimaced, “Ouch and down goes the arm again! Must’ve hurt. At least now he looks just like one of them again. Who knows what precious secrets he’s already spilled in exchange for them not having cut him to pieces?”

Pieck clutched her stomach, “I do not think Reiner betrayed us. That would be absurd. Of all the warriors he was the one most loyal to Marley. Without him they would never have breached the wall in the first place.”

“The higher they climb the further they fall, but for everyone’s sake I hope you are right. Losing a shifter in itself is already problematic enough but having one of them actually switch sides and tell our enemy everything they know would make us look really bad. Prepare plan B. I think they’ll move out soon.”

Pieck nodded and fused back into her titan’s body which then turned around and disappeared between the trees.

A quiet crack informed Zeke that he was apparently adding some titan strength into his grip around the binocular.

Honestly, he hadn’t taken Reiner for the type to be able to pull off an actual betrayal. The guy seemed rather blunt and easy to read in most things he did.

A potential betrayal was just a worst-case scenario.

Not necessarily because Zeke was afraid for Marley’s safety but because he didn’t need anyone else from Marley taking the spot on Eren’s side to help him and his friends discover the big wondrous world outside their walls. Depending on how things turned out Zeke had been considering switching sides and filling that spot himself but to do so he still needed more time, more allies and more leverage.

An offer they couldn’t refuse, even from the killer of so many of their little friends.

Reiner was neither worthy nor a good influence to his little brother!

How much damage could someone inflict, who left Marley barely in their teens to grow up in enemy territory? What did Reiner do and see in his couple of free days while delivering the titan girl who had eaten Marcel to their doorstep? Absurd as it was these were now a serious questions Zeke had to face.

And ones he’d have to explain at length to Theo Magath and his superiors should he return empty handed.

A movement to the right, close to the wall, where the line of houses ended, caught his attention.

Were those horses?

His inner perfectionist cringed at the fact that he had not been thorough enough and killed them all as intended.

At least he only counted two that was… somewhat consoling.

“Pieck.”

“Hm?” The cart titan reappeared on his side, new cargo on its back.

“Levi and another of their soldiers are leaving towards the west on horse sticking close to the wall. Reiner seems to be with them.”

Where were the others? Did they decide to send for help with the only two horses they could salvage, while the rest waited patiently in the safety of Shiganshinas walls?

Levi was apparently their most capable soldier, if someone would survive a trip back to Trost then it would be him but on how much reinforcement could they really count?

Pieck tilted her huge head, “Should we follow or let them go?”

“Once we take up the chase, we’d be forced to reveal ourselves on the open field, but…” he bit his lip.

Somehow, the war chief had a gut feeling he shouldn’t let them go.

Or maybe it was simply his intense desire to smash Reiner with a well-aimed rock, so that he’d be silenced forever before screwing up any of Zekes ambitious future plans?

Chapter Text

He watched Erwin shoot the green signal flare into the air.

The blueish night sky was bright enough to vaguely see its coloring but it’d still take a while for the sun to actually rise on the horizon.

Apparently, they were ready for the next step of the commander’s plan, which relied heavily upon the attack titan’s support. Eren’s support.

The shifter was still getting used to his new title.

Honestly, there were a lot of things he still had to get used to. Such as an entire world outside the walls having decided to turn against them being a part of it.

“Finished! That should do the trick. Now all we need is a horse to pull this thing,” Connie announced, as he dusted off his trousers and rose from the ground having finished his inspection of the carts’ wheels.

In the glow of Connies lantern Eren let his gaze wander over their remaining comrades: The commander, Jean, Sasha, Floch and Mikasa. They all looked tired, no wonder, considering it was early in the morning and the grueling events of yesterday, but they also seemed prepared for whatever came next.

He looked back to Sasha sitting on the ground and Jean leaning against the cart, “So we put the wounded and Armin in the cart and then we’re ready to go, right?”

At Eren’s innocent question there was an awkward silence and his fellow scouts averted their gaze. Mikasa being the exception, but there was visible sadness in her grey eyes.

Before the silence could grow even more uncomfortable Erwin stepped forward, back to being the stern and hard-edged commander they were used to, “Armin is not coming with us.”

A shiver ran down Eren’s spine.

Erwins words should’ve been easy to understand, still Eren’s brain didn’t want to accept their meaning.

Somehow, now he felt everyone’s gaze resting upon him. As if they were judging him, treating him like a stupid child.

After everything they’d been through together... How dare they?!

“What do you mean he’s not coming!?” He bared his teeth, “Without him you wouldn’t even be standing here and still be a braindead titan lurking outside the walls!” Then trying to calm himself a bit the shifter swallowed hard and added, his eyes narrowed, “How can you even consider leaving him behind?” He spread out his arms to emphasize, “He’s a hero! The best of us!”

The commander simply towered above him, no mercy to be found, “He was a hero and no one will deny him that, as long as we carry on his legacy.” Erwins gaze turned towards the wall they had come from, “They all were.”

Eren took a step back, “We don’t have space for everyone in the cart! But at least Armin...”

Erwins voice remained eerily calm, “So, you’re saying what is left of your dead friend is more important than whatever is left of those who now litter the ground outside these walls, after sacrificing everything for our future?”

