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Chapter Text

In the year 845, two terrifying new breeds of titan, the Colossal and Armored, appeared seemingly out of nowhere and barreled through the gates of the outer walls, killing tens of thousands of innocent people, and leaving even more to be devoured by the regular titans that flooded into the now compromised Wall Maria. The territory couched within the outer wall was abandoned, and what remained humanity fled behind Wall Rose.

Approximately two weeks after that day, two massive objects were seen flying across the sky, one red, the other blue. After the blue object knocked the red one off its course, the red object landed on top of the young Eren Jaeger while he was out alone at night. Kieth Shadis rescued the unconscious Eren from the Meteorite, but when the Garrison regiment arrived to investigate the fallen object further, it had all but disappeared.

In the year 850, the Colossal Titan returned and broke down the gate to the Trost district of Wall Rose, and the Titans flooded in through the broken gate. During the invasion, Eren Jaeger was forced to sacrifice himself to save his best friend, Armin Arlert, from the jaws of a titan.

Armin was stunned for a moment. The last thing he remembered, he was rapidly sliding down the throat of a titan while screaming in terror. The next thing he knew, someone had pulled him out and thrown him onto the roof of a building, and now…

Armin’s eyes bulged as he realized what was happening. He frantically turned around and sure enough, Eren was there in the titan’s mouth, miraculously, yet visibly struggling to hold the titan’s mouth open.

“EREN!!!” Armin screamed frantically.

“I refuse to die like this… understand?!” Eren growled, audibly out of breath. He then desperately reached out to Armin, his hand shaking as he spoke.

Armin crawled forwards as quickly as he could, trying his best to reach his friend and save him, but it was far too late. The titan’s jaws clamped down on his arm, its teeth slicing it off like a guillotine. Armin wailed in abject horror as Eren was unceremoniously swallowed by the titan. Eren was stunned, time seemingly moving in slow motion. As he fell down the Titan’s throat, tears of fury welled up in his eyes.

‘No!’ He thought. ‘No no NO!!! This can’t be how it ends! I refuse to let it end like this! I still have to wipe them all out! For Mikasa! For Armin! For my Mom! I have to get out!’

As Eren screamed mentally, he suddenly saw something in his hand that wasn’t there before. It was a black and green cylindrical object with a silver top and a red button on the side of it. Eren recognized it as an item that, ever since the night he was hit by that meteorite, he always had on him for some reason, and he could never seem to get rid of it. He tried giving it to Mikasa while they went on separate expedition groups in training. Minutes after they separated, Eren found it in his pocket. He tried throwing it in the river. It reappeared in his hand as soon as he turned around, sopping wet. And now, despite leaving it back at the base when all this started, there it was in his hand once again.

And yet, despite all this time of having it, Eren never tested to see what would happen if he pressed the button. But now, with nothing left to lose, Eren clenched his eyes shut and pressed the button, just as he landed in the titan’s stomach fluids.

Armin knelt in front of the Titan as it reached to grab him from the roof he was on. He lowered his head, tears streaming down his face as he accepted his demise. A shadow soon formed over Armin as the titan’s hand reached to grab him. But before it could complete this motion, it stopped. Confused, Armin looked up and saw the titan start to groan as ominous gurgles were heard from within it.

Suddenly, a flashing strobe beacon of red and white light shone out of the titan’s mouth as its midsection expanded and writhed at a sudden and rapid rate before the titan Exploded into a shower of rapidly evaporating blood. Armin was blown back by the explosion but managed to anchor himself in place with his ODM gear. He eventually opened his eyes and then gasped in shock and fear as he saw something rise from the corpse of the titan.

Armin’s first instinct was to believe this was some kind of titan that he was looking at, but it didn’t take a genius to be able to tell that what he was looking at was no ordinary titan, if it was a titan at all. For one, despite possibly being the size of the Colossal Titan, no steam emanated from his body. Additionally, his flesh resembled neither skin nor muscle, instead resembling metal, with many parts of him painted red. Proportionally, he looked more akin to a normal human than any titan ever did, despite having no toes and square ears. He had a small fin on his head, with light yellow, pupil-less eyes, and a blue orb attached to his chest.

Armin gasped, both in awe and fear at this new giant that had suddenly appeared out of the body of a titan. As the giant stood up, he looked down at his hands and appeared… confused? Armin watched, absolutely dumbfounded, as the giant began scanning his own body, checking every part of his form in confusion. Eventually, however, he turned around and seemed relieved. Armin then gasped once more as the giant spoke, and Armin finally heard his savior’s voice.

“Armin! You’re okay!” the giant said.

“E-EREN!?!” Armin shouted. “IS THAT YOU!?!”

The giant nodded. “Yeah, it’s me.”

“What happened to you?!”

“I don’t know! I just pressed the button on that cylinder thing, and then I turned into… this!” Eren gestured to his own body.

As the initial shock of the situation started to wear off for the two boys, Eren and Armin suddenly noticed that a seven-meter titan was gnawing on his ankle. Eren scowled at it, before grabbing it in his gigantic hand and cruising it with ease. It didn’t take long for more titans to flock around the two, so Eren decided to pick up Armin and leave. He planned to try and tiptoe around all the buildings so as not to step on anything or anyone, but a sudden instinct caused him to jump up off the ground. Armin yelped in surprise and clung to Eren’s thumb tightly. However, his eyes snapped open as he realized that once Eren reached the peak of his jump, he didn’t come back down.

Both Eren and Armin looked down to see that the ground was now far below them, with the hoard of Titans clustering beneath Eren’s feet as he remained suspended in the air.

‘Am I… floating?’ Eren thought. He tried maneuvering himself in the air and found himself able to do so without any trouble. ‘HOLY SHIT, I CAN FLY!’

“What is happening?” Armin murmured in exasperation.

Armin fell into a sitting position as Eren flew over the city of Trost to find a safe place to set Armin down. After a while, Eren finally decided to place Armin on top of the wall.

“Now, listen Armin, I need you to stay here,” Eren said. “I’m gonna try to plug the hole in the wall, then I’ll take out the Titans, and after all that’s done, I’ll come to get you down.”

“Plug the wall? How are you gonna do that?” Armin asked.

“Using the bolder you told me about back at the base,” he said. “I know you said it was too heavy for any of us to move, but I have a feeling I’m strong enough to pick it up now.”

Armin nodded. “Alright. But please, be careful.”

Eren gave Armin a thumbs up before hovering off the ground once again, and flying towards the boulder.

-R-

As Eren arrived at the boulder, Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie all stared in astonishment at the sight of the giant being that suddenly appeared. As the giant walked through the city, Bertholdt slowly turned to his comrades and whispered to them.

“You guys don’t think that’s the…” Bertholdt whispered.

“The Founding Titan?” Reiner replied. “I don’t think so. Not much is known about it, but no sources exist that claim it can fly, or that it looks like it’s made of metal.”

“But if it’s not the founder, then what the hell is it?” Annie asked.

“I have no idea,” Reiner replied. “But whatever it is, there’s no doubt it’ll cause problems going forwards.” As the silver giant approached the gate, Reiner turned to face Bertholdt. “Bertholdt, do you think you think you can take that thing on with the Colossal Titan?”

“I-I think so,” Bertholdt replied.

“I doubt it,” Annie interjected. “That thing moves with more speed and fluidity than the Colossal Titan can, and I doubt the steam will be enough to keep it away from you. That’s all besides the fact that he can fly.”

“So what are you saying then?” Reiner replied.

“I’m saying it would probably be in our best interests to simply avoid provoking him entirely.”

-J-

As Jean, Connie, Sasha, and several other scouts sat huddled up on the roves of various buildings, they all suddenly looked on in awe as they saw a gigantic silver man walking through the city, holding a giant boulder in his hand like a baseball, while being careful not to accidentally step on the buildings. Jean pushed past everyone to get a better look and saw that the giant man was actually stomping on the Titans as he passed them by, flattening them utterly before passing on by. Jean was filled with a sense of awe and terror as he watched the towering figure passing through the city. As he watched the silver giant eventually venture out of his line of sight, he suddenly heard Mikasa’s voice nearby.

Jean turned around and saw Mikasa asking around if anyone’s seen Eren’s squad. Jean sighed deeply, before calling out to her.

“Hey! Mikasa! You’re looking for Eren’s squad?”

Mikasa turned around with a worried yet slightly hopeful expression. “Yes! Have any of you seen them?”

Jean sighed. “I wish I had better news for you, but I’m sorry to say, we’re pretty sure they didn’t make it.”

Mikasa gasped, her eyes slightly misty. “N-no…”

“Most of his squad was dead when we got there. No sign of Armin or Eren, but we assume that they were eaten by a titan.”

Mikasa covered her mouth with her hand as tears involuntarily started to stream down her cheeks. ‘Eren… please, no…’

Suddenly, the group felt the ground shake almost as violently as it had when the Colossal Titan appeared. Several of them feared that the Armored Titan had shown up and broken through the wall, but then Sasha called to everyone, pointing to the breach. Looking over at it, everyone was amazed by what they saw.

While their backs were turned to him, the silver giant singlehandedly sealed up the breach with the boulder. Many cadets were stunned into silence, while many more were cheering, their hope finally at least slightly re-invigorated. Mikasa however didn’t pay attention to any of it. Believing the two people she cared about most to be dead, she had completely shut down. She had her face covered with her scarf as she curled up into the fetal position against a chimney.

-E-

Eren dusted off his hands and looked down at the sealed wall with a bit of pride, before turning back to the streets of Trost and seeing a hoard of Titans still on their way toward him. Eren grinned and cracked his knuckles. As the Titans jumped at him, he easily stomped on them like ants and smashed them with his fists until they were left as nothing but puddles of steaming paste. Eren then heard Armin running towards him.

Armin took a moment to catch his breath upon reaching his titanic friend. “Great… job… Eren…”

Eren chuckled and plucked Armin off the wall. “Thanks, Armin. But we still have work to do.”

“Right,” Armin replied from within Eren’s palm. “First thing’s first: we need to let the others know we’re okay!”

“I think I saw them over there,” Eren pointed to their rooftop hideout. Armin nodded and the two soared towards them.

Upon arriving, Eren gently hovered close to the ground and released Armin onto the roof. Upon landing, Jean and Connie expressed shock that Armin was alive, while Mikasa immediately came running and hugged Armin while sobbing over his shoulder. Armin smiled and hugged her back.

“Armin…” Mikasa sobbed. “I was so worried that you… I thought…” As Mikasa clutched his back, her eyes widened as hope returned to her. “A-Armin, if you’re alive… Is Eren alive too?!” She asked while clutching his shoulders.

Armin nodded with a smile, and the joy on Mikasa’s face was indescribable.

“Jaeger survived too?!” Jean blanched.

“Damn right, I did, horse face,” Eren replied smugly.

With an appalled expression, Jean slowly turned around and his jaw dropped to the floor as it donned on him and everyone else that the silver giant was in fact, Eren Jaeger. Mikasa released Armin and slowly stepped toward Eren in disbelief. Eren smiled and slowly lowered his finger down to her. As she placed her hand against the tip of his finger, she began to weep softly. Eren then gently lifted her up in his hand so they could talk face-to-face. Mikasa sobbed openly in his hand while he gently rubbed her back with his other finger.

“Eren, I… I was so worried…” Mikasa gasped and sniffed as she spoke. “I thought I’d lost you…”

“It’s alright. I’m here now,” he replied, curling his finger so that she could embrace it. “I’m okay.”

As Mikasa and Eren talked with eachother, Armin got everyone caught up on Eren’s situation, while Jean got Armin caught up on theirs. After explaining everything to eachother, they began brainstorming ideas for how they could get everyone to HQ. Initially, Eren thought they could simply hook themselves to him, but they quickly found that his body was so durable, their cables actually couldn’t pierce him, and therefore they couldn’t anchor themselves to him. Additionally, even at his size, he couldn’t comfortably carry everyone in his hands. He would have to make at least two trips, and by the time he got back, the Titans may have already reached them. But then, Eren realized that he wouldn’t need to simply escort them. With his newfound power, he could kill all the Titans in Trost on his own, clearing a path for them.

So, that was the plan he went with. Eren began soaring around Trost, killing every titan he came across, with the cadets following him while using their gas sparingly. With his help, Eren was able to lead them all to safety without a single casualty on their end, even picking up some cadets that were left out in the open along the way. Eventually, the cadets reached HQ, where Eren quickly dispatched the Titans surrounding the building without breaking a sweat.

At first, they tried entering the supply room itself, but upon opening the door, they were greeted with seven four-meter-tall Titans swarming the place. They all immediately began chasing the cadets, which prompted screams of terror, and a groan of frustration from Eren as he reached to kill them all. This time, however, Mikasa swooped in and handled each of them for him, using up the last of her fuel in the process.

“Way to go, Mikasa,” Eren complimented.

Mikasa blushed at the compliment and covered her face with her scarf. As everyone went inside, though, they suddenly heard a weird noise that sounded like some sort of blaring siren. They all looked up and saw the orb on Eren’s chest flashing red. No one knew what this meant, but for some reason, Eren instinctively knew to transform back at this point. He placed a hand on his chest and focused. Red and white strobe lights enveloped his body again as he shrank down to the size he was before, still equipped with everything he had on him prior to his transformation, from his clothes to his ODM gear. Accept now, looking down, he saw that his arm and leg had grown back, which was quite a relief for him. He really didn’t want to have to spend the rest of his life hobbling around with only one arm and one leg.

“Eren!” Mikasa called. She pushed her way through the crowd and ran towards him before embracing him. Eren pouted a bit in embarrassment, but accepted it, given that she thought he was dead.

{Several minutes later…}

“...And then, after pressing the button on the capsule, I suddenly transformed into that giant humanoid,” Eren explained.

Everyone else gasped in awe after Eren explained everything to them while sitting on a wooden box, with Armin there to corroborate Eren’s story. They all then began murmuring amongst themselves.

“Their whole squad was wiped out?” One of them whispered.

“The same thing would have happened to us if he wasn’t there.” Another quietly replied.

"How is that even possible?" Someone else asked.

Eren rubbed the back of his head. “If any of you have any questions, I’ll try my best to answer them.”

After a few moments of silence, Marco was the first to raise his hand, and Eren called on her.

"How did you think to do that?" He asked.

"Well, to be honest, I just didn't have anything to lose," Eren said with a shrug. "It's not like I could cut my way out, since my arm was missing. Using my ODM gear to escape was out of the question too. All I could really do was press the button and hope it wouldn't kill me, or do just nothing at all."

Jean then spoke up next. "So why didn't you press the button before?"

"Didn't you just hear what I said? I had no idea what it did." Eren then pulled it out of his pocket and showed it to everyone. "I mean look at it! It's a metal cylinder that suddenly appeared in my hand after I was hit by a boulder that fell from the sky and somehow lived, and no matter what I did I couldn't get rid of it! For all I knew back then, pressing the button would blow us all up, or turn me inside out, or worse!"

Mikasa placed a gentle hand on Eren's shoulder to calm him down. Eren sighed. "Like I said, the only reason I pressed the button inside the titan was because I had nothing to lose. I was probably going to die either way. At least the cylinder had a chance to be useful."

After Jean nodded, Connie was next to raise his hand. "How come you turned back? You always talked about killing all the Titans, so how come you didn't jump over the wall and go ham on them?"

"I… don't know how to describe it," Eren said. "When that light on my chest began blinking red and beeping, I felt this overwhelming sense of dread and urgency. Like I needed to transform back asap, or else I'd die."

"What made you think that?" Jean asked.

"I don't know. A lot of what I learned about my powers in that form, like my ability to fly, or that I needed to transform back to normal after a while were either discovered by accident, or that I just instinctively knew."

Many of the cadets oohed and ahed at Eren's explanation before Marco made a suggestion.

"Well, do you think you could transform again, so we can find out more?"

"Hey, that's a good idea, Marco," one of the cadets said.

"I don't think that's the best idea, guys," Armin said nervously. "W-what if Eren doesn't-"

"I'm fine, Armin," Eren interrupted. "Don't worry about me. Besides, this is as good an opportunity as any to test out whatever other powers I have in my giant form.”

“Speaking of which, what do you think we should call that giant form of yours?” Sasha asked.

Eren hummed to himself and placed a hand on his chin. He thought about a name he could choose for himself for a while, and while he couldn’t think of anything at first, one name suddenly came to mind. He didn’t know why he thought of that name in particular, but for some reason, it seemed fitting to him.

“How about Ultraman?” Eren asked.

The crowd seemed to like the name, so they all ended up going with it. The group then exited the building so they could watch Eren test his powers. Everyone took a few steps back as Eren pulled out the cylindrical object.

“You guys might wanna cover your eyes,” he said.

They all did as they were told and covered their eyes. Eren then held the cylinder up to the sky and pressed the button. The cylinder, now recharged with energy enough energy to sustain a transformation, activated, and Eren was enveloped in white and red light as he once again transformed into the towering Ultraman.

Eren started off by demonstrating his flight to everyone, hovering in the air and then flying in circles above Trost. As he flew through the air, he found himself able to make out all the little details below him, from the tallest of buildings to the smallest of rats scurrying about the city. As he looked around the city though, he also noticed a figure in a green cloak standing atop the blocked-off entrance to wall Maria. The figure was looking up at him, and Eren’s improved vision allowed him to make out the face of the man beneath the hood. And upon realizing who it was, Eren gasped and froze in place.

“Captain Levi?”

Chapter Text

Eren lie on a dungeon bed, his wrists wrapped in shackles. He held his hands up as he observed two items wrapped in both hands. In one hand, he held a golden key attached to a string that his father gave him on the day before he left for the interior. The day everything went to hell. He remembered what his father told him before he left.

“Eren, keep this safe for me. When I come back, I’ll show you what I’ve been keeping in the basement.”

But he didn’t come back. After Wall Maria fell, his father never returned to him. And after Armin’s grandfather died in battle, he, Mikasa, and Armin really only had eachother to rely on.

In his other hand, he held the very thing that got him into this mess in the first place. The metal cylinder which he used to transform into Ultraman. Despite the guards’ many attempts to get it away from him, all they did was discover the hard way that it was impossible to keep it out of his possession. Eren found their attempts to take it from him humorous, providing him with a brief moment of levity in this dank, depressing dungeon.

With little else to do, Eren began to doze off to sleep. The cylindrical capsule rolled out of his hand and onto the ground. Upon impacting the ground, Eren stirred in his sleep as he felt the cylinder enter his pocket, deforming the fabric and pressing gently against his thigh. As Eren lie there, he began thinking about everything that happened. He was relieved that his friends and comrades weren’t afraid of him and wondered what they were doing now. He rolled onto his side as he continued to ponder what’s been happening outside of his cage.

CLANG!!!

Suddenly, Eren’s eyes snapped open and he shot up into a sitting position. He pressed his back against the wall behind him as he saw a woman gripping the bars of his cell and staring in at him. Her eyes looked manic, the look only intensified by her glasses and her messy locks of hair tied into a ponytail. Suddenly, her manic expression shifted to a calm smile as she spoke to him in a… not “gentle,” but soothing tone of voice.

“So then, you must be Ultraman!” She said, surprising Eren. He didn’t realize that name would catch on so quickly. “Or do you prefer I just call you Eren? Well, either way, this is your lucky day! You finally have a chance to get out of here!”

Eren sighed softly, relieved that she was helping him out of there. Though her asking him to put on handcuffs did make him a bit more uncomfortable, he followed her, along with the two guards who were standing in front of his cell, and another soldier that came with her. A blonde man with stubble on his face who was constantly sniffing Eren as they headed toward their destination. The woman introduced herself as section commander Hange Zoe, and her partner as another section commander, Mike Zacharius. Mike stopped sniffing Eren and pulled away. Eren didn’t know why, but Mike seemed to have a bit of a perplexed look on his face. The group kept walking before they eventually stopped at a set of double doors.

“Oh, poo!” Hange shouted. “I’ve just been prattling on, and we’re already here!” she sighed. “Oh well, I guess it’s better if I don’t explain.”

Suddenly, the two Military Police officers began pushing Eren through. Eren tried to protest, but Hange simply shut the doors on him. Turning around, Eren gasped as he realized that he was in a massive courthouse. The front of it was lined with rows and rows of desks, with citizens of the walls lined up behind them. To the left were stands that contained all of the 104th cadets that had seen Eren as Ultraman, as well as most of the members of the scout regiment, a few members of the garrison, and a handful of members of the cult of the walls. To the right, Eren saw almost double the amount of people, from military police officers to merchants, and even some other members of the cult of the walls.

One of the officers jabbed him forwards to the center area, where a pedestal awaited him. He then knelt down and felt a metal column being slid down between his handcuffed arms and kneeling legs, before locking into a hole in the ground, thus preventing him from standing up. One of the MP officers then took the cylinder out of his pocket and walked away with it in his hand. As the officer walked away, Eren began counting down in his head.

‘Three… two… one…’

And then the cylinder reappeared in Eren’s hand.

“W-what?!” The officer said, flabbergasted. He then rounded on Eren angrily. “How the hell did you do tha-”

“I didn’t do anything,” Eren interrupted incredulously. “That’s just a thing that it does.”

After several more failed attempts to take it from Eren, even throwing it across the room, they ultimately conceded and stopped trying to take it from him, and just in time for Premier Zackly to enter the room and step up to the podium at the front of the room. After getting the opening statements out of the way, Zackly explained that because of the difficulty of covering up Eren’s existence as Ultraman, they had to decide how to handle him and disclose his existence. Both the Military Police and the Scout Regiment had a stake in taking him into their custody. He then allowed the Military Police to give their opening case.

The commander of the MPs cleared his throat. “Thank you, sir! My name is Nile Dok, and I am the commander of the Military Police! Our proposal is that after a thorough examination of both his physiology and the device he carries, subject Eren Jaeger should be disposed of immediately! We acknowledge that Jaeger’s ability played a part in turning back the latest Titan incursion, however, his mere existence is creating a swell of rebellious sentiment! For the greater good, after learning what we can about him, we would see him made a fallen warrior of humanity!”

“UNACCEPTABLE!!!” Two wall cultists, both on opposite sides of the room cried.

“This heathen has defiled the sanctity of the walls,” the one next to Nile shouted. “We need to dispose of him now!”

“YOU FOOL!” The other shouted. “Can you not see that he is the chosen savior of mankind?! He bares the blessing of the gods! He is the chosen one!”

“Pater Nick, paster Marcus, please remain silent,” Zackly said.

After the two competing cultists fell silent, Zackly turned and allowed Erwin to give his speech.

“Thank you,” Erwin replied. “As the commander of the Survey Corps, I, Erwin Smith, propose the following; let Eren join our ranks, be reinstated as a full member of the Scouts, and we will utilize his power to retake Wall Maria.”

“Is that all?” The premier asked.

“Yes sir,” Erwin said. “With his assistance sir, I’m certain we can reclaim Wall Maria. Ergo, I believe our top priority is clear.”

“Quite bold. But assuming you are given clearance, where do you intend to launch this operation from? The wall in Trost district has been completely sealed, correct?”

