Chapter Text
Eren arrived at the Air Depot at the same time as a Garrison officer. The man gestured him inside and surveyed the group within. “I’m surprised to see you here, cadet.”
“Sir!” Eren saluted the man. “I was on the wall when the Colossal attacked; the Garrison On-Duty Officer ordered me to report to the Depot and to tell anyone else along the way to do the same. I didn’t run into any other cadets, sir.”
“Shit.” The Lieutenant shook his head. “Your unit took serious losses, cadet. Regardless,” he turned and addressed the whole group. “Your roles have changed from checking equipment to supplying equipment! While the rest of our forces enact the defensive plan, they’ll need a steady supply of air and blades. This unit will oversee ensure we keep the fighting well-stocked and able to continue destroying titans!”
“Sir!” A cadet rose to their feet, Annette Heron. “How will we know where the units are?”
“Excellent question.” He indicated a stored map, pulled it out and unrolled it. “These are the locations where each unit should be fighting in according to our plans. Each roll has the subsequent follow ups depending on our success and whether the Armored titan makes a reappearance. Your section leaders are aware of this and will be directing you.”
Eren looked at his fellow cadets, each one so close to graduating, now faced with a challenge to defend Trost. Trost, the city which saw refugees starving in their streets and chose to throw them over the walls. Right. He turned back towards the air cannisters, and carefully realized what an opportunity he was presented with.
If I can find Mikasa and Armin, I can deliver the cannisters and blades to them without either having to come inside.
He just needed to find them.
“Jaegar, Heron, Luart, with me!” Section Leader Heinz called his attention. Eren joined the group and waited for further directions. “We will be supplying the outer flank. They’re closest to the gates and will require refills as quickly as we can give them. Jaeger, you said you were at the walls, did you see how many titans made their ways inside?”
No, he’d been too busy thinking about Mikasa and Armin. “Sorry sir, I was facing inward, not outward.”
“Dammit. Alright, then cadets, we will likely run into titans on our way to the flank. We will do our best to avoid engagement, our supply line is more important than killing them ourselves. Understood?”
“Sir!”
“Each one of you grab an extra set of tanks, it’ll be an awkward carry, but you covered it during your training years – it should be familiar! Luart, instead of air cannisters, you and I will carry the spare blades!”
Once they were all ready to leave, each one weighed down by their burdens, Heinz took the lead, and they exited the building.
Outside, the city was in chaos. For the short timeframe they’d debriefed and gathered their gear, the city was quickly being overrun.
“Sir?” Heron’s voice quivered.
“Mind your guts, cadet!” Heinz barked, face pale. He steeled himself and urged them to follow his lead. “We continue as planned. Our mission starts now!”
They jumped into the air and headed for the perimeter. Each cadet’s eyes were wide as they took in the sight of a real titan for the first time. Grotesque and disproportioned, their bulbous heads bobbing over the city roofs almost seemed comical. Were it not for the situation at hand, their awkward actions would have been funny, like a drunk stumbling home after a long night at the pub.
Instead, the monsters wandered down the streets, opening their maws unnaturally to catch any unsuspecting humans. Saliva dripped from their wriggling tongues, only to evaporate into steam, obscuring their approach from sight.
In reply, the city itself seemed to scream in fear. Windows were punched in as the monsters snatched crying women from their homes. The breaking of glass sharp and angry. While many hid, even more than that fled by the streets. Those who looked back, tripping on themselves and others. Some paused to help another up with a hand, while more pushed doggedly on, avoiding their fellows, even trampling them to escape the approaching behemoths.
Flying overhead, the squad was able to see the streets below and how they teemed with a stampede of humans. Behind the stampede, mangled forms of the trampled wriggled in agony as they too, tried to escape their wretched fate as titan food.
Humanity. At the end of the hour, everyone’s true colors were revealed.
Eren turned his face away from the disturbing sight and looked forward once more. Soon, they would be among the titans and would need to focus on avoiding the creatures’ hands and mouths.
