Companions to the End Chapter 6

Mid-Summer, 850 – The Attack on Trost 4

Armin was running the numbers through his head.

Mikasa's plan was absolutely insane in premise but in actuality, it was strategically brilliant. With the Eren-Titan giving them muscle, they could retake the barracks and refill their gas cannisters, which would give them the chance to escape. However, even with the Eren-Titan helping them, they needed more soldiers, so he and Annie had taken Jean and Connie's gas and had left to search for more soldiers. If they could get some more numbers, they could take the barracks back and turn this shit-show of a battle around.

But Armin did have his doubts about the plan, as a lot of it involved variables that he didn't really trust. Like the Eren-Titan. Unlike Mikasa, Armin was completely sold on the idea that the Titan was Eren, or not entirely. When the Titan had appeared holding Mikasa, he had been on the verge of freaking out. But then the Titan began listening to her, even showing the same begrudging mannerisms that Eren would when Mikasa bossed him around. For crying out loud, the Titan had visibly gotten annoyed when Mikasa told him to carry Jean, but did it anyway with a huff of dissatisfaction: exactly how Eren would have done when he was forced to work with Jean in their training days.

But still, the idea that Eren, his best friend and one of the few people that Armin trusted wholeheartedly, was a Titan was something that his rationale mind would not accept. Even now, as he soared in the air, all he could focus on was trying to think of ANY other reason for why the Titan listened to them.

But it was starting to get to him, as he began to see spots in his vision and his grip on his ODM triggers began to loosen. Before he knew it, he was dropping out of the sky, and plummeting to the floor. But before he could crash against the cold, hard concrete, he felt a tug on his side and suddenly he was moving towards a rooftop. It would seem that Annie had noticed his plummet and had took action to save him.

As he landed on the rooftop, Armin began to breathe raggedly, taking in multiple sloppy breaths that didn't satisfy his need for oxygen, and proceeded to make Armin freak out more.

He couldn't deal with this! His best friend was either dead or a Titan! And the worst part was that he couldn't even tell which would be worse! Either his friend was dead and he'd never see him again, or he was now living as a Tian; the very thing that he had sworn to kill for the past five years. This was too much.

That was when he heard Annie shouting his name, even though it was mostly drowned out by a high pitch whine that seemed to block out most sounds. But he had to listen to Annie, so he used what little willpower he had left to focus on what Annie was saying, which thankfully worked as the high pitch whine began dying down.

"Armin? Armin?! Are you ok? Answer me Armin!"

To Armin's surprise, Annie sounded panicked, which was a huge step away from her cool and collected attitude that she normally had. Either this battle was seriously getting to her, or she was extremely worried about him. On the off chance that it was the second one, Armin decided to try and dissuade her worries to the best of his abilities.

Even though he just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry.

"I'm, I'm, I'm fine, just a little, freaked out. This, hasn't been, my best day." Armin tried to joke, even though he was still taking lots of quick, shallow breaths.

Not convinced, Annie shook her head and started frowning at him.

'At least that looks more natural for her than scared.' Armin briefly thought, congratulating himself on at least getting her to stop panicking.

"Don't lie to me Arlert, you're a terrible liar. What's wrong?"

Feeling a little reassured by Annie's usual stoic attitude, Armin began to calm down a little bit. After a minute of getting his breathing back to normal, he looked her in the eye and began explaining himself.

"Honestly, I'm just freaking out over the whole 'Eren is a Tian' thing. I mean, it can't be real can it? It just challenges everything we know about Titans, and now we have to rely on him just to survive, and that's if its even Eren, and what if it's not him and just a Titan that's trying to trick us and oh God, we're going to die."

As Armin began to break down again, he was brought back to earth by the resounding crack of Annie's hand smacking his face, not only shutting him up but actually distracting him from his worries as he clutched his cheek in pain. That fucking hurt!

"Armin, stop, I can't handle you freaking out again. If you freak out, I'm going to lose my cool and freak out as well, and then we're no good to anyone, are we?"

Armin could only raise an eyebrow at this. In the three years since they had first met, Annie had made a point of not opening up to people. The only way to tell if she had been affected by the events of life was if you knew what cues to look for, something Armin had picked up. If she was genuinely angry about something, she'd clench her fists so tight that they'd turn white. If she found something funny, she'd bite the inside of her cheek to prevent herself from laughing. If she was sad and needed to cry (since everyone needed to cry every now and again), she would hurt whoever upset her and storm out in what seemed to be an angry strut but was a tactical retreat to a private location where she could cry in peace.

So, to go from that, to straight up telling him that she was just as freaked out as he was made it that extra bit unsettling for him. She was meant to be the emotionally stoic and reliable one. If she weren't going to pull them together, who the hell was?

Realising that Armin was looking at her in minor shock, Annie began to laugh to herself. It came from the bottom of her stomach and was unrestrained, the type of laughing that she hadn't done in a long time.