“Quite right,” Erwin said. “So we shall depart from Colonith district instead. A new route can be established as we proceed-”

“BUT THAT’S RIDICULOUS!!!” One of the merchants shouted. “OUR TIME AND MONEY WOULD BE BETTER SPENT SEALING UP ALL THE DISTRICTS! They’re the only parts the Colossal and Armored Titans can break, right? Let's just seal the blasted things and wash our hands of it all!”

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU SPINELESS MERCHANT DOG!!!” A Scout shouted. “THAT POWER OF HIS COULD EASILY RETAKE WALL MARIA!”

Eren looked back and forth as the constant shouting match continued on and on until Zackly finally slammed his hand on his desk to silence everyone.

“ORDER!” Zackly shouted. “I ask that you save your personal sentiments for a more appropriate venue. Now then, Mister Jaeger, you have given the pledge to answer humanity’s call. Can you still serve by controlling your ability?”

“Of course sir!” Eren replied.

“Ah I see,” he said. “But there are reports that tell a much different story.”

Eren’s eyes widened in shock and confusion, as did the rest of the cadets. Suddenly, Darius Zackly turned his attention over to the podium to his left. “Nile, you were the one that brought these reports to my attention. Care to explain them to me?”

“Yes, your honor.” Nile then pulled out a note and began to read from it. “According to eyewitness accounts, two years ago, an entity baring a very similar description to Ultraman began attacking random settlements in the wilderness of Trost, burning them down while slaughtering their citizens of them. The Military Police initially wrote these testimonies off as wildfires or cries for attention, however in light of these recent events, it would be safe to conclude that there is more to these stories than meets the eye.”

Eren’s eyes widened, not surprised at the stories, but that they would tell such an obvious lie. And clearly he wasn’t the only one who felt this way.

“Pretty convenient that you’d hide that from the public until today of all times,” Levi interjected. “It’s also pretty damn convenient that despite Eren’s Ultraman form being reported as being comparable in height to the Colossal Titan, no one noticed a giant, metal man was stomping around trost, smashing towns like an angry toddler. It’s almost as if you’re pulling shit out of your ass to make your side seem more credible.”

Nile began to sweat a bit.

“Captain Levi, there is no need for such accusations,” Darius said, before quietly mumbling “not yet at least,” to himself. “Nile Dok, do you have any further evidence for these claims?”

“W-well, you can go and see for yourself that these villages were burned down! What more proof do you need?”

“But you yourself said that these tragedies were reported as forest fires. How are we to know that these villages were not simply burned down because of that?”

Nile had no response, as his entire argument fell apart. He wasn’t even able to get to his point about how Mikasa and Eren killed three human traffickers at eight years old before Darius made his decision. And with Nile’s failed attempt to smear Eren’s name using faulty evidence causing some people to lose support for his cause, Darius’ decision was quick, easy, and in favor of the Scouts.

-E-

A few days after the trial, Eren had been escorted by the Levi squad toward the Scouts’ old base of operations, a castle out in the woods of Trost where they would be keeping a close eye on Eren. Even despite Eren being clear in the eyes of the court, the Scouts were still cautious about his abilities. If the reports were true, that the Titans chewing on him in that form did absolutely nothing, then they would need to keep a close eye on him to make sure he didn’t fall out of line, even to the point where, once again, Eren had to sleep in the basement.

After a full day of cleaning up the old castle at the behest of Captain Levi, he, Eren, and his squad comprised of Petra Rall, Oruo Bozarde, Gunther Schultz, and Eld Gin sat at a dining room table together, each discussing things over tea. It was mostly about a mission they were gearing up for, and about any cadets that would be recruited to the scouts joining them. However, the conversation quickly turned towards Eren, who froze up as all eyes were pointed at him.

“Most of us still find it hard to believe,” Eld said. “So how does this Ultraman thing work?”

“I-I don’t know…” Eren said. “There’s a lot about this power I still don’t understand. But I do know that when I press this button on the metal cylinder, I immediately transform into that form and that I only have a limited time before I have to turn back, and my power has to recharge.”

“You’re not gonna get anything out of him that we don’t already know,” Levi said. “Of course, that won’t stop Hange from trying.”

Suddenly, as if on command, they heard someone slam into the door, followed by a loud “OW!!!” On the other side. Unfortunately for whoever was running headlong into the door, it was locked before they could get in. Petra unlocked the door, and it opened up, revealing it to be Hange, who was currently rubbing her sore forehead.

“Sorry about that,” she groaned, before regaining her enthusiastic attitude. “Good evening team Levi!”

“Section commander Hange?” Eren gasped.

“Oh, Eren, there’s no need for the formalities. Just Hange will do,” she said. “In the event that you haven’t pieced it together yet, I spearhead the Scout Regiment’s research efforts. Essentially, I poke and prod at our test subjects to get whatever juicy information we can out of them, and I’d like you to help me with that.”

“U-uh, okay, but what would I have to do?” Eren asked.

“Jon me of course! On a quest of scientific discovery~!”

“W-well, I’d be happy to help, but it’s not up to me. I’m still under the orders of the higherups.”

Hange turned to Levi and asked him what Eren was scheduled to do tomorrow.

“Clear out the weeds?”

“Perfect! Nothing important then!” Hange replied. She then grasped his hands and looked into Eren’s eyes with excitement. “Young man, tomorrow will be grand!”

Eren, blissfully still unaware of what he was getting himself into, asked her what they would be doing tomorrow. Hange let out an ominous giggle, prompting Levi and the rest of the squad to leave. She then took the seat that Gunther was previously using.

“Well, my inquisitive friend, if you insist~” She cooed. “But where to start? Oh, I know! I’ll start by getting you better acquainted with the Titans we lucked upon in Trost.”

Hange proceeded to explain in gruesome detail about two abnormal titans that the Scouts were able to capture for study. She left not a single detail unmentioned. From the names she gave them and how she came up with said names, to the various experiments she did on the two, and even the odd grief she felt from harming them. That last bit was what confused Eren the most, and caused him to speak up.

“Commander, all due respect, but how can you be so lighthearted about them?” Eren asked. “You act like they’re just badly behaved pets.”

Hange was silent and gave Eren a stern look, prompting him to continue.

“It’s just… they’re the single greatest threat mankind’s ever faced. They’ve nearly driven us to extinction! You’re a scout. You know that. You’ve seen them in action countless times.”

Hange sighed, her voice now more melancholy. “True. In fact, I’ve seen my fair share of friends die at their hands. When I first joined the Scouts, I fought them out of little more than hot-blooded hatred… but then one day, I came to a realization. I kicked the severed head of a three-meter titan, and it weighed next to nothing. It might as well have been a feather.”

Eren gasped in shock at this. Hange then faced him once again.

“In the realm of improbabilities, this one ranks almost as high as that of your Ultraman power. Their sheer strength argues the opposite. And yet, such was the case for every other titan. Contrary to the appearance of density and mass, the severed limbs were light as tree bark. It’s so bizarre. The only way I can think to describe it is that their appearance doesn’t tell the full story, and in fact stands in contrast to their true appearance.”

Hange poured herself a new cup of tea. “This is why we need a new strategy, one based on knowledge, instead of fear and hatred. It could of course be a waste of time, but even still… nothing ventured nothing gained.”

Eren took a sip of his tea as he contemplated Hange’s words. ‘Joining the Scouts has been an eye-opener. Shock after shock. And it’s not just section commander Hange. Everyone here is a little off. It’s like a sanctuary for crackpots. But still, they’re striving for change! That’s been the appeal of the Scouts all along!’

Suddenly, Hange spoke up again. “But all of that leads me back to why I came here in the first place. You.”

Eren stuttered. “Pardon?”

“You and your powers provide a wealth of knowledge the likes of which we’ve never seen before! And I want to start doing tests with you as soon as possible! In fact,” Hange leaned against the table, her glasses foggy and her face flushed. “I want to start right now!”

“R-right now?! But I thought we were starting tomorrow!”

“Who said anything about that?”

“When you asked-”

Hange cut Eren off. “Oh, that! I was just asking Levi so I’d know if you needed rest before tomorrow. But now I know that I'll have you all to myself! Oh, I can't wait to find out what makes you tick!"

Eren gulped nervously as Hange took his hands and led him outside. Once outside, Hange squealed with glee as she hopped in place.

“Well, don’t just stand there!” She said. “Transform already!”

“W-wait, but I can’t transform without Levi’s permission.”

Hange continued to beg Eren to transform for her. However, in the middle of their banter, the two suddenly heard the agonized screams of two titans being killed nearby. Hange and Eren both looked to see a nearby enclosure with steam rising from it.

“NOOOOOOO!!!” Hange screamed as she sprinted towards the enclosure. However, when she arrived, it was too late.

She screamed in emotional agony, tears streaming down her cheeks as she saw the bodies of Sonny and Bean, the napes of their necks completely severed. Hange ran up to them and leaned against Bean’s face while sobbing.

“MY SWEET BABIES!!! WHO DID THIS TO YOU!?!” Hange cried.

As Eren approached, he looked up and saw three hooded figures up above them. “Hey! You three! What do you think you’re doing?!” They heard Eren call out to them and immediately tried to flee. “HEY! GET BACK HERE!”

Eren reached up his cylinder to transform but paused. He could get in serious trouble for using his powers without authorization from Captain Levi. But then, Hange stood up, her back still turned to him.

“Eren, turn into Ultraman and stop them,” she growled.

“B-but I can’t do it unless-”

Hange swung around, an enraged and mournful expression on her face. “TO HELL WITH LEVI! I’M GIVING YOU PERMISSION! NOW GO AVENGE SONNIE AND BEAN ALREADY!!!”

Eren relented and exited the enclosure before transforming into Ultraman. As Ultraman, Eren started flying just a few meters over the land, easily able to outfly the figures’ ODM gear. Eren landed in front of them and grabbed one of the perpetrators while the other two zipped around him. Eren then dangled the cloaked man by his cables to get a good look at him. His eyes widened when he saw who was beneath he cloak.

“B-Bertholdt?!” Eren stuttered.

Berthold gasped and hyperventilated, eventually screaming in terror as he suddenly chomped down into his own hand. Eren wondered what the purpose of this was, until suddenly, Bertholdt was enveloped in a bright light, and a massive explosion of steam enveloped the two of them. The explosion was so loud that it woke up all the other members of the Survey Corps. Levi, his squad, and Erwin all exited the building and found Hange sobbing before the corpses of Sonnie and Bean. In the distance, they could see an enormous cloud in the shape of a mushroom.

“What the hell is going on?!” Gunther shouted.

“Did Jaeger go rogue?!” Oruo cried out.

“No,” Hange replied, wiping away her tears. “I made him go after them.”

“After who?” Levi asked.

“The bastards who did this…” Hange pointed to the evaporating corpses of Sonny and Bean.

Before Levi could ask any further questions though, his squad gasped in shock, prompting Levi to look up. His eyes widened as the mushroom cloud cleared, and at the center of it stood the Colossal Titan himself, steam billowing off of his body, as well as Eren in his Ultraman form.

“Holy shit…” Levi said.

“Indeed,” Erwin responded. “It seems that we’ve managed to lure the Colossal Titan out,” Erwin called out to the others. “All troops! Equip your ODM gear at once! We can not waste this chance to defeat the Colossal Titan! If we win here, it will be the greatest victory we’ve had against the Titans in all of mankind’s history! NOW, MOVE OUT!”

-B-

Bertholdt’s hands were trembling with fear. Never did he have to face something even close to his own size before. Never could he have imagined that there even existed any entity in this world that could meet the Colossal Titan at eye level. And what made it all the more horrifying to Bertholdt was that this thing was completely unscathed by his nuke ability, the Colossal Titan’s strongest attack. If that wasn’t enough to beat Eren, then what was?

Still, regardless, Bertholdt raised up his fists defensively. If nothing else, the nuke seemed to have at least stunned Eren. Bertholdt never used the Colossal Titan for combat before, but he had to this time. Reiner and Annie were depending on him to protect them. So, he raised his fists and took a swing at Eren. The punch was so powerful that Bertholdt broke his hand against Eren’s face. 

Nothing happened to Eren.

“You…” Eren gasped.

Berthodt’s eyes widened as he realized the truth. The explosion truly did nothing to Eren. He wasn’t stunned with pain or anything. He was stunned with rage. He then looked back at Reiner and Annie. They were a good distance away, but not quite far enough. They needed more time.

Bertholdt threw another bone-shattering punch at Eren’s face. Again, nothing.

“You…” Eren snarled.

Berthold began weeping within his titan’s nape, the tears instantly evaporating as he thought about all the many things he had done, and how many regrets he’s be taking with him to the grave. However, seeing Reiner and Annie had managed to escape, Bertholdt was at the very least able to accept his death, knowing he at least did something with his miserable, worthless life.

“YOU TRAITOR!!!” Eren screamed as he landed a punch on Bertholdt’s face.

-E-

That one punch was the most devastating thing the island of Paradis had ever seen. It wiped out everything in its path. The trees, the hills, the grass, the ground, everything was gone. Reduced to dust. And the Colossal Titan? Or Bertholdt within?

Gone.

Completely and utterly vaporized.

The Scouts were beneath him on horses. They thought this would be an epic battle that may cost them many lives, but their sacrifices would ultimately be in service of bringing humanity to a brighter future. But instead, it was little more than a horrifying demonstration of Eren’s insurmountable power.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Bertholdt may have thought Reiner and Annie were safe now, but he was wrong. Using his extended vision, Eren was able to pinpoint Reiner and Annie from a distance and flew straight toward them. Reiner transformed into the Armored Titan to try and outrun Eren, but all that did was make him easier for Eren to grab. Eren then blasted upwards while screaming furiously, carrying the Armored Titan in the palm of his hand while Annie was left gasping in shock. That could have been her. And she was infinitely fortunate that it wasn’t.

Eren eventually found himself crash-landing on the moon. However, his fury was so intense that he didn’t even notice where they were. He lifted the fist that held the Armored Titan, about to slam down his other fist onto him, but then he finally stopped. He slowly turned around and saw a vast, blue ball, covered in green spots, with white splashes slowly gliding across it. The top and bottom of it were dashed with snow. As Eren gazed upon the planet, he slowly came to realize what he was seeing.

It was Earth. It was his world, in all its beautiful glory.

Eren shed a single tear as he suddenly felt all the rage, hatred, and pain coursing through his body melt away. He threw Reiner’s titan down to Earth and then took a seat on a rock as he silently gazed at the Earth.

‘This must be what true freedom feels like,’ Eren thought. He reached out a hand to the planet and smiled. ‘It’s so beautiful… Mikasa, Armin, I can’t wait for you two to experience this.’

-L-

The scouts eventually arrived at the spot where Eren took off with Reiner. However, when they got there, they were too late. Whoever the third person was, they were already long gone. Hange cursed loudly and stomped on the ground while Mike sniffed around the area.

“Any idea where they went?” Levi asked.

“Not a clue,” Mike replied. “The smell of the Armored Titan and Ultraman is masking their sent.”

“Damn it,” Levi hissed before his eyes widened slightly. “Wait, the Armored was here too?”

“Yeah. By my guess, it appeared just as Eren reached the other two.”

As Levi and Mike continued investigating, Petra looked up at the moon, wondering what was going to happen now that their two biggest threats were probably dead, both by the hands of Eren, and both probably in one shot. This whole situation was absolutely mind-boggling to her. However, as she thought about this, she suddenly saw a little black spot on the moon, and it was slowly expanding. But then she realized that spot was actually a figure in the sky approaching them. It was Eren, flying down toward them, seeming a lot more calm than before.

As he landed before them, they saw that his chest light was flashing red, and he quickly transformed back to normal. And as soon as he did, he saw Captain Levi there and saluted him.

“S-sir, I’m sorry for transforming without your authorization,” Eren said. “I didn’t-”

“It’s fine, Jaeger,” Levi sighed. “Four eyes already explained everything to me. The real pain in the ass is that we just lost our chance to learn anything useful about the Colossal and Armored Titans.”

Eren suddenly had a downcast look on his face. His time spent on the moon was so wonderful that he almost forgot the reason he was up there in the first place.

“A-actually captain, there was something I did learn about them… b-before they died…” Eren said, feeling the urge to vomit just thinking about it.

Levi said nothing. He, Erwin, and Hange all listened intently.

“Th-the Colos-” Eren choked up. “...The Colossal… a-and the Armored… they were the cadets Bertholdt Hoover… and R-Reiner Braun.”

-R-

The waves gently crashed against the beaches of Paradis Island, the water glistening beneath the pale moonlight. On the beach, several massive, wet footprints lead into the forest. Slowly, the Armored Titan lumbered forwards, now having been rid of most of his armor so that he wouldn’t sink to the bottom of the ocean when Eren threw him from the moon back to Earth. It was a miracle in and of itself that the titan body was able to insulate Reiner from the intense heat upon re-entry.

Any sane person at this point would have just given up and gone home, cutting their losses and counting their blessings. However, Reiner just kept moving forwards. He had to keep moving forwards, in spite of all logic, in spite of all reason. He had to prove that Marcel and now Bertholdt’s sacrifices were not in vain. Besides that, Annie was still on the island, and she needed his help now more than ever.

However, as steam billowed off of the body of his titan, he knew he wouldn’t be able to sustain it for much longer. So, the Un-armored Titan collapsed somewhere in the woods, steam billowing off of his body. Eventually, Reiner rose from his Titan’s nape, the strands of muscle still in his cheeks. Reiner didn’t have the strength to even pull them out. He barely had any strength left at all.

He didn’t even have the strength to try and move out of the way as he saw a figure approaching him. The figure eventually climbed up onto the Titan body and crouched down next to him. Their blue eyes gave off an ominous glow as they stared into his. 

“Greetings, Reiner Braun,” they said. “Good to see Ultraman failed to dispose of you. I would have preferred all three of you be together, but you will still be useful to me.”

Reiner groaned softly. “Who are you…?” He mumbled weakly.

“Me? I am a friend.” They then lifted Reiner out of his Titan body and began to carry him back toward the walls on their back. “You may call me… Bemular.”

Chapter Text

-A-

Down in a dark, secluded area, hidden from anyone else who could hear her, Annie sat huddled up in a corner, curled up into the fetal position, more terrified than she ever had been in her entire life. What she saw last night flipped her entire world on its head. That thing was so much more powerful than anyone could have imagined. She knew Bertholdt probably wouldn't have won against Eren in that form, but to see him get utterly eradicated with just one punch, then see Reiner get snatched up and flown to the moon in the blink of an eye changed everything for her. She knew now that they made a huge mistake antagonizing these people again and again. And now, she was alone. She didn't know what to do, or what she could do. And she was scared.

She was already associated with Reiner and Bertholdt. One wrong move and she was dead for sure. She couldn't make an escape attempt, as that would arouse suspicion, and she'd die. She knew couldn't take the metal cylinder from Eren because she saw firsthand that it would just reappear in his pocket or his hand, at which point Eren would know she was just as guilty as Reiner and Bertholdt, and she'd die. She could try completing the mission, but that would be pointless. What if Eren found out? Then she'd just die. Annie started to cry tears of fear as she ran her fingers through her hair. It was truly hopeless. There was nothing she could do. She was just going to die, and she'd never get to return to her father. With the weight of the situation mounting upon her, Annie began audibly weeping into her knees, that weeping eventually turning into a full-on sob.

As Annie kept wailing in the dark, she suddenly heard the door to the room she was in creak softly as it slowly opened. Light pierced through the darkness of her room, revealing brooms, mops, and other cleaning supplies stacked on top of eachother or on shelves. Annie slowly looked up, her eyelids puffy and damp, as she saw a short person with similar golden locks of hair to hers standing at the door, looking surprised by what he was seeing.

"Annie?" Armin asked. "What are you doing in here?"

Annie's heart began beating out of her chest as Armin stared down at her. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was worried about her, but she couldn't help but feel nervous seeing him here, especially like this. Armin entered the broom closet and knelt down in front of her.

"Annie, have you been crying?" Armin asked. 

Annie silently nodded. No use denying this of all things. Armin took a seat next to her.

"Is it because you're worried about the Titans?" Armin asked.

Annie nodded again. This was a lie, but telling Armin the truth about what she was crying about could be a death sentence.

"I understand," Armin said. "If I'm being honest, I'm terrified to see the Titans again. Even with Eren's powers, the Titans are still just as terrifying to me now as they were five years ago."

Annie shuddered as she felt Armin place a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"But you said you were going to the Military Police," he said. "You'll never have to worry about the Titans again."

Annie's eyes widened as she ended up misinterpreting what Armin said. She found herself thinking that Armin was pointing out the flaws in her story, instead of trying to reassure her that she had nothing to fear. So, in a panic, she ended up digging herself deeper.

"I'M JOINING THE SCOUTS!!!" She declared. Armin recoiled in shock while Annie mentally berated herself.

'WHY DID YOU SAY THAT!?!' She thought. 'WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST TELL HIM THAT YOU WERE TRAUMATIZED BY THE TITANS OR SOMETHING!?! DO YOU WANT TO DIE!?!'

"Annie…" Armin gasped sympathetically.

"I… I want to make a real difference," Annie lied. "I need to fight for humanity, to retake my home!"

'No… maybe this is a good idea actually!' She thought. 'All other paths only lead to my death because I'm Eren's enemy. But if I stay on his side, I could be safe knowing that there’s a chance he wouldn't hate me.'

"I'm terrified, but Trost has proven to me that no matter what regiment I choose, I’ll be facing the Titans again eventually," she said. "The Armored and Colossal titans could barrel through the walls at any time. At least this way, we're taking the fight to them."

'It's not like I'm forsaking Marley or anything. I'm still loyal. I'm still a warrior. I'll still return to my father.'

"A-Annie… Are you sure about this?"

Annie nodded. "I've already made up my mind. Besides, a little mouse like you needs someone to protect him."

Armin's flushed cheeks brightened at that comment. "H-hey! I'm not a burden or anything! I can take care of myself!"

Annie smiled slightly as she watched Armin stammer.

'I'm still loyal…'

Later…

“And when did you last replace your shaft?” One of the MP officers asked.

“A-after the mop up, sir,” Marco replied. “So, about six weeks ago.”

After being cleared, Marco saluted them and walked off, taking his gear with him. Krista Lenz was next to be inspected. After the two titans were killed the night before, the Military Police began inspecting the gear of all the cadets to find out who the third culprit may be. Annie expected something like this to happen and had a secondary set of gear prepared just in case. Thankfully, no one seemed to catch onto her ruse. Not even Armin.

Speaking of which, while she was waiting for her gear to be inspected, she overheard Connie talking to Armin about what regiment they were joining. In the middle of their conversation, it came up that Jean was considering becoming a Scout.

“Him too?” Armin whispered.

“Hugh? What do you mean ‘too?’” Connie asked.

“Annie says she’s joining the Scouts as well,” Armin explained.

“Seriously?!” Connie leaned past Armin. “Annie, why would you want to join them?!”

“...” Annie grunted softly. “It doesn’t matter anymore which regiment I join, fighting the Titans will be inevitable. I see that now.”

“Then why-?”

“Because I don’t want my death to be meaningless,” she stated. “I want to do something good for once in my life.”

Annie felt the cold chill of guilt crawl up her spine after saying that. Armin looked down and noticed her hands trembling. He gently grasped one to try and calm her down, then gave her a reassuring smile.

“If we work together, we won’t end up dying,” he said. “We can make it through together.”