Eren crossed his arms and decided to focus his attention on anywhere but the man’s cold, icy eyes, while he muttered in defiance, “I mean, they weren’t much more than a diversion, while Armin discovered Reiners hiding spot and devised the strategy to take down the colossal.”

“Eren.” He had no clue, why Mikasa felt the need to softly whisper his name.

He decided to ignore it and instead pointed accusingly at the burnt corpse, which had been his best friend not even a day ago, as he repeated, “We should have enough space to take at least him with us!”

Then he realized something even more obvious, “I am the one who can turn into the attack titan and I am the one who apparently is also in the possession of the founding titan! Without me this whole plan of yours wouldn’t even work! I don’t want to abandon my friend here!” He felt his eyes getting wet, “Please, after sacrificing so much for your greater good, you owe me at least this much, commander!” His voice trembled, “I promised to get him to the sea! How am I supposed to do that when I leave him here?”

Erwin pressed his lips, while staring down the boy before him, “We are already heavily improvising at this point. We cannot afford to carry literal dead weight with us, when we do not even know if this cart will make it all the way to Trost. Less weight means less strain on the horse. It also means people”, his gaze was entirely focused on Eren, “will focus more on the living and not on those who already perished on the battlefield.”

Eren bit his lips, but before he could continue to make his case, the commander added gentler, “We will come back for all of them and give them the proper burial they deserve. This, I promise you. But for now, we have to focus on those whom we still can save. Those who are still alive. And considering our odds we can’t afford even the smallest mistake or diversion to do so.”

“Eren, let’s put Armin in one of the nearby houses. He should be safe there until we come back.”

Mikasa’s voice was still soft while daring to take the commander’s side.

Eren couldn’t even remember the last time she had decided to go against him. Everything seemed to be falling apart...

He clenched his fists in frustration.

Oh, how he wished Armin would tell him what to do.

He closed his eyes and took a deep shaky breath, then another and a third.

When he opened them again, Mikasa already kneeled down at Armins side and carefully lifted their friend up from the ground.

Erwin sighed, “You have five minutes to say your goodbyes. Any longer and you could compromise the mission.”

“Over there! In the distance!” Hange cleared their throat, “It’s still vague, but I think the cart titan has taken up pursuit! But I can’t tell if Zeke is with it. If he is, he’d still be in human form. Based on the direction they’re coming from they probably had some kind of device to look further into the distance to even be able to notice our horses leaving town just as the commander suspected.”

“Damn those bastards.” Levi cursed, “I had really hoped we were just being overly paranoid. Luckily, they still have to catch up to us and the quadruped would probably have to slow down immensely should its ally shift, maybe even throwing him off to avoid damage which would mean further distance between us. Considering the quadrupeds size they should be roughly 3 kilometers away and Erwin estimated the Beasts throwing range to around 1.5 kilometers at max. Luckily, he also needs missiles he won’t have many of, when constantly moving in an empty field, instead of lurking in a prepared spot in the woods. We’d be even luckier if he decided not to throw anything at all to avoid hitting our hostage.”

Reiner swallowed realizing Levi meant him. He remembered his own tactics when he decided to throw titans after Eren, hoping one of them would eat the guy. Did Zeke have any human sacrifices left on the cart? Would the war chief be willing to choose the quickest option and simply get rid of the failure, namely him?

“So, Plan B?”

“Tch! Plan B it is.”

Levi was visibly annoyed.

For simplicities sake, Reiner being way too tall to be placed in front of the captain on the horse, they instead had thrown him over its back and secured him like they’d usually do with tents or other sleeping equipment.  Which also made him notice that Levis horse was loaded with none of those, hinting towards the captain not planning to camp anywhere tonight.

He had no clue what “Plan B” entailed. Aside from the signal they hadn’t talked much.

What was worse was that his head was turned towards the wall so he couldn’t even see what his own allies might be up to.

“Ok. Good luck!”

Hange, who was riding right next to them, nodded towards the captain and then made an abrupt U-Turn back the way they had come from.

What the hell was going on?

Levi elaborated a bit further, “Huh... The quadruped has not turned around to follow Hange. Seems like we make up for a decent enough decoy, Braun.”

Reiner, glad the captain at least kept him informed, growled, “You know, even if Zeke doesn’t charge and instead turns it into a battle of endurance, if you want to get to Trost you will have to stray from the wall at one point and would run straight into their arms, right? And without Eren or the commander you have no titan to protect you. Sacrificing rations or tent equipment for your prisoner also means, in the worst-case scenario they could simply starve you out. If your horse doesn’t give out first that is.”

“Adorable. It almost seems like the titan brat worries about his enemy’s well-being.”

“As if...” Reiner decided to end the small talk and instead simply focused on the hooves of the horse and the ground quickly passing them by.

“Guess we’ll see, won’t we?” It kind of unnerved him that Levis voice did not sound the least bit worried, but rather smug.

“There! Hange’s signal!” Sasha announced with a full mouth, having made herself comfortable in the cart and munching some beef jerky, while pointing towards the sky.

Erwin nodded somberly, “Seems like the enemy actually showed up.”

Then he declared, “We are going with Plan B.”