“Look alive, cadets!” Lieutenant Heinz brought the others attention front and center. “Keep your wits about you, and for Sina’s sake, don’t get eaten.”
Following his lead, the group dove and spun away from reaching hands and snapping teeth. They altered course with lateral anchors and stayed as high as they could.
“Abnormal!” Heron shouted. Her voice betrayed her level of nervousness, spiking higher than normal. “On the three o’clock, sir!”
On their three, a six-meter crouched on the roof, eyes tracking their movements. It leapt like a jumping spider, all limbs wide and aimed in their direction. “Scatter!” The lieutenant howled, diverting his course to the right. Eren and Heron followed, while Luart went left.
Luart avoided the titan entirely as it focused on the larger group, jumping again to follow behind.
“Not today!” Lieutenant spun a one-hundred eighty degree turn and shot over Eren and Heron’s shoulders, attacking the abnormal with a decisive slice to its eyes, followed with another on its nape. “Regroup and continue!”
“S-sir!” Heron agreed. Luart rejoined, silent.
They moved onwards, avoiding the regular class titans, and keeping their eyes out for more abnormals.
As they neared the perimeter, Heinz grew more frustrated. The cadets exchanged looks, realizing why their squad leader was annoyed when they reached the wall. The perimeter flank was nowhere to be found. They were deep into titan territory, now.
According to the layouts for counterattack A, this was where the defense flank should be.
“We’ll head 500 meters along the wall then turn inwards to HQ, we should run into someone by then.”
Hopefully, went left unsaid. Hopefully, someone is still alive and fighting. Hopefully they only just missed them.
With the titans at their back, it became harder to avoid their grabby hands. Because of this, it was only a matter of time before a scream forced them all to stop. Heron, holding up the rear, was in the hands of squinty-eyed, long-armed titan. One eye remained fixed on the cadet, as if sizing her up, while the other, lazily wandered about.
“Help!” She cried, terror filling her voice.
“Shit! Jaeger to the left. Luart, with him, I’ll go right.” They swarmed the titan, trying to save the screaming cadet.
Heron was raised to its mouth and her head popped in, though it didn’t bite, seemingly tasting the now-silent cadet. Eren and Luart swung around the head, screaming for its attention while Heinz shot for the nape. But the lazy eye caught sight of him, and its other hand rose to swat him.
Abnormal class! Its swat was faster than expected and Heinz was unable to dodge, his wires tangling around the creature’s fingers. “Kill it!” He yelled at the other two.
Panicked, Luart pulled up and veered away. Eren shot an anchor at the beast’s nape, but it spun under his hook, and he was flung far and wide. His anchor released and Eren felt himself catapult away from the disaster site.
As he watched, the titan bit down on Heron’s body and blood went spraying from the crunch. Heinz raised his blades and tried to hack himself off the hand he dangled from. He succeeded. But below, where he couldn’t swing away, a 3-meter waited, and he fell right into its mouth.
Luart stood, frozen on the roof, unable to move from the sight.
Eren closed his eyes. He shot a hook and anchored to a building. Once he was steadied, he looked again and saw Luart was gone.
Within a matter of minutes, they were all gone.
He steeled himself, ignoring the mental image of his mother’s death. Walls dammit, he needed to find his family!
Alone in titan territory, without any clear direction, Eren knew his time would be up sooner than later. How could it have come to this? They were supposed to escape these wretched walls, not die within them!
He looked inward, towards HQ. If his family was smart, they’d have donned the cadet uniforms and run for the largest gathering. If he were lucky, he would find them there. Eren began the journey away from the busted in gate and hordes of titans.
He will find them!
“Eren!” Was it his imagination? “Eren!”
Eren looked down at the street he just passed overhead. A figure waved its arms, heedless of the titans on the next street over. He dove down and landed hard. The force took him to his knees. He steadied with his hands. “Eugh.” He groaned and looked up. “Armin?”
“Oh, my walls, Eren!” Armin surged forward and hugged Eren tightly. “I didn’t know if I’d find you, I’m so thankful I chanced that yell!”
