Age of Titans Chapter 9 (Patreon)

Hey friends and fans! Kairomaru is bringing you another chapter of Age of Titans! As Eren and the other Shifters slowly encircle Reiner and Bertholdt, how will the battle for the Prime Armor and Primer Colossal Titans play out? A mass migration of Titans outside of Wall Rose will definitely be noticed by the Survey Corps. Will they get back sooner to help with the incursion, or will they be too late to save anyone?

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So, without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 9 – Reclamation of Powers, Survey Corps

The sounds of battle raged throughout the Trost District. Cannons were fired from the top of the walls down at the Titans that were spreading throughout the city. Soldiers yelled or screamed as they fought against the giants. Some were successful, slicing through the napes of the Titans and killing them, the massive bodies collapsing like stringless puppets. Others were not so lucky, getting snatched out of the air, screaming as they were squeezed and their bones broke, before ultimately being devoured alive.

At the edge of the Trost District, near the wall that the middle guard was stationed at, two soldiers watched all of this unfold. Bertholdt and Reiner were standing atop a four-story building, out of reach from most of the Titans, as they watched their plan continue. They only needed to wait for even a single Titan to make it past the middle guard and come within sight of Wall Rose before the retreat would be sounded. Once everyone was busy with the retreat, Reiner could slip away and transform into the Armored Titan. Just like he’d done last time, he would charge through the gate into Wall Rose, thereby letting the Titans into the second wall and forcing the ‘island devils’ to retreat into Wall Sina.

“It shouldn’t be long now.” Reiner mentioned, seeing the Titans pushing further and further into the middle guard’s area.

“Yeah…” Bertholdt agreed, though he didn’t look away from the battle and the chaos. He couldn’t bring himself to look away from the horror that he’d unleashed upon these people.

Neither of the Marley soldiers knew that they were being watched. Sasha and Krista were both eyeing them from behind a wall two buildings away. Such a distance would keep them from being noticed, but was also crossable in mere seconds with their ODM Gear. They needed to wait for the rest of their family to back them up. Surrounding Reiner and Bertholdt would be the best way to ensure neither of them could escape.

-Eren and Armin-

Eren grimaced as he flew across the rooftops, everywhere he looked was more Titans and more casualties. They needed to get to where Reiner and Bertholdt were and deal with the two as fast as possible. He glanced over at Armin and saw the look of pain and anger on his best friend’s face. The blonde young man wasn’t dealing with this senseless slaughter of innocent people any better than Eren was.

“Huh?” Eren looked down at the road they were flying over when he spotted movement.

“Eren!” Armin called out, seeing the same thing as his friend.

They both swung down to the street level and confirmed what they saw from above when they stopped on the ground and rushed over to the two people. Franz was laid out on the ground with Hannah over him, desperately giving him mouth-to-mouth to try and keep him alive. Unfortunately for the young woman, Franz had been either bitten or torn in half. The fact that he was barely breathing at all was a testament to the tall man’s fortitude.

“Eren! Armin!” Hannah called out at seeing them both, tears pouring from her eyes. “Please help me! Franz! He’s going to die!” She frantically went back to the impossible task of trying to keep her dying lover alive.

“Eren…” Armin looked at his best friend uncertainly. The prepared syringe would save Franz’s life. But if he truly was a Colossal Type, then this area would be leveled when he transformed.

“Damn it.” Eren ground his teeth. He had to make a decision now! Franz being alive at all with half his body gone had to be a damn miracle. But they hadn’t secured Bertholdt or Reiner yet. If Franz transformed into a Colossal Titan before then, it would be impossible to hide it. Bertholdt and Reiner would notice and the plan to surround and surprise them would be shot!

“Eren?” Hannah looked up at Eren, her tears still falling but her eyes begging him for help to save Franz.

“Armin, get Hannah out of here.” Eren decided what he would do. This wasn’t just about securing Eldia’s future. This was about saving a friend. Eren wouldn’t just leave him to die!

“Right.” Armin nodded, before grabbing Hannah and nearly throwing her over his shoulder.

“Armin?! Eren?! What’re you doing?!” Hannah cried out as Armin launched his wires to the roof of a nearby building. “Franz! Franz!” The redhead cried out, trying to get back to her lover even as she and Armin rocketed away with a cloud of the compressed gas blasting them high into the air.