She sighed. “Maybe…”

“Come on Armin, don’t tell me you’re going too!” Connie groaned.

“That’s been my goal from the very beginning,” Armin replied.

Annie lowered her gaze to her gear and released Armin’s hand. “Tell me something,” she said. “If someone ordered you to die, would you do it?”

Armin nodded. “Y-yeah. I might if I knew my sacrifice meant something, and the situation truly called for it.”

For some reason, Armin’s answer hurt Annie more than she expected it to.

The Scouts were still left reeling from the discovery of the titan shifters Reiner and Bertholdt, as well as the subsequent deaths of both parties. Eren in particular was still recovering from his feelings of betrayal after that night. It was unfathomable to Eren that Bertholdt, and especially Reiner would do something like that, betraying humanity so callously. How could they live with themselves after killing so many people? Eren remembered the cadets being able to tell the weather that day based on Bertholdt’s sleeping position, but now, thinking about how peacefully Bertholdt was able to sleep made Eren want to puke.

And yet, he wasn’t able to hold onto that anger, because with that memory of betrayal came a memory of freedom. Of Eren soaring to the cosmos and looking down on the world. The vast, enormous world just waiting for him and his friends to explore. It was a beautiful world and one that he hoped Mikasa and Armin would one day be able to see for themselves.

While Eren thought back fondly on the sight of the world from orbit, he was brought out of his trance by Eld and Gunther calling to him. Eren looked toward them and away from the horse he was feeding, and they asked him if there was anyone in his class who would be enlisting in the Scouts.

“Yeah, there are a few,” he answered. “Or at least there were. After Trost, I’m really not sure…”

“FALL IN!” A voice called. Gunther and Eld stood up and saluted Levi as he rode over on his horse. “Make ready people. We’re moving out.”

Eren hurried over and saluted Levi. “Good morning, captain! Reporting for duty, sir!”

“Eren, you’ll be within ten meters of me at all times,” he said. “The only reason you’re out of your cell is because I’m watching you. Understand?”

“Yes sir!” Eren confirmed.

“Good. Now let’s ride.”

With that, the four of them climbed onto their horses and rode off. Eren stuck to Levi like glue the entire time as they rode off into the distance, toward the cadet campgrounds.

As the day turned to dusk, the cadets of the 104th stood before a stone platform illuminated by torches. Atop the podium stood Erwin Smith, the leader of the survey corps, who introduced himself to the cadets, and gave his opening statement. Within the crowd, Annie stood close to Armin. She didn’t stand next to him, as Mikasa was already there and she wanted at least some distance between them. Eventually, Erwin reached the part of his speech that caught everyone’s attention.

“In the aftermath of the Trost incident, we were given a new chance for victory,” Erwin said. “I of course refer to Eren Jaeger. After selflessly risking life and limb, he has proven loyalty to our cause. Hope lives in him. Eren didn’t just help us curb the Titan invasion. He has successfully defeated both the Colossal and Armored Titans, and offered us a means to discern the truth of all Titans.”

Everyone besides Annie gasped at the information put forth by Erwin, who continued to explain.

“Intel suggests that the cellar of Jaeger’s home holds a vital secret regarding our enemy. We will locate this cellar, find this secret, and use it and the might of Ultraman to bring an end to the Titans’ one-hundred-year reign once and for all!”

Everyone began muttering amongst themselves, some even pre-emptively clapping, especially after learning that the Colossal and Armored Titans were dead.

‘I know the Scouts desperately need recruits, but going public with this is out of line!’ Armin thought. ‘Maybe it’s a ploy? A covert strategy? But then the question is… who does he intend to catch?’

‘You can back out of this at any time,’ Annie thought. ‘You don’t have to do something as drastic as helping the devils of Paradis… But they’re not devils, are they? These are people. People you helped kill thousands of. Their blood is on your hands. The least you can do is try to atone. And besides that, what choice do you have? They have Ultraman. Marley doesn’t.’

“Before we can reach the aforementioned cellar in Shingonshina, another problem must be dealt with. We must first retake Wall Maria. Of course, this is easier said than done.” Erwin then stepped to the side as Petra and Mike pulled out a map of the walls, with a giant red X over Trost district. “Now that Trost has been rendered inaccessible, we’ll be forced to stage future operations in the Colonith district further east. Additionally, since the battalion route we’ve spent four years establishing will be rendered useless to us. Over those four years, we’ve incurred losses as high as sixty percent. Sixty percent in four years. That’s a horrifying figure.” He then turned around as he heard the horses arrive. “However, that’s where our trump card comes in.”

In the back of the building, as Eren, Gunther, Eld, and Levi stepped off of their horses, Levi turned to face Eren.

“Look Jaeger, as much as I argued against it, Erwin and Hange convinced me to let you transform for the ceremony,” Levi said.

Eren’s eyes widened. “R-really? But why?”

“Erwin says he wants to give the cadets a show when you’re ready to go on stage,” he explained. “Just don’t do anything stupid, and I won’t kick your ass.”

“R-right sir!” Eren said.

They then heard Erwin mention the Scouts’ trump card, and that was Eren’s cue. He made some space between himself and the others and then pressed the button on his capsule.

The crowd gasped as they saw lights flashing behind the building, before a giant rose up, with one fist raised up in the air. Immediately, the cadets began cheering and clapping for Ultraman like he was a celebrity. Ultraman then flew up into the air and flew in circles before hovering just over the podium and turning back to his human form. Eren landed safely on the ground and saluted the crowd, who were still roaring the name of the hero of Trost.

All except Annie, who had her mouth covered, withholding the urge to vomit or cry out upon seeing Ultraman again, and this soon, as it finally donned on her that she would be working alongside the first person in god knows how long to make her feel genuine, intense fear. But it was either that, or try to flee/sabotage him and risk invoking his wrath.

“With a single strike, Ultraman was not only able to destroy the Colossal Titan, but flatten much of the countryside behind the Colossal Titan as well,” Erwin said. “He also withstood attacks from the Colossal Titan with absolutely no damage sustained. In fact, it would hardly be a stretch to say that as Ultraman, Eren is invincible.”

Before the crowd could applaud again, Erwin continued. “That being said, Eren is not omnipotent. His transformation, while powerful, only lasts a few minutes at a time. From what our tests have found, Eren can maintain his transformation for only about three to ten minutes, before his powers need to recharge. Because of this, there is no guarantee that he will be able to save you all when you need him most. All that being said, whoever still wishes to put their lives on the line and join us, remain here. But first ask yourselves, ‘Can you give your hearts, can you give everything for humanity?!’”

For Annie, that wasn’t the question she was asking herself. As many of the cadets passed her by, there were many things she was asking herself.

‘Why am I even here? What was the point of all this? Was there ever any point to all this? I don’t even know anymore. All I know is that my goal has always been the same: Survive. And right now, there’s only one way I can survive. And that’s by proving myself to be Paradis’ ally before they find out I’m their enemy.’

And with that, there the newest recruits of the Scouts stood, with their arms crossed behind their backs.

“I ask you,” Erwin said. “If you were ordered to die, would you do it?”

“We don’t want to die, sir!” Jean called.

Erwin smiled and allowed Eren to step forward.

“You won’t!” Eren declared with a determined smile. “Not while I’m around!”

“You who stayed, you are officially a part of the Scout Regiment!” Erwin exclaimed. “This is a genuine salute soldiers! Together we give our hearts!” Erwin and Eren both saluted the crowd, and the crowd returned that salute. “Those of you standing here have proven yourself courageous. You have all earned my respect.”

For the next few days, the newly recruited cadets were trained for the Scouts. However, few of the training sessions were combat-oriented, instead focusing on memorizing Commander Erwin’s Long Range Scouting Formation. Despite how meticulously detailed the formation was, Eren’s position was somewhat less clear. While most of the Scouts didn’t know why, the truth was that it was to protect Eren from the third person who attacked that night, whose identity was still unknown. This position was only truly relayed to Eren and the Levi squad, as they were the only ones who needed to know this information.

“Our special ops squad will be positioned here, at the back of the center rank,” Gunther said. “That’s the safest possible position in the formation.”

“So we’ll be pretty far back,” Eren commented. “But shouldn’t I be upfront, killing Titans? I mean, I am the Scouts’ trump card, after all.”

“Don’t let Erwin’s praises get to your head, kid,” Oruo chastized. “Besides, that’s exactly why we don’t want you up there!”

“As much as I hate to admit it, Oruo’s got a point,” Petra said. “What if while you’re up at the front, you suddenly run out of juice? Now we’re down our strongest soldier for at least the next half hour. The formation might not last that long if we’re in serious danger, so we have to save you only for when we absolutely need you.”

“Hince why you’re getting more special treatment than the supply wagons,” Gunther said. “Our goal is just to leave, then come back. This is only a test run to see if we have a shot at getting you all the way to Shingonshina.”

Eren sighed. “Understood, sir.”

After several more days of training, Eren and the other recruits were finally given some time to just relax and talk about what had been happening. Upon meeting with everyone, and after answering everyone’s questions about his “fight” with Bertholdt, Mikasa took the opportunity to pull Eren aside so she could talk to him one-on-one like she had been hoping to ever since she found out he was still alive.

“So they haven’t been mistreating you at all?” Mikasa asked worriedly while holding his hand. “They haven’t subjected you to any kind of cruel experiments, have they?”

“N-no, not at all!” Eren said, trying to reassure her. “Have you been alright?”

“I’ve been fine, but are you sure you’re okay? You had to fight the Colossal Titan after all. I just want to make sure that you-”

“Mikasa!” Eren grabbed both of her hands. “I promise you, I’m fine. There’s nothing you need to worry about.”

Mikasa and Eren’s cheeks suddenly reddened as they both realized the position they were in, staring into each other’s eyes with their hands intertwined. Mikasa’s heart began pounding loudly while Eren blinked several times, unsure of what to do.

“JUST KISS ALREADY!”

Eren and Mikasa yelped and turned to the side to see Sasha and Connie sitting on some boxes, both of them giggling as they watched the two squirm in embarrassment. Eren tried in vain to insist that wasn’t where things were headed, while Mikasa simply buried her face in her scarf.

Reiner sipped some coffee out of a mug while huddled up in a shelter just outside Wall Maria. The walls were made using clay bricks, with a fireplace, two windows, and a crude wooden door. In the corner of the room was a single bed also made out of clay, with a mattress and blanket, both of which were stolen from houses in Trost. As Reiner drank the coffee, he heard the door open and Bemular, the person who saved him last night, entered the room.

Bemular’s appearance gave no real indication as to whether they were male or female and when asked, Bemular simply requested to not be referred to as either, so Reiner complied with said request. They were entirely covered in silver armor from head to toe, yet it in no way hindered their movement. The armor bore spikes along the head and neck, as well as the biceps, forearms, thighs, and calves. Speaking of the neck, their neck was quite long. Not ridiculously long, but quite a bit longer than a human’s neck, the first indicator that whatever was beneath that armor wasn’t a human. The second indicator would have to be the fact that they had a tail. Their tail, which was also completely armored, was seldom rigid, and always swayed about even when they were standing still. Their curvy legs ended at a pair of high heels, causing Bemular to strut instead of walk.

“Enjoying your coffee, mister Braun?” Bemular asked cordially as they took a seat in front of Reiner. “I hope so. You have no idea how difficult it was for me to get my hands on it.”

“Erm, it’s good,” Reiner replied, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. “Aren’t you gonna have any?”

“No, I’ll pass,” they replied. “Caffeine is quite toxic to my species. I’ll just have water.”

Bemular poured themself a mug of water they gathered from the ocean. They then pressed a button on the side of their helmet, retracting the Armored plates around their mouth. Reiner shuddered as he saw Bemular’s toothy maw, mostly comprised of canines with a few molars way in the back. Bemular sipped some of the salty ocean water before setting the mug down and shutting their helmet once again.

“So uh… what exactly do you want from me?” Reiner asked.

Bemular let out an ominous chuckle, before leaning forwards, their elbows pressed against the table and their fingers laced together.

“I need your help to kill Ultraman,” they said.

Reiner was stunned for a moment, unsure how to respond, before finally asking in a perplexed tone of voice, “Why me? What can I do to help you with that?”

“Oh, there are many things you could offer me. The most useful of which is your genetics.”

“M-my genetics?” Reiner asked.

“Indeed. You may not realize it yet, but you have great potential,” They said in a seductive tone. “You see, using my suit, I’ve done a few scans on you, and I’ve found out that you are quite an interesting specimen indeed. You see, coursing through your veins is the blood of one of the most powerful, yet rarest species across the universe,” they explained. “You bare the blood of the Reionics within you.”

“The Reionics?” Reiner pondered.

‘Why does that name sound familiar?’ He thought. ‘Not just that it sounds like my name. It sounds like I’ve heard that specific word somewhere before.’

“Indeed. They are a race of aliens capable of controlling and amplifying monsters, bending them to their will using these,” Bemular opened up a compartment on their armor and pulled out a small, rectangular handheld device. “This is a Battlenizer, an item that can only be utilized by the Reionics. And now it’s yours.”

Reiner slowly took the Battlenizer from Bemular, and upon taking it, it automatically responded to him and glowed brightly, before morphing into a new form, with a coloration and design that resembled that of the Armored Titan. Bemular grinned beneath their mask as the Battlenizer bonded with its new user.

Chapter Text

-R-

“So, Reiner, how are you holding up back there?” Bemular asked as the two trudged across gravel.

Bemular had taken him to a more rocky and desolate part of Paradis Island. There were only a few Titans in this area, instead mostly populated with normal animals. Bemular had their arms crossed behind their back as they strutted ahead of Reiner. Reiner meanwhile had a knife in his hand, ready to slash it across his other hand and transform into the Armored Titan should anything come their way.

“As well as I can after finding out I’m half alien,” Reiner replied. “Though needless to say, my mom’s gonna have a lot of questions to answer when I get home.”

Bemular chuckled, then stopped in place.

“We’re here,” they said.

“Okay, but where is here?” Reiner asked, starting to get frustrated.

“We’ve reached our first monster’s domain.” Bemular took a knee and placed their hand on the ground.

“Okay, so what do we do now?”

“Step back. I’m about to summon it.”

Reiner did as he was told and took a few steps back. Bemular then focused their energy into their hand, which began to glow red. Reiner then stumbled as he felt the energy pulse into the ground beneath them, causing it to shake ever so slightly. Bemular then stood up and stepped back as the ground began to quake much more violently. Eventually, the ground before them began to deform, and something massive began to rise from beneath the ground.

“Now it’s up to you Reiner!” They called. “When the monster emerges, you need to use your Battlenizer!”

“But I don’t even know how to work this thing!” Reiner shouted back.

“You’ll figure it out! Now be ready!” Bemular then looked back as the monster finally emerged and roared furiously at being awakened from its slumber. “It’s time.”

Later…

“Commander, the time approaches,” a garrison soldier said to Commander Erwin. He then addressed the rest of the scouts. “TITANS IN THE VISCINITY HAVE BEEN LURED AWAY! THE GATE OPENS IN THIRTY SECONDS!”

As Eren stood, awaiting the expedition to begin, he heard two kids gasping in awe at them. He looked in the direction of the noise and saw the two in their open window. Eren smiled at them as they showed their excitement. After thirty seconds had passed, the gate finally opened.

“FORWARD!!!” Erwin roared. His white horse neighed, and it and the rest of the horses galloped through the gates together as a unit. “IT’S OFFICIALLY BEGUN! THE FIFTY-SEVENTH RECON MISSION! SCOUTS, MOVE OUT!!!”

As they rode out of Colonith and into Wall Maria, Hange caught sight of a ten-meter titan with a massively bloated midsection and an equally massive forehead, its face locked in a permanent grimace. Two Scouts leaped out to fight it and protect the rest of the group while they rode off into the distance, and eventually split up. At the furthest reaches of the formation, one of the scouts noticed an odd shadow overhead and looked up. But by then, it was already far too late for her.

Eventually, the scouts splintered off into the long-distance formation Erwin had crafted. Many of the Scouts found themselves having close calls with the Titans, but none of them were that damaging to the formation. Among these sections of the formation, Armin found himself riding alone, but guiding a second, vacant horse alongside him, this horse being one of the ones that the two Scouts back at the gate left behind. Armin was relieved that up until now, he hadn’t had the misfortune of encountering a titan. However, at one point, Armin saw a black smoke signal coming from a nearby forest. Dieter Ness and Luke Cis, who were tailing the titan, managed to dispatch it together, and Armin cheered the two on. 

However, while they were climbing back onto their horses and about to ride off, the two, as well as Armin, saw another abnormal approaching them. But… as Armin looked closer, his eyes widened in terror as he realized what it was.

“Gah, I hate these things,” Ness groaned. “What did we do to deserve two in a row?! It’s bad enough that it’s an abnormal, but it had to be fifteen mete-”

But then, as the two were talking, the fifteen-meter “abnormal” Titan barreled through them, nearly stepping on the two. As they looked up at it, they realized what they were truly looking at.

“THE ARMORED TITAN!?!” They both shouted in unison.

“Reiner…” Armin gasped, as he fired off a black flair. There was no signal for the Colossal or the Armored, as both were presumed dead. This was the best he could do to warn everyone. Thankfully, it managed to catch the attention of a certain blonde girl who had been stationed near Armin.

“Damn it! We have to keep it away from Arlert!” Ness shouted.

“On it!” Cis replied before leaping off his horse and grappling onto the Armored titan’s back.

Cis tried to slash out the nape, only to find that his armor was so sturdy that not even his blades could pierce it. In response to this attack, Reiner grabbed Cis, with both hands and snapped him in two with one quick motion. He then grabbed Ness and did the same to him. Armin screamed as he watched the two veteran Scouts be slaughtered by the Armored Titan who continued to barrel towards him. Things only went from bad to worse as Armin yelped and pulled his horse to a halt when he saw another abnormal in his path.

This abnormal lacked skin in several areas and bore the distinct form of a woman instead of a man like every other titan. The titan didn’t move, seemingly staring at the Armored Titan in surprise. Armin could practically see gears turning in her head, but pulled the horses in another direction and tried to run away, but then he heard something odd. The loud clang of two heavy objects crashing into eachother.

Armin looked back and his eyes widened in shock as she saw the abnormal attacking the Armored Titan. And she seemed to be fighting quite skillfully, throwing punches and kicks instead of just mindlessly lunging and biting. Additionally, the abnormal seemed to have crystalized her fists and feet to make her attacks more effective on the Armored Titan. Armin stopped and watched the fight go on, the Female Titan sending punch after punch to the armored face of her enemy, while the Armored Titan barely had any time to react before the Female delivered yet another devastating blow to him.

One minute earlier…

As Annie approached Armin’s location, she hopped off of her horse and flicked out a blade in her ring, then cut her thumb with it. She then transformed into the Female Titan, thinking that maybe if she planted the idea in the Scouts’ minds that the Female Titan was there to help them, it might be easier for her to argue that she was simply a victim of deception and that she didn’t deserve as harsh punishment. However, as she stepped out of the woods to make her grand entrance and set her self-centered plan into motion, her eyes widened in shock as she saw the Armored Titan chasing after Armin. Annie’s nerves grew cold as she wondered what she should do now. She had forsaken the mission, but maybe now, since Reiner was presumed dead, they could escape back to Marley together and report back to their superiors about what had happened.

But then she looked down at Armin. She remembered how he comforted her in the closet, and her heart throbbed as she recalled the warmth of his caring embrace. She couldn’t describe the feeling he gave her, but it felt good. It was the first time she had ever felt that way about anyone. Reiner, Bertholdt, Marcel, Pieck, Zeke, no one ever made her feel the same warm, happy feeling Armin did when he embraced her. For all her life, she’d never met anyone who treated her with the same tender compassion that he did.

‘I was loyal to a warrior of Marley,’ Annie thought as she clenched her fists.

‘I pledged my allegiance to my home nation of Marley,’ Annie thought as she watched Armin veer away from her.

‘I promised my father that I would return to him as an honorary Marleyan and give us both a better life,’ Annie thought as she approached Reiner and slowly hardened his fists.

Reiner for a brief moment thought she was there to help him, until Annie suddenly used one of her hardened fists to strike him across the face, shattering the armor covering his mouth in the process.

'But now, I have something else- no, someone else to fight for. I already took everything from him once. I can't hurt him again, and I’m not going to let you hurt him either. I will protect him until my last breath.’

Reiner was dumbfounded. He didn’t have any idea why this was happening, but for some reason, his ally, Annie Leonhart was attacking him, defending the people they were here to kill. It had only been a few days since they were separated. What could have happened that caused a heel turn this extreme?

‘Annie, what the hell are you doing?!’ Reiner thought. ‘Have you forgotten who the enemy is, or something?! Why would you be helping the devils that killed Bertholdt?!’

The Armored Titan attempted to fight back, only to be easily countered by Annie. Eventually, she got him into an arm lock and managed to tear Reiner’s arm clean off. Reiner howled in pain beneath his mask and stumbled forward. He glanced to the side and saw Armin watching in amazement, even smiling as he saw that the Female Titan was winning. Reiner growled and glared at Annie, then noticed her looking solemnly at Armin.

‘Oh… I get it now. Without me to keep you in line, you got all sentimental for the island devils, is that it?’ Reiner’s fist tightened in anger. ‘You selfish, backstabbing bitch! We never should have trusted you!’

Reiner caught Annie off guard while she was staring at Armin and backhanded her hard enough to knock her to the ground.

“NO!!!” Armin screamed. He then released the horse he was dragging around and hurried toward the Female Titan to help her.

Annie looked out and saw Armin approaching. She tried to reach out and tell him to run, but she was then pressed to the ground by Reiner, taking advantage of one of her distraction to push Armored Titan’s advantages over the Female Titan: Sheer brute strength. Annie hardened her back and tried to push herself up, but Reiner stomped down on her head, smashing her face into the ground. He then knelt down and pressed his knee into the back of her neck. Annie began crystalizing her nape, but the pressure wasn’t alleviated, as she felt the hardened ceiling press down on the soft Titan flesh surrounding her. Annie struggled beneath Reiner, but it was useless, as she was in no position to escape.

That is, had it not been for Armin. As the Reiner held Annie’s head down, Armin swooped in and sliced through the exposed flesh around the Armored Titan’s waist. Reiner noticed this, his eyes widening as he saw Armin make wide swoops in an attempt to cut his back knees. He attempted to swat Armin away, in the process pulling his attention away from Annie. This allowed her to roll out from beneath the Armored Titan, tripping him, and allowing her to mount his back and pull off Reiner’s arm.

Armin landed by his horse and cheered as Annie hardened her fists and started punching her way through Reiner’s armor. But then suddenly, while Annie was about to finish the job on him, Armin saw some shiny creature float down next to her. His eyes widened and he called out to the Female Titan.

“LOOK OUT!!!” He cried.

Annie turned to face the figure and was suddenly blasted in the face with a bright blue beam. Armin gasped in shock as the Female Titan was launched off of the Armored with one shot and sent tumbling away. He then looked back and saw the thing that shot her began to grow, reaching fifteen meters tall as it landed by Reiner’s side.

“You have fought well, Reiner. Leave this rogue to me,” the armored figure whispered to Reiner. “You go find Jaeger and give him our little surprise. Remember, the plan we stole said he should be somewhere in this formation.”