“Armin, what are you doing out here? There are titans – everywhere!” Eren looked down the street, aware of the titan he’d passed earlier. “Where’s Mikasa?”
“She’s got horses and all our gear. If we’re going to leave, Eren, we must leave now.”
His friend truly was a wonder. The city was quite literally being burned down around them, and Armin was worried about enacting the plan they’d put so much time into. Mikasa had horses. That wasn’t even part of the known plan – as far as Eren was aware.
“Where is she?” He checked Armin’s straps and checked his tanks. “And why are you on the ground? Your air and gear are fine, you should be up high where you can see the danger.”
“She’s going to meet us by the Jonesy Tavern. And I was low because there was an abnormal climbing on the roofs, and I don’t know how to use this gear well-enough.” He shrugged. “Come on, Eren. Let’s go!”
Eren gave Armin’s gear a final check. “I’ll lead, I have blades and training. We can’t engage them. Just avoid.”
“I am in complete agreement!” Armin smacked his hip with a hand. He followed Eren up to the rooftops and they were on their way.
In the distance, nearer to the headquarters, Eren could see individuals fighting titans. They hadn’t all died, then. He chewed on his cheek. On one hand, these were the people who abused, ignored, and executed his people. Then on the other hand, just like himself, their home was threatened and invaded.
He didn’t want certain individuals to die. Eren wasn’t completely heartless; there were few among his class who he considered his friends. The people of Trost as a whole… Eren turned his back on them and looked towards the perimeter. Just maybe, with the titans distracted, maybe they could pull this off?
Armin whistled low and swung down into the streets, Eren following. Just outside Jonesy Tavern, Mikasa was watching them. As they drew neared, the two boys could see how stressed she was, her brow pinched tight.
“Finally.” She threw an arm over Eren’s shoulders and gave Armin a thankful pat.
Armin’s face screwed up in disgust. He pinched his nose and withdrew from her hold. Mikasa glared and shoved away from Eren.
“Mikasa, how did you manage this?” Eren stared in awe at the pack of horses she held the lead ropes for. Three had saddles on their backs, ready for riding. Three more were loaded in equipment. All six danced nervously at the crashing and thumping of titans.
“I’ve made a discovery!” She handed each boy a lead for two horses. “I collected the horses as Armin and I planned, but the stable boys had all run off. So, I spent the time rubbing them down and tacking them up. I heard a titan coming closer and I didn’t know what to do – even if I knew how to use the blades, I had none.”
Mikasa pointed inside the stable. “I hid in the stable, rolled myself up in the hay and prayed to Sina that they wouldn’t find me. Then… then they didn’t.”
“What?” Armin and Eren reacted in a startled chorus.
“I think they must smell people to find them. In this city, there are so many human smells that they can’t tell the difference unless they also see the human. The horses all got frightened and the titans sniffed around, but apparently my scent was overpowered by the horses.”
Mikasa shifted on her feet and stared at both boys hard. “You need to do the same. Even if you’re not completely masked, as I was, the least you can do is confuse their senses.”
Armin rubbed his chin and nodded in agreement. “Of course; that’s an excellent idea, Mikasa.” He hesitated and looked at her rumpled clothing. “I’m sorry for pulling away. I guess I’m getting my punishment now!”
Mikasa snorted.
She quickly directed the two in how she covered her scent. Rubbing horse dung into their clothes and stuffing straw into their hair. “That’ll get you started, but you need to hurry up so we can leave.” She cast a look outside at the horses. “They’re going to bolt any minute.”
Eren curled his lips at the state of his clothes. Disgusting. “There are titans everywhere, Mikasa.” He replied. He debated a pile of fresh horse dung. Walls dammit.
“There will be even more once we leave the walls, what’s your point, Eren?” She rebutted, irritated.
Fuck it. Eren picked up the dung and rolled it between his hands. It was cool to the touch, but gooey enough to be from that same day. This was worse than cleaning the men’s latrines – thankfully that usually didn’t involve taking a bath in shit. He looked at Mikasa straight on, while smearing his neck and arms with the stuff.
