Work Text
“Do something”
As the rebel pulls his bow, Ymir receives a memory from the future telling her that her daughters are in danger. She assumes it has something to do with her power of the titan, and her instinct trusts this messenger.So she goes to shield Maria, Rose and Sina.The moment she looks back, though, she sees King Fritz with an arrow through his chest staring straight back at her with the most disdain he has ever shown.Ymir can see in his eyes what he would have said, had he been able to speak before coughing up the last remains of his breath.
You're so useless, slave. You couldn't even save me.
Immediately after, she feels sorrow. It only lasts an instant, thanks to the messenger’s interruption.
“Make them stop.”
Ymir looks at the crowd. Everyone is screaming and fighting. The King is dead. She doesn't know what to do. Ymir hasn't made a decision on her own since she freed the pig that got her here. “You will put on his crown” , the future tells her, “ and you will own it.” And so she does. She stands in front of King Fritz’ corpse with his crown on her head holding her daughters close and stares straight ahead. She cannot speak, but she knows she has no need to. They have all seen what she can do.
Reiner enters Headquarters as early as usual. He likes to get his training in early since it's the time he's least bothered by others using the facilities. Usually it's only him, sometimes Bertolt accompanies him if he's feeling especially active.But today he finds two boys and a girl his age whom he's never seen before. The girl is fighting both of them at the same time, with no struggle whatsoever.“Armin, don't use your arms so much”, she tells the blond boy, “You should make your legs more dominant or do ten times the push ups”“And Eren”, she continues, “You know you're not strong enough for the moves you try to make. Focus on agility”Judging by Eren and Armin's expressions, she has told them this many times before, which makes Reiner assume they are friends.He’s not usually the friendly type, but Reiner knows everyone deserves basic manners, so he sets his things on the floor and, before getting to work, greets them, “Good morning”“Morning! I'm Eren” Eren comes to him and extends a hand, ”they’re Mikasa and Armin”, After shaking Reiner’s, he points to each of his friends, who wave out of politeness, ”we just got here from our transfer”“Reiner Braun. I hadn't heard there were new recruits”Eren seems to ponder for a moment, showing no reaction to his name. That's a first, “It was kind of sudden. We found out just a few days ago”Reiner finds it weird for warriors to be transferred with only days of warning. Marley rarely does transfers in the first place. He can't help but be curious.“How come?”“Well, our unit is mostly recon, but our Captain recommended us for offence. We didn’t know we'd be here so soon”“Sorry you had to leave”, Reiner tries as a comfort.“It's fine. We were wasting our time there anyway”, Eren replies, more lightheartedly, “Why are you here so early?”Reiner contemplates shutting him down. Usually, he would, but he somehow sees his old self in Eren. It doesn't hurt to be nice once in a while.“I’m an early bird. Why are you here so early?”“We wanted to get a feel of the place”, Eren sighs, “We were actually about to leave”Reiner is kind of glad that he doesn't need to make any more small talk, but at the same time he is curious about them, “I hope you like it here, then”“Thanks, Reiner”Reiner is left with a strange sensation. He's never been particularly welcoming to his comrades, save Annie and Bertolt, but he's not sure what made him want to be nice. Maybe bot reacting so obviously to his name and armband had something to do with it.That's probably the end of their interactions, anyway. No use dwelling on transfers who will most likely go back once they realize what they came to Liberio for.The next day, Reiner attends the weekly meeting for strategy. It's the same as always: the front lines in the East ask for the titans, no progress on the Reclamation, and no success getting to Hizuru. Reiner is ordered the same day to go fight with Bertolt and Annie.They come back three days later with one more annexed territory and more casualties than were needed to pull it off. Since their titans need rest, Reiner and his friends get three days of no active duty after every mission.Reiner usually uses those days to train. He runs into Eren and his friends every morning. They make casual conversation and Reiner reciprocates. Reiner watches them spar and notices that Mikasa is really good. Better than him. Possibly even better than Annie. Now he gets why she was transferred.While he wonders what sort of ability warranted Armin and Eren’s transfer, someone comes into the gym seeking Reiner. He says Magath requests him urgently, so Reiner says goodbye to his confused new comrades and heads to Magath’s office.The three shifters watch as the Commander checks outside the windows and locks the door hurriedly. “Our ships have been sabotaged”Reiner tries to hide his surprise as he grasps his comrades’ reactions. When Annie raises her eyebrows and meets Magath's eyes with determination, Reiner understands.There is no reason for the generals to be absent for such an important incident, they are the ones officially