The 104th Trainee squad was moving out, or what was left of it at any rate. People were falling behind as they ran out of gas. Even so, things were looking good, until Mikasa fell. She had been pushing her gear, and wasting gas when racing ahead killing titans that were in the way. "I'll get her!", Armin shouted in a rare display of heroism, shortly followed by Connie. This left Edward at the head of the group, and there was another few clumps of titans between the Trainees and the HQ. "Damn my heroic nature," he thought, and he called out to Jean "I'll go ahead and distract that group, you take the others to the right while I drag them left!" Jean barely had time to call out "Are you crazy?" before Edward sped off ahead. Edward knew that he had no chance at killing all of them with a busted leg and no alchemy, so he didn't even try. As he sped towards them he shouted "Over here you bloody nudists!" slashing one before moving towards the left. He quickly looked behind, and saw 3 of the 4 titans turn and chase after him. He slowed down slightly so that he could keep their attention, not calling back again in case there were more nearby. After seeing that the main force of the trainees had pulled past the titans, he swung around a bell-tower, and began heading towards the HQ. Unluckily for him, there was a titan waiting right around the corner. Edwards instincts kicked in, and instead of attempting to dodge the titans maw, he clapped his hands and slapped the monsters forehead. Edwards eyes widened as he remembered what had happened earlier, but instead of himself falling unconscious, the titans eyes rolled back, and it fell to the ground. Edward followed it down, his fall cushioned by the titan, and having no idea what had happened, but if he believed in a god, he would have thanked it then and there. He grabbed up the handles to his gear, amazed that he hadn't cut himself with the glorified box-cutters, and remembered the titans following him. He reactivated the gear, and followed the Trainees, hoping to catch up with them and help get them into the HQ.
Edward had seen the Trainees stop before reaching the HQ, and arrived to see them start moving again. He notice that there were significantly less people than there had been before he left. He tried to move to the head of the group, and saw that the HQ was crawling with Titans. He could talk about those who were missing when everyone was safe, so he shouted, "Just bust through the windows, they can be fixed later!" He gave himself a gas boost, and was among the first to burst into the HQ command floor. He tried to put his left leg forward to absorb most of the shock, only too late remembering it was busted. He fell down and rolled across the floor, coming to a stop next to a desk. Under the desk he saw some of the Trainees that had, like him, been assigned to ferry gas across the city. He got up, and leaning on the desk reached under with his automail arm, pulling out one of the Trainees. "What the hell are you doing? Where's the Commander? Why weren't you ferrying gas like we were told to?"
"S-s-sorry, but, the commander left us here, and then the titans came, and we couldn't go, or they'd eat us!" He stammered out. Edward raised his left arm off the desk, intending to punch him, when Jean pulled the trainee away. "You left us all to die!" He shouted, punching the young man to the ground.
"Calm down man," Marco said, restraining Jean before he could assault the coward further.
"No, I will not calm down! Because of them, we had to leave our comrades to be eaten while we escaped, and-"
"Hey, it won't do any good. Just look at them, and at that" Edward cut him off, pointing to a body slumped against a desk. It was another of the squad, who had blown his own brains out with an old musket. "They're broken, and if they'd prefer to kill themselves instead of trying, what good would it do? It's just sad that they decided to become soldiers."
Jean relaxed, but before he could say anything the wall behind him exploded, revealing the grinning faces of a pair of Titans. However, before the trainees had time to even react, the faces were cleared away by a huge fist. As Edward moved towards the hole to see what was going on, Mikasa and Connie, carrying Armin in his arms, leapt through one of the busted windows. As many remarks of "You're alive?" and "What was that?" flooded over them, Armin explained the situation. The trio has found a Titan that only targeted other Titans. Armin had come up with a plan to drive the Titan towards the HQ by killing other Titans around it, and then follow behind it. Edward looked out the hole and saw they were telling the truth. The "Beserker Titan" as Connie had dubbed it was killing the other Titans around the HQ, and they were targeting it in return. "Okay, so the outside is pretty much clear, but what about the inside?" Edward stated, directing the last part to the members of his gas squad.
"Okay, so we have no gas, 7 titans inside the main hall, and a whole bunch of firearms. Not a lot to work with." Armin said, having been designated as the tactician for this operation based on his previous plan and his scores in the tests during training. "Our best option is for a distraction to go down in the baskets with the guns, while 7 of our best wait in the rafters. The ones in the basket will wait till the last second, and then shoot the titans in the eyes, blinding them and opening them up for a surprise attack from the ones in the rafters. I'd prefer to send the 7 best according the the results, but,"
"I know, I know, my shot leg means I might screw it up, I get it." Edward interrupted.
"And I'll be needed in the basket with everyone else to help time it, right?" Marco followed up. "Right, we only have one shot at this, so lets make it count." Armin replied. "Okay, lets go."
The plan started off perfectly. The musketeers fired at the last second, blinding the titans, and the attackers leapt from the rafters and struck for the napes. Unfortunately, Connie failed to strike deep enough and Sasha struck off centre, leaving their two titans alive. As the titans turned, Mikasa and Annie struck from behind, killing the two 5 metre classes from the ground. Connie sat there shocked, while Sasha tearfully thanked Mikasa. "Okay, now we gotta close the doors, lets go." said Edward, moving towards the western door, the furthest from the group. He noticed while moving to the door that his glove had ripped, and what looked like a small bit of rust on his automail arm. "Winry really would kill me if she saw me like this", he thought while scratching at it, and turning a corner he saw that the western door was completely broken. He swore, and smacked his automail hand against one of the pieces still attached to the frame. As he struck it, a familiar feeling came over him, and the door quickly remade itself amid pale blue lightning. His first thought was "I didn't do that!" His second thought was "Why am I still awake?" He remembered how first time he'd done alchemy in this place he'd fallen unconscious, and the same thing had happened every other time he'd tried it. He walked back wondering what was different, and told everyone that the west door was shut.