“You said they also use their sight, well. We’ll still look like humans. They might hesitate, but they’re more likely to try and eat everything than to pick and choose.”
Mikasa’s lips quirked in amusement at his actions. He raised an eyebrow in challenge, even as he moved to rub more dung into his pants. She schooled her expression. “I guess you’ll have to use your training to defend us, in that case.”
“Touché.” Eren acquiesced. He changed the topic. “Moving on, if we run into other cadets or officers, you let me handle them. You’re obviously not part of the corps, but you’re wearing the uniform, so they’ll be confused. I’m counting on the absolute chaos that’s going on, they won’t notice. But…” he splayed his hands to the sides.
“I should hope so!” Armin butted in, emerging from a nearby stall. His face was nearly black with dirt. “I already ran into one member of the garrison and he was surprised I wasn’t at HQ, told me to get moving.”
“Hm?” Eren quirked an eyebrow. “How’d you lose him?”
Armin looked to the side and scratched his neck, peeling a strip of straw away. “He got eaten. As soon as the titan grabbed him, I fled. I didn’t want to be eaten too!”
“As you should!” Mikasa snapped. “Now,” she glared at the two boys. “We need to leave. As you said, Eren, the city is overrun. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to leave.”
They exited the stables, and each mounted a horse. Oddly enough, Eren felt like dragging his feet. In spite of all the atrocities they’d put up with since the fall of Shigansina, he’d grown attached. Somehow. He glared at the cobblestone street, littered with rubble. Why the hell did he feel attached to this place when it wasn’t attached to him?
“Do you feel… do you feel like this is wrong?” Armin asked, breaking the silence that had fallen.
Mikasa rubbed her arm. “I feel like I’m betraying my home.” She replied, soft-spoken.
Lost, Eren looked from Armin to Mikasa and back. “We can’t back down now.” He urged, wavering at their discontent.
“It feels wrong.” Armin reiterated, even as he adjusted his grip on the reins and played with the lead rope. “But you’re right, we can’t back out now.” His mouth twisted into a solemn frown. “If they can’t fix the gates, then there’s just going to be another purge. It’ll be like with Maria, but worse. We need to go.”
As one, they mounted up and turned towards the gates. The mass panic had long since left this section of the city, leaving it desolate and abandoned.
Thump. Thump. A door hung loose on its hinges. Unable to close correctly, it bumped into the frame, only to swing back out and in again. Chickens pecked along the street, hungry for bugs and suddenly freed from their cages.
In the camp, the trainees were taught the standard habits of titans: they hungered for humans and nothing else. A member of the Survey Corps science division came for one week and detailed the information. Experiments with captured titans revealed they held little interest for anything other than humans.
Eren wondered why none had mentioned the titan’s sense of smell. Surely, with their experiments, the Science Division was able to discover something like that? He wondered if they employed scent-concealment during their patrols outside the walls.
When Eren was younger, he yearned for the freedom the walls withheld from him. Shiganshina located where it was, meant the survey corps passed through quite often. There’d been a larger than normal (according to Hannes) force in the Garrison, as well. The Survey Corps and Garrison were such large constant presences in Eren’s life preceding the fall of Maria, and he’d once held them in great respect.
When Eren was younger, he wanted to join the Survey Corps.
Anytime their patrols passed through the city, he ran to watch, shouting in joy at their bravery. He’d return home, filled with the desire to go, escape the walls.
“I hate this.” Mikasa broke the silence, pulling Eren from his reminiscing.
Refocused on their surroundings, Eren couldn’t help but agree. The scenery was like the nightmares he used to have about returning home. Shiganshina was catastrophically destroyed by the invasion. Now, Trost was experiencing a similar fate.
“Eren, could you look ahead?” Armin nibbled on his lip. “I feel blind.”
Eren nodded and pulled his feet from his stirrups. He unhooked the reins from his horse’s neck and passed both reins and the lead to Armin. “I’ll be right back.”