“Don’t die on us just yet, Franz.” Eren pulled out the case with his prepared syringe in it. “We’ll need you in the future.”

“E…ren…” Franz had one eye barely open as Eren lifted his arm and roughly yanked back the sleeve. The bleary gaze that Eren looked into was disconcerting, but the single tear that fell from that same barely opened eye cemented his decision.

“You’ll be fine, Franz.” Eren assured the half-dead man. “Hannah is waiting for you, so don’t you dare die!” With that he stuck the needle into Franz’s arm and depressed the plunger. “You’re going to feel some heat, but bare it for now. I’ll explain everything later.” Eren promised as he pulled the needle out of Franz’s arm a bit roughly to make sure it bled. Eren smashed the syringe to be safe before firing his wires in the same direction that Armin had carried Hannah away. He was gone in a blast of compressed gas just as Franz’s arm began to spark with yellow electricity.

BOOM

The familiar bolt of lightning struck the area where Franz lay. A massive blast of steam destroyed every building on both sides of the street in an explosion. Amid the thick cloud, something grew rapidly. The size of it smashed through the wreckage around it and further damaged this area of Trost. Eren caught up with Armin and Hannah who was screaming at Armin for abandoning Franz, even with the massive explosion that had just taken place. The redhead was too distraught to care about anything else at the moment.

“Eren!” Armin looked at his best friend with questions in his blue eyes.

“It’s done. Franz will be fine.” Eren nodded as he turned to look at the immense steam cloud. “His condition was so bad that he didn’t make a full body.”

“Franz is alive?!” Hannah stopped her tirade against Armin at those words. It only took a moment before the rest of what Eren had said registered. “What do you mean ‘didn’t make a full body’, Eren?”

“I’ll tell you right after we finish this.” Eren replied as he gave Armin a look. “Hannah, stay here and watch over Franz. If he wakes up, he’ll probably try and go after anyone he sees. Stay vigilant and keep Titans away from him.”

“What? What does that mean? Eren?!” Hannah demanded in absolute confusion

Her questions would go unanswered for now as both Eren and Armin rocketed away with their ODM Gear, both heading towards the location that Bertholdt and Reiner should be at. Hannah just stared absently at the two of them as they got further and further away. Turning her head to the billowing steam clouds, the redhead began to see just what was giving off all of the steam.

“The Colossal Titan?!” Hannah staggered backwards and fell on her ass. “How?! Why?! Where’s Franz?!” She frantically looked around until she noticed that there was only the upper half of the Titan’s body lying on the destroyed street. Eren’s words clicked in her mind now as she put the clues together. “F-Franz?” Hannah gaped, tears springing to her eyes once more as she beheld what her lover had transformed into. She could only sit on the roof in stunned shock as her mind tried to process what the hell was going on.

-Reiner and Bertholdt-

“What the hell was that?!” Reiner demanded, looking towards the explosion that had just rocked part of Trost.

“No…” Bertholdt’s eyes widened at seeing the massive steam cloud. “It…It’s not possible…” He shook his head slowly, unable to believe what he was seeing.

“Bertholdt? Bertholdt?! Bert!” Reiner yelled and shook his fellow Warrior to snap him out of it. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“That’s my Titan!” Bertholdt pointed at the massive steam clouds rising high into the air.

“WHAT?!” Reiner exclaimed, looking between the panicked Bertholdt and the billowing steam a good distance away from them. “That’s impossible!”

-Ymir and Annie-

“Fuck.” Annie summed up the situation after the massive explosion in a single word.

“I take it the plan is going to have to change, huh?” Ymir snarked to hide her own nerves. “What do you think happened?”

“Well, it wasn’t Bertholdt, or else the blast would’ve been a lot bigger and he’d be towering over the wreckage right now.” Annie was quickly figuring out the situation just from what she could see.

“So, we should still go for those two before they do anything, right?” Ymir asked, looking for confirmation on the best course of action.

“Absolutely.” Annie nodded her agreement. “We need to secure both of the Prime Titans before those two can get away.” To emphasize her point, Annie blasted forward at even greater speed with her ODM Gear.