The Trainee squad was preparing to move out. Everyone was gathering on the roof and walls of the HQ, but they hadn't moved out yet. The reason, what to do about the Berserker Titan. "
We should leave it, it's just a titan." Jean was saying.
"But it could be useful as a weapon, we have to find out why it's different." Armin retorted.
"It looks pretty moot if you ask me, I think it's dead." Connie said pointing to where it was covered in Titans and missing it's arms.
Armin looked over, and his gaze travelled to the left. "That's it, the Titan that killed Thomas! It can jump and climb towers, so watch out!" He shouted pointing to a gangly Titan that was walking towards the HQ. As soon as it entered the Berserker Titans field of view, the Beserker Titan shouted, and rushed it, chomping straight through it's nape. The Titan Roared, and fell to the ground smoking. "Definitely moot now, lets get moving," stated Jean, moving to head towards The Wall. "Wait, something's happening," said Edward, looking at the Titans neck. It looked like something was trying to get out. Edward curiosity turned to shock as Eren Jaeger, who everyone thought had died, emerged from the Titans neck. Mikasa was the first down, and she hugged the unconscious Eren, having hysterics. "What is going on, it's impossible to come back from the dead." Edward thought. "And why is his arm back, I thought it had been removed?" He thought, looking at his own automail arm. "Wait, this could be it." He thought with a wicked grin. "If I can find out how he regrew his arm, and how he survived the titan, maybe I can get Al his body back!" His grin turned into a frown, "Now all I gotta do know is find a way back. No pressure or anything."
The command was in chaos. The wall had been broken by the Colossal Titan, the rock to plug the hole wasn't anywhere near the gate, and this was before the trainee squad came scrambling over the wall long after the call for retreat. With them they had brought what had completely destroyed any attempts at further planning. They had brought Eren Jaeger, who was apparently a titan, and this was the main focus of all efforts. The trainees had been separated from the young man, however two of the trainees had insisted on staying with him. Edward Elric was waiting with the rest of the trainees, wondering what was going to happen, when the thunderclap boomed and a cannon shot rang out.
"What the hell was that?", "Was that a cannon shot?", "It it the Armoured Titan?", and other questions were flooding over the gathered trainees. "Hold on, the cannon is aimed inside the walls, and it sounded like two explosions." As Edward made ready to engage his gear, Annie, Bertholdt and Reiner raced towards the sounds. "Damn it, why is our first instinct to run towards danger huh?" Jean remarked following them. Edward followed, and the scene was truly shocking. There were nearly 30 garrison soldiers arranged in a semi-circle around the wall, with cannons trained towards it. What was truly shocking was the large half formed torso in a cloud of smoke. It looked as though someone had set about making a person, and stopped maybe ¼ of the way through. It was partially covered in muscle, and the chest cavity seemed empty. It had only one eye, and bone was exposed everywhere. It's one arm was raised towards one of the cannons, and the hand was blasted apart. Shouts came up from the guards, "Did you see, he created that titan from thin air! He's one of them!"
"It can't be, it's impossible to create something from nothing. Where did the matter for the body come from?" Edward was completely baffled as to how it had happened, and it looked as though the quartet he had followed were equally shocked at the situation.
As Edwards thoughts turned towards the only horror capable of breaking the laws of equivalent exchange, Armin ran from the steam cloud.
"Stop, don't shoot us! We can use Eren's powers as a weapon to fight the Titans! We can use him to take back Wall Rosa!"
"Damn it, doesn't he realise they won't listen to reason?" Edward thought. Just before he lept down to try and save them, he saw an old man grab the captains arm.
"Come on now captain. Just look at this brave young man. How can you condemn him to death without even listening?" It was commander Pixis, and he was once again saving the day. "Come now, let's talk trainees. Let's see whether you're trustworthy."
The five were standing on wall Maria. Pixis, Eren, Armin, Mikasa and Edward. The three form Shigansina were there because of the circumstances surrounding them, and Edward because he refused to be left out. "If we tried to stop him, he could well flatten half the Garrison," Pixis had laughed when his aides had tried to object to his presence. "So, Armin was it, you had a plan right? Or was that all bluff?"
Armin took a breath, and said "Well, it's kinda a long shot, but if Eren can turn into a Titan and carry the boulder to the hole in the wall, we can plug it. And if we gather most of the troops on the section of wall opposite to the boulder, we should lure most of the Titans away."
"An interesting plan," Pixis mused, "But it all depends on Eren being able to transform, then control the transformation, then being able to carry the boulder. So, think you can do it?"
Eren looked at the four who were standing around him. Mikasa, who had always had his back since that night in the woods, whether he wanted it or not. Armin, who had always been his friend, and had ignited his dreams for freedom. Edward, who had helped him through training, and tried to make sure he kept his head. And Commander Pixis, who was giving him a choice between life and fighting the titans, or death. "Yes, I can do it Commander Pixis Sir!"
"Good man. This newest generation may well prove to be the greatest yet."
Authors Note: Sorry about the wait. Uni has hit pretty hard. I'm gonna try and be better with updates from now on.