Reiner nodded and charged away. Armin rode up to the Female titan to check on her well-being. He couldn’t leave the first Titan to be on humanity’s side to die. But then, he saw steam coming from the back of the female titan’s neck, as well as loud coughing coming from a familiar voice. Armin’s horse trotted around the Female Titan’s head, and sure enough, he found…

“Annie?” Armin blurted out as he saw her kneeling behind the Female Titan’s nape, her face baring odd scars with steam billowing off of them.

“Armin…” Annie sighed.

Armin then gasped as the silver giant began approaching them.

“Armin, you need to run, now!” Annie commanded.

“W-what? No, I’m staying with you! You need all the help you can get!”

“You misunderstand me,” Annie corrected. “I’m not asking you to run because I want to fight them on my own. I want you to run because I know I can’t!”

“W-what do you mean by that?” Armin asked.

“I mean, we need to find Jaeger, and while we’re at it, get as much help as we can from the rest of the scouts.” Annie flicked her ring, and a knife flipped out of it. “Once I cut myself, I’ll be enveloped in a massive burst of light, turning me into the Female Titan, and steam will cover both of us. Once we’re under the cover of the steam, we need to run as fast as we can. If that horse can’t keep up with me, I’ll carry you.”

Armin blushed a bit as his mind immediately turned to him being carried in Annie’s arms fireman style, but quickly shook that off. “What if you can’t keep up with the horse?” He asked.

“I will,” She replied. She then pressed her thumb against the blade. “Are you ready?”

Armin nodded. With that, Annie slashed a cut into her thumb and an explosion of thunder hit her as she turned into the Female Titan once again. She and Armin then sprinted out of the cloud of steam just before Bemular floated through it. They then watched them run off and chuckled to themself.

“Oh, I just love a good chase,” Bemular said to themself. He allowed them a head start before he began chasing after them.

As Armin and Annie ran, their eyes perked up as they heard Jean’s call. Armin smiled as he looked towards Jean and called back to him.

“Jean! Thank goodness you’re here,” Armin called. “We need help! The Armored Titan is back and-”

“We? I think you just mean you need help, considering you have a damn TITAN NEXT TO YOU!!!” Jean shouted. “And, wait, did you just say the Armored Titan is back?!”

“I’ll explain later,” Armin said. “But in regards to this Titan right here, as crazy as it sounds, this is Annie! And she’s helping us!”

Jean was flabbergasted by what he was just told. “EXCUSE ME!?!”

“I know it all sounds insane. Honestly, I don’t have all the details myself, but we need help! We’re being chased by some size-shifting creature wearing armor! It can fly, and it was strong enough to knock Annie’s titan around with one punch after she got the upper hand on the Armored Titan!”

“Then what do you want me to do?!” Jean asked incredulously.

“We still don’t know everything about it,” Armin replied while firing off a yellow signal. “Maybe we can overwhelm it if there’s enough of us attacking at once. But to do that, we need to regroup with the rest of the Scouts.”

“We could always just throw Eren at him and have him go Ultraman on his ass. Problem solved.”

“Did I hear you mention Ultraman?” Bemular inquired.

Armin yelped in terror as he saw Bemular suddenly right next to him.

“Tell me, do either of you fine gentlemen happen to know where Ultraman might be?” They asked deceptively politely. “I’d love to get to meet him~”

Annie quickly stomped on Bemular as hard as she could, while hardening her foot to avoid it exploding from the force of the stomp. However, this ultimately proved futile as Bemular grew to her height again, and backhanded her Titan’s head off.

“ANNIE!!!” Armin screamed as he saw her body sticking out of the top of the Titan’s neck. Bemular raised their hand to grab her, but Jean was able to swoop in and scoop her out just in the nick of time, before handing her off to Armin.

“She’s alright! Now let’s get the hell out of here!” Jean shouted.

“Right!” Armin positioned Annie behind him before the two rode off at full speed. 

Bemular opened their faceplates and grinned, licking their lips sadistically as they watched Armin, Jean, and Annie ride away. They knew that they had done all they needed to do. Now all that was left to do was wait.

“Okay, yeah, we definitely need to get Eren,” Jean said. “There’s no way we’re fighting that thing off on our own!”

“Right,” Annie replied. “We should head to the right wing as soon as possible then.”

“Um… I’m pretty sure you’re wrong about that, Annie,” Jean said. “My report said they were on the left wing.”

“Oh. I guess I’m more tired than I thought I was…” Annie replied.

“Actually, I was told they were in the right wing, too,” Armin said. “Which now that I think about it wouldn’t make any sense. Putting them in the vanguard would be a poor strategic move.”

“Well if they’re not there, then where are they?” Jean asked.

“Where do you think? The safest position possible! The rear of the center rank!”

“Alright, to the rear we go then,” Annie said.

The trio then veered towards the center rank to relay the message to Eren. Unfortunately, with Bemular’s hypersensitive hearing, they overheard every word they said. They then pressed their fingers against an earpiece in their helmet.

“They’re in the back of the center rank. Go there,” Bemular said.

“Got it,” Reiner replied while speaking into a wrist communicator, his upper half sticking out of the nape of the Armored Titan. “I’m on my way now.”

Reiner then submerged himself back into the body of the Armored Titan and charged forward. Behind him was a field of mangled corpses. One soldier who miraculously managed to survive Reiner’s rampage reached up, and with his dying breath gasped out a message.

“Somebody… Tell the others… T-tell them… The right-wing spotters… are all but wiped out… Tell commander Erwin… that the Armored Titan is back…” A bloody tear rolled down his face as he closed his eyes one last time.

The Levi squad was riding ahead. From their perspective, things were going smoothly. They did see several green smoke signals in the distance, but not too bad so far. Still though, in the back of Eren’s mind, he had a sinking feeling that something had gone wrong. That the frontlines had taken a serious hit already. Just then, the group heard two horses galloping toward them. They then saw Armin, Jean, and Annie burst out of the forest next to them. Eren was relieved to see that his best friend was safe, but seeing the panicked look on his face filled his heart with dread.

“Captain!” Armin called. “We have a big problem! The Armored Titan is still alive!”

Eren gasped in shock. He had failed? But how? How could Reiner have survived a fall from that height? But Armin wasn’t done yet.

“What’s more, he’s teamed up with a monster that bore a resemblance to Eren’s Ultraman form in both appearance and ability!” Armin reported. “We need someone to relay the message to Erwin and plan a full frontal assault on them!”

Levi nodded, then looked to his squad. “You heard the kid, Petra. Relay the message to Erwin.”

“Sir!” She replied before veering away from the group.

‘Reiner…’ Eren growled internally. ‘You know, I should be grateful I didn’t kill you last time. If there’s one thing I regretted, it’s that I couldn’t make you suffer before I killed you.’

Armin looked behind him and towards Annie, who was embracing him from behind, “for stability” as she claimed.

“Annie, are you gonna be alright?” Armin asked.

“Yeah,” She replied. “I’m mostly rested up. I can probably transform again if I need to.”

“Transform? What are you talking about?” Gunther asked.

Armin tried to come up with an excuse, not wanting to expose Annie’s secret too soon. However, Annie simply ended up exposing herself on her terms.

“I can turn into a Titan, just like Reiner can,” she said.

The Levi squad all gasped, except Levi who remained stoic as ever.

“You sure you’re alright with them knowing this soon?” Jean asked.

“They’ll find out eventually. I might as well make sure they aren’t caught off guard by it.”

“Hold up, didn’t you, Reiner, and Bertholdt all come from the same village?” Eren asked. “What, did everyone in your village have that power or something?”

“...Something like that,” Annie replied.

There was an uncomfortable silence between the group, which was suddenly broken by several black smoke signals nearby. Jean fired off a response signal while Eren stared in shock.

“An abnormal!” He said.

“No, there’s no way one could have broken through that far in,” Armin said.

“You thinkin’ it’s the Armored?” Levi asked.

“I hope it’s the Armored,” Armin replied. “Because if it’s his partner, we’re in serious trouble…”

Reiner charged forward toward the center rank. Soldiers tried to slash at him, but to no avail as his armor covered up all of his vital points. Reiner simply ignored every attack the soldiers threw at him, focused squarely on seeing the mission through. That is until Reiner ended up taking a pinpoint flair right to the eye, which stunned him. At that moment, the person who fired the flair called out to his comrades to cut at every point that wasn’t armored. The armpits, the groin, the backs of his knees, the ankles, anything that could immobilize him.

‘Shit!’ Reiner thought. ‘There’s too many of them! What do I do?!’ Reiner then glanced down at his human hand. Within it, surrounded by Titan muscle tissue, was his Battlenizer. ‘Maybe I should bite the bullet and bring out the big guns early? But that might draw Eren out too early!’

“FOR THE SOLDIERS YOU’VE KILLED!” One of the Scouts shouted. “WE’RE GONNA MAKE SURE THIS HURTS!!!”

‘Gah! To hell with it!’ Reiner was about to emerge from his Titan, when suddenly, in the blink of an eye, he heard one of the soldiers screaming.

The Armored Titan turned around and saw Bemular floating next to him. The soldier that was roaring about how he was going to avenge the soldiers Reiner killed was now screaming in abject agony as Bemular’s claws pierced his back. Red sparks of electricity surged across the man’s body as he howled in pain until he could take no more, and his body erupted into a shower of blood and viscera, liquified by the same attack Bemular used to awaken Reiner’s monster. As the soldiers stared on in terror, Reiner proceeded to crush one of them underneath his armored fist, as Bemular floated down to his shoulder.

“Apologies for the delay, Reiner,” they said. “Though I had assumed given your power, you wouldn’t have any trouble with them.”

Bemular then turned his attention to a soldier that was trying to attack him. Bemular grabbed the soldier’s blade in their hand, and quickly snapped it with their fingers, before piercing the soldier’s skull with their claws and dropping him to the ground. The seeming leader of the group screamed and tried to ride away, but Reiner charged at him and crushed him beneath his foot before moving on, soon reaching a forest of giant trees, which Bemular followed him into.

“So what’s the story?” One soldier on the leftmost wing asked Mikasa. “How far is the commander gonna let us run off course?”

“No clue,” Mikasa replied. “We should be heading south, not east. ”

“No need to tell me twice,” the soldier replied. “Especially considering what’s just up ahead.”

The soldier pointed towards a forest of giant trees, each one about 80 meters tall.

“There’s no way he expects us to go in there!” The soldier said as they approached it.

Eventually, Mikasa’s group moved out of the way of the trees and rode alongside them. Mikasa rode ahead of the soldier she was talking to, and ended up catching up with Connie, who she saw staring at the trees in bewilderment. Connie noticed Mikasa nearby and nervously asked her whatever happened to the formation Erwin created.

“Apparently, the path isn’t wide enough for the side ranks, so the only tactical option was for us to go around them.”

“But… couldn’t we have just avoided them all together?” Connie asked. “What, did the commander misread a map and realize it too late?”

“No clue, but perhaps we’re here to shake the threat that’s been on our right? The trees make a decent cover, I suppose. Maybe…” Mikasa tried to rationalize this decision any way she could.

However, upon remembering said threat, she began thinking about Eren and started to feel slightly nervous for his safety. While thinking about this, though, the group stopped at one side of the forest. After dismounting from their horses and tying them down, they were ordered to stand guard in the trees and make sure no Titans were to enter the forest. They were given no explanation as to why they were supposed to do this, which only made them all even more confused.

Meanwhile, the Levi squad plus Armin, Jean, and Annie, rode through the center of the forest, most of them in similar states of confusion. However, it was only Eren who voiced his confusion about the situation to Levi.

“The Armored Titan must be coming up on the right, so what are we supposed to do?! Avoid Titans or defend the wagons?!” Eren asked.

“Would you cut it out already?” Levi replied with an annoyed tone in his voice. “Neither of those is an option now.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Haven’t you noticed your surroundings? Take a look at these big-ass trees.”

Indeed Eren did take a look at them, as it quickly donned on him, as well as Armin and Jean.

“Perfect environment for ODM, wouldn’t you say?” Levi asked sarcastically. “Take my advice: calm down and use your head. The best survival tool is your brain.”

Armin didn’t buy that. Simply by observing the other members of the Levi squad, he could tell that they were out of the loop too.

Annie counted her blessings that Armin wasn’t paying attention to her at the moment because if he was, he would probably be able to tell by the look on her face that she knew what was happening. Best case scenario for her, Erwin was leading only Reiner into a trap. However, it was likely that Erwin already figured her out even before she joined, and had planned to lure her out from the start. However, the ladder was the worst-case scenario regardless of whether she was working for or against them, because if Erwin had prepared in advance for her, and Reiner was the real threat instead, then whatever trap Erwin had set up wouldn’t work on him.

However, everyone snapped out of their thoughts when a black smoke signal went off.

“Crap!” Eld groaned. “Damn thing’s been on our ass since the beginning!”

“Blades drawn, now” Levi ordered. “It’ll happen in the blink of an eye, so be ready!”

Everyone waited with bated breath as they felt the ground tremble. Their hearts pounded to the rapid rhythm of the approaching threat. Soon, a soldier swooped out of the woods, facing towards whatever enemy he had just escaped from. However, his escape was in vain as the Armored Titan smashed him into a nearby tree, killing him instantly.

“GO! MOVE IT!” Levi demanded.

Reiner’s momentum allowed him to shorten the distance between them before keeping a relatively even pace with them, putting added pressure on the Scouts. Rear reinforcements eventually arrived, but they were almost immediately killed by Bemular, who swooped down from the skies and decapitated one of them with a single kick, before shoving the other one’s sword through his head. They then landed on Reiner's shoulder, their blue eyes glowing ominously as their victims’ bodies collapsed to the ground behind them.

“CAPTAIN!!! YOUR ORDERS!?!” Petra screamed.

“IT’S DANGEROUS!!! LET’S TAKE THEM OUT!!! TELL US TO ENGAGE SIR!!!” Oruo cried.

“I’LL CUT THE BASTARDS!” Eld growled.

Eren grinned and looked back at Reiner and bemular. ‘You morons! You’re racing towards your deaths! You’re facing the best damn team of Titan slayers in existence!’

However, Eren gasped in confusion as he saw Levi wasn’t saying anything.

“Captain?!” Eren gasped.

“CAPTAIN!!!” Petra screamed again.

“WE NEED YOUR ORDERS SIR!!! THEY’RE GAINING ON US!!!” Gunther screamed.

“WHO CARES ABOUT HIS ORDERS!?!” Jean roared. “IF HE WON’T DO ANYTHING TO HELP US, LET’S JUST TAKE INITIATIVE ALREADY!!!”

“EVERYONE! COVER YOUR EARS, NOW!” Levi called to them.

Everyone did as instructed as Levi held a flair gun above his head and fired it. And the noise that erupted from it was deafening.

Chapter Text

“EVERYONE! COVER YOUR EARS, NOW!” Levi called to them.

Everyone did as instructed as Levi held a flair gun above his head and fired it. And the noise that erupted from it was deafening. It was so loud that Bemular recoiled in shock as they felt their ears being muffled by devices in their helmet.

“W-what was that?!” They sputtered. “That was able to activate my sound suppressors!”

“Sound suppressors?” Reiner asked into his communicator. “You telling me you have ear muffs in your helmet?”

“My species has very sensitive hearing,” Bemular explained. “It allows us to hear sounds clearly from long distances but also makes us especially susceptible to sudden loud noises.”

“Gotcha…” Reiner said ominously.

“Reiner, if you’re looking for things you can hold over my head, it’s pointless,” Bemular said. “Need I remind you, I can kill you very easily, in or out of your titan.”

As Bemular and Reiner bickered, the squad did a bit of bickering of their own.

“Remind me, what is our mission? Is it to simply act on our own impulses in the heat of the moment?” Levi asked, before answering his own question. “No, this squad’s mission is to keep this brat alive no matter the cost,” he said in reference to Eren. “Don’t forget that. We keep moving forward on horseback. Is that clear?”

“As a bell, sir!” Petra replied.

Immediately, the Levi squad’s mood shifted from one of panic and confusion to unwavering loyalty. They followed Levi’s orders without question. The other four in the group though…

“But for how long?!” Eren asked. “We can’t keep running forever! They’re right on top of us! If we don’t do something soon-”

Eren was interrupted when they heard the sounds of more reinforcements coming.

"No! They keep coming!" Eren cried. "They're all gonna die if we don't warn them!"

“TURN BACK!!!” Armin called. “IT’S HOPELESS!!! SAVE YOURSELVES!!!”

“EYES FRONT! STOP LOOKING BACK!!!” Gunther roared.

“SERIOUSLY!?!” Eren cried.

“KEEP PACE WITH THE GROUP! ALL OF YOU! MAINTAIN PACE WITH THE GROUP OR WE’RE ALL DEAD!” Eld shouted.

Eren begged for them to do something, anything to help those men, but he was met with negative responses each time, the Levi squad only growing more and more annoyed with each plea. Eventually, Armin screamed as he watched Bemular tear one of the reinforcements to pieces after growing bored toying with him.

“COME ON! THERE’S STILL ONE LEFT! WE CAN STILL SAVE THEM!!!” Eren pleaded.

“DO AS YOU’RE TOLD EREN! EYES FORWARDS!” Petra yelled in reply.

Eren, furious, bellowed back, “HOW CAN ALL OF YOU JUST IGNORE WHAT’S HAPPENING BACK THERE!?! DO YOU EXPECT ME TO ABANDON MY COMRADES!?!”

“DAMN IT, YES!!!” Petra screamed. “STOP WHINING AND DO AS YOU’RE TOLD!!!”

Jean was just as fed up with the Levi Squad’s callous disregard for their fellow soldiers as Eren was, and turned to Annie.

“Annie, can you transform into a Titan again?!” Jean asked.

“Turning into the Female Titan right now would be useless!” Annie replied. “If I transformed now after already doing so twice in rapid succession, my titan body would be too weak to fight, and I’d probably wind up unconscious at best!”

“SERIOUSLY!?! Why do you and Jaeger’s powers have such stupid downsides!?!” Jean snarled. 

“Don’t ask me! I didn’t make the rules!”

Upon Jean mentioning it, Eren realized that he could stop those two all by himself. He was an army all by himself. No, he was better than an army. He was Ultraman. He. Was. Invinci-

“NO EREN!!! STOP!!!” Petra screamed.

Eren had pulled out his cylinder when Petra screamed for him to stop.

“YOU’RE ONLY PERMITTED TO ASSUME TITAN FORM WHEN YOUR LIFE IS IN EXTREME PERIL! THAT WAS THE DEAL!” Petra cried out.

“AND YOU THINK THIS DOESN’T COUNT AS THAT, YOU STUPID BITCH!?!” Jean screamed in response.

“HEY!!! YOU WATCH YOUR DAMN MOUTH GREEN HORN!!!” Oruo snapped back.

“OH YEAH!?! AND WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT!?! KILL ME INSTEAD OF THE TWO GUYS TRYING TO KILL US!?! ” Jean then looked back at Eren. “DO IT, JAEGER! AND MAKE SURE YOU KILL THE SON OF A BITCH FOR REAL THIS TIME!”

“NO!!! DON’T DO IT!!!” Petra begged.

However, that was all Bemular needed to hear. After hanging the last soldier with his ODM wires, Bemular let out a low chuckle, before speeding towards the horse riders. They soared over the heads of everyone, before sinking their claws into the back of Petra Rall. Petra coughed up blood as Bemular dragged her off of her horse. They then floated in front of the squad. Everyone was petrified, wondering what the sadistic alien was going to do.

And then, Bemular’s claws began to glow.

Petra howled in absolute agony for a split second as Bemular’s energy flowed into her. It was only for a split second because, after that moment, the shock delivered from her spine straight to her brain made her unable to vocalize at all. Foam poured out of her mouth as Bemular’s energy surged through her, wreaking havoc on every molecule in her body until she finally exploded into a red shower, bathing everyone who was there to watch in her blood.

‘Do you feel like you’re in danger yet, Ultraman?’ Bemular thought. After seeing no transformation, Bemular took that as a no. ‘Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to keep trying to draw you out.’

Oruo was next to die. Bemular’s claws pierced the babbling Scout’s heart, and delivered a shock straight to it, prompting immediate cardiac arrest. Bemular flew up into the air and threw him up high just as he exploded in a crimson fireworks display.

Bemular then feigned going for Jean, prompting him to hold up his blades defensively, but instead went for Eld’s horse to throw everyone off. Bemular flipped the horse over and began shocking it with trapped Eld beneath it. But they didn’t just pump in enough energy to blow up the horse, oh no. They pumped in so much energy that the horse glowed bright red, and exploded in a ball of fire, killing Eld along with it.

Bemular wiped some soot off their armor and then flew right into Gunther, piercing his back just like they did with Petra, then landing on Reiner’s shoulder and blowing the poor man to smithereens, showering everyone in blood again.

This was the moment when Eren snapped.

He didn’t care anymore what happened to him after this point. He didn't care if Levi didn't permit him to do so. He didn't care if Petra's last request was for him to follow orders. This thing was pure evil. It needed to die. And he was the only one who could kill it.

Eren pressed the button on the cylinder, and then, in the blink of an eye, Reiner and Bemular were stomped on by Ultraman. And then they were stomped on again. And again. And again. And again. Eren kept stomping on them to make sure that they would die and stay dead this time. But then, he felt something pushing back against his foot. And whatever it was, it was growing. 

Eren started floating to get out of the way of it but was then grabbed by both of his legs and swung around in a circle, before being thrown off the path and into a pile of downed trees. Eren shook it off before looking up, and his eyes widened as he saw that Bemular had grown to the same height as him, and their strength seemed to be comparable as well. Eren tried to throw a punch, but Bemular easily blocked it, before turning, hooking their arms beneath Eren’s, and throwing him over their shoulder. As Eren stumbled to his knees, Bemular stabbed him in the back with his claws and began shooting energy into him, causing Eren to yell out in pain.

Armin and Jean stopped upon seeing the fight start, both of them terrified as they watched Eren being hit with the same attack that already killed the entire Levi squad. However, miraculously, Eren was able to stand up, pull Bemular’s claw out of his back, and then elbow him in the face, all the energy dispersing. Jean and Armin sighed in relief as Eren kept fighting Bemular, but their smiles faded as Bemular channeled that same devastating power not into their claws, but their fist, punching Eren in the face with enough power to send him flying, crashing through tree after tree and causing them to collapse around him.

As Bemular chased after Eren, Annie noticed Reiner running off and pointed to him. “Reiner’s trying to escape! We can’t let him get away!”

Suddenly, the trio saw a gust of smoke blow over their heads as Levi came speeding through the air like a bullet. Following his lead, Jean, Armin, and Annie used their ODM gear to follow him. Levi was able to carve through Reiner’s ankles and the backs of his knees, while Armin, Annie, and Jean took out the rest of his weak spots until eventually, Reiner collapsed to the ground, his body now useless. All of them gathered around Reiner’s armored nape, their blades aimed at it.

“He's in there?” Levi asked.

Annie nodded. Levi proceeded to knock on the armored plating with his foot.