“Shit. I really hoped they’d continued to hide their sorry asses. Plan B is the worst.” Jean clenched his fist watching Hange’s signal flare slowly dispersing in the sky. Just like most of the others he had made himself comfortable in the cart.
Erwin threw a glance towards Eren, the only one standing on the ground: “Prepare yourself.”

His eyes still looking slightly puffed from crying the owner of the Attack Titan nonetheless took a deep breath then nodded, “Let’s do this. I will not let any more of my friends die to those bastards!”

Ignore or not ignore, that was the question and a difficult at that.

But on his own he might not even be able to keep up with the speed of the horse. Based on his former observations those trusty steeds of the scouts were vastly superior to those he had witnessed in Marley, almost monsters in their own right. To his annoyance it took much longer to catch up to them than he had hoped for, especially since the scouts apparently now decided to spur their horses on, while growing further apart.

Without him Pieck would be much more vulnerable missing any ranged weapons. Marley had intended to avoid unnecessary suspicions through obvious advanced weaponry, which was slowly turning into a headache.

Considering their previous experience with Levi Zeke doubted she’d be a match for him on her own.

Thus, the warchief simply pinched his nose and decided that they most definitely had to take care of Levi and Reiner first.

He queried whether the scouts had much more than those two horses he’d seen. Without them getting through titan territory would be almost impossible, especially if they did not want to leave their wounded behind, sentimental fools as they were. Thus, no immediate threat of them running away.

He didn’t know much about the fellow they had given the colossal to, but if they were really lucky, he might even try out his new powers and went on a rampage killing most of the leftovers, who did not have regenerative abilities.

“Look there! In the distance!”

Thanks to Pieck’s comment he turned his head just in time to notice the last sparks of lightning on the horizon somewhere behind the walls in town, indicating someone having shifted.

They would’ve seen it if it were the colossal, so that left only one other option, “Eren.”

“What do we do?”

Even if they turned back now, the attack titan might just use the cover of the huge wall to pass them by unnoticed to join his friends.

“This is a good thing. This means for now he’s too far away to help the captain if we act now. Speed up.”

Levi threw a glance over his shoulder. The quadruped was accelerating again. Apparently, they decided against a fight of endurance after noticing Erens shifting in the distance. Now the only question remaining was if they’d try to fight in close quarters or start throwing stuff.

“Tch!” This was another of those typical suicidal Erwin plans, his trust in Levis capabilities unbroken.

The captain strongly suspected the commander actually hoped for Zeke to choose the throwing option just to demonstrate his point to Reiner that the shifter was basically dead to his allies.

But Erwins annoying mind games were a headache for another day, preferably one where they were all still alive.

Levi spurred his horse on as fast as he could, extending the distance to Hange even further, while the cart titan closed in bit by bit. His next move would entirely depend on how Zeke decided to handle the situation.

Pieck had a bad feeling about all of this.

Honestly, she was not sure if she wanted to face this Levi once more in close combat, but she was no big fan of the other option either. If Reiner had really switched sides the enemy would not need to go through these elaborate tactics, unless they somehow tried to get the beast titan closer to get rid of Zekes range advantage.

On the other hand, if Reiner was still their ally, ready to jump in at the closest opportunity Zeke trying to kill the guy might not help their cause either.

She was all too aware of the few spare Eldians currently being stored away in the five barrels on her cart, heavily drugged to not resist. They had given them Zekes spinal fluid while preparing for whatever the scouts decided to do next.

Yesterday evening it still had been six people, but one of the older gentlemen had succumbed to the strain on his frail body.

It made her feel sick to the stomach.

More lives they’d sacrifice for the greater good.

“Are you slowing down? The cart titan should be able to sprint a bit longer than one of their horses.”

Of course, Zeke noticed her slight hesitation immediately.

She shook her head and picked up speed again, all too aware that with each inch they got closer to the enemy the possibility of Zeke deciding to shift grew further.

Honestly if it were anybody else except Levi they’d probably just try to jump the enemy but she was pretty sure the monster in human form had left a lasting impression on both of them.

“This should be close enough.”

Damn it... not what she had hoped to hear as she watched Zeke jumping off her back and instinctively distanced herself from him as fast as she could. She still felt the blast when the beast titan made himself known once more.

Still facing the wall was turning more and more into torture. The scout just silently cursing and otherwise having turned silent did not help either.

How much further away were his comrades?

He got his answer in the form of an all too familiar scream and mere seconds after a huge body loudly crashing right into the wall.

“Shit! That son of a bitch!”

Levi immediately pulled on the reigns to make his horse rear and thus barely avoid the titan slowly rising into an upright position in front of them.

Levis trusty steed could not even land back on its four hooves when, with a growling sound right above their heads, another huge body crashed down.

This time they were not fast enough as the brunt force of the titan smashed into the ground and buried half their horse under its huge deformed belly in the process. Short greedy arms stretching towards its rider and living cargo.

With almost inhuman reflexes Levi cut the ropes binding Reiner to the horse-back at the same time while jumping off himself, dragging the shifter with him.

They crashed hard against the grass and dirt below them and rolled a bit further until they came to a stop, while listening to the panicked screams of the wounded animal.