responsible of issuing a response, especially in an emergency.This is not an official meeting. Magath has no jurisdiction on who attends them. He has no right to pick and choose who should make which decision. The point of their military is the collectivity of their judgements, the need for all points of view.But Magath does not want them to hear what he is going to say. Because they are untrustworthy.Annie is the first to speak, “Who do you think it was?”Magath shakes his head, “It could be anyone, that's why I want none of them to know I suspect them”, he then sits on his desk, “They can all give access to our ports without being revised”.Reiner frowns, confused. He wonders why they cannot use he entry log and find out who gave them access, but as an Eldian, debating with his Commander would get him executed.Thankfully, he continues on, “Officially, the ships just malfunctioned. We can't request logs without an official reason”, Magath sighs, “The hulls of 5 ships were deformed enough to affect navigation. They said it was due to sudden extremely cold currents that make the metal contract”None of the warriors even dare to question their Commander’s reasoning, so they just hope he explains enough to make them understand. He does not always do that on missions.“It's a great coincidence that all ships that came from different workshops all passed through the same currents that are not common at all”, Magath pulls out the mechanics’ reports of every ship currently docked in Liberio, “And that the currents made holes in the hulls”Reiner, Bertolt and Annie stay silent, still wary.Magath rests his head on his hand and sighs, “You can speak. I want your opinion”Annie glances at him and Bertolt. They both nod to her, giving her the first opportunity.“I'm not sure there is any technology we know of that can do that, sir”, she says.The Commander gives a small nod, “That is precisely my dilemma. If there is a military with technology more advanced than ours, we have already lost. If it was only a coincidence, my mistrust in my own army makes me unsure of my work as commander”“Uhm…”, Bertolt clears his throat, and Reiner is taken aback. He is not sure he remembers the last time his friend addressed Magath directly, “If I may ask, sir; How do you know we aren't also suspects?”The man chuckles and smiles. Reiner has never seen him do that in his life, “You can decimate an entire city in seconds, Hoover. If eldians really wanted to attack us, we would already be under your rule” Annie's breath stops. Reiner is not sure if Magath notices, but he himself does not understand the reason.After a few moments of silence, the Commander states, ”But you would never really want to attack us, would you?”How could we?, thinks Reiner. After Marley freed us from Paradis and gave us the opportunity to actually use our power for what it was meant. He is sucked out of his thoughts by Annie's question.“What's the plan, then?”“There is no plan yet, just be wary of anything suspicious”. With their army stranded on Liberio, Marley begins to lose some territories. Reiner is unsure as to why the shifters are not deployed for defence with airships, but he has learned that his job is to listen to orders. When there are no orders, he cannot act.So, he spends two weeks training every morning. Eren and his friends are always there, and he always ends up in a conversation with them.It is mostly him and Eren that talk, but Mikasa and Armin are part of it anyway. As they work out, they talk about everything, Reiner tells the transfers his reasons for being a warrior, and they tell him their motivations to make their hometown proud. Reiner explains to them how amazing it feels to be a shifter, to be able to serve the country that saved him. They tell him their town's customs. Reiner tells them Liberio's. At one point, he actually looks forward to seeing his three comrades every day. He supposes they have become friends, and when he mentions it to Bertolt, he is so sceptical about Reiner's ability to make friends that he asks to meet them despite his own rejection of getting to know people.The next morning, they both show up at the training ground.The transfer trio, as Reiner has started to refer to them, introduce themselves and Eren immediately starts to interrogate Bertolt enthusiastically about his and Reiner’s friendship. He listens to Bertolt's answer as the rest sit on the floor in front of him, their workout forgotten. What begins as Bertolt explaining how they met as cadets because they didn’t know anyone turns into a detailed story about their whole lives. Eren doesn’t mention anything about their titans outright, but he does ask how the best camp on Marley trains its soldiers to be so efficient, which Bertolt answers by explaining that they basically teach how to be a shifter and the best candidates get to inherit the tian that most suits them. It's all Eren has heard about the titans since Reiner has met him, and he doesn't press for more. It strikes Reiner as weird, every other soldier he has ever talked to requests a detailed description of how it feels to be a titan and how he inherited it. Reiner is not complaining, though. He finds that talking to someone who doesn’t see him as a god makes him feel human. He actually wants to share that aspect of him