“Hey! Come on out! You’re not getting away any time soon, so why don’t you make this easier for all of us and give yourself up?” Levi called. “Because the way I see it, you have two options: you can either come out and make your death quick and painless, or we can have Titan girl here bash at the back of your neck until it caves in.”

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Reiner decided he would make a third option. He shifted around in the nape until he was able to grab a hold of his Battlenizer. He then quickly and violently shoved that hand out and activated it.

"Monstermon card synchronizing," a voice that came out of it said. "Releasing monster: Telesdon ."

Eren and Bemular's fists clashed as they traded a barrage of punches, each hit being blocked by the other giant fighter’s own punch. Eventually, Eren threw Bemular off with a roundhouse kick to the side which knocked them over. But now, Eren was left wide open, so Bemular then punched Eren in the gut, winding him and allowing them to get back on their feet and begin delivering a flurry of punches to Eren's face, each hit giving off the sound of a cannon shot.

Eventually, Eren was able to grab one of these punches and twist Bemular's arm before headbutting them. As Bemular stumbled backward, Eren grabbed them by the shoulders and punched them in the face repeatedly, sending out sparks as he damaged the machinery in Bemular’s helmet, before kneeing them in the gut. Bemular then tackled Eren and began to claw at his face like a ferocious predator.

Eren managed to wrestle Bemular off of him, and the two entered a standoff. However, the standoff was broken when they heard a loud, high-pitched roar a good distance away. Back on the path through the forest in fact. And then he heard footsteps rapidly approaching him. Eren braced himself for impact, until suddenly, the footsteps stopped. 

Suddenly, Eren felt the ground shift beneath him, and a monster that looked like a hyper-evolved earthworm with arms, legs, eyes, and a mouth with razor-sharp teeth suddenly burst out of the ground and slashed him across the chest with a sharp spike on its back. The beast landed on all fours but quickly got up into a bipedal stance. It then barreled into Eren while roaring. Eren grunted with frustration and tried to beat it off, but then howled in pain when the monster sank its teeth into his arm.

Across the forest, the Scouts were able to hear the battle going down. In particular, Mikasa was able to hear Eren cry out in agony.

“Eren!” Mikasa exclaimed.

Sasha, who was terrified of the noises she was hearing, tried to convince Mikasa to stay, but it was no use, as Mikasa flew into the forest using her ODM gear, blades drawn, ready to assist Eren however he needed her to.

Reiner charged forward, fleeing from the scene he had escaped from, leaving the Scouts buried under rubble. Eventually, Annie rose from beneath a pile of rubble in a gaunt, bony, nine-meter variant of her titan form. She carried the other Scouts out in her arms, and as they landed on the ground, Annie toppled over, steam billowing off of her titan. Armin landed behind her and gasped as he saw Annie’s body dangling out of Titan’s nape. He sheathed his blades and ran up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist before pulling her out with all his might. The Titan's tendons clung to Annie's face, arms, and legs, trying to hold her in place, but Armin was determined. And eventually, he managed to pull her free.

The two fell backward, Annie landing in Armin’s lap as he took a moment to catch his breath. He then looked down at Annie to see if she was okay and promptly screamed in shock and horror upon seeing that her face was seemingly burned off. Her eyes, eyelids, nose, and lips were missing, her cheeks were puckered inwards, her tongue dangled lazily out of her mouth, and her skin was sagging as steam billowed off her face. The only way Armin could tell that Annie was even still alive was because she let out a barely audible groan of pain, and he could still feel her breathing.

Jean and Levi landed next to Armin and watched as he clutched Annie close to him while sobbing and begging her to survive. Jean took a look at Annie’s face and cringed. He could feel goosebumps running up his arms and legs as he witnessed the ghoulish state overexerting herself left Annie in.

“Jesus…” he said. It was all he was able to bring himself to say.

Levi crouched down and observed Annie’s face. He was able to look past how creepy she looked and noticed something happening that made his eyebrows perk up.

“She’s regenerating,” he said.

Armin gasped in surprise and relief.

“You sure about that?” Jean asked.

Levi nodded and pointed to her face. “The muscle tissue is regrowing, along with the skin, and whatever else she lost during the transformation. She’ll live, but she’s in no condition to fight.” Levi sighed. “Damn it…”

“‘Damn it?’” Jean repeated.

“After seeing that what you two were talking about was true, I was hoping we could use her power to capture Reiner. Looks like that’s not an option anymore,” he said.

Jean nodded in solidarity, while Armin slowly calmed down, but still held onto Annie protectively. As they sat there, pondering what they should, or even could do next, they suddenly heard the galloping of horses coming towards them. They turned around and saw Erwin riding on a white horse. To his flanks were an ecstatic Hange, and a bewildered Mike.

“Commander Erwin!” Jean called out.

Erwin, Hange, and Mike stooped before them. They all climbed off and Hange immediately ran up to examine Annie’s slowly evaporating Titan body. Levi climbed down so he could talk to Erwin eye to eye.

“Levi, report,” Erwin requested. “What happened here? We heard Eren transforming, and then several strange noises followed.”

“The plan went up in smoke,” Levi stated. “We severely underestimated our enemy. To make matters worse, it turns out Reiner has a new toy that lets him summon monsters as big as Eren.”

Hange gasped upon hearing this and shook Levi by the shoulders. “MONSTERS!?! As in, creatures other than Titans?! There are more giant creatures besides Titans and Ultraman?! What did it look like?! How tall was it?! What are its abilities?! Will it let me pet it?! TELL ME EVERYTHING!!!”

Levi shoved Hange off of him before continuing to catch Erwin up on the situation, including explaining that they have a Titan shifter on their side. As they discussed everything that happened, with Jean joining in to give everything he knew, Armin carefully laid Annie down in his lap and began to start formulating some questions in his head.

‘Annie, who are you really?’ Armin pondered. ‘I thought I knew after our years of training together, but now I’m not so sure. If you really are on the side of humanity, then why have you been hiding this from us? Who are Reiner and Bertholdt to you? And why were you really in that closet?’

Eren stumbled out of the forest and into a clearing, crushing several Titans beneath him in the process. Eren tried to regain his bearings, only for Telesdon to suddenly burst out of the ground and slash him with his back spike yet again. This time, however, Eren was able to grab Telesdon mid-lunge by the tail and swing him over his shoulder. Eren slammed the monster to the ground, breaking his back spike in the process. Telesdon roared in pain, and Eren prepared to strike once again, but was suddenly knocked away by a blue blast from the sky. Bemular zoomed out from the trees, blue smoke billowing from their mouth as a charged fist connected with Eren’s stomach, knocking him back even further. The giant hero groaned and coughed up blood before getting back up on his feet and seeing both enemies standing before him.

Eren then tensed up as he saw Bemular’s claws glow red, but was caught off guard when he was hit with a beam of flames blasted from Telesdon’s mouth. Eren blocked it with his crossed arms, but then Bemular opened their face plates and opened their mouth, revealing a blue glow that was rising in their throat. A blue heat beam erupted from Bemular’s mouth, and the two combined beams pushed Eren backward. Eren gritted his teeth as searing pain shot through his forearms, but then realized too late that Telesdon had stopped firing his beam.

Eren was knocked off his feet once again by Telesdon bursting out of the ground and sinking his teeth into his neck. The earthworm kaiju then mounted the silver giant and began mauling him with his claws and pecking him with his snout. Eren donkey kicked Telesdon off, but then Bemular swooped in and stabbed Eren in the stomach while unloading red energy into him. Eren gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut as he forcefully ripped Bemular’s claws out of his stomach, before punching them right in the jaw. Eren and Bemular traded a few blows, with Bemular holding an advantage thanks to their tail and the spikes lining their armor, but Eren was quite tenacious and was able to turn one of Bemular’s strengths into a weakness by grabbing their tail and swinging them around before tossing them, then flying towards them within the blink of an eye, and delivering a flurry of mountain flattening blows before grabbing them by the tail again and slamming them onto the ground, in the process flattening a few wandering Titans.

Back on the ground, Telesdon growled and grumbled, unsure of what to do as Eren and Bemular took off to the skies to continue their fight. Fortunately for him, the Armored Titan arrived, and within the Armored Titan, his master, Reiner, called out to him.

“Telesdon!” Reiner called. “Fire your Lava Heat Ray at Eren!”

Telesdon nodded and charged up his beam attack. However, before he could fire, an insanely fast-moving Scout suddenly swooped by his right eye and cut it with her blades. It was Mikasa, who followed the battle right to the clearing and was able to assist Eren just in time. Mikasa proceeded to cut out Telesdon’s other eye, causing him to wail and scream and hop in place, fanning his bleeding eyes with his hands. As he did so, Mikasa swung through the various folds in Telesdon’s body, trying to find any other weak points, his tantrum ended up knocking off. Mikasa saved herself just in the nick of time and latched onto the back of Telesdon’s knee.

‘There!’ She thought, and she began to swoop in closer. ‘If I can latch onto that, I should be able to cut through it!’

However, before she could reach it, Reiner rushed forward, his hand wide open and reaching for her. Mikasa impulsively jerked her body, resulting in her getting smacked by the Armored Titan’s ring finger. Her hooks, still embedded in the meat of Telesdon’s knee, refused to pull out, and her cables wound up snapping off as she was sent tumbling across the field, her gear now completely totaled save for the swords she still had in her hands.

Bemular looked down and noticed Mikasa, so they hit Eren in the face with two Charged Punches in a row, sending him crashing to the ground. They then landed right behind the raven-haired girl, who turned around and saw the towering, armored alien looking down upon her with a malicious grin on their face.

Mikasa slowly stood up and spat out some blood. There wasn’t anything she could do now. She couldn’t even run. So, she stood there defiantly against Bemular, remembering Eren’s words back when they were young.

“Fight! Fight! Kill or be killed! It’s the only way to live!”

‘I know Eren,’ she thought. ‘That’s why I’ll never give up. Even if I don’t have a chance at victory, I’ll never give up! Because if I do, everything you’ve done for me, will have all been for nothing!’

Mikasa screamed in defiance as Bemular’s mouth beam erupted from their mouth. But it never hit her.

In less than a fraction of a second, Eren suddenly appeared kneeling in front of her, his teeth and fists clenched and his eyes bulging out of his head as Bemular blasted his back. Eventually, the light on Eren’s chest began beeping and flashing red, but Eren didn’t turn back even for a second. Mikasa almost teared up as she watched Eren push his body to its absolute limits just to protect her from Bemular’s wrath. Eventually, Bemular’s beam stopped, and they clutched their sides while wincing. Bemular cursed their body’s limitations. They could feel that they’d have to turn back to their normal size soon, but they were so close! If they could just sustain their giant form for a little longer they could…

But then, they saw Ultraman rise to his feet. Slowly, smoke still billowing off of his back, Ultraman turned around. Plastered on his face was a look of incomprehensible fury and hatred, all of it directed right at them.

“You…” Eren snarled furiously. “I don’t know who the hell you are, but I know for a fact that in all my life, never once have I hated anything more than you! ”

Eren turned around slowly, his hands shaking with rage. Bemular took a step back, the pain of maintaining their giant size being drowned out by the fear coursing through their body.

“You derive some sick pleasure from torturing and murdering innocent people. You thrive in fear and pan! That alone makes me want to puke!”

Bemular’s eyes widened as blue energy coalesced into Eren’s hand.

“But nobody… NOBODY! HURTS! MY! MIKASA!!!”

A blue buzzsaw of energy suddenly formed in his hand, and he threw it right at Bemular. The saw cleaved right through their shoulder and their left arm fell off. Bemular clutched their wound as green blood sprayed out of it and they screamed in agony. They tried to swing their tail, but Eren used another blue buzzsaw to cut it off, their armor useless against Ultraman’s might.

“GYAAAAAAAHHHH!!!” Bemular screamed. “REINER!!! WE NEED TO GO, NOW!!!”

“TELESDON!!! PROTECT BEMULAR AT ALL COSTS!!!”

Telesdon heeded Reiner’s orders and followed Bemular’s Agonized screams until he reached Eren. While the blinded Telesdon was grappling with the enraged Ultraman, Reiner charged towards Bemular as they shrank down and scooped them up before fleeing into the distance.

“This… isn’t… over… Ultraman…” Bemular sputtered.

Telesdon blindly fired his Lava Heat Ray at Eren, which he easily dodged, before wrapping his arms around Telesdon’s neck. Commander Erwin and his group arrived to watch Eren beating on Telesdon’s head. They, the Scouts in the trees, the leaders, and Mikasa down on the ground all watched in awe as Eren swung Telesdon around and threw him into the air. Eren then summoned one final Ultra-Slash, and threw it right at Telesdon, slicing him in half from snout to tail.

The Scouts cheered for Eren after once again saving them from certain death, but Eren wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to chase Reiner and Bemular down. He wanted to finish what he started. But he could feel deep within his soul that if he didn’t change back at that very second, he would die. Eren’s fists shook. But he heeded his timer's warning and transformed back to his human form.

Once he was human again, Eren gave no cheers of victory, or accomplished sighs. Instead, he fell to his knees and let out a frustrated cry, damning Reiner’s name. He would have damned the name of Bemular, but sadly, he never learned their name, which only made him even angrier, as he couldn’t even damn them properly.

Eren’s enraged screams came to an abrupt halt however when Mikasa placed a hand on Eren’s shoulder and spoke softly to him. “It’s okay, Eren. You won today’s battle. We’ll get them next time.”

Eren felt tears of hatred well up in his eyes as Mikasa knelt beside him. “How many…” Eren gasped. “How many more people need to die before we do? How many more lives do they need to take before we win?”

Mikasa looked downtrodden as tears streamed down Eren’s cheeks.

“As many as necessary,” a man said.

Mikasa and Eren turned around and saw Erwin riding up to them. “Whoever, or whatever that entity was, we will hunt them down, and we will slaughter them. However, the road to victory will inevitably be paved with the bodies of our fallen comrades. If what Levi and Jean Kirstein told me about his tactics is true, we are dealing with an enemy who is not just powerful, but cunning. That’s a frightening combination to be sure.” Erwin stepped down and patted Eren on the shoulder. “But this battle was not in vain, as it showed that even when we were at a disadvantage, knowing little to nothing about our enemy, even then we were able to force them to retreat. And now, not only do we know what our enemy is capable of, but we have also discovered that you haven’t even scratched the surface of what you are capable of.”

Eren looked down at his hand and remembered the Ultra-Slashes he did. In the heat of the moment, he didn’t even notice it, but now that he did the technique, it was like muscle memory to him.

“The day is far from lost. The information we’ve gathered today has brought us one giant leap closer to victory.”

Eren’s eyes sparkled with a reinvigorated determination. Soon, Levi rode up to Erwin’s side.

“Commander! We’ve managed to clear out all of the Titans bordering the forest. The recruits are ready for your orders now,” Levi reported.

“Understood,” Erwin said. He then fired off a yellow flair, followed by a blue flair. This combination of smoke signals signaled to the Scouts that their mission was called off and that they were to head back to the safe zone. With that, Levi rode off. “Eren, Armin Arlert and Jean Kirstein will be arriving shortly with horses for you and Mikasa,” Erwin said before leaving as well.

As Eren watched them ride off, he suddenly gasped as he felt Mikasa grasp his hand.

“Are you alright?” Mikasa asked. 

Eren sighed and lowered his head. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“All I’ve been able to do since Trost is worry about you!” Mikasa’s voice cracked. “I know you’re strong, but so many times throughout that fight, you looked like you were about to die!” Tears crept across Mikasa’s cheeks. “I can’t go through that again! You mean everything to me! I… I… I don't want to lose you again, Eren!”

Mikasa gasped softly as Eren embraced her. She then began weeping softly and embraced him in kind. Armin and Jean soon arrived but decided against interrupting them for the time being. Or rather, Armin prevented Jean from interrupting them to not ruin their moment.

As the Scouts climbed onto their horses to rendezvous with Erwin at the safe zone, Sasha’s nostrils flared up as she caught a whiff of a strong but pleasant aroma coming from the area they were in. Sasha broke from her group and followed her nose to the source of the aroma. Connie, curious as to where Sasha was going, followed her towards her destination…

Which turned out to be the body of Telesdon.

Specifically, between the two halves of Telesdon, Sasha found that Eren’s attack managed to seemingly cook the meat inside of the kaiju, not quite burning it though. Her mouth watered and her stomach growled as she approached the meat. She then knelt before some of the muscle tissue and placed a hand on it. Unlike the tough, durable skin, the insides of Telesdon were much softer and more tender.

‘It wouldn’t hurt to have just a little taste… right?’ Sasha thought.

She parsed her lips, opened her mouth wide, and sank her teeth into the kaiju meat. Connie nearly vomited upon seeing Sasha pull out a chunk of the meat with her teeth and begin chewing it up.

“HOLY SHIT, SASHA, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!” Connie screamed in disgust.

Sasha’s eyes widened and a single tear rolled down her cheek as she kept chewing and chewing. She felt as though she was in heaven. It was so juicy, and rich, and smokey. It was the best meat she’s ever had in her life. So delicious, she was almost disappointed when the chewing was over and she had to finally swallow the mouthful.

“IT’S THE MOST DELICIOUS THING I’VE EVER TASTED!!!” Sasha sobbed. “THIS WORLD IS SO CRUEL FOR HIDING THIS CULINARY MASTERPIECE FROM ME FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!”

“YOU’RE INSANE FOR EVEN TRYING THAT!” Connie yelled at her.

“CONNIE, PLEASE, YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS!”

“AH AH, NO WAY! I AM NOT PUTTING MONSTER MEAT IN MY MOUTH!”

Two minutes later…

“MHY MOUFF FEELSH LIKE IT’SH IN NERHVAHNAH RHIGHT NHOW!!!” Connie cried, his mouth full of Telesdon’s meat.

As Sasha and Connie sobbed and continued to feast upon the fallen kaiju, Hange observed their reactions from atop the body of Telesdon with great intrigue.

“Fascinating,” She said. “So not only is this monster edible, but it tastes delicious? Truly incredible! And with the sheer amount of it that is available, we’d be able to feed the walls for weeks with just this one monster!”

Annie slowly awoke in a wagon. Her face had fully healed and she felt reinvigorated. She reached up and stared at her hand, to make sure her vision had fully returned. Sure enough, it had, but she still found it oddly difficult to breathe. It was only then that she noticed her head was mostly wrapped in bandages. Seeing as her face was fully healed, she ripped most of them off, then sat up and looked around her. She saw that Armin and Jean were loading dead bodies wrapped in cloth into a wagon so they could receive a proper burial back behind the inner walls. As Annie saw this, she looked down, feeling a deep sense of guilt.

‘I could have done this,’ she thought. ‘I could have been the reason Armin had to bury his friends. No, I am the reason Armin has to bury his friends. If I wasn’t so obsessed with returning to my “father,” none of them would be here. I should have insisted we go home. Bertholdt would have been too spineless to argue against it, and I could have beaten Reiner into submission easily. But I didn’t, because I’m selfish. That’s all I am. A selfish, homicidal monster.’

“I’m sorry, Armin,” Annie whispered.

Armin looked up and noticed Annie was up again. He smiled, relieved that his friend was okay.

Reiner’s Titan slowed to a crawl as they passed the gates of Shingonshina into the outer island. Reiner emerged from his Titan, panting like a dog, while Bemular stumbled off and looked down at their arm and tail. The flesh, bone, and ligaments were slowly growing back, but they weren’t fully regenerated. As such, they couldn’t reapply their armor fully to either limb. Reiner, looking down at Bemular’s regenerating limbs, saw that they bore skin like that of an amphibian, with foldable porcupine needles along it. The same was true of their tail.

“You didn’t tell me he figured out how to use those powers!” Bemular growled.

“I didn’t know he had those powers!” Reiner insisted, his hands raised defensively. “If I did, I would have mentioned it to you when you asked me about his powers.”

Bemular snarled and pounded their fist on the ground. “Damn it all! And to make matters worse, now you need a new kaiju to control!”

“Are there any more?” Reiner asked.

Bemular sighed in annoyance. “I suppose we could just get another Telesdon from the quarry, but if he’s already figured out how to use the Ultra-Slash, throwing Telesdons at him until he keels over would be a quick way to wipe out the Telesdon population on this island. We’ll need something more powerful if we want to defeat him.”

“Well, if there are more Telesdons in that quarry, logically, there should be other monsters that they feed on,” Reiner suggested. “Or, given that they haven’t taken over the island yet, a monster that feeds on them.”

Bemular’s eyes widened beneath their helmet and they let out a wicked chuckle. “It seems I made the right choice, picking you as my minion.”

Chapter Text

While preparing to head back to Colonith district, Hange brought the news to Erwin that Telesdon’s body wasn’t disappearing after death like a Titan’s would, and that his meat was edible, bringing with her proof in the form of two Scouts who had eaten more than their fill of it, and still hadn’t made even the slightest dent in the overall mass of the creature. With this discovery, Erwin ordered Eren to transport the carcass of Telesdon to the walls as soon as he could. Eren did as instructed and flew the body of Telesdon to Wall Rose. Telesdon’s meat was then distributed throughout the walls, and while most were hesitant to try it at first, the meal caught on more and more, until eventually, everyone in Wall Rose and Wall Sina was lining up to get a taste of it. Although they were unable to secure a new path at the time and had incurred substantial losses, because the Scouts were able to bring this enormous bounty of food back to the walls, their custody over Eren was secured, and the Scouts breathed a collective sigh of relief.

However, they knew they weren’t out of the woods yet. The attack from the Armored Titan and his mysterious, size-changing ally would go on to leave the Scouts shaken, and leave the future uncertain.

High up in a castle in Wall Sina, higher even than the throneroom, there was a stained glass window, out of which, the true king of the walls, Rod Reiss, watched over his kingdom, and his people. The room he was in was mostly empty, save for a round table at the center with several chairs surrounding it, and the aforementioned stained glass window, which was the height of the room’s wall. With a half-full wine glass cupped in one hand, Rod had his arms crossed behind his back. Eventually, the doors to the room opened and his oldest son, Ulklin Reiss, stepped into the room with a paper in his hand.

“Father, we have just received word that Eren Jaeger is to remain within the hands of the Scout Regiment,” Ulklin said.

“So we’ve failed to get a hold of the ‘Ultraman’ once again?” Rod asked coldly.

“I’m afraid so, father.”

Rod let out a deep sigh. “Very well. It seems we’ll have to take drastic measures then. I’ll talk to Kenny soon.”

“Understood, father.”

“By the way, how goes our other project?”

Ulklin gulped before continuing to read the note. “About that, father… Frieda… she…”

Rod slowly glanced behind him and raised an eyebrow as Ulklin finally came clean.

“She escaped her room last night.”

Rod’s eyes widened and twitched. He began seething with rage and clenched his fists so hard, he crushed his wine glass in his palm. He turned around and pointed to the hall while screaming at his son.

“FIND HER!!!” He bellowed. “I WANT KENNY’S ENTIRE SQUAD HUNTING HER DOWN! DO YOU HEAR ME, BOY!?!”

“Y-yes father!” Ulklin replied with a salute before running down the hall.

Rod sighed and rubbed his clean hand across his face as he questioned where it all went wrong. Eventually, his mind flashed back to the night that the Attack Titan attacked his family. How he nearly killed Frieda, but a sudden Earthquake caused enough of a distraction to give Frieda the advantage she needed to defeat the man and eat him. However, given the effect it had on her, Rod was left questioning if her victory was truly the best outcome.