Using one arm as support Levi rose his upper body to watch the new mess, they had landed themselves in, “Just great. Apparently, Zeke doesn’t give two shits about his little puppy surviving this mess.”

“If I have to die for my country, I am willing to pay the price, right here and now.” Despite his relatively determined words Reiner couldn’t help but feel an unsettling heaviness in his chest.

“Well, I am not.” The captain hastily stumbled back on his feet.

Reiner felt Levi tugging him at his shoulders, “If you don’t want me to cut off your legs again to be a bit lighter you better cooperate!”

To his own surprise Reiner obeyed and got up as well, just in time for a silently cursing Levi to activate his gear and snatch him out of harm’s way from the next hungry titan mouth aimed at them.

A hail of tiny little stones, earth and grass rained down upon them.

In the air Reiner dared to throw a gaze towards his war chief and the cart titan, as well as one last 3m one standing right next to him.

Another already flying straight towards them as the ugliest bird he’d ever seen.

Once more the rotors of Levis gear came to live and they quickly avoided the hit. This time the scout inelegantly hauled them straight against the hard stone wall still towering above everything.

If it weren’t for his titan powers Reiner didn’t doubt that would’ve left some dark bruises tomorrow.

Levi combed through his black hair with one hand, “Fuck, I could’ve killed them thrice over if I didn’t have to protect your heavy, suicidal hide!”

“You know they are probably people from your village? They could be potential allies.”

“And they’d be even more useless than you right after feeding time and probably dead even quicker. Besides,” The captain clenched his teeth while glaring towards the beast titan, who was aiming his last living missile, “I do not intend to give the bearded bastard the satisfaction in succeeding whatever goes through that disgusting skull of his! Erwin asked me to keep you alive as long as I see a way out for the both of us, so that is what I intend to do.”

His next jump brought them straight upon the head of the titan standing closest to the wall. It tried to swat them, but Levi effortlessly severed its hand from its wrist with one well-aimed strike. With the obstacle out of the way they were going towards the top, the rotor audibly complaining about the additional weight.

Four hungry pairs of eyes not leaving them out of their sight.

Wait, what about...

“Shit!”

Levi reacted even faster than Reiner, almost as if he sensed the danger, before it arrived.

To Reiners surprise the captain disconnected his hooks atop the wall and drew them back in, all the while smoothly turning around and pushing his humanoid cargo away from him out of his way.

Just as the hooks snapped back into the ODM the last titan smashed against the wall above Levi, who had thus successfully prevented a collision last second. Free of the additional weight the captain shot his anchors into the flesh of the titan instead, to get close to it and then slash its neck with one quick pinwheel attack, before its body was even drawn back down by gravity.

Not that Reiner could admire the fighting skills of the guy for too long, since he himself was currently busy falling downwards towards four hungry titan mouths.

He dared to throw a glance below him, only to see three pairs of hands and one solo one greedily grasping for him, like little children trying to catch a butterfly.

It happened too fast to even consider to shift and when a huge hand snatched him he immediately heard a couple of ribs crack under its grasp, while any leftover air was pushed out of his lungs.

“Coward!” Levi couldn’t help himself but glare once more towards the beast titan, while the blood of the now rapidly falling titan below his feet splattered upon his uniform.

The scout quickly jumped off it and repositioned himself against the wall to look down to get a better grasp of this shitty situation.

With a loud thud the titan corpse landed right next to a wrangling group of titans arguing about getting the biggest pieces of his prisoner, who at least for now had been lucky enough to not be torn completely apart. Probably because his initial captor happened to have the longest arms and waved him over his head like a trophy, while the other three tried to grasp for it.

“Damn it.”

For a split-second Levi seriously considered just leaving Reiner down there, until a new titan was chosen by natural selection.

It’d probably mean much less of a headache for him...

Then the moment passed. He sighed, accepted his fate and entered the fray, blades ready to spill more blood.

When Reiner regained his conscience, he was on top of the wall and felt even shittier than he had before the captain decided to drop him into four hungry titans.

Almost apathetically he noticed he was missing his left foot.

Better than a whole leg probably...

“Back up again, sleeping beauty?” Levi was sitting opposite to him, cleaning his blade.

Reiner glanced past the captain down towards the fields behind the wall. Unfortunately, he could see neither the beast nor the cart titan.

“Zeke?”

“I think this time he chickened out for real.” Levi leaned his head a bit to the right, “If you ask me, you’ve got a really shitty taste when it comes to your allies.”

The shifter ignored him and instead peeked down the other side, expecting the Attack Titan to move in on their location under the cover of the wall.

Noone.

“Eren’s not coming for us either?”

Levi rubbed his neck, “Like I mentioned before we were just delicious bait for Beardy. If you have to cross a plain field it is no good having a pervert like him hiding in the bushes waiting for you. Aside from one pretty visible temperamental titan, we had no means to get the horses or the cart to the other side of the wall thus we needed to get rid of his watchful eye first.”

“So, we’re sitting ducks?” Reiner wasn’t sure if he should consider this good or bad news. Maybe he could still prove himself to Zeke if the right opportunity presented itself?

“I cut the furry bastard down once, I can do it again, should he dare to show his ugly mug. Besides, we just have to hold out long enough for Eren to finish his other mission.”