with the transfers. Reiner feels they would still treat him the same and wants them to really get to know him, contrary to every other person that he tries to interact with.So, when Bertolt is done explaining who Annie is and how she refused to make friends until they basically pressured her into liking them, Reiner tells Eren and his friends everything.He watches their curious faces as he shares that his titan’s skin is harder than the sturdiest metals, that it can protect whole armies and allow them to attack right in the middle of the enemies’ field, he explains how to transform and what happens after.Reiner tells Eren and his friends everything except the reason he inherited the titan. He is glad that they do not ask.When Reiner is done, Armin turns to Bertolt and, for the first time since they met, shows actual interest in their Titan powers,“You’re the colossal, right, Berhtoldt?”“Yeah…”Eren beams, “What does it feel like?” Reiner has noticed that when Bertolt is asked about his Titan, he never answers. He can't lie, and Reiner supposes he doesn't want people to know the truth, since he has never heard Bertolt talk about the Colossal. Reiner wishes his friend was not so honest. This time, Bertolt sighs and closes his eyes, “I don't think I could ever explain it”To Reiner, it sounds sad. He supposes that no one else knows Bertolt well enough to notice itArmin slightly leans in, “Could you try?” “I tried lots of times, and I never find a way to express it”Just then, the whole room shakes for an instant. It feels too quick and sudden to be an earthquake. They all rush outside and find people coming to their window to see what has happened. Reiner instinctively begins running in the direction of his mother's home, inside the internment zone.“Reiner!”, Bertolt's chilling scream makes him stop in his tracks and snap his direction. His hand directs Reiner's eyes to a pointy, grey spike that gets thinner and thinner the higher it goes. In tracing its shape until the peak, Reiner realises that it is higher than any building in the city. Higher than any building he has ever seen.He then notices that there is not only one spike. He can see dozens over the houses in front of him.He runs in their direction as fast as he can, hoping Bertolt is keeping up. When Reiner finally gets through all the houses and can see the harbour, his heart falls to his feet.The spikes cover what used to be the heart of Liberio. Whole ships are suspended in the air, their hulls ran through cleanly by the strange grey material, the docks and anchorage areas have been torn apart, leaving no remnants of infrastructure. Instead of a dock, there is now a wall in the shape of a star covering the coast of Liberio.It seems to originate from the centre, where there is a higher concentration of spikes pointing outwards in a half sphere. From it, two cumulations emerge, one to the left, the other right. As if they had all come from the same point.Reiner is taking in the damage when the citizens begin to arrive, trying to catch a glimpse of the disaster. It is so early still that most are dressed in sleepwear, having rushed out like Reiner and his comrades.Reiner hears wails and sobs. He searches for Bertolt and finds him kneeling and wide eyed, completely frozen. Magath was right, Marley has already lost.And they do not even know who their enemy is.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“We have no knowledge of a device that could do that”, The weapons specialist scratches his beard, “it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before”
Magath sighs in his seat. Reiner should feel honoured to be taking part in the discussion, he has never attended such an important event with so many highly ranked generals, but he can only feel dread. He is only here because he was awake during the attack and they needed a report, anyway. They couldn’t care less what an Eldian would think.
A general raises his hand, and after Magath nods at him, he states, “This could only have been done by Hizuru. They have the most advanced technology aside from us”
“Forgive me”, someone else jumps in, “but we just lost our most important transportation route. I think the priority here should be to restore the harbour. We can’t attack without ships to deploy the weapons”
“I agree”, Magath stands up, “I will request an audience to decide the reorientation of our army to rebuild the harbour while we think of a counterattack. It will most likely be approved. Dismissed”
Reiner salutes and exits the room last. As soon as they are outside of Magath’s earshot, they begin to complain.
“I can’t believe he would let one of those devils stand there”, one of them says. Reiner knows they can tell he is right behind them but he is not surprised that they criticise him anyway.
“Those monsters are only ever useful in their titan form. Maybe he would have used our miracle and made himself useful if he was a good warrior”
They laugh.
They are right, by Marley’s standards. Reiner could do nothing to prevent the attack even with the gift Marley has given him. If he were deserving of his titan, Reiner would have used it to protect Liberio. Instead, he stood there and watched. He can’t even go on the battlefield anymore without ships to transport supplies.
Reiner is stuck with his miracle.