“Straight to the point, I like it!” Ymir agreed as she activated her Gear and shot forward to match Annie’s pace.

-Sasha and Krista-

“Sasha, that was…” Krista looked between the steam explosion and Sasha.

“Yeah…” Sasha stared at the steam. “We need to do something.” She turned to lock her eyes back on Reiner and Bertholdt. The two appeared to be panicking about the blast that had just gone off.

“The others aren’t here yet.” Krista worried, watching as Reiner tried to calm Bertholdt down. “I can try and stop Reiner’s transformation, but what do we do about Bertholdt?”

“If we can surprise him, then I might be able to restrain him before he can draw blood to transform.” Sasha gauged the distance between them. She’d need something to shove into Bertholdt’s mouth to prevent him from biting himself. After that, it was merely a matter of keeping his arms pinned so that he couldn’t use a tool to cut himself.

“Let’s do it.” Krista looked at Sasha with firm resolve. “We just need to keep them both here until the others arrive. We can do that!”

With their plan decided, both Sasha and Krista used their ODM Gear to launch themselves into the air. Thankfully they weren’t in the line of sight for either Bertholdt or Reiner. They picked their next landing point and launched their wires. The two panicked Marely soldiers noticed when the wire anchors stabbed into the roof not too far away from them. Seeing Krista and Sasha land a second later made both men tense up slightly.

“Sasha, Krista?” Reiner questioned, his eyes lingering on Krista for a moment. “What’re you two doing here?”

“Same reason as you, we saw the explosion.” Sasha lied with he normal demeanor while pointing at the thick steam further away.

“It startled us and we decided to retreat a bit to be safe.” Krista continued the lie; her innocent looks easily making her words more convincing.

“Oh, yeah…that was probably a good idea.” Bertholdt managed to get out, even though his eyes barely left the area of the explosion.

“I’m glad that you two are safe.” Reiner nodded to them both. Inside though, the Warrior was trying to find some way to salvage his plan.

Seeing that Bertholdt was incredibly distracted, Sasha shared a quick glance with Krista. Seeing the shorter blonde place herself between Reiner and her current position, Sasha leapt into action. In the blink of an eye, the mountain girl had leapt onto Bertholdt and spun to his back. Her legs wrapped around his arms, pinning them to his sides, while her arms went around his neck in a rear naked choke. With a violent jerk backwards with her bodyweight, Sasha toppled Bertholdt onto the roof.

“Sasha?! What the hell are you doing?!” Reiner bellowed at the sudden attack. He took a step forward to help Bertholdt, but Krista got between them and spread her arms wide.

“Stop, Reiner!” Krista raised her voice, and saw Reiner hesitate. “We have evidence that Bertholdt is a traitor!”

“How?!” Reiner’s instant response was not the correct one. The Warrior knew it the second after it had left his lips. He should have asked ‘What?’ instead at the revelation that his friend was a ‘traitor’ to them. But it was too late and he saw Krista’s eyes look at him firmly. “I mean…”

“Grkh!” Bertholdt fought against the chokehold he was in as best he could. With his arms pinned, he could only move his legs to try an reposition himself and shake Sasha off. The pressure increasing on his neck as Sasha fought against him was completely cutting off his air. Bertholdt noticed the edges of his vision getting fuzzy and knew that he didn’t have much time before he’d pass out.

“Reiner…why?” Krista asked imploringly, her blue eyes looking at Reiner for an answer. “Why would you do this?”

“I…Krista…you don’t know…” Reiner warred with his feelings of duty and the feelings that he had developed for Krista. He needed to complete the mission. But the way that Krista was looking at him honestly hurt.

Reiner’s inner conflict blinded him to the four incoming soldiers. Not one to let such a distraction go to waste, Annie took full advantage. Her swords flashed out and Reiner took a second to realize that his left arm had been severed at the shoulder. Ymir had gone lower though, zipping past Reiner at a different angle and literally cutting his legs out from under him.

“Aaarrrrhhh!” Reiner howled in pain as his body hit the rooftop. Blood poured from his grievous injuries, the loss of an arm and both legs nearly sending him into shock.