Under the sound of the cart titans’ monotonous steps, Zeke gnawed his thumb. The wall was slowly disappearing into the distance and with it his last chance to get any worthwhile hostages or information.

Well, that had been disappointing. For a second there he’d really hoped Levi would leave Reiner down there to die, but even such a small compensation was not granted to him. Instead, the little time the arguing titans granted him were enough for the captain to end their miserable lives with four well aimed cuts.

Of course, Zeke had also considered climbing up the wall himself which would’ve been the only way to get to his prey, but...

He bit his lips, all too aware of the last time he’d encountered Levi and while climbing up he’d be an even easier target, should the scout actually lurk close by, which he probably did.

Zeke did not consider himself a coward.

This was a strategic retreat.

Still this whole situation was grating on his nerves.

So, if just escaping over the wall and probably using the attack titan for transportation was their idea in the first place what had this whole farce even been for? Just to verify if him and Pieck were still around?

Speaking of the devil Pieck’s titan head turned towards its passenger, “So what do we do now?”

Zeke crossed his arms in thought, letting his head fall against the rails, “If my assumption of them being collected by the attack titan are right, they can basically run around at the other side of the wall as they please without us being all the wiser. We are not the best frontliners in the current situation either.”

“You beat Reiner and he beat the Attack Titan before.”

“Yes, but back then I was in peak condition and had not just regenerated my arms and legs after being almost slaughtered by a mere human.” Zeke stroke his beard, “We have to play this smart. Based on the fact that they just sealed the hole in Shiganshina their next step will probably be to stabilize their own country and reclaim their lost land first and foremost. This means a lot of movement and a lot of back and forth through the otherwise well protected gate to Trost. Movement in which it would be much easier to slip into the crowd. So, no huge titan necessary to get inside their protected walls.”

“You sure you can convince the old geezers of that plan?” She sounded skeptical.

“You want to fight the colossal, the founder and the armored head on? Once they start concentrating their forces outside their own borders it’d be too late.” He sighed, “It was worth a try, but for now let’s go back home and gather our own forces. Maybe the fact that they don’t have any means of transportation and don’t know if we’re still lurking out here will slow them down a bit?”

Levi landed quietly on the ground next to Reiner.

The shifter had sat down and made himself comfortable on the other side of the wall leaning against the cold stone. Lost in thought he slowly wiggled with a fresh pair of toes.

"Great. Why did I even bother to give you new clothes if you loose them a couple hours later anyway?"

Reiner didn't bother to answer, so Levi simply gave off a grim smile, “Seems like they are not coming back. I did not expect anything less from the coward.”

“The war chief is no coward he is a genius. He probably already got the next plan up his sleeve.” The blonde sounded exhausted and tired.

“So, he used exactly the same strategy you tried to use on Eren back in the day? Genius my ass...”

Reiner glared upwards towards the captain, “What do you want from me?”

“Me? Nothing aside from permanently cutting your throat." He rubbed his neck, "My commander? Information, before permanently feeding you to someone willing to fight our fight.”

“Why didn’t you let them eat me?” Reiner sounded almost reproachful, “I’m pretty sure they’ve been your citizens until today. You could've just said it was an accident. No witnesses to complain towards your commander. “

Apparently much more relaxed than before Levi sighed and leaned against the wall, one hand resting on his ODM-gear, while stating, “I already told you that I do not intend to go against his wishes. So, you can shove your suicidal daydreams up your ass, for all I care.”

For a while each of them remained quiet, just watching the first signs of the rising sun, the firmament going through different gradients of blue.

Of course, Levi never let his prisoner out of his gaze for too long, but Reiner was surprisingly boring in that aspect, just seemingly lost in whatever depressing thoughts went through that stubborn head of his. Occasionally Levi jumped back on the wall to check for any changes, but Zeke remained gone.

Back down the slight vibrations of the ground finally announced the arrival of a newcomer.

“Hey you guys! Glad to see you’re still alive!” Hange’s voice reached his ears. He glanced upwards to see her standing happily on the right shoulder of the Attack Titan waving way too enthusiastically towards him.

He couldn't resist the hint of a smile forming on his lips at the welcome sight.

A couple minutes later the squad leaders, Eren and their prisoner sat together on the ground sharing some tea.

“So, you lost the horse?”

“Seems that way. But Zeke gave up and Reiner is still a living pain in the ass as promised.”

“Unfortunately.” Eren just glared at the blonde who simply glared back.

Levi took a sip of his cup, “How did it go on your end?”

“We succeeded in getting the cart over the wall without any incidents and harnessed my horse to it." With her finger Hange drew the sketch of a simplified map into the dirt, "The others are currently moving on one of the old streets heading northwest. There is a small farming village where Erwin wants to meet up with us again. It is not too far away, so hopefully we should be able to reach it with Eren’s titan, even if we didn’t focus on training his perseverance and don’t know how long he can still last. Especially since the events from yesterday did take a toll on him.”

“If he can do it, I should be able to as well, no sweat.” Eren intensified his glare and Reiner, apparently not motivated enough to continue this childish display of antipathy instead focused on the pot of tea.