He finds his friends waiting outside and, while telling them what he heard, Reiner is surprised by Armin's reaction. He is almost always quiet, but this time he seems to be waiting for him to finish instead of actually listening, which strikes Reiner as something his friend would never do, especially in a matter as important as an attack on the country's main port. He supposes Armin could be having a difficult time taking it in, so he pretends he doesn’t notice.
When Reiner is done, Annie and Bertolt ask if they said anything about what they should do now that they can’t be deployed on the battlefield. Reiner has no answer.
Suddenly, Armin interjects, “I don’t get why Marley just wastes their resources”. He doesn’t react to the shifters’ horrified look, fearing that someone inside will hear and arrest him for insubordination, “They have three magical giants and they’re leaving you with nothing to do while normal sized people rebuild the biggest harbour in the continent”
Annie scoffs, “Titans are weapons, Armin.”
“They would be if you could fight. But you can’t”, he shrugs, “might as well use them for something until you can”
“Even if what you’re saying makes sense”, cuts in Reiner, “we don’t have any say in the matter. Our job is to nod and listen to orders”
“But we could fix the harbour ten times faster with our titans…”
Annie shakes her head at Bertolt's remark, “Even if we presented them with a perfect plan to win the war no Marleyan would listen to us. We just stick to what they say, it is what it is”
Bertolt then whispers something that none of them hear.
“What was that?”, they ask in unison.
“Commander Magath might”, Bertolt repeats.
So, Reiner finds himself moments later outside Magath’s door wondering if his entire future as a warrior is worth risking for the negligible possibility that intruding into his
Commander
’s office to propose
him
a strategy will make him change it because of what an Eldian had to say.
The only reason he is here is because he can’t deny Bertolt’s observation that Magath has been acting differently towards them, especially after the sabotaged ships. One could almost call it familiarly.
Reiner decides that the longer he mulls it over, the more difficult it will be, so he just knocks without thinking. After Magath’s voice tells him to come in, Reiner tentatively opens the door to find his Commander writing paperwork, most likely letters or a meeting report.
“I’m sorry to intrude, Commander”, he says as a greeting.
The fact that Magath didn’t immediately ask what he was doing in his office gives Reiner the smallest amount of hope that he will not be on death row by the time he leaves the room, but he is still terrified.
“I was wondering if the shifters had any tasks assigned while the harbour is rebuilt”, Reiner’s voice lowers more and more as he continues, “Nothing was specified in the meeting”
Magath regards him for an instant.
“No, you don’t have any tasks”
They stay in silence for far too long for it to not become uncomfortable, Reiner still standing right at the door and too afraid to approach any more.
“Braun”, Magath sets his pen down and repositions himself, “You didn’t come here just to ask me that”
It is not a question, or a statement for that matter. It feels more like a reassurance.
“No I didn’t, sir”
Magath is still not writing. Having the Commander’s complete attention is making Reiner extremely uneasy.
“So? What are you here for?”
Reiner takes a deep breath, “One of my comrades had a suggestion. We don’t mean to propose a change in the plan or insinuate that the current one is wrong, we just think it’s important enough to bring up.”, he swallows, and since Magath makes no dismissal, he might as well rip the band aid off, “Since we can’t use them for battle for now, the titans could be useful in rebuilding the harbour”
Magath stays unresponsive for what feels like an eternity. Every moment that passes, Reiner feels closer to death. But then Magath hums.
“That is actually a great idea, Braun. I would have never thought about it”, the Commander takes a blank paper and begins writing once more, “We have to think of what jobs would be best for each one, taking into account their stamina and how often they can be relied on. I will admit, I'm not sure the other generals will agree to use weapons as construction tools, but ultimately, the last say is mine. So it is safe to assume it will happen”
Reiner is shocked into silence. That reaction is the exact opposite of what he expected. No yelling, no questioning, no accusations of insubordination or questioning of authority. And the most shocking of all, the Commander actually listened on the first try. There is no way Reiner would have ever believed that Magath would put in place a suggestion from an Eldian if someone had told him this would happen. Why would such an authority of the army listen to him? Maybe the saboteur has left him desperate and he sees this as an opportunity to rat him out, or–
“Braun”, his thoughts are interrupted by Magath’s question, “Who proposed this?”
Reiner clears his throat, trying to regain his composure, “Armin Arlert. He’s a new transfer”
The Commander nods, “Tell him to come here immediately. I need to know what else he thinks about this”
With that, Reiner salutes and does as told. He goes to find Armin, waves him off at the door and tries to process what just happened with his comrades while they wait for their friend to return.