Marco yawned and stretched his arms as he rose from his slumber, sitting up on the top bunk of a bunk bed. He then knocked on the side of his bedframe to awaken his bunkmate, who groaned softly and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“Rise and shine, Marlowe,” Marco said. “We don’t want to be late for work today.”

“I’m up, I’m up…” Marlowe groaned while rubbing his eyes. 

The two cleaned themselves up and put on their uniforms before heading downstairs and standing against a wall with their arms crossed behind their backs. Soon, all the other newly recruited MPs came down to join them. Once everyone was downstairs, their commanding officer approached and they all saluted him.

“Great, thanks guys,” he said sarcastically. “I’ve called you all here because I’ve got actual work for you all today. Something about a person we need to track down. Details about them are sparse, except that they have black hair and blue eyes. The king has already sent out a squad, so we’ll only assist them until they find her. That is all.”

“Sir, a question, if I may,” Marlowe asked.

“Go ahead,” the commanding officer sighed.

“Why exactly are we looking for this person?”

The commander looked up with an eyebrow raised.

“I-it’s just that I’ve never heard of anyone in Wall Sina defying the government. They’re all just glad to be safe,” Marlowe clarified. “There are petty criminals, sure, but none of them have ever caused enough trouble to alert the king’s attention. What could they have possibly done to warrant this?”

The commanding officer, annoyed with Marlowe’s questioning, shoved his papers into his chest and told him to be in charge. He then walked away.

“We officers are busy enough as it is, so prove you can handle this yourselves,” he said. “And don’t screw it up. We officers are very busy people, we don’t have time for your constant prodding.”

He then entered a room behind him so he could continue playing Pinnacle and drinking with his friends.

Later…

The cadets all stood outside of the MP headquarters, most of them either grumbling or sulking about being stuck with the work. As many of them voiced their frustrations, Marco’s attention was caught by Marlowe gritting his teeth in frustration.

“Bastards!” He cursed. “They’re all nothing but self-absorbed, irresponsible imbeciles.”

Marco smiled nostalgically. Marlowe’s attitude reminded him a lot of Eren’s attitude whenever he talked about joining the Scouts and killing all the Titans. He chuckled to himself, imagining how easy it would be for him now.

“So what does that make you, Marlowe?” Boris asked. “You chose to join the MPs. You’re a slacker just like the rest of us.”

Marlowe scoffed. “You’re wrong, Boris. I’m nothing like all of you. I joined this regiment because the Military Police is in dire need of repair.”

Marco’s eyes brightened, as he realized his and Marlowe’s goals were similar.

Hitch clapped sarcastically, while Boris raised an eyebrow. “And how do you plan to do that?”

“Easy. By working my way to the top! Once I’m in charge, I can install a new system to ensure the dishonest pay for their transgressions.” Marlowe raised a fist of determination. “The MPs just need a little discipline. I will shape them back into the people they’re supposed to be.”

Hitch fell to the ground laughing hysterically, while Boris dismissed his idea entirely.

“Well, that’s quite the lofty ideal,” he said dismissively.

“But I think it’s worth pursuing!” Marco said.

Hitch continued to giggle and wiped a tear from her eye as she looked up at Marco incredulously. “Seriously!? You too?”

“I believe that if we dedicate our hearts to the cause, we can make a real change to this regiment,” Marco said.

Boris squinted slightly. “Wait… weren’t you from the southern division?”

“That’s right,” Marco said.

“So, you saw the Titans up close, didn’t you?”

Marco lowered his shoulders and sighed. “Yes, I have. Seeing them up close changed my perspective on things drastically. It was a harsh reminder that the only thing keeping them from us were the walls, a defense that is sadly not infallible. If Wall Rose falls, it’ll be up to us to defend humanity, and we won’t be able to do that if the Military Police remains as lax and corrupt as it has been.”

Hitch nodded and clapped genuinely. “Wow, nice speech there. You were way more convincing than Marlowe here.”

“H-hey!” Marlowe stuttered.

“Enough chitchat,” Boris interrupted. “Let’s go!”

Marco placed a hand on Marlowe’s shoulder and smiled at him reassuringly. Marlowe gave a nod in understanding before leading the group out on patrol. 

The group marched along the river, passing by a building with banners depicting the visage of Ultraman in a heroic pose while calling him “the angel of the walls.” Their rifles were strapped behind their backs as they marched single file. Marlowe stood at the front of the formation, with Hitch directly behind him, followed by Marco, then Boris, and so on.

“Keep your eyes peeled,” Marlowe said. “The target could be anywhere. Remember, we’re looking for a young adult woman with blue eyes and long, black hair. Got that?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hitch sighed, before closing her eyes and yawning. “Not that specific of a descriptor, though. That could honestly be anyone.”

While her eyes were closed, she ended up bumping into Marlowe. She was quite annoyed, but then looked over his shoulder and saw two MP officers loading boxes of their gear onto a merchant’s boat. Boris wondered if they were shipping it to the interior, but both Marco and Marlowe expected something more nefarious going on. Their suspicions were confirmed when they saw the merchant to whom the ship belonged two handing the two men a white pouch filled with gold coins.

“Those bastards are illegally selling military property!” Marlowe quietly exclaimed.

“We have to stop them!” Marco added.

The two then marched toward the two, despite Boris’ protests against it. Hitch quickly quelled Boris’ protests, eager to see where this would go. As the two soldiers were getting ready to leave and get themselves something to drink, the two black-haired rookies stopped before them.

“Y-you can’t sell government property!” Marlowe said, trying to hide his nerves. “It’s against the law!”

Marco was less nervous and continued. “Those supplies are the property of the hard-working citizens who paid for them with their taxes! I’m afraid we have to place you both under arrest!”

One of the officers just laughed at his threats. “Can you believe this?” He asked his friend. “Two rookies who are trying to blackmail their superior officers!” He then plucked out two gold coins and handed them to both men. “Here. I think you two have a bright future ahead of you-”

Marco slapped the coins out of the man’s hand and tackled him, using his training in the cadet corps to pin him to the ground and hold his arms behind his back. He then pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

“As I said, you two are under arre- GUURK!!!”

Marco was suddenly hit in the cheek with the back of the black-haired officer’s rifle. Acting quickly, Marlowe blocked a second swipe with his rifle, defending Marco as he regained his footing. The blonde officer got up and tried to attack, but Marco was able to knock him down again by smacking him in the face with his elbow, before doing the same with the blonde officer. The two then confiscated both officers’ weapons.

Hitch blinked a few times as she watched them actually succeed. ‘Damn,’ she thought. ‘That was kind of awesome.’

“Hugh, so they aren’t just talk,” Boris said, mildly impressed.

Marlowe and Marco then heard people clapping and looked up to see that a small crowd of people had gathered around them, many of them clapping for the two officers who fought back against the corruption of the Military Police. Marlowe wasn’t expecting such adoration for his efforts but accepted it, all the same. However, as the audience cheered, Marlowe noticed someone trying to slip through the crowd. It was a woman who looked to be a bit older than him, and while he couldn’t see her eyes from this distance, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure.

“Everyone! I think I see her!” Marlowe shouted.

Upon hearing him say this, the girl’s eyes widened, revealing them to be blue, and she tried to flee. That confirmed it for Marlowe.

“She’s trying to run!” He shouted.

“Stay by these two!” Marco requested. “We’ll go after her!”

The others nodded and stood by the handcuffed officers until someone arrived to take them away, while Marco and Marlowe ran after the black-haired girl they were tasked with capturing. She pushed past stacks of boxes and carts, knocking them over to try and stall them. Marlowe tripped over some apples that spilled out of one of the boxes she knocked over while Marco jumped over them and continued his chase. She then turned and passed through the street, and a line of horse carriages prevented him from following her. Marco then saw Marlowe running after her down the same side, so he nodded to his comrade and then veered off to the side to cut her off the next chance he got.

Marlowe chased the girl to the market, where she pushed through a couple of people, though she did slow down to avoid knocking over any kids. However, Marlowe ended up doing the same, so it didn’t do much to close the gap between them. Eventually, though, Marco got in front of her, his rifle aimed at her.

“By order of his majesty, I command you to stop where you are!” Marco proclaimed.

Trapped and without a clear escape route, the girl was left with no other choice than to make one herself. She hated doing this to her people, but it was all she could do without hurting anyone or invoking the will of the king.

“STOP!!!” She screamed.

Suddenly, Marlowe and Marco found themselves stunned in place only for a moment, only able to move their eyes. But it wasn’t just them, as everyone who was able to hear it had also been frozen in place. Shopkeepers in the middle of selling, people while they were buying, children during their games of tag, everything came to a halt. This moment where everyone was stuck in place allowed her to run past Marco and continue down the path he came from. Once Marco and Marlowe were able to move again, they didn’t stop to get their bearings and instead immediately began chasing her again. Unfortunately, the two lost her at a crossroads, so they split up once again.

Marco went down the right path and saw her running towards an entrance to what would have been an underground city before the project was abandoned. Marco looked back and called out to Marlowe before following her down. He continued his chase through the underground tunnel, but once Marlowe had arrived to back up Marco and Marlowe, she turned around and took a deep breath again.

“COVER YOUR EARS!” Marco shouted. “SHE’S GONNA-”

“STOP!!!” She screamed again.

Marco and Marlowe were once again frozen in place. However, instead of taking the opportunity to flee, the girl stayed there and tried to plead her case.

“Please, listen to me,” she begged with tears leaking from her eyes. “If you arrest me, they’ll take me back to the capital, where I’ll be eaten alive!”

Marco and Marlowe were horrified by that. Even if she was scheduled to be executed, that punishment was not only cruel and unusual, it was downright disturbing and despicable.

She continued. “I never did anything to deserve this! Whatever you were told I did, I swear on my life, it’s not true! Please, if you’ll just give me the time to explain myself, I’ll tell you everything!”

Marco and Marlowe were able to move again, but they were unsure of what to do now. The fact that this woman had some mysterious powers made them cautious of her claims. For all they knew, she could have done something that warranted exactly what she said would happen to her, or maybe the government wouldn’t even do that to her, and she was just exaggerating to win over their sympathies. But on the other hand, the sight of the government’s corruption in action was still fresh in their memories, leaving them unsure of what should be done.

But then, suddenly, they saw several people dive into the tunnel, each of them wearing some kind of specialized ODM gear with triggers attached to guns instead of swords. These specialized ODM gear users were led by a man with a short beard, a ten-gallon hat, and a wide, unnerving grin on his face as they all surrounded the girl. She tried to scream, only to be gagged and pinned down by one of the people flying around her.

“Nice job cornering her, boys,” the leader said. “And they say the MPs are all a bunch a’ good for nothin’s.”

“U-um, s-sir? Who are you?” Marlowe asked.

“Oh, where are my manners?” The leader removed his hat and bowed before them. “The name’s Kenny Ackerman. I’m in charge of this here unit.” He then put his hat back on and walked up to the girl as she struggled to break free. “Aww, poor little birdie. Can’t do much without your pretty singin’ voice, can ya?”

The two felt guilty as they watched Kenny taunt her for a moment while she started weeping in fear. Marco slowly approached Kenny.

“S-sir, what exactly did she do?” He asked.

“That information’s a few levels above your pay grade, I’d say,” Kenny said. “Rest assured, though, once we lock her up, you’ll have nothing to worry about.”

“But, she said she’d be eaten alive,” Marlowe said. “Is that true?”

“I think you two need to stop asking so many damn questions,” one of Kenny’s squad members said.

“I-it’s true then, isn’t it?”

They didn’t reply. Instead, Kenny simply sighed and turned around. “Welp, he tried to warn you.”

Kenny then pointed his gun at the two of them and fired. A blast of shotgun pellets tore through the air at alarming speeds. There was no way either of them could dodge that. But even still, the bullets didn’t hit true.

Dozens of translucent tendrils suddenly burst forth from where the girl was lying and blocked every single pellet. Kenny looked down in confusion and then saw them retract, before the wrapped around they threw the woman pinning her, and threw her across the tunnel and into the wall to her right. The girl rose to her feet and pulled her gag out with one hand as tentacles wiggled around on her back, blocking gunfire from the other soldiers. Marco and Marlowe looked into her eyes and saw that they had turned from sapphire blue to a piercing, haunting shade of green, and watched them emit an eerie glow.

“W-what the hell?!” Kenny blurted out. “Rod didn’t say anything about tha-”

Suddenly, she closed the distance between her and Kenny in the blink of an eye and punched him in the gut with so much force that his body folded inwards. Kenny collapsed to the ground unconscious, and the woman howled like an angry beast while flailing her tentacles around, striking everyone around her besides Marlowe and Marco. She then grabbed them with the tentacles and bolted out of the tunnel on all fours, racing up the stairs and leaving all of Kenny’s squad dazed and unconscious. She then leaped from rooftop to rooftop until she found a safe place to set them down. Her eyes then glazed over as the tentacles retracted themselves into her back, and she fell unconscious.

Marco supported the girl in his arms, then looked up at Marlowe with a concerned expression. They were now left with a dilemma: they could either hand her over to the government, which would seal her fate after she just saved their lives, but spare them any trouble, or risk potentially suffering the same fate as her just to protect her.

When she awoke, she found herself lying inside a mattress-lined bathtub, with a pillow on the back of her head, and a few blankets covering her. She checked under her sheets and found that she was in the same attire that she blacked out in, thankfully. She then rubbed her forehead as she tried to remember what happened prior. She remembered running from two MPs, then luring them underground so she could explain in private what her situation was, only to be cornered by Kenny’s men. After that, she remembered a voice in her head telling her to fight or something and then remembered feeling the same mental pain she felt whenever she was overtaken by the vow of pacifism, only to an even greater, more agonizing extreme. It was like there were two wills at once vying for control.

As she thought about this, she heard the door open and gasped as she looked around the room for any way out, but to no avail. There were no other doors, and the only window was too high up to reach and too small to crawl out of. She then watched whoever was coming enter the room and found it to be the two MP officers who were chasing her. The two immediately noticed she was scared and tried to calm her down.

“H-hey! Hey! It’s okay,” one of them said. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

The two then introduced themselves as Marco Bodt and Marlowe Freudenberg. Frieda calmed down as they crouched down beside her. They explained that after she saved their lives, they took her back to their base in secret and hid her in their bathroom. The only other person who was in on this was their comrade Hitch Dreyse, who agreed to cover for them after they explained everything to her.

“You said you were going to explain everything to us?” Marlowe reminded her. “We’re willing to hear you out.”

“Bear in mind, you don’t need to tell us,” Marco added. “You saving us back there was enough for us to trust that you’re not evil. Though we’d at least like to know what that power of yours was.”

“N-no, it’s fine,” she said. “I’ll explain everything.” She then sat up on her knees, the mattress compressing beneath her as she took a deep breath and began to explain everything. “My name is Frieda Reiss. I am, or, I was the true ruler of the walls. I am now just the princess of the walls. I bare the power of the Founding Titan and the Attack Titan, and what you saw back there was the reason why I’m being hunted.”

“And what did we see back there, if I may ask?” Marlowe asked. “Is that this ‘Founding Titan’ or ‘Attack Titan’ you spoke of?”

Frieda looked down and hummed with a very ponderous expression which still retained the melancholic mood she had. “I’m not sure. This kind of thing has never happened to me before. Or anyone with this power, for that matter.”

“What do you mean? Are there others with your power?”

“...There were.”

Chapter Text

The walls. These towering monuments stood for over a century, guarding the people of Paridis island from the Titans just outside. On the surface, they were a bastion of peace and security. But in reality, these walls served as a pen, where the people inside were herded like cattle, living the luxurious lives of livestock. That is, until the Marleyans arrived to begin the slaughter. For years since the Colossal and Armored Titans appeared, death was the people's new way of life. Casualties skyrocketed, and fear took hold of the people. However, a hero emerged from beneath the mountain of death five years after the first walls fell. A warrior of light with power unrivaled by the Titans, and by the beasts that ruled over them. And that hero's name was Eren Yeager, humanity's own Ultraman.

Things have been rather quiet for the past few days. This peace was welcome after the emotional toll that was the 57th recognisance mission. While their battle did technically end in victory, they learned a great deal about their enemy, and they received a great deal of public favor thanks to them bringing so much food back to the walls, ultimately, the fact remained that their enemies got away. The only one who didn't escape was the now-dead Telesdon, but there was nothing useful they could learn from its corpse. And to top it all off, they lost the entire Levi squad at the hands of that armored alien. Their parents couldn’t even see their children one last time before sending them to their final resting place, because their killer left nothing that could be buried. All Levi could do was look them in their pained eyes as he informed them that their children had been turned into colored rain.

Not many in the regiment were doing much better mentally. They were all haunted by the nightmarish events that had transpired. Rookies and veterans alike were reeling at the revelation of monsters that dwarfed the Titans in size and power. And this was on top of the many lives lost during the expedition. However, the person who took it all the hardest, moreso even than Levi, was Eren Yeager. But unlike Levi, who had become a master at bottling up his emotions, Eren needed to let his rage and grief be unleashed. And the only constructive outlet he could capitalize on was to train. Every day since the expedition, Eren would go out, finish his chores at a record pace, and then train tirelessly, pushing his body harder and harder each day. But this wasn’t just to blow off steam. It was also to prepare for his next encounter with the armored monster. He was determined to not let them escape again.

But the day wasn't completely lost, as on that day, they gained another valuable ally in the form of Annie Leonheart, the holder of the Female Titan and traitor to Marley. After returning to the base, Annie was taken into questioning by the heads of the Scout Regiment, as well as Dot Pixis, the leader of the Garrison Regiment and close ally to the Scouts. There, Annie told them everything they wanted to know. At this point, she had no other choice.

“So you say that you, Reiner, and Bertholdt were never actually from the walls?” Erwin asked

"That's right," she replied. "We aren't even from this island."

"And pre-tell, what exactly is an island?" Pixis asked.

"Essentially, you all live on a small land mass surrounded by water," she explained. "And it’s located close to our home nation of Marley."

Annie proceeded to explain everything, from the Titans once being human, to how they were turned into Titans, to Paradis' place in the wider world. She explained the concept of nations, the ocean, and of course, the warriors. Though to ensure she wasn't executed on the spot for supporting Reiner and Bertholdt, she made sure to stretch the truth as much as she possibly could. She said she didn't want to be a titan shifter in the first place, emphasizing only having thirteen, now down to a measly six, years left to live because of the curse of Ymir, as well as the fact that she was less than ten years old when she was entered into the warrior program. How she was manipulated by Marleyan propaganda into believing that the people of Paradis weren't people at all, but devils, and that if she wanted to prove she wasn't a devil, then she would have to kill them, and how even after wanting to go home, she was forced by Reiner and Bertholdt to continue their mission. And even though she didn't mean to, she did start tearing up as she told them her story.

And it worked. While Levi still held a great deal of resentment towards her, she was fine with that, because he wasn't the one she needed to convince. She just needed to convince the other three who were in the room with her. Hange was simultaneously freaking out over the wealth of information that Annie had provided, and distraught at the prospect that the people outside the walls hated them so much that they were willing to doom children to live the rest of their shortened lives as weapons. Pixis was equally disgusted by Marley's cruelty. Erwin found himself sympathizing with Annie, and with all the information she provided, there was little doubt in his mind that Annie truly was defecting to Paradis. Though that said, this didn’t mean Erwin didn’t have any questions for her.

“Miss Leonheart, I recall you mentioning that there were a total of nine titan powers,” Erwin said. “Now eight due to Bertholdt’s death. I’d like to know more about these powers you’ve mentioned.”

“Well, first of all, there are still nine powers,” Annie said. “Just because the wielder of the power dies, doesn’t mean the power dies with it.”

Erwin raised an eyebrow. “Elaborate.”

“Whenever one of us dies, our power is transferred over to a newborn Eldian, and thus the cycle repeats itself.”

“I see. This information will be quite useful to us,” Erwin said.

“Here’s hoping that the Colossal Titan doesn’t just end up right back in the hands of Marley, then,” Pixis commented.

“As for the nine powers,” Annie leaned forward to explain. “There are seven whose powers are known to me and two whose powers are unknown. I’ll start with the ones I know about: The Armored, Colossal, Jaws, Cart, Beast, Founder, and Female. The Armored Titan is the most durable Titan in Marley’s army, with hardened titan skin all over his body. He can shed his armor in exchange for greater mobility, but in doing so, he also makes himself more vulnerable, as his armor can’t regenerate. This also applies to armored body parts that had been removed.”

“That explains why Reiner’s arm wasn’t armored when he was chasing us in the forest,” Levi said.

After going over the capabilities of the Colossal Titan in case they ever had to face it again, Annie moved on to the Jaw Titan. “The Jaws is the second most mobile Titan, and it boasts the strongest bite force of every Titan power. When given the spinal fluid of a shifter power with hardening abilities, even the Armored Titan’s armor is no match for it. It can also use its claws to climb up and cling to walls. But it’s also the second-smallest Titan, and in wide open areas, most Titan shifters can safely take it down. Also, since the previous holder was eaten when we arrived, whoever holds the Titan now could potentially be recruited to our side.”

Pixis placed a finger on his chin and leaned forward slightly. “You know, your wording implies that these powers can be combined in some way. Is this true.”

“For the most part, that’s true, but it’s not as easy as just feeding a shifter the spinal fluid of another shifter. Some powers are more receptive to mixing and matching than others. My power for example can be mixed with pretty much any shifter power save for the Colossal, which doesn’t play well with anything. Reiner’s power, on the other hand, can pretty much only mix with my power and nothing else. Because of this, Marley uses Female Titan and Armor Titan spinal fluid to equip almost every shifter in their arsenal with some form of hardening.”

“You also said that the Jaw Titan is only the second most mobile,” Erwin noted. “Which shifter is the most mobile then?”

“That would be the Cart Titan,” Annie replied. “Another quadrupedal Titan shifter, this one with an elongated face. It’s the smallest and most mobile shifter, and unlike most Titan shifters, it can stay in its form for months on end. Because of this, Marley has created special weapon attachments fitted for the Cart Titan, hence its name. It’s a powerful support Titan that has been able to devastate entire military formations in the past by working with the other shifters, so if it shows up on the battlefield, it should be made a high-priority target.”

“Understood,” Erwin said.

“The Beast Titan is a wild card of a Titan because depending on the shifter, it can do something entirely different, and it all seems to depend on the user. Currently, it’s in the hands of the Warrior commander, and his Beast Titan is a monkey.”

They all looked at her, confused. Annie then facepalmed and sighed.

“Right, you don’t have monkeys on this island,” Annie said. “Okay, a monkey is an animal that’s similar to a human, but with a different build, and hair covering their bodies. Some of them also have tails, but others don’t.”

“Hmmm… is it possible that the thing Reiner was aligned with was a monkey?” Hange asked.

“Probably not,” Annie replied. “Monkeys don’t talk, wear armor, fly, shoot lasers out of their mouths and hands, or size shift. So unless something really strange happened to that monkey, I highly doubt it.” Annie then got back onto the subject of the Beast Titan. “Anyway, Zeke’s Beast Titan is capable of overpowering an entire artillery squad just by throwing a handful of rocks at them, and he can harden his skin similarly to how I can after he consumed Female Titan spinal fluid.”