“How ensuring.” Levi commented with a hint of sarcasm.

“It would certainly not be the ideal scenario but even by foot we should be able to reach it today.” Hange tried to lift the mood, “Erwin also intends to use the time waiting for us to try out the colossal, to get a better grasp on it. He’d prefer to know at least the basics of one of our greatest weapons against the enemy before discussing our future plans with Zachary and the rest and testing it right in front of Trost’s walls would be a bit too... eye-catching." They gave a heavy sigh, "Honestly I would've prefered to be present at this, but in the end he promised to just have a tiny little peak. Just in case anything comes up, while we're not around, which could honestly happen any time in the middle of titan territory."

"I don't like Erwin doing risky experiments on his own, but I understand where he's coming from." Levi thoughtfully stroke his own chin, "Currently they have only Mikasa for serious protection and she is a bit banged up from yesterdays fighting. Not to mention in the open field having only one horse bound to a cart is a worst case scenario against any titan and we cannot solely rely on Eren. Besides the furball is also still out there somewhere plotting. I doubt it but maybe he had even more allies hidden in the bushes, just like that additional equipment for the quadruped. We simply lack too much information on the enemy."

Hange nodded in agreement, "The sooner Erwin knows what he's capable of the less surprises, if he gets forced to use his powers. Besides I think he's itching to find out, because it will be a major part of any future plans of his and", they hesitated before adding quietly, "He might want to prove himself useful again, after almost our entire regiment died under his command. Wants to prove they didn't die in vain..."

Levis brows narrowed, not liking the direction this line of thought was going. He wanted to argue Erwin was used to making sacrifices for the greater good and that emotions would never cloud his judgement.

Nonetheless the massacre yesterday and their commander almost dying were undeniable.

Unlike people like Floch Levi knew that under all this cold calculation Erwin was still human.

He remembered his last conversation with Erwin right before the commanders charge vividly.

After all, he had been the one ordering his friend to give up on his dream and charge to his death.

“He wants to try out the Colossal? Without titan support from Eren?” For better or for worse Reiner's surprised remark drew Levis attention back to the present.

“What do you mean titan support? What for?” Hange blinked at him innocently.

“You...” He stared at Hange then, apparently coming to the realization that they knew less than he anticipated and were in fact still his enemies, quickly looked away, “Never mind.”

Hange frowned, “I figured, since Eren started fighting other titans right away when he first showed us his powers there wouldn't be much of an issue. Any initial confusion was understandable considering he didn't expect to turn into one in the first place, while Erwin on the other hand would know exactly what's going on and has exceptional self-control when it counts."

Thoughtfully they glanced towards the horizon, "Even if we left right away, we might arrive too late to stop the commander from shifting, so you wouldn’t be spilling any huge trade secrets, since we’re going to find out either way.”

Reiner sighed, visibly weighing his options but then simply giving in, “Considering you only had a thickhead like Eren for field study — “

“Hey!”

Their captive deliberately ignored the complaint from the other shifter, “— it’s probably not that much of a surprise you don’t know, but the first time someone turns titan they usually tend to go on a mindless rampage. When our warriors did it, we usually had the others to watch out for them, but in case of your commander a rampaging colossal could turn out badly even if he’ll probably not last all too long...”

“Well, wouldn’t that have been neat to know before we decided to split the party?” Hange laughed one of her awkward nervous laughs.

Meanwhile Levi glared towards Eren, “You think you’re ready for your second round? We probably should not waste any more time.”

The boy swallowed but nodded nonetheless.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” With wide eyes Jean stared forward towards their cart, squashed in an instant by a colossal titan foot. Luckily, they had set camp before the commander started his “training session” so at least the horse was unhurt.

“Get up, we’ve gotta get out of here!” Connie grabbed him by the shoulder and helped him up. 

Unlike Bertolts version their current enemy let out its deadly steam in random erratic intervals. 

Jean felt the heat in his face, while his friend just grumbled under his breath, “And that’s why I wanted the armored one.” A bit louder he screamed, “Happy now, Floch?”

The other scout, currently hiding in a house entrance, Sasha on his back, just proclaimed: “Simply ecstatic. Imagine this sort of power on our side!”

Jean, turning around to run side by side with Connie, simply cursed, “Jup, can’t wait. If we’re not burned alive before that!”

Once more they activated their gear to get out of the way last minute by jumping to nearby houses, but honestly the village was not big enough to play hide and seek with a colossal titan for long.

With one half-hearted swipe of its hand another row of houses got decimated.

Jean clenched his teeth as he felt a rush of pain flaring up in his wounded arm complaining about the fact that he was continuously straining it to stay alive.

Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed the hand lunge out once more. Then a shot of one of their signal flares and Mikasas scream, “Hey, over here!” probably accompanied by a cut to its leg got its attention instead.

It was unusual for her to go into the initiative if no Eren was involved, but considering the team had shrunk quite a bit, she was currently the most capable fighter in the group. Which was why they had given her the only horse on which she now tried to lure the colossal titan away from the village and her comrades using her signal flares to get its attention. It tried to smash her once more with the hand it had originally aimed at Jean. But of course, it was too slow to catch up with a trained scout regiment horse.