Reiner wakes up in his designated room in HQ at the crack of dawn because of an insistent knock on his door.
“Braun!, Magath requests you at south Harbour as soon as possible”
Reiner composes himself as well as he can in as little time as possible before rushing there. He arrives with Bertolt and Annie, whom he runs into on the way, to find the Commander and Armin.
By their state, Reiner assumes they didn’t sleep. He’s glad he and his friends decided to go to sleep after hours of waiting for Armin to no avail. He’s also glad that he stayed at HQ because of the late hour, or he wouldn’ve had to walk much longer to get here.
Magath explains that they have devised a reconstruction plan, but they need to test the Titans first to assure that their calculations are correct. So they spend all morning monitoring the shifters.
First, Armin supervises Reiner and Annie as they try to break the grey spikes clean off while Magath and Bertolt test its resistance to his heat. After that fails, as planned, they have them try to demolish the material with their hardening. It proves effective, but the effort it takes to break down the spikes would mean having the shifters do extremely hard labor every day for weeks, if not months, so they keep on trying other methods.
After many tries of what Armin says were “expected failures”, they settle on using Bertolt’s explosion to destroy the bulk of it without reaching the city and breaking the rest down with hardening. For that though, they need to calculate the explosion and the blast wave meticulously, something that wasn’t necessary beforehand, since they were used without needing that much control in the destruction.
Magath orders Reiner and Annie to go home and recover their stamina for the next day, while Armin measures Bertolt’s explosions in their training ground.
Bertolt hates his titan. He hates transforming, hates feeling himself move a 20 meter monster with his own will. He despises the sensation after he transforms when he opens his eyes and can only see the destruction that he caused around him. That is the only purpose the Colossal is used for.
He did like the little time he spent in the training ground, an empty field far enough from Liberio that his transformations aren’t felt. There was the only place that he could ever open his titan eyes and not see decimation, when they asked him to transform without exploding to train for
that
mission… Well, he hated the reason, but he did enjoy the sensation of towering over everything, of feeling like he could build a city by himself and see further away than any watchtower. It only happened that one time, though.
But today was the second, when he could observe the entire city of Liberio from the Harbour as he tried to kick the spikes. He hopes he can do that more often.
A car transports him to the training ground once more for the first time in years. There are now marks on the floor that he doesn’t remember. Armin explains that they’re measuring indications, implemented while they did the other tests. Bertolt has a feeling now that all this was only Armin’s idea. While he initially thought Magath had thought of it, he can’t completely picture his Commander thinking so much about titans to be able to devise such an intricate plan that relies so much on their analysis. He’s not brave enough to ask about it and the thought of Armin being that smart sends a shiver down his spine, however, so he ignores it.
The first attempt is a complete disaster. Bertolt expected it to go as well as his first transformation, when he mastered the Collosal in only one try. As it turns out, making an explosion of exact measurements is exponentially more difficult than just controlling a big or small blast.
After the smoke dies down, Bertolt gets out of his titan to find Armin running his direction,
“You overdid that by quite a lot”, he says. before taking a moment to regain his breath from the sprint, “I thought you mastered the Colossal”
Bertolt sighs, curling into himself “I did. No one ever asked me anything other than go big or go small”
“Well, I'm guessing you don't have more transformations in you, so we're gonna have to continue with this tomorrow, you’ll get it with practice”
Bertolt is glad that Armin was assigned to this training and not a Marleyan, who would have called him useless three different ways in the span of the conversation up until now. That makes him realize that he's never seen an Eldian directing any investigation or training. Bertolt's curiosity isn't something he likes to show, but he can never help but to doubt every strange thing he encounters. Most times, he just finds everything out on his own to avoid people knowing he's doubting them.
This time, though, he's too curious not to ask.
“How come Magath assigned you?”
Armin is visibly taken aback. Bertolt supposes it's due to his bluntness.
“I basically made the entire plan”, he answers, “the Commander said it would be more efficient this way”
It's now Bertolt who is surprised at Armin's admission. He now understands why he was transferred, someone capable of thinking up such a strategy would be invaluable in battle.
That just leaves him with one doubt, though. If Mikasa’s strength and Armin's brains are anything to go by, Eren must also be really special to have been transferred.
Bertolt is surprised at the odds of three childhood friends, as Reiner told him they were, to be so adept and complimentary in their skills.
The next day, Armin instructs Bertolt to transform and wait for instructions without coming out so he can test the colossal without having to wait another day.