"Alright, I know this is weird, but hear me out. I know more than I let on, have done for a while. I wasn't planning on telling you this, but I know for a fact that the Titan we saw earlier was Eren, and that he can turn back to normal."

Armin suddenly sprung forward, questions already building up on his lips when she silenced them with her finger.

"Let me finish. I have a lot to say, and not a lot of patience. So, I'll say it now, and then we're going to carry on with this mission, and once we've gotten out of this alive, then you can question me. Understood?"

Nodding along dumbly, more out of curiosity than understanding, Annie continued.

"I know that this will be hard for you to forgive me for, but I'm a traitor. Or I was. I've abandoned that cause. We know a lot about the Titans. I WILL tell you about the Titans, but when we have the time. I'm not helping them anymore, because I can't handle the killing. I just want to get away from the fighting."

At this point, Armin was in shock. The entire time he had been in the military, he had never considered the possibility of a traitor, least of all in his Cadet unit. I mean, who was she a traitor to exactly? They were fighting Titans, mindless creatures who didn't even technically have a side, so she surely couldn't be fighting on their side. So, who was she fighting for?

Either way, as much as Armin struggled to understand the implications of what it is Annie was saying, he nodded his understanding. Despite everything that Annie was implying, he trusted her to keep her word, and he also believed her when she said she wanted to stop fighting. Despite being a really talented fighter, being the 4th best fighter in the 104th Cadet regiment, she never enjoyed fighting. Every time they had sparring sessions, Annie would always be trying to stay out of sight and would simply loiter rather then get involved.

She always spoke the truth, at least to Armin. Armin knew that Annie was a terrible liar, and if she was trying to hide something, she would simply never talk about it. When she caught Sasha trying to steal food from the kitchen, and was asked about it, she simply kept her mouth shut and shrugged in indifference. In a similar situation where she genuinely doesn't know, she'd would be more verbal. So, the fact that she was actually telling Armin all of this meant she was telling the truth.

Glad to see that Armin wasn't questioning her (but not looking forward to later when he would undoubtedly grill her for information), Annie carried on.

"All you need to know is that there are some people in the world who can turn into a Titan at will. It's a power that is passed on, and Eren clearly has been given this power. I don't know who gave it to him or why, but the fact that he is listening to Mikasa means he's a Shifter and not a mindless one. Once we get a chance, I'll help Eren change back, but you have to keep this between us, understood?"

Armin nodded, while taking lots of deep breaths. This was INSANE! But he still believed her, even though she was coming out with some of the most bizarre stuff. His curiosity was taking advantage of him here, he wanted to know more.

Content with this, she simply nodded and stood up.

"Right, that's all you need to know for now. I'll tell you more once we're out of this shitstorm. Now let's go, we've got work to do."

And just like that, she jetted off, continuing the search for more soldiers to join them in their campaign to retake the barracks.

Not wanting to be left behind, Armin also took off with his ODM gear. He now had another reason to survive to the end of this battle, to find out the truth of the Titans. It turns out there was so much that he didn't know.

Mikasa was currently riding Eren's shoulder, storming to the barracks to scout it out.

While Armin and Annie had left to find more soldiers to give them support, she had left Jean and Connie at the meeting point for the other soldiers, so that they could convey the current plan to anyone who shows up (though it was partly because she didn't want to put up with Jean).

But because she couldn't be sure of how many soldiers were going to show up, she had to scout out the barracks and see how many Titans they had to deal with. Which brought her to now.

She was currently waiting for Eren to get close enough to the barracks for her to see and observe the situation. So, while she waited for that to happen, she was looking at Eren.

While at first, she had struggled to believe it, the more she looked at him, the more she couldn't be persuaded otherwise. This Titan was literally the embodiment of Eren as a Titan, with the crazed but caring eyes that he had whenever he talked about killing Titans, the long black hair which resembled his when he first woke up in the morning, and the absolute disdain that took over his body language every time he caught sight of a Titan. That, and the fighting stance that this Titan constantly took when it squared off with a Titan resembled that of Eren's, being the final nail in the coffin in Mikasa's mind that this had to be Eren.

But this only brought forward different questions forward, why was he a Titan? What led to this? Were there others who could do this? And most importantly, were there others who could do this too?

Drawn from her thoughts by the rumbling of her transport, she looked forward to observe the barracks. And it was worse then she could have imagined.

The Titans were swarming the barracks, with at least three dozen Titans trying to get in the building, and were tearing the building apart brick by brick.

'There must be people inside if they're that interested in the building.' Mikasa contemplated, trying to think of a way to deal with these odds. She then looked up at Eren, who was growling at the large herd of Titans.

"Eren, you think you can take that many?" Mikasa asked him, catching his attention.

Thinking it through, Eren eventually nodded, slamming his hands together in a confident gesture, before moving his finger between the two of them.

Smiling at the gesture, Mikasa nodded.

"Right, we can do it together, lets get the others and do this."

And with that, they turned and made their way back to the meeting point. They were going to take back the barracks, one way or another.