“Again!” Annie barked, slicing off Reiner’s right arm while Ymir stabbed both of her blades into him, one through his shoulder and the other through his back. Keeping Reiner in pain and rapidly deteriorating his physical condition was the best way to limit his transformation if Krista couldn’t stop it.

“Sasha!” Armin had landed and rushed over to the two struggling on the rooftop. The blonde quickly grabbed Bertholdt’s legs and restrained them, cutting off the tall Shifter’s only means of fighting back.

“Krista, stop Reiner!” Eren called out quickly, seeing that the enemy was still conscious and could transform at any moment if he was willing to sacrifice Bertholdt to do so.

“Yes!” Krista quickly grabbed hold of Reiner’s head. They all saw him jolt as Krista used what she could of her Founding Type abilities without transforming herself.

“The…Coordinate?!” Reiner tried to look up at Krista. “You…were…the Founding Titan?” His breathing was ragged as the stumps of his limbs steamed and began to heal.

“Shut up!” Annie kicked him in the head to try and knock him out.

“Damn, he’s healing fast!” Ymir cursed, leaving her sword blades stuck inside of Reiner, she connected two new blades to the handles and then stabbed them into his body too.

“Go to sleep!” Eren grabbed Bertholdt’s red face as the man’s struggles weakened from the lack of air and blood flow to his brain. Sasha’s hold was working perfectly, and with Armin’s help to restrain him, Bertholdt had no way to fight back anymore. Eren’s eyes flashed a bright green, the irises looking almost like they’d crystallized for a second as he tapped into the Prime Founding Titan’s powers. Bertholdt went limp instantly, unable to combat the power while already on the brink of passing out.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” Annie was nearly growling as she repeatedly kicked Reiner in the head. The bastard just would lose consciousness!

“Shit!” Ymir cursed, seeing the sparks appearing around Reiner’s healing limbs.

“Stop!” Eren had joined Krista, both of them placing their hands back on Reiner’s head. Annie stopped kicking him as a visible spark passed from the hands of the Krista and Eren into Reiner’s body. Reiner spasmed violently, making the injuries from the four blades stabbed through him worse, before going still.

“Wha…?” Reiner’s eyes were wide open in confusion and terror. He couldn’t transform! He felt his injuries still healing, but he couldn’t shift and transform at all!

“Go to sleep!” Eren demanded, his eyes once more glowing and looking like crystals.

Reiner wanted to refuse, wanted to tell Eren to go to hell, but all that happened was darkness filling his vision. He was unconscious near instantly and Eren let out a breath. Sasha and Armin released Bertholdt, the knocked out Marley soldier wouldn’t be waking up for a while. Ymir pulled her swords out of Reiner’s body, including the two detached blades. The four holes began to steam a few seconds later as Reiner’s shifter healing kicked in.

“Alright…that’s taken care of.” Krista breathed a sigh of relief. With Reiner and Bertholdt secured, they could focus on repelling the rest of the Titans that had gotten into Trost.

“We need to deal with these two quickly.” Annie spoke up, looking between Bertholdt and Reiner. “You’ve already used your syringe, right Eren?” She wanted to confirm.

“Yeah, Franz was dying, I used it on him.” Eren explained the situation to her. “You were right, he was a Colossal Type. But he was torn in half when Armin and I found him. He didn’t make a full body when he transformed, so the destruction was reduced.”

“Take Bertholdt to Franz then.” Annie decided instantly. “If he starts moving, even with only half his body, Trost is going to be ravaged.”

“Will giving him Bertholdt stop that?” Armin didn’t want to use the term ‘feeding’ to describe what they were going to do.

“Yes, when a Titan consumes a Prime Titan’s power, they collapse and the Shifter inside will be forced out a short time later after the power has been passed to them.” Annie explained to the group as a whole. “We need to do it before Franz naturally emerges from his first transformation. If he’s not mindless, then he’ll be stricken with the Curse of Ymir when he consumes Bertholdt.”

“Armin, help me out.” Eren walked over to Bertholdt and picked him up. “I’ll need your Titan’s mobility to get us there and to avoid Franz once he wakes up.”