“So what are his weaknesses?” Levi asked.

“That’s the biggest problem with Zeke. His Titan doesn’t have an inherent weaknesses.”

“Well, isn’t that just peachy,” Levi sighed.

“Hmm... Annie, how tall is Zeke’s titan?” Pixis asked.

“About seventeen meters, sir,” she said.

Pixis smirked, then chuckled. “Well, then we already know what his weakness is. Ultraman’s foot!”

This actually prompted a mild nose laugh from Annie and a smirk from Erwin.

“So, what about your Titan?” Erwin asked. “The Female Titan? What can it offer us?”

“Not much compared to Jaeger,” she replied only somewhat jokingly. “But I’ll tell you everything I can do. My Titan is a sort of jack of all trades Titan, having some of the benefits of each Titan. Unlike all the other Titans besides the Armored, my Titan is the only one that can naturally harden their skin. All the others require hardening fluid made using The Female Titan or Armored Titan’s spinal fluid. I usually use this ability to enhance my strikes and defend myself from attacks. I can also encase myself in a crystal made of hardened Titan skin, then break out of it at will. I can also use a rallying call to summon any pure Titans in hearing distance to my location, though I can’t fully control them like Zeke or the Founder can.”

Hange raised an eyebrow at Levi when he didn’t say anything about that. “You’re not going to say anything?” She asked.

“Nah, the joke would be too obvious,” he said.

“And of course, last but not least, the Founding Titan,” Pixis said. “You mentioned that you and the rest of the warriors were sent here to retrieve it. So tell me, what makes it so valuable?”

“The Founding Titan is the most powerful Titan in existence. Little information exists on it, but we know that it has the power to control all Eldians and Titans. It created your walls using millions of Colossal Titans, before erasing the memories of everyone on the island with a roar. That last tidbit of info was something I had to dig deep into your archives to find out about, and it nearly got me killed.”

Pixis, Hange, and Levi were almost as shocked by this revelation as they were about the Titans being humans. Erwin however, simply nodded in understanding, having suspected that there was something the government was hiding from the people, both about the walls, and about the history of this world, and now he finally understood what it was they were hiding.

“Thank you, Annie. This information will be very helpful to us in the future,” Erwin said. “Now, what can you tell us about these other two Titans you don’t know as much about?”

“The Warhammer Titan is a Titan power Marley keeps secret. It’s in the hands of the royal Tybur family, but nobody knows which Tybur has it. The Attack Titan, meanwhile, was lost around the time the Eldian empire fell and hasn’t been found since.”

“I see,” Erwin nodded. Before Erwin could ask any further questions, he heard an urgent knock on the door. “Come in,” he said, and a Scout opened the door.

“Commander, representatives of the Military Police have come to speak with you, sir,” he reported.

“I see. Well, let them in,” he said before turning to Annie. “Annie, you’re dismissed for now.”

“Understood sir,” she said. She then stood up and stepped out of the room, before walking down the halls of the Scouts’ base.

As Annie walked through the halls towards her room, she looked out a window and onto the courtyard. There, she saw Eren and Mikasa training with each other. There was a large crowd of other cadets surrounding the two, each seemingly placing bets on who would win each round (almost always in favor of Mikasa.) As she watched them, she was reminded of her time in the cadet corps with them. At the same time, she found Eren’s drive to grow stronger relatable, as she was reminded of her time training with her father.

Eren was clearly on the backfoot throughout each and every round he went up against Mikasa. Try as he might, was never truly able to get the upper hand on her, even with his crude replications of Annie's techniques. Still, though, she was impressed by his tenacity and raw determination, not to mention how well he was holding his own against Mikasa regardless. Now that she was no longer in the red, and had cemented herself as an ally of Paradis, she found herself less terrified that Eren was improving, and more comforted that she would be under the protection of the strongest being in the world…

Hopefully.

After Eren’s training session with Mikasa concluded, the crowd dispersed. Sasha and Connie decided to use their remaining free time to take a stroll around the castle grounds. Sasha had her arms wrapped behind her head, gazing up at the clouds absent-mindedly, while Connie had his hands in his pockets and looked out into the forest, hoping for something interesting to happen. He doubted anything would, though. The most interesting thing he’d seen out in those woods these past few days was a wild boar. Of course, it boredom was preferable to life threatening peril, but he was nonetheless itching for something to happen.

Because of this, he was all the more surprised when he did see something looking back at him, and it didn’t look like a boar, or any other animal for that matter.

Peering out from behind a tree was a bizarre-looking creature. It bore light pink skin, with bone-white hands, legs, and feet. It only had three toes and three long fingers. Its arms were so short that Connie couldn’t even tell if it had any. The creature was covered in fluffy red fur, and it seemed to have a short, rat-like tail that was the same shade of white as its hands and legs.

Connie shook Sasha’s arm and pointed at the creature with wide eyes while letting out a flabbergasted mumble. Upon laying eyes on the creature, Sasha yelped, prompting the creature to let out a chirp of fear and hide behind the tree. Connie grabbed a large, thick stick for self defense, and the two carefully approached the tree where the creature was hiding. They found it trembling behind the tree, its knees quivering and its eyes clenched shut.

When the red creature heard the crunching of the leaves as they stepped closer, it screamed and bolted away, taking the nearest escape route it could find, which led back to where Connie and Sasha came from. The two chased after the red monster as it ran across the castle grounds.

Meanwhile, Mikasa and Eren were taking a walk together while discussing the sparring session. Mikasa tried her best to make him feel better about how it went, but Eren just wouldn’t listen. She sighed, trying to think of any way that she could make him feel better about himself. But in her absentmindedness, she ended up not noticing the red monster running towards them, forcing Eren to tackle her out of the way as it ran past. Eren and Mikasa then looked up to see Connie and Sasha chasing after it.

“The hell is that thing?” Eren asked.

“U-um… Eren? You can get off of me now.” Mikasa said softly.

Eren’s cheeks reddened, and he jumped off of her with his hands raised.

Sasha and Connie continued to follow after the red monster, eventually seeing it trip over a rock protruding from the ground. However, rather than simply fall flat on its face, the red monster curled up into a fluffy red ball, tucking its legs, head, and hands beneath its body as it rolled forwards. This allowed it to build up speed, and as a result, it wound up accidentally knocking Jean over while he was passing by.

“Gah! What the fuck?! What is that?!” Jean shouted angrily as he rubbed his head.

Connie and Sasha ran past Jean, now starting to get exhausted from trying to catch up to the strange, fluffy monster. It soon hopped out of its ball form and continued to flee. It then rounded a corner and stopped when it saw Annie talking to Armin on the other side of the turn. Annie had a guilty look on her face, and rubbed her arm nervously while Armin was seemingly trying to process what Annie told him.

"Annie… I don't know what to say right now," Armin said as he tried to process what she told him. “I almost can’t believe you- no, I-it’s more like I don’t want to believe you. I don’t want to imagine that you could be even indirectly responsible for all of those deaths. I just… Annie… why?”

Annie solemnly looked away from him. “I was scared,” she replied. “I still am. Every second I’ve spent on this island has been a waking nightmare. All that’s changed is that now, I’m more scared of this island than I am of Marley.”

“Is that really all that changed?” Armin asked.

Annie closed her eyes and shook her head. “No. There’s more to it than that. Because more than being scared… I just couldn’t bring myself to hurt you anymore.”

Armin could tell through the cadence in her voice that she was being genuine, and as the pieces clicked together of what Annie meant by that, Armin’s cheeks flushed a bright red, as did those of Annie.

Suddenly, the mood shifted on a dime when they finally noticed the red monster. It tried to turn the other way, but saw that Sasha and Connie, along with Jean, Eren, and Mikasa, had all caught up to it. Annie pushed Armin behind her protectively and held her fists up, waiting for the creature to make its move, while everyone else observed it cautiously. Eventually, it crouched down and began to whimper, tipping everyone off that it might not be dangerous after all. Sasha was first to recognize this and implored Connie to set the board down, which he did. The wooden board slipped out of Connie’s grip with a soft thud. Sasha then took a knee before the creature and held out her hand to it.

“Hey, it’s alright,” she said in a gentle tone. “We’re not gonna hurt you. I'm sorry for scaring you."

The creature looked at her, still skittish, but calmed down just enough to get a bit closer. In response, Sasha got a bit closer as well. Eventually, Sasha placed her hand on the red creature's cheek and gently pet it.

"Okay, so we know it's not hostile at least," Connie said. "But still, what is that thing?"

As soon as Connie asked that question, the red creature suddenly stood up. Everyone was tense, but Sasha held out her hand to them as the creature started scratching at the ground. Everyone gathered around it, their eyes widening in shock as they realized that it was writing something in the dirt. The little monster eventually stepped back once it finished writing, and showed its work to everyone.

"Pigmon…?" Armin read out loud.

The red monster, whose name was apparently Pigmon, jumped in place and nodded.

"Hold up, does this thing actually understand us?" Connie asked.

Pigmon nodded again to answer Connie's question. Everyone was equally surprised by this revelation, but after everything they've been through since Trost, from Eren becoming a giant, superpowered being that was completely different from the Titans, to Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt being revealed as Titan Shifters, to the other giant monsters they faced in Wall Maria, the concept of a red creature that could understand their language ranked among the less bizarre things they had experienced.

The doors to the courtyard soon opened as Erwin came out to address the Scouts currently gathered around Pigmon. “Soldiers, report to the barracks. You need to get rest for the upcoming mission,” he said.

“What is it, sir?” Eren asked.

“The Military Police have enlisted the assistance of the Garrison and Scout Regiment to track down a person of interest,” Erwin explained. “I’ll explain more tomorrow.” He then looked towards the monster they surrounded with a curious expression. “Who might this be?”

“Oh, this is Pigmon,” Sasha explained. “He’s a monster we found wandering around the base. He’s fairly harmless, and he even knows our language. He can’t talk though.”

“I see,” Erwin pondered this while keeping his composure, before nodding to himself. “Please escort him to the horse stables, until we can determine what should be done with him.”

Sasha nodded and patted Pigmon on the shoulder, before leading him. Pigmon nodded and followed her, but eyed Erwin skittishly. Even if he had no ill intent, the intense gase Erwin gave him terrified him to his core. Almost as much as that of the monster on that other island he had so narrowly escaped from.

Bemular and Reiner returned to the quarry where Reiner had initially added Telesdon to his Battlenizer. With Telesdon dead, Reiner required a new monster to add to his party, and one far stronger than the previous monster. The two soon arrived at the hole that Telesdon had created. Bemular pressed a few buttons on a keypad on their arm, and blue lights began to glow all over the various rivets on their armor.

“After you, then?” Reiner asked.

“Naturally,” Bemular replied. “Also, I advise that you enter your armored form before we go down. Things could get messy.”

Reiner nodded and as Bemular hovered down into the depths, he sank his teeth into his hand and transformed into the Armored Titan. The titan then slid down the slide of gravel into the pit below, where they began exploring, Bemular illuminating the cavern walls as they went. Reiner was amazed to find a complex system of caverns buried deep underground, all linking together in some way.

Bemular eventually stopped Reiner and began listening for any nearby kaiju activity. After not too long, they heard the sounds of a scuffle echo from the cave straight ahead of them.

“Come along, Reiner. Our monster awaits us.”

Bemular floated forwards, with Reiner close behind. As they grew closer and closer, the roars became louder and louder, until eventually, they saw bright orange flashes in the distance. They soon rounded the corner as they saw a light in the distance. They soon arrived at a molten cavern where they saw three badly injured Telesdons lying in defeat beneath a monster both larger and more powerful than them. Its skin was thick and pale, its eyes bright red, its teeth were sharp, and it bore a long, thin tail, and spikes all over its body. It also bore two long black horns, and a pair of long, black whips instead of hands.

“A Gudon!” Bemular exclaimed. “Perfect!”

“That’s our monster, huh?” Reiner asked via his communicator. “Seems like we might also be able to pick up a new Telesdon while we’re at it.”

Two more Telesdons emerged from the magma filling the arena and fired their lava heat rays at the monster, which it blocked by twirling its whip hands so quickly that they formed a pair of shields that blocked both beams. Gudon then swung both his whip hands, wrapping them around the Telesdon’s necks and dragging them to the surface. The subterranean monster then began flinging both monsters around, ragdolling them and wearing them both out. Once the two Telesdons were sufficiently beaten down, Gudon proceeded to feast upon the defeated Telesdons, only one of which had survived Gudon’s attack and was slowly crawling back towards the lava.

“Holy shit. This thing’s pretty strong,” Reiner commented.

“And that’s only its normal state,” Bemular said. “Once you add it to your battlenizer, it will only become stronger.”

Bemular then began to levitate and flew down to Gudon. “Remember, just like last time,” they said. “I’ll wear it down, then you capture it.”

Reiner stayed in his Titan body, aware that if he exited it down here, he’d probably suffocate from the ashes and toxic fumes from the underground volcanic activity. 

Bemular landed behind Gudon in their giant form and attacked it before it even had a chance to react, delivering several flying rapid-fire kicks to its back that sent it flying into the wall of the cavern. Bemular then somersaulted through the air and drove their heel into Gudon’s stomach. Now thoroughly enraged, Gudon ensnared Bemular with his whip hands, and slammed them on the ground, before dragging them through the lava, knocking the Telesdons into the lava in the process.

Bemular rose from the lava and flew at Gudon, who charged at them horns first. Bemular swiftly dodged Gudon’s horn charge before kicking him in the back of the head. They then landed and chuckled to themself as they watched the monster stumble about. They then dodged a flurry of whip attacks that left massive scratches in the wall behind them, but their cockieness ended up allowing Gudon to wrap a whip around their ankle and swing them around the arena.

Bemular managed to pull themself out of Gudon’s grip. They then flew right into Gudon while charging their fists with red energy. The impact caused a massive explosion that rocked the arena and caused rocks to collapse onto them. Quickly, Reiner’s hand emerged from the nape of the Armored Titan, Battlenizer in hand. Bemular grabbed Gudon and an adolescent Telesdon and held them up to Reiner, allowing him to turn both monsters into Battlenizer cards, before they grabbed Reiner and fled the collapsing cavern.

The two burst out of the underground, a trail of smoke and ash latched onto their backs. Bemular managed to shake it off, before landing. Reiner then emerged from his titan and looked at his Battlenizer. He smiled as he saw that both Gudon and Telesdon were registered onto the Battlenizer. Bemular shrank down to Reiner’s height and placed a hand on his shoulder, and Reiner’s smile faded ever so slightly.

“So, do we just go back in and let them loose?” Reiner asked.

“Not quite,” Bemular said. “There are now four of us and four districts in Trost.”

Reiner’s eyes widened as he realized where Bemular was going with that.

“Even with all the power in his arsenal, Ultraman cannot be in two places at once,” Bemular explained. “And at best, the humans will only be a threat to you. Even if Ultraman defeats one of our monsters, he will not have enough time to stop the other two. And if things get really bad for you, you can simply call for backup and I will be there to assist you. Once all other districts are breached, we will all converge on a now weakened Ultraman and eliminate him.”

Reiner nodded. “Right. That’s a good plan.”

“Honestly, I wonder why you and your warrior friends never came up with something like this,” Bemular said. “You would shred the walls’ defenses thin in just a few days with your titan powers.”

“How long have you been watching us, again?” Reiner asked.

“Since around five years ago,” Bemular replied. “But I did my research.”

“What kind of research?” Reiner asked nervously.

Bemular chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

“Let me put it this way: I know where your family lives. ”

Reiner’s blood ran cold as those words rolled off Bemular’s tongue. His heart began racing as his mind was buzzing with questions.

Bemular turned around and leaned in towards Reiner. “So if you don’t do as I say, they’ll suffer the consequences just as you will. Understand?”

Reiner nodded fearfully.

“Good. Oh, and by the way, Marleyan reinforcements will likely be on their way soon.”

“How do you figure?”

“I used Leonheart’s father to pass on the message that his daughter defected,” Bemular said. “It was the last useful thing he was able to do for me before I had to…” Bemular’s claws glowed red. “ Do away with him. ”

Reiner covered his mouth with his hand, feeling the urge to vomit at their sadistic methods of getting with they desired. And for what reason? Why would they feel the need to go to such extremes? It didn’t make sense to Reiner… until he thought about it. 

When he did think about it, that served a few purposes. Marley was more likely to listen to information being passed along by humans than told to them directly by some alien in a suit of glowing armor. But Bemular then probably killed Annie’s father because now that she betrayed them, they didn’t want her back, and to send her a message that she should not have gone against them. But probably the most horrifying part was that by killing Annie’s father, Bemular likely spared him from an even worse fate at the hands of Marley.

“Now on your feet, my minion,” Bemular commanded. “We have an Ultra to destroy.”

Chapter Text

Lightning ripped through the dark clouds as the monsoon raged across the island. Pigmon squealed and cried while he ran away from the rumbling earth behind him. Rocks crumbled and crashed behind him as he sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him. All the while, the screeches of a colossal behemoth echoed in his ears like sirens of death, growing closer and closer no matter how fast Pigmon ran. Even while rolling in a ball, Pigmon couldn’t outrun the approaching doom as it ripped through mountains like they were nothing. But he had to escape this monster. He just had to keep moving forward. He had been working on an escape from this God-forsaken island for months now. If he could just make it there, he’d be free. He could escape once and for-

BUMP!

Pigmon stumbled backward and uncurled his body. His eyes widened with fear as he saw that a wall of rock blocked his escape. With no other means of escape, Pigmon looked back in terror as he saw the monstrous visage of his pursuer, his lips curling to reveal his razor-sharp teeth and sabertooth fangs. The beast released a sadistic cackle as he looked down on the little red monster.

Pigmon woke up with a scream and looked around, panting loudly. His ears were suddenly filled with the aggravated huffs of the horses in the stable with him as they tried to get some shut-eye. Tears welled up in the corners of Pigmon’s eyes, and he curled up into a ball as he began letting out frightened sobs, trying desperately to convince himself that the monster was gone. He was free, and he didn’t have to be afraid anymore. But even still, he couldn’t get the horrors of that island out of his head.

The next morning…

Armin waved goodbye to Eren and Mikasa as they rode off with the other Scouts on their mission. While he didn't let it show during the debriefing, Armin questioned Commander Erwin’s strategy. He remembered during that debriefing that the Military Police had asked for some soldiers from the Scout Regiment to help them hunt down a person of interest. However, his choice of recruits made little sense to Armin.

Eren and Mikasa were obvious. Mikasa was the strongest member of the 104th, and Eren being there would scare anyone into submission. But then there were the other Scouts that accompanied him: Jean, Connie, Krista, and Ymir. This left him, Sasha, and Annie as the only cadets of the 104th to stay behind at the base.

Jean, he could understand. He was the second fastest on ODM gear after Mikasa, and he proved himself as a competent leader. But Ymir? Their worst team player? Krista? The Scout with the weakest constitution out of the 104th? Connie? The soldier known for his general incompetence? It didn’t add up for Armin. Erwin must have had some sort of ulterior plan here.

‘It’s possible he just didn’t want to put Annie in possible harm's way. Erwin may suspect that the person the government is hunting for is the Founder that Annie described. But if that’s the case, and the founder went rogue, then why would he agree to this mission in the first place? And why, especially, would he risk bringing Eren? It would be a much greater risk to bring him than Annie. Unless Erwin isn’t planning on facing the person of interest at all…’

“Armin!” Sasha shouted.

Armin snapped out of his contemplation and turned to face Sasha. She then nodded back to the stables with her hands on her hips.

“Come on,” she said. “Mike says we’re on Pigmon duty.”

“O-oh, right,” Armin replied.

Armin was still pondering what Erwin was planning all the way until they reached the stables. Upon arriving, they saw Pigmon letting out chirps and squeals directed towards one of the horses. The horse, in reply, grunted and huffed while shaking her head expressively. Based on Pigmon’s expressions and the horse’s actions, Sasha and Armin both came to the surprising conclusion that Pigmon was somehow communicating with the horse.

Sasha scratched the back of her head in disbelief. “This is so weird… What do you think they’re talking about?”

“I’m not sure, but that horse seems… familiar?”

Just then, Armin noticed a scar stretching from the side of the horse’s neck all the way down to her shoulder. That’s when he realized, when Reiner attacked his branch of the formation, one of the rocks he kicked up managed to hit Dieter Ness’ horse in the neck. The wound wasn’t fatal, but it did leave a permanent scar.

“Hold up. That… isn’t that Ness’ horse?” Armin asked.

“You mean the one we picked up while out in the wilderness?” Sasha asked.

“Yeah, that one. ‘Charrette’ I think her name was.”

“Yeah, what about her?”

Armin rubbed his shoulder as his expression grew uncomfortable. “Well, you see… Reiner killed Ness when he appeared, but left her behind.”

“Oh…” Sasha’s voice became more melancholy and her gaze expanded, before returning to the conversing creatures. “You think they’re talking about that?”

“If Pigmon is capable of communicating with other creatures, it’s possible.”

Charrette lowered her head and Pigmon gently placed his forehead against hers in a gesture of comfort. This all but confirmed this in their minds. Armin and Sasha watched silently until Pigmon finally noticed them. When he did, he hobbled away from Charrette, who was in a slightly better mood now. Then, to the best of his ability, Pigmon waved at Armin and Sasha, using his body to help with the motion. The two waved back and then heard someone walk up behind them. 

“So, you’re on Pigmon duty?”

Armin and Sasha turned around and saw Annie behind them, a pair of buckets dangling from each fist, each filled with different feeds. Armin smiled upon seeing her, though Sasha was a bit nervous knowing what she knew about her.

“Yeah,” Armin replied. “You too, I take it?”

“Yep,” Annie said nonchalantly.

Armin chuckled. “It's a bit funny to imagine a Titan shifter would be relegated to a task as menial as this one,” he said jokingly. “N-no offense!”

Annie completely disregarded Armin’s comment and approached Pigmon with her normal deadpan expression. While she approached him, Sasha leaned towards Armin.

“Are we sure we should trust her?” Sasha whispered. “I’m not saying I blame her for what happened, but she did still help them do it. Shouldn’t we be a bit more cautious around her?”

Armin shook his head. “I don’t think we need to worry. I may not have known as much about Annie as I thought I did, but she seems like she genuinely wants to help us. She revealed herself just to protect us from Reiner, and then she gave us all the information we needed to combat the enemy. I know it doesn't erase what she did, but we should at least take all the help we can get.”

Sasha didn’t disagree. But there was one more question on her mind. “Does Eren know?”

Armin gulped. “N-no. I… don’t think it would be a good idea to tell him yet. You know how he can be when he’s angry… especially as Ultraman. ”

Sasha nodded, remembering what he did to Telesdon and the armored monster.

“Erwin seems to agree with me,” Armin noted. “He’s currently holding off on giving any official statements for that exact reason. He wants to make sure Eren doesn’t do anything rash when he finds out.”

“I… I see.”

The two then joined Annie as she carried four different buckets of feed to Pigmon. She then casually dropped them in front of him with a deadpan expression, the feed splashing a bit and causing Pigmon to recoil slightly, with a confused and very disgusted expression on his face. Annie then crossed her arms and straightened her posture.