Almost lazily the pursuit was given up and the colossal turned back towards its easier snacks.

“Shit!” Jean accentuated his words with a hand signal, “Spread out further, until its going for Mikasa!”

Obediently the others did as told, but it was too late.

The Colossal had already deemed the group more interesting than Mikasa, who didn’t dare to get any closer as long as it was emitting heat.

Thanks to Erens adamant efforts to keep a corpse around, Armins scorched remains had probably followed all of them into last nights nightmares and none of them had any intention to end up like that today.

Of course, of all the people the colossal could choose instead it decided to continue what it started and slowly turned in Jeans direction.

As nice as it was that it moved what felt like slow-motion, it didn’t change the fact that its size equalized that factor out easily. And of course, this was the moment Jeans arm decided it had enough and the intense pain was making him see stars for a second, holding it with his other hand on reflex as if that would change anything.

As he looked up, he stared the Colossal straight into the face much too close for his liking.

The young scout felt dread wash through his entire body.

Being killed by his own commander having a rage fit...

What a shitty way to go...

How long had Hange said they’d take to get to the village, best case scenario?

Because now would be an awesome time to have Eren come to the rescue!

Not really daring to use his ODM with his injury Jean instead uselessly stumbled away as fast as he could. Of course he couldn’t resist the temptation to throw another glance back, instantly regretting it.

Erwins icy blue eyes, which the man had retained even in titan form, were fixated on him.

This version of the colossal looked a bit less compact than Bertolts, but it still showed an impressive muscular built as one would expect from the leader of the scouts.

Suddenly the line of sight was interrupted by the huge hand coming down at Jean, preparing to swat a fly, simply because the thing felt like it. For a second it stopped to swipe away another of Mikasas Flares, but apparently this time it was not enough to grasp its attention for any longer.

Focusing too much on what was happening behind him Jean tripped over some nearby rubble and crashed hard to the ground.

He succeeded to turn around sideways enough to at least not hit his wounded limb directly, before he rolled around completely to look up.

The heat became unbearable, making him close his eyes ready for impact, only for it to be suddenly stopped, accompanied by a loud clashing sound. He felt the shockwave of an impact and the ground below vibrating under it.

“Finally. There you are you fucking asshole, took you long enough!” Carefully one eye was reopened then the other only to be caught off guard that the shadow of the titan standing in front of him was, for a better lack of words, the wrong one.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

The familiar tune of ODMs echoed in his ears as his captain landed right next to him, “Eren overestimated his own abilities and we had to improvise. Hange said it’d suck for our image if our last remaining scouts were squashed by their own commander.”

Levi extended his hand to Jean. While grabbing it the younger scout just helplessly nodded towards the scene, “Improvise?! You sure letting Reiner deal with our rampaging commander won’t bite us in the ass bigtime later?”

While saying that he watched as the armored titan pushed the hand of the colossal away and then immediately rushed forward into a jump to let its hardened fist hit right above the right kneecap of their enemy with a satisfying crunch, heard even from Jeans position, which forced their currently mindlessly raging unprepared opponent to trip over itself. Apparently repeatedly letting out steam had made it already more susceptible to attacks than back when Eren fought its previous version.

“Shit! Scatter!” Levi immediately activated his gear again and Jean followed suit to dive out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by one of the colossal’s elbows, which it used to brace itself from falling down completely. Immediately it emitted more heat, probably as a subconscious self-defense-mechanism. Then it rolled sidewards.

Standing on top of a nearby cottage roof Jean couldn’t help himself but search for signs of the armored titan.

He found him clinging to the colossals right leg.

The larger titan's first tactic was simply rolling to the side, looking at its leg and then shaking it similar to a strange fitness training to get rid of its leech. Then it tried more steam and when that didn't work either both its hands rushed down trying to pull away the annoying pestmanually. It made no move to stand back up again too focused on its mission.

The huge thing rolling around on the ground would’ve been kinda funny if it wasn’t so fucking deadly.

Some of the former straw roofs caught fire simply because of its close vicinity.

Even from this distance Jean had to cover his face and turn away from the heat, which had become even more intense than he remembered from fighting Bertolt, maybe because the Erwin-titan was currently not in a state where it thought about preserving any energy for later?

“Good. Reiner’s doing a great job to make him burn off energy. Once he stops smoking Mikasa will go in for the nape and we’re done here.”

While that theoretically should’ve been good news suddenly Jean felt worried for a different reason, “What if Reiner actually loses before that happens?”

“Then we’ll probably know what happens when a shifter eats another shifter. We discussed the possibility but decided it would probably be better to spread the power out equally between different soldiers instead of taking the risk of jumping into the unknown. Eren allegedly having two titans is complicated enough.”

 “You convinced him to fight for us only to get him killed off in the process?!”

The cold glare he got from Levi all the answer he needed.

Fighting the colossal had not been on his bingo card today and it was most definitely not the way he intended to die.

Strategically speaking it would have probably been better to just have Erwin kill all the "small fries" namely Jean, Sasha, Connie and with a bit of luck even Mikasa.

Reiner didn't care all that much about this Floch guy, so that one could get eaten for all he cared...

He could've just lied to Levi and Hange claiming that he was unable to shift. Then they would've been forced to sit this one out.