“Right.” Armin nodded and leapt off the roof. He was only out of their sight for a second before the familiar lightning appeared and a crash was heard on the street. Looking below revealed Armin’s Titan Form, the five meter Jaw Type looked up at Eren, ready to go.

“Secure Reiner somewhere and then head to the front to help with the Titans, we’ll join you as soon as Franz is taken care of.” Eren smiled at his lovers.

“Be careful.” Sasha kissed him soundly, her brown eyes holding his green gaze for a moment.

“We will be.” Eren promised before using his ODM Gear to rappel down the four-story building and onto Armin’s Titan. Once Eren was secure, Armin took off down the street at speed to get to Franz’s still slumbering Titan form.

“Alright, no how do we restrain him so that he can’t transform?” Ymir questioned, looking at the healing Reiner.

“We’ll need rope, something to blindfold him with, a gag, and a place to keep him out of the way until we choose someone to give the Prime Armor Titan to.” Annie thought about it quickly. The only problem was where to put the unconscious Reiner so that he wouldn’t get eaten by a Titan or found by other soldiers that might release him without knowing that he was an enemy.

“Hey guys, is it just me, or are there a lot more Titans inside Trost than before?” Sasha looked over to the breach in Wall Rose.

“There’s so many.” Krista held her hands over her mouth in shock.

Indeed, there were many Titans in Trost, and more still coming through the large hole. The soldiers were being forced back further and further. There was simply no way to regain any ground as the number of Titans continued to increase and the number of soldiers decreased. It was as if the Titans had been waiting for this day to come. A day when Wall Rose would be breached and they could swarm inside to devour every human they came across.

“Fuck.” Ymir was the one that summed up the current situation this time.

-Outside Wall Rose-

“What the fuck is going on?!” A member of the Survey Corps, Oluo Bazado, cursed as the entire Survey Corp rode towards the massive gathering of Titans outside of Wall Rose.

While the Survey Corp had been heading out on their expedition, their Commander, Erwin Smith, had noticed the odd behavior of the Titans in the area. Most of them were completely ignoring the Survey Corps, even though they were clearly visible. Instead, the Titans had all begun to head towards the Trost District. Seeing the odd behavior had alerted Erwin that something must be wrong. When almost a dozen Abnormals were seen rushing in the same direction as the other Titans as well, Erwin had immediately issued new orders to his soldiers. They would abandon their current mission and rush back to defend Wall Rose from what was clearly a Titan incursion.

That was what the whole of the Survey Corps was looking at now. Dozens upon dozens of Titans, all crowding around the small abandoned town just outside of the Trost gates. They hadn’t understood why at first, but word quickly reached them through the formation that a massive hole was all that was left of the gate. It was an identical situation to the Shiganshina breach years ago.

“All soldiers, prepare for battle!” Erwin had roared loudly from horseback.

“Yes, sir!” Every member of the Survey Corps called back as they reached the edge of the town and switched to ODM Gear to fight the Titan horde.

The expert combatants of the Survey Corps quickly struck the first blow, killing many Titans before the giants had even been aware of them. But the battle quickly turned into a near stalemate when the Titans turned to face them. The regular Titans weren’t as much of a problem, the Survey Corps soldiers had years of experience fighting them. But the multiple Abnormals were causing problems.

“Damn it!” Petra Ral cursed as she used her compressed gas to dodge the grabbing hands of an Abnormal that crawled along the ground. “Why the hell is a fifteen-meter class crawling like that?”

“We just have to kill it and move on!” Eld Jinn, another member of the Special Operations Squad, or the Levi Squad as they were often called, grimaced ad they teamed up.

“Hyah!” Gunther Schultz slashed through the nape of another Titan a bit away from his teammates. “That’s five already! Why’re there so many?” He looked around at the battlefield and saw barely any progress had been made yet. “Shit…” He saw an Abnormal lashing out at some of the other soldiers and launched himself towards it with a burst of gas.

“Hahaha!” Hange Zoe, Leader of the Fourth Squad, laughed as she zipped around the wide strikes of a Titan. “You’ll have to do better than that!” The glasses-wearing woman teased the Titan.

“Raaahhh!” The Titan responded before slamming both of its hands down on the roof that Hange stood on, collapsing the abandoned building in the process.