“We have oats, corn, hay, and carrot mush. Pick your favorite,” Annie said.

Pigmon gently kicked the carrot mush bucket and visibly cringed when he saw it bubble slightly.

“Um, Annie, maybe he’d rather eat something a bit more… palatable?” Armin asked.

“I doubt the Scouts will cut into their food budget just to pamper Pigmon when we don’t even know what he eats,” she replied.

“Maybe he’s a carnivore?’

“Hange checked his teeth last night. We know he’s a herbivore.”

As Armin and Annie continued to debate what they should feed Pigmon, the monster in question sat down and tried to sample each of them, only to find himself disappointed at best, and nauseated at worst. Pigmon proceeded to stare at each of the buckets like a child that didn't want to eat their vegetables. Sasha eventually sat down next to Pigmon and asked for some of his feed. Pigmon shrugged and pushed the bucket of corn to her. He then watched as she scooped up a handful and ate it.

“Hmm. You know, if you cook it in butter, it might not be half bad,” she said with a crumb covered smile and a pair of puffed up cheeks.

Pigmon didn’t know what butter was or what it tasted like but took her word for it. Thinking that he wouldn’t find anything above “barely edible” here, he decided he may as well go and forage. So, he simply hobbled past Armin and Annie, curled up into a ball. By the time the scouts noticed, he had already rolled right out of the open stables towards the forest.

“SHIT! AFTER HIM!” Annie shouted. The trio then ran after Pigmon as he rolled across the base.

‘I’m sensing a pattern…’ She thought. ‘And it's an annoying one.’

As they ran after Pigmon, Hange had just stepped out of the castle with Moblit by her side. She was carrying a box overflowing with tools to do some more examinations on Pigmon, when she suddenly had to jump back upon seeing Pigmon rolling past her, followed by the three scouts chasing him.

“Moblit! Hold these!” Hange handed her assistant all the equipment she was holding and then pulled out a brown notebook from her blazer. “I have to document this!”

Mobility tried to call for her, but stumbled in place as he attempted to prevent the tools from spilling out. Hange then ran after Pigmon while opening her notebook to a page with Pigmon’s profile drawn on it. On the page next to it, she began drawing the outline of Pigmon’s ball form, as well as some notes on it as she followed the group.

Pigmon quickly ventured into the forest surrounding Castle Utgard, and stopped once at a particular berry bush growing just outside the camp. Bunches of blackberries were growing off the side of the bush, and Pigmon jumped for joy as he laid eyes upon his favorite snack. The Scouts pursuing him arrived just in time to see him using his long fingers to scoop blackberries into his palms, then gobble up one handful while filling up the other palm.

While everyone caught their breath, Annie’s eyes twitched with frustration. “He had us go through all that just for a damn berry bush?”

“He did?!” Hange shouted out, making everyone aware that he was there with them. She then grabbed Armin by the shoulders and pulled him in so close that their foreheads were pressing together. “I need you three to tell me everything that happened while I was away! Spare no details!”

After Annie and Moblit separated the section commander from Armin, the trio explained the whole situation as they understood it. Hange listened intently while scribbling down notes on a small pad of paper she suddenly drew from her back pocket.

“So he was so repulsed by the food options he was given that he went out of his way to seek something else…” Hange pondered out loud to herself. “Given what they said, it doesn’t seem to be poisonous to him, but rather that, much like humans, he has preferences in what he eats, even if it’s technically edible. Ohhh, with everything I learn about him, he only becomes even more fascinating~! He’s like a gift that keeps on giving~!” Hange panted softly and began drooling, her knees quivering and her glasses foggy.

Pigmon glanced up at Hange, his cheeks still full of blackberries. He questioned her intentions with that look on her face, but disregarded his concerns for the moment. 

Hange knelt beside him and patted him on the shoulder. “So, darling, do you only eat blackberries, or would any fruit suffice for you?” She asked.

Pigmon stood up and like before, began to scratch at the dirt. Though finding that his writing wouldn’t be very readable in the grass, he followed the Scouts back to the base, where he was able to leave a much more readable message in the sand, which read as follows:

“Pigmon like many fruit. But pomegranate bad.” He then drew a crude drawing of himself with Xs for eyes next to the part about his dislike for pomegranates.

“What’s a pomegranate?” Sasha asked.

“No idea, but he must be allergic to them,” Armin commented.

Pigmon nodded in affirmation.

“I see. Well, now we know what to feed you for the rest of your stay with us,” Hange said as she temporarily put away her notes. “I hope you like apples.”

Pigmon hopped with glee upon hearing that, prompting Hange to giggle.

Frieda gazed out the window of Marlowe and Marco’s room, quietly surveying the streets below. Down there, she could see families walking by together, seeming happy to just be spending time with each other. It made her briefly think back on her time with Historia. However,  seeing her wanted posters plastered all over the walls of buildings and the sides of lantern posts made her refrain from looking for much longer. This sea of self portraits served as a grim reminder of why she needed to stay hidden from her family. She sighed softly and closed the blinds, before placing her head in her hands.

‘They’re gonna get themselves hurt. I have to leave soon, so they can be safe.’

Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door, followed by a familiar voice.

“It’s us!” Marco called from the other side. “Hitch is here too. She wanted to see how you were doing.”

“Come in,” Frieda replied.

The door clicked open, and in came Marco, Marlowe, and Hitch, all of whom looked over their shoulders before entering. Marlowe made sure to lock the door behind him as they all got settled in. Hitch noticed Frieda’s somber expression and took a seat next to her.

“You alright, girl?” She asked. “What’s got you so down?”

Frieda attempted to brush it off. “O-oh, it’s nothing. I’ve just had a lot on my mind…”

“I can imagine,” Marlowe said. “What with being wanted by the government, and the threat of being eaten alive looming over your head, I can only imagine what you must be feeling.”

“You didn’t need to remind her!” Hitch snarled. “Sheesh, have at least a little tact.”

“He’s fine, Hitch,” Frieda said. “A-and it wasn’t that I was thinking about anyway.”

“So then what’s wrong?” Marco asked.

Frieda sighed softly. “I’m just worried that I might be putting you all in danger by staying here. With all the Military Police patrolling Wall Sina on a daily basis, and Kenny’s squad working alongside them, it’s only a matter of time until one of you gets hurt or worse.”

“Well, why don’t you use the Founding Titan to stop them from chasing you?” Hitch asked.

“I can’t,” she replied. “You still don’t know about the vow of the 145th king, do you?”

Hitch tilted her head in confusion. “The what?”

“You see, one of the earlier wielders of the Founding Titan continues to impose his will onto all future holders, even after his passing centuries ago,” Frieda explained. “This vow of he made prevents any user from using the power too liberally. Otherwise, the king’s personality will overtake our mind, making us effectively a prisoner in our own body.”

“Okay, but what does that have to do with defending herself from being eaten?”

“A few years ago, I consumed the Attack Titan. After I did this, the will of the 145th king has started begun manifesting at more random occasions. Because of this, I’ve had to be very careful with how I use my power ever since I escaped. If I use my powers for something too grand, the 145th king of the walls may take over my body and force me to turn myself in-” Frieda winced and clutched her forehead. Her pupils briefly turned purple with white cracks across them, but with a long, pained blink, they returned to their radiant, sapphire blue color. “Even by explaining all this to you three, I can feel King Fritz’ will scratching at the back of my mind…”

Hitch had an uncharacteristically somber expression on her face. She placed a hand on Frieda’s shoulder and smiled at her. “Hey, it’s gonna be alright. We’ll find a way to set you free. We promise.”

Marco joined Hitch in comforting the ebony-haired princess. “We’ll do whatever we can to set you free.”

Frieda smiled at them and teared up slightly. “I don’t think that’s even possible…”

“Even if it isn’t, we’ll still do what we can to help you,” Marlowe said. “Those pigs in the capital are fools and monsters for doing something so cruel to you.”

Frieda’s heart raced with joy. She had never in all her years had anyone treat her with this much kindness before. She smiled and closed her eyes, tears of joy streaking down her face, feeling the warmth of her friends’ embrace. However, as she had her eyes closed, she suddenly felt… cold.

A breeze suddenly passed over her body, and she could no longer feel Hitch’s or Marco’s arms wrapped around her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw herself sitting in a sandy plane under a dark, starless night sky. Far away,  she saw a gigantic tree seemingly made of pure light, shining as brightly as the sun with branches stretching up into the heavens. A few of the branches appeared to be tangled together in odd ways, but then again, this whole situation was odd to Frieda. As she stared up at the tree, her eyes slowly panned down to a dark figure slowly walking out of it. The figure bore long hair and was dressed in garb that stretched down to its knees. As the figure stepped closer, Frieda saw the figure’s hair was as dark as the night, with clothes that matched it, save for the gray shirt he wore beneath his open jacket. 

When the man finally reached her, he looked down at her with a dark, soul-piercing glare, and she began to back away from him out of fear. However, the man didn’t do anything to hurt her. Instead, he simply held out his hand.

“Stand up, Frieda.”

His voice was… calming. It sounded young but withered and beaten as if he had seen and experienced things one couldn’t even imagine. And yet, she sensed no malice from him. In fact, she felt at peace with this man. Like she implicitly knew he was here to help her.

However, before she could take his hand, shackles suddenly burst out of the ground, latched onto her wrists, and pulled her hands back down. She tried to cry out for help, but another shackle latched around her neck. The man’s gaze rose to a figure standing behind her. Out of the darkness stepped a man with long white hair and a flowing white beard, dressed in white robes, with a red cape wrapped around his shoulders. The black-haired man’s expression soured, and his fists tightened.

“ You… ” He snarled. He then looked down at Frieda and saw her slowly sinking down into the sand. “I’m sorry, Frieda. Just keep fighting.” He then looked back at the old man. “You’ll be free soon.”

As Frieda continued to sink into the cold sand, she began to panic and started screaming and struggling. But all this did was cause sand to pour down her throat and into her eyes as she sank deeper and deeper down. As her vision began to go dark, however, she saw two bolts of lightning strike the two opposing men and saw two massive humanoids rise where they once stood.

Frieda jolted forwards, startling everyone as she breathed rapidly and heavily. Her eyes were bulging out of her skull, and her heart was racing. She ran a hand through her hair as she recalled everything that just happened, and wondered not only what she just saw, but why she saw it.

“F-Frieda? Are you alright?” Marco asked.

“I-I… I think so,” she said.

‘Who was that man?’ Frieda thought. ‘He seemed familiar, but none of the past shifters have any memory of a man like that. It couldn’t be the founder, because I’m told that she was a woman. So who could that have been?’

‘Gods, this is boring,’ Eren sighed internally.

Eren leaned against the gate to Orvud District. Standing beside him were Connie and Jean, with Nanaba standing beside them, along with some folks in the garrison regiment. Eren tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for the day to be over so that he could be done with this pointless task. Why should they even be here? This had nothing to do with fighting Titans, and besides that, it was only one person. What could the Military Police need them sitting around out here for? Were they just that incompetent?

“Hey, Jean?” Connie asked with an abject look of boredom on his face. “What do you think the point of all this is?”

“Who knows,” Jean sighed.

Connie shrugged, then looked over to Eren. “Hey, Eren, do you think anyone else found this girl yet?”

“I hope so,” he sighed. “Then we can be done with this bullshit.”

“I hear that. So what do you guys think she did to get the guys up top this pissed?”

Neither Jean nor Eren had an answer. Jean was only able to guess.

“Maybe she killed someone of importance or something. Who knows, though?”

With not much else interesting to talk about in regard to the mission itself, Connie decided to change the subject to something else.

“So, Eren, it seems like you’ve had your eye on Mikasa a lot more than before~” Connie said with a smirk.

“W-what’s that supposed to mean?” Eren stuttered.

“Oh I think you know what I mean~” Connie flashed his eyebrows.

“N-no! It’s not like that!” Eren said, his cheeks bright red at the accusation.

“Knock it off, Connie. We don’t have time to chat about Jaeger’s love life,” Jean said. He then muttered, “Besides, it’s not like he’d ever have the balls to tell her anyway.”

Eren heard that however, and quickly became quite cross. “THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY, HORSE FACE!?!”

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST CALL ME!?!” Jean shouted back.

A bead of sweat trickled down Connie’s face as he realized what he’d just done.

“At least I can actually work up the nerve to talk to her for more than two seconds! ” Eren shouted.

“And just what’s that supposed to mean?!” Jean bit back, pressing his forehead against Eren’s.

Eren placed his hands on his cheeks and made a mocking imitation of Jean’s voice. “‘Oh Mikasa~! Your black hair is so p-p-p-pretty, Mikasa~! I’ve never seen anyone lu-lu-like you~! Will you marry me, Mikasa~?’”

“HEY! I TALKED TO HER MORE THAN THAT!” Jean then paused for a moment. “...One time… When I was telling her you were dead…”

Jean rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. He then saw Eren looking at him with a smug smirk and the anger came rushing back. Jean grabbed him by the collar and pulled him close again.

“HEY! WIPE THAT DUMB LOOK OFF YOUR FACE, SUICIDAL BASTARD!!!” He roared.

“I TOLD YOU, HANDS OFF THE SHIRT, HORSE FACE!!!” Eren roared back while gripping Jean’s arms.

“BOTH OF YOU, SHUT UP!!! ” Nanaba bellowed.

Jean and Eren’s argument promptly came to a halt.

Mikasa fiddled with her scarf while sitting at her camp with Krista and Ymir. Mikasa sighed softly as she thought about the past few weeks. Not about Eren though. Despite numerous moments where she had the sensation that Eren was beginning to reciprocate her feelings, her mind was instead focusing on the mysterious creature in armor. It certainly wasn’t human, but it wasn’t a Titan, a Titan shifter. It was more like Telesdon, a monster of unknown origin, but it was intelligent, probably more even than Pigmon. And he could talk. Not to mention that power of his. It was unbelievable.

“Mikasa? Is something wrong?” Krista asked.

“Hugh? Oh, no, nothing’s wrong,” she said. “It’s just… that thing that Eren fought out on the expedition worries me. Especially since it’s still out there.”

Krista nodded. “I understand. The things Armin told me about it were horrifying. I don’t even want to imagine what it must have been like up close.”

“You know… I’m kinda curious though,” Ymir said. “What was it like?”

Mikasa tried to describe it to the best of her ability. “It was… powerful. It could emit red lightning from its hands, and fire a blue beam of pure heat from its mouth.”

“Like a fire-breathing dragon?” Krista asked.

“Not exactly,” she replied. “It was more like a beam of pure heat.”

“O-oh,” Krista muttered, catching the attention of Ymir and Mikasa. “Oh, i-it’s nothing. It’s just, I was wondering if it was the same thing as in one of the books I read.”

“What was it about?” Mikasa asked.

“Oh, it’s really not that interesting. It was just an old fairy tale, nothing to worry about,” she replied.

“Come on, tell us,” Ymir insisted. “It beats just sitting around waiting for some girl to maybe try escaping Sina.”

Krista blushed a bit. “Okay, if you really are interested in the story, I’ll tell you it. I don’t remember it that well, but here it goes… It’s a story about a girl who was also named Krista. My mom might have named me after her in fact.”

Long ago, in a faraway land, was a strong, prosperous empire. The empire was revered across the land for its size and might, and it brought enlightenment to all the lesser kingdoms it took under its wing. But then, one day, a giant, terrifying dragon named Dorako appeared and began to ravage the land. It summoned hurricanes with just the beating of its mighty wings, tore the land apart with its gargantuan, sickle-shaped claws, and blasted the kingdom to smithereens with balls of fire.

To save her kingdom, a young woman named “Krista” pleaded with the devil of the earth to be given the power she would need to protect her kingdom.

“Please!” Krista pleaded. “I beg of you, please let me protect my home! I will give you whatever favor you desire in return!”

The devil of the earth said nothing in reply. Instead, she gave her an apple seed and told her to plant it in her garden. She did as she was told, and after she planted it, she felt a rush of power surge through her. The devil of the earth had given her what she desired, and she now had the strength she needed to fend off Dorako. Their battle was long and hard-fought, lasting several days and several nights. But eventually, Krista defeated Dorako, and forced him to flee, never to be seen again. 

As a token of his gratitude, the emperor crowned Krista as the new ruler of the empire, and the empire would once again prosper for years and years. Months after her coronation, an apple tree grew in her garden.

-M-

“...The End.”

The three girls were silent for a moment, though Mikasa quickly broke the silence.

“From what it sounds like, Dorako was nothing like the armored monster,” Mikasa said. “It could fly, certainly, but it had no wings. It instead floated similarly to Eren. Its claws were shaped like fingers with long nails instead of sickles, and it breathed continuous beams of blue light rather than balls of fire.”

Krista nodded. “I understand. I was just hoping that maybe I had a lead on that thing’s origin.”

Ymir patted Krista on the shoulder. “It’s fine, Krista. You were just working with what you had.”

‘Still, though, that story of Krista sounded… unnervingly familiar,’ Ymir thought. ‘I doubt it’s what I’m thinking it is, but there’s a chance that might be the story of Ymir Fritz disguised as a fairy tale. Then again, though, I’ve never seen any version of events that mentioned a dragon.’

After pondering her story, Ymir perked up and smirked. “Soooo… are we gonna talk about how Krista fucked the Devil in exchange for powers?” Ymir said, making Mikasa’s eyes widen with surprise and causing Krista to jump back, red-faced.

“UWAH!?! YMIR!!!” Krista stammered.

“What? The metaphor was pretty obvious,” she said. “I mean, the Devil gave Krista his ‘seed,’ after she told him that she’d do any favor for him. And then months later, the seed grew into an apple tree, which is pretty obviously a metaphor for her being pregnant-”

“YMIR, STOP!!! YOU’RE RUINING MY CHILDHOOD!!!” Krista screamed while covering her blushing face with her palms. 

Ymir laughed and wrapped her arm around Krista’s shoulders while she continued to groan and whine. 

However, this jovial moment was interrupted when the girls suddenly felt the ground start to shake. Mikasa was the first to stand up, with Krista and Ymir soon to follow her lead. Mikasa’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the walls ahead of her. There, she saw clouds of dust rising in the distance.

“Something’s coming,” she said. “Something big.”

Reiner sat crouched on the top of wall Maria, overlooking the Titan-infested swath of land below him, yet another reminder of what he had done to these people. And yet, it also served as a reminder of what he would continue to do to these people. Not just for his Marleyan leaders, but to protect his mother from his armored co-conspirator.

“Take a good look at them, Reiner,” Bemular said as they stood by his side. “These Titans will be one of the many instruments we will use in the destruction of the ‘island devils’ as you call them.”

“I know…” Reiner replied.

“You don’t seem all that enthusiastic, Braun,” Bemular said. “Cheer up. Soon, your homeland will see you as the hero who tamed beasts stronger than any Titan, and with them, slew every devil.”

Reiner was uncomfortable, unsure of what to even make of Bemular anymore. Sometimes they’d be like the parent figure he never had, always telling him exactly what he needed to hear, while other times they’d be threatening his actual parent’s life and ordering him around like a dog. But then again, when was that kind of treatment unfamiliar to Reiner? With a heavy sigh, Reiner pulled out his Battlenizer and activated it.

“Just say the magic words,” Bemular said with a sultry inflection.

Reiner gulped down the heaviest lump in his throat he ever felt, then with one quivering hand, he raised the Battlenizer up to his mouth.

“ Release all monsters. ”

“Monstermon cards synchronizing! Telesdon released! Gudon released!”

Telesdon and Gudon appeared in midair and landed on the ground with a heavy thud. The force was so powerful that it knocked Reiner off of his perch and off the wall. Thankfully for him, Bemular was able to save him and gently carry him back on top of the wall.

“Sorry about that…” Reiner scratched the back of his head.

“No harm, no foul,” Bemular said, cordially while dusting him off. “Though, I do advise that you be mindful of the ledge next time.”

Reiner nodded, then turned to his two monsters. “Telesdon! Go attack Karnes district! Gudon! You go to Krolva district! Once you’re both there, I need you two to cause as much damage as possible.”

Both Gudon and the shorter Telesdon roared obediently before going in the directions Reiner ordered them to. Bemular patted Reiner on the back, then began to levitate off the ground.

“Well done, Reiner. Now, just as planned, you will take down Trost, and I will handle Utopia,” Bemular said.

“Right. I’ll meet you on the ground then,” Reiner replied.

With that, Reiner once again fell off the wall, this time intentionally, as he sank his teeth into his hand, transforming into the Armored Titan. Just before he landed, Bemular grew to 15 meters tall, hooked their arms underneath the Armored Titan’s shoulders, and carried him all the way to Trost. Once they were right above the district, Bemular dropped Reiner down. He pounded the ground upon landing, the explosion decimated a large chunk of the already battle-torn city. As screams of terror filled Reiner’s hearing, he looked up and saw Bemular increase to his maximum height before flying away.

‘Mom, remember, everything I do next is for you.’

Eren’s group was in a panic. No one had any idea what was happening and was looking around frantically, trying to figure out what to do. Not even Nanaba had any answers for them, other than to fire off a smoke signal in hopes of getting Erwin to come give some kind of order. However, the smoke signal ended up also turning the group’s attention upwards, where they saw the armored monster from before fly above them. And seeing him again filled Eren with absolute rage.

“OUT OF MY WAY!” Eren bellowed, shoving Nanaba aside before charging forwards.

“EREN, WAIT!” Connie called.

“GET BACK HERE, JAEGER!” Nanaba ordered. “YOU AREN’T ALLOWED TO ACT WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMIS-”

“Permission?” Eren interrupted, stopping several meters away from Nanaba. He then looked at her with a face not of rage or even determination, but regret. “I’m sorry, but I can’t make the same mistake twice.” Eren pulled out the cylinder and brushed his thumb over its button. “You all need Ultraman.”

“Ma’am, forgive me for speaking out of turn,” Jean said. “But you should let him go. He’s our best bet for handling this situation.”

Nanaba tried to argue against it, trying to keep control of the situation, but as she looked up and saw the armored monster descend over the city, she realized that the situation was out of human control the moment they appeared.

“Alright. You have my permission,” she said. “Make us proud, Ultraman.”

Eren smiled at her and then transformed into Ultraman. The giant, silver and red hero looked down on his crew and gave them all a heartfelt salute, before flying up into the sky and tackling his new arch-nemesis. The two wrestled in the sky, spinning out of control as they spiralled over Utopia district. The grappling match broke with Bemular slashing Eren across the face, while Eren kicked Bemular in the stomach, leaving a noticeable dent in their armor. After that, they began a mid-air standoff. 

“Back so soon?” Eren asked. “I guess you really were thirsty for blood, weren’t you?”

“I did tell you it wasn’t over, Ultraman. Perhaps you should listen better next time.”

“You know, that reminds me, I never did get your name last time. Why don’t you do me a favor and give me something to write on your tombstone?”

“You don’t remember my name? I’m hurt, Ultraman. Truly, I am. It seems you’re giving an unusual amount of freedom to this bond.” They sighed dramatically, then shrugged. “Very well then. My name is Bemular. And I will be the face of your demise.”

Bemular then charged their claws and lunged at Eren, to which he responded by summoning an Ultra-Slash and swinging it at his enemy.