But no! In the end he gave in and agreed to help, as if this whole mess wasn't already confusing enough!

Despite his plates somewhat protecting him from most of the heat, he still felt it in his human body. Beads of sweat ran down his face and back. His shirt already soaked and clinging to his chest.

It felt as if his brain was melting inside his head making it difficult to come up with any clear thoughts whatsoever.

Once it had been decided he'd throw himself at the colossal, he had only enough time to grow back his limbs and transform as fast as he could, no strategy in mind whatsoever.  

Even his titan form was in a slightly rushed state, feeling just as improvised. In efficient minimalism he’d consciously focused on not having any plates on his legs to improve his speed and instead mostly where he’d expected to need protection.

With the direct result of that being that his unprotected titan legs were now uselessly burnt to a crisp from the continuous close contact to what felt like a furnace.

At least the unchecked outpour of absurd heat affected his opponent as well, making it thinner by the second, which was what he was supposed to be aiming for anyway. The thinner legs also made it much easier to hug the bastard preventing him from pulling Reiner off.

Still, just clinging to a leg like a stubborn toddler was not really a tactic he was proud of.

At least instead of kicking him away the colossal had decided it’d rather have a snack instead.

First it was simply clutching for the Armored body.

When that didn't succeed it apparently got impatient and started to continuously hit the protective plates on the armored's back like a madman, uncaring about its own bleeding knuckles and body getting weaker by the second, because of the continuous steam.

Based on the haggard look of his oppenent once his own protection was shattered Reiner was pretty sure that his job as punching bag was done and it wouldn't be much longer until the scouts got their leader back.

So, this was how he would give the fearsome commander the power of the armored as well?

He really messed up their whole mission big time, didn’t he?

All those years of preparation and sacrifice wasted because of him...

Mikasa was watching her prey carefully.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about the armored titan coming to their rescue but she doubted he’d be any threat after that stupid head-on approach he did to block the colossal.

After it had finally shattered the armor of the other titan the now almost sickly thin colossal titan on the ground drew its wounded leg a bit closer to itself. Then it lifted its torso slightly up from the ground focusing its eyes on the stubborn prey while revealing a set of sparkling white teeth with a big creepy grin.

That was the moment she realized the flurry air around it started to fade away longer than usual.

Immediately she spurred her horse towards it.

Out of the corner of her eyes she noticed captain Levi accelerating through the wreckage to do the same.

Honestly the situation had proceeded much smoother than Levi could’ve anticipated when he had grudgingly asked Reiner to transform.

It had been the only logical conclusion at the time, after Erens titan had uselessly crushed down to the ground and they realized the armored was probably the safest bet to minimize their casualties or, best case, even prevent them.

It’d still needed a bit more convincing their prisoner than he would’ve liked but in the end the results spoke for themselves.

Ironically the only downside to this whole strategy was that the commander was about to eat Reiner, which directly clashed with Erwins own orders to try to keep the shifter alive as long as possible.

Which was why, unlike Mikasa who tried to approach as inconspicuously as possible Levi made himself known the moment he reached flesh to cut.

Driven on instinct alone the colossal titan sensed the danger and turned its head towards him, which meant precious more seconds for Reiner to stay alive and that was all that was needed, since Mikasa didn’t waste any time cutting the commander out of his weakened form.

Then, commander in tow, she jumped back on her horse and headed straight into the direction Levi had come from, probably correctly surmising that this was the most likely direction where she’d find Eren.

Part of Levi instinctively wanted to follow her.

Wanted to check if Erwin was ok.

At the same time he knew the guy would be fine, seeing the others, including Hange with a probably unnecessary first aid kit, already running towards them. 

First he had to focus on his mission given to him by Erwin personally as annoying as it was.

The Colossal’s head sacked uselessly to the ground and started decomposing.

Levi maneuvered himself past it and landed safely on the ground next to the armored titan, who was still clinging to the now useless leg. When the Colossal turned into mere bone the armored titans arms simply sacked down making him look like an ugly sleeping cat.

Not having the patience to wait until the guy came out himself, Levi, a bit more carefully than usual, cut up the nape and dragged Reiner out himself without much resistance from the other guy.

To be more precise the bastard didn’t bother to help at all and made Levi do all the work.

“I really screwed it all up, didn’t I?” The words were mumbled quietly and the captain wasn’t entirely sure if the question was even directed towards him.

Nonetheless he shrugged it away, even though he knew exactly what blondie meant, “Well, noone else died today. The commander is safe and sound, just like the rest of the 104^th . From our perspective you did great.”

Reiner sighed, a sad smile on his lips, “This is not what you want to hear from your enemy, you know?”

“Oh, I know.”

After a heavy pause the blonde added quietly, “You’ll keep your promise?”

Levi raised an eyebrow, “Considering how stupid and pitiful it is? Probably, if you don’t create any further problems on our way to Trost.”

“You gonna cut off my arms again?”

The indifferent way the question got asked somehow succeeded in grating on Levis nerves.

The scout considered the option but then shook his head in defeat, “Not for now. Let’s see the commander first.” He narrowed his eyes, “I am afraid we might have to adjust our strategy going forward.”