“Oh? Did I make you mad?” Hange questioned as she zipped around the Titan and slashed its nape. “It’s always a coin flip on whether a Titan will react to verbal stimulus or not.” She mentioned as the dead Titan collapsed face first to the ground.

“I wish she’d stop playing around.” Levi Ackerman, also known as ‘Humanity’s Strongest Soldier’ sighed as he watched Hange kill the Titan. He narrowed his eyes and counted out ho many Titans he could see before him. “Eight of you, huh?” He readied his swords. “I should be able to deal with all of you with just these two blades.” He launched his wires and a split-second later was off like a bullet.

“Haaaah…” A fourteen-meter Titan didn’t even notice when a blur passed behind its nape. But I fell forward dead a second later all the same.

That same blur rapidly cornered with a perfectly timed wire shot, and then rocketed forward to kill another Titan. The third Titan reached for Levi, but missed entirely as Levi anchored into it went above its hand, and then landed on its shoulder. The Titan barely had the time to look over before Levi’s swords had taken a chunk out of its nape.

“Fourth.” Levi uttered, blitzing past the next Titan before it could react. “Fifth.” The fifth Titan was facing the opposite direction when Levi carved through its nape without slowing down. “Sixth.” The next Titan attempted to swat Levi out of the air, but the soldier spun with a well-timed blast of compressed gas and sliced all the way up its arm. The twelve-meter Titan was nearly decapitated by Levi’s blades, including the vital nape.

“Rrrrrnnnggghhh!” The seventh Titan in Levi’s sights turned out to be an Abnormal. The strange-acting Titan ducking low to let Levi sail over him before spinning to try and snatch him from the air.

“So, you’re a special one, huh?” Levi couldn’t sound more uninterested if he tried. A burst of gas and he dodged the grabbing hand. The anchor of his wire landed in the giant’s collarbone. Levi blurred with a second burst of gas and the Abnormal felt the back of its neck get slashed as Levi had spun around it in less than a second. “One more.” Levi disengaged the anchor in the now collapsing Abnormal before launching himself forward.

“Aaaaahhh…” The eighth Titan was lumbering after one of the Survey Corps soldiers. The man was grimacing as he tried to find a higher vantage point to get to. He’d take this thing down if he could just get above it a bit.

“Captain?” He stopped on the roof of a two-story house and watched as the blur of green perfectly sliced out the nape of the Titan. The lumbering giant fell sideways and crashed into the ground.

“Rejoin the squad, we’re going to wipe out the main horde now that the sides are clear.” Levi instructed his subordinate while letting the dulled blades fall from his handles. He was quick to secure two new blades into them before launching himself towards the horde.

“Yes, sir!” The soldier called out before following after Levi.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Erwin Smith was taking a small group of his soldiers on a killing spree. Using team tactics to confuse the Titans they came across; they brought down one giant after another without injury. The battle was going well enough, so far. The horde was slowly thinning out, but there were definitely casualties. Erwin and his small group landed on a roof to observe the battle and choose their next target.

“If we can kill off the ones at the end of this street, that should free up the other squads to focus on the ones directly at the hole.” Erwin quickly assessed the situation. “Once we kill them, we’ll move into Trost and assist the Garrison.” They didn’t know how many Titans were already inside, but if it was the same amount as out here, they would definitely need to restock on blades to deal with them all.

The roof shook beneath their feet, startling the soldiers. In a split second, the entire roof burst apart as an Abnormal tore its way through the building beneath them. As Erwin and his soldiers flew through the air uncontrolled, the Titan stood up, revealing itself to be at least sixteen-meters tall.

“Eeeeeaaaahhhhh!” The Abnormal screeched as the debris from the destroyed building flew through the air.

The wreckage crashed to the ground, along with the soldiers and Erwin himself. Through the dust and the pain, many of them couldn’t see anything. Looking around, a couple of them stood up trying to find their fellow soldiers. They were grabbed as the Abnormal’s hand moved through the dust, clearing it away in the process.

“Aaaahhh!!!” The two soldiers screamed in terror and pain.

“Eeeaaahhh…” The Abnormal opened its mouth wide to devour them both.

“Yah!” Erwin forced himself to his feet when he heard his soldier’s screams. Taking a page from Levi’s book, he cocked back his right arm and then swung it forward as hard as he could while hitting the release button for the blade. The blade spun through the air and stabbed into the Abnormal’s thigh.

“Eeeaaah…” The Abnormal didn’t even blink, but did look down to see what had hit it.

“Hah…hah…soldiers, stand! The enemy is before you! Raise your blades! Fight!” Erwin called out, even as he held his injured left side. He’d ignore the painful wound for now, he’d had worse. That was a lie, the debris sticking out of his side had definitely hit something vital with how much blood he was losing.

“Yes, sir!” Three more of his soldiers stood up, all of them injured in one way or another. The others didn’t move at all and Erwin knew they were dead.

“Eeeeaaaahhhh…” The Abnormal ignored them and brought the two it already had up to its mouth.

“HYYYAAAAHHH!!!” Eld and Petra flew in from behind and viciously slashed open the Abnormal’s nape. The giant’s grip slackened and the two captured soldiers were barely caught before they hit the ground by Oluo and Gunther.

“Excellent.” Erwin smiled through the pain. The dead Titan collapsed backwards and shook the ground when it landed.

“Commander! Sir, you’re injured, we need to get you treatment!” Petra noticed Erwin’s injury.

“The others are injured too. We need to finish this so that they can receive treatment.” Erwin instructed the Special Operations Squad.

“Commander.” The soldiers worried over their leader. This was why Erwin had the absolute loyalty of his subordinates. He always prioritized them over himself. He’d often said that the sacrifice of his life to free the world from Titans would be a small price to pay. But no one in the Survey Corps would ever agree with that. Erwin was simply too vital to them all to even think about letting him die.

-Trost ~ Franz’s Location-

“Good, we made it without any Titans finding us.” Eren was happy for the good luck. He hefted the unconscious Bertholdt onto his shoulder and slid down the side of Armin’s Titan.

“Eren? Did you just ride a Titan here?!” Hannah questioned from atop the roof they’d left her on earlier. The redhead looked like she was close to losing it with all of the weird shit that had happened in the last hour or so.

“Don’t worry about it, Hannah!” Eren yelled back to the girl. He carried Bertholdt into the cloud of steam still emitting from the half-formed Colossal Titan.

“Why’re you carrying Bertholdt?!” Hannah yelled but got no response other than the odd-looking Titan that Eren had been riding looking up at her.

Within the cloud of steam, Eren found the face of Franz’s Titan form. Not able to touch the burning hot skinless body, Eren instead found the immense ear and whistled as loudly and sharply as he could directly into it. For a moment it didn’t seem to do anything. But a moment later and Eren watched as the massive eyes opened. The Colossal Titan slowly turned its head to face Eren, not sitting up or moving in any other way, just turning its head from its prone position. The eyes took a second to focus on Eren and Bertholdt, but when they did Eren knew what would come next.

“Uuuuuaaaaahhhhh…” The Colossal Titan made a noise like someone that had just been woken up unwillingly. The massive giant’s mouth opened and Eren used all of his strength to toss Bertholdt into the jaws. The instant that the body hit the inside of the Titans mouth, it closed. Eren didn’t hear any sounds, but he did see the throat move in a swallowing motion.

“I’ll see you when you wake up, Franz.” Eren quickly retreated as the half-formed Colossal Titan used its arms to try and sit up. “Armin! Time to go!” He burst from the cloud of steam and with Armin’s help was quickly on the back of the Jaw Type.

“What the hell?!” Hannah screamed at seeing the Colossal Titan that was supposed to be Franz sitting up as more steam billowed from its skin.

“Uuuuoooaaahhh…” The Colossal Titan managed to place its hands on the ground in front of it. Now in position to drag itself along if it tried. Its eyes focused on the fleeing Jaw Titan and the right hand reached for it.

“Shit!” Eren cursed, seeing Franz’s mindless Titan trying to grab them. Armin turned down a side street and the reaching hand grasped nothing but air. “We need to get Hannah out of here too!” Eren reminded Armin as the Jaw Type leapt onto the roof of a building and then onto a higher roof from that.

“Aaaahhhh!!!” Hannah screamed as Armin’s Titan form landed on the roof she was on.

“Hannah! It’s me!” Eren yelled, trying to calm the redhead.

“Eren…what the fuck?” Hannah couldn’t figure out a way to ask any better.

“We need to get you out of here until Franz gets out of there.” Eren pointed down at the Colossal Titan that still seemed to be looking for Armin on the street.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Hannah shook her head at his words. “None of this makes any sense!”

“Rrrrrhhhh.” Armin made an odd noise and Eren looked at where the Jaw Titan was pointing.

“Oh, is he already out of power?” Eren was happy if that was the case. The half-formed Colossal Titan had laid facedown on the paved street, the right hand still outstretched, while the left one was by its head. Through the steam clouds, Eren saw the body of Franz appear from the nape in a burst of steam. “Let’s go get him.” Eren urged and Armin leapt down to the back of the disintegrating Titan.

Armin’s claws proved incredibly useful in freeing Franz from the burning hot flesh of the Titan body. Eren grimaced, feeling burns forming on his skin as he picked up the tall man and got him onto Armin’s back. The Jaw Type carried both Franz and Eren back around the street, leapt up onto the same two buildings again, and landed on the roof close to Hannah a second time.

“Eren how are…” Hannah’s words died in her throat as she saw Eren gently guiding the unconscious Franz down onto the rooftop. “Franz!” She was at her lover’s side in an instant. “Franz! Franz!” Hannah hugged him tightly, tears of relief and joy pouring from her eyes at seeing him alive and well.

“Here.” Eren shrugged off his brown jacket to cover Franz’s lower half. Everything below the man’s waist might’ve regenerated, but that didn’t bring his pants back. Hannah didn’t let go of Franz even as she looked up at Eren.

“Thank you, Eren! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Hannah repeated over and over. “I don’t understand what’s going on, but you saved Franz!” She kissed the unconscious man’s cheek and hugged him more.

“We’ll tell you everything once we deal with the rest of the Titans.” Eren promised Hannah with a firm nod. “For now, stay up here unless a Titan comes after you two.”

“Right.” Hannah answered distractedly, still focused on Franz.

“Shit,” Eren quietly cursed as he looked out over Trost. Titans were still pouring in from the breach in the gate. There had to be close to fifty or sixty inside already. “Why are there so damn many?”

“Rrrrhhhh.” Armin vocalized, still not capable of speech, and may never be.

“Yeah, we need to join the battle.” Eren agreed with his best friend.

With that Armin leapt off the roof and down to the decimated street that had once housed Franz’s Colossal Titan, but was now just a destroyed street filled with black soot and a clearing cloud of steam. Eren was quick to follow him, leaping off the roof to Hannah’s wide-eyed shock. A blast of yellow lightning appeared, startling Hannah again. The redhead stood up to be able to see over the edge of the roof, not willing to leave Franz’s side.

“RAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!” A fifteen-meter class Titan with pointed ears, shaggy, dark brown hair, and bright green eyes roared. The new Titan and the Titan that Hannah had seen Eren riding both took off towards the Titans that were pushing into Trost.

“D-Did Eren just…turn into…a Titan?” Hannah mumbled to herself in shock. The redhead sank to her knees next to Franz and quickly took his hand into both of hers. She didn’t understand what was going on, but something about Titans had saved Franz. She’d be grateful for whatever Eren had done for the rest of her life.

The Battle for Trost was about to turn in the favor of the humans.

For the first time that any within the walls could recall, mankind would win against the Titans.

The fact that it was because of Titans was something that none of them could’ve ever predicted.

-End Chapter-

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The power of the Prime Colossal Titan has been secured for Eldia!

Now, we just need to find a new holder for the Prime Armor Titan and we’ll be golden!

Unfortunately…there’s going to be a lot of questions. Not friendly questions at that.

Shit is about to go down and it’s going to get serious.

Can Eren and his family make it through this coming Inquisition?

The Survey Corps is outside fighting, but losses are starting to grow. Levi is still a beast, slaughtering Titans like it’s a routine day job. Hange still does her on-the-fly tests with Titans as she fights them too!

But when all is said and done in Trost…what will the hidden rulers of the walls do?

Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!