He waits for the explosion to dissipate and, without daying anything about the explosion being a success or not, Armin screams at him from the ground to walk as fast as he can.
It's not fast at all. He can only take a few steps anyway before the flesh consumes itself and the Colossal runs out of stamina, so he falls to his knees and lies face down like usual to come out.
Just before he ejects his body from the nape, he hears Armin's screams.
“Wait, don't come out yet”, they're far away, barely audible enough to hear, but Bertolt does as told.
Armin asks to wait until after all the flesh is gone, so Bertolt sits down and makes the steam come out faster, releasing a vast amount of heat. It finally runs out, and Bertolt tries to move, but the Colossal’s body then disassembles and the bones fall to the floor as his body is ejected from the nape with no way of clinging any longer.
The explosion turned out to be way too small this time, so Armin decides that Bertolt will need more time than they anticipated to be able to blow up the spikes. That leaves them with only one option: to have Reiner and Annie break the spikes closer to the edges that can't be blown up while Bertolt trains. New battle orders are given to them on the same day as well.
The titans will be deployed on the most critical battlefields by airship with no more backup than what is already there, given the shortage of supplies like ammunition and heavy weapons. They will mostly focus on defence until the titans arrive to preserve troops for a bigger attack.
The first mission is in the Middle East, but Bertolt stays back. It's common for him to miss some operations, since the Colossal is mostly used for threats and as a last resort. In the current situation, Magath especially recommended that it only be deployed when absolutely necessary to quicken the harbour restoration as much as possible.
Due to not being needed in battle, Bertolt spends months focusing solely on getting the perfect explosion, but Armin tests him on other things while he's at it. How long he can last with minimal activity, how long he can last with the most activity, how many transformations he can make without exploding, how much the explosion size affects the stamina afterwards, among many more.
Armin comes to many conclusions that he shares with Bertolt excitedly afterwards. They start to grow closer, because of the time they spend together. They have to do a one hour trip every weekday to the training ground together, then they spend approximately two hours running the tests, then come back to Liberio and have lunch with the rest of their friends. Eren and Mikasa join too, given Eren's closeness to Reiner and the fact that they were reassigned to the port restoration. Their position was officially changed to mechanic assistants, but Bertolt knows it is just a façade that Magath used to let them supervise and direct the rebuilding.
Bertolt can’t help but feel suspicious. First, they are transfers, something almost unheard of for Eldians; and second, they are suddenly made in charge of the country’s most important infrastructure. The transfer could be explained by Mikasa’s strength, but that is exactly what makes it a contradiction. If she’s so good, Marley would never waste her on a harbour.
One day, Reiner and Annie are away because of an emergency in the Middle East. so he’s alone with the transfers in Eren’s room killing time. It’s not the first time, and he’s comfortable with them, but their incongruence consumes Bertolt’s mind too much because he cannot find an explanation, contrary to almost every other time that he suspects something. He sits on the bed thinking of every single possibility again and again watching Armin try to braid Mikasa’s hair and Eren questioning his technique, to which Mikasa retorts that he has no idea about hairstyling. It reaches a point where their laugh startles Bertolt out of his trance, making him too tense to take it anymore.
“Why did Magath make you work on the port?”, he blurts out.
Armin’s gaze turns to him. Bertolt knows he’s given away that he’d been thinking about it, the boy is too observant not to notice.
Armin softly feels Mikasa’s freshly made braid, “We’re experts”, his eyes then meet Bertolt’s, “we studied navigation at camp on top of the mandatory training to be mechanics”. He sighs, “But Marley didn’t care, we were just more recruits”
Eren smiles faintly at her, “We lost hope when we were transferred here, but then Magath asked Armin why he knew so much about it, and here we are”
Bertolt hadn’t even considered the possibility because he never would have expected a Marleyan to take an Eldian’s wishes into account. But then again, it’s not so bizarre if it's about Commander Magath, whose stance Bertolt is more afraid of the more he learns about.
“Why did you want to be mechanics?”, this time he asks due to actual interest in his friends’ lives and not the need to dissipate uncertainty.
“We don’t like war”, Eren fiddles absently with a hair tie, “It was a way to have a chance at avoiding it”, he glances at Armin with an expression Bertolt thinks is bordering on a plead, “I hope it works”
Bertolt doesn’t fully understand, but he feels he’s more similar to these people than he’d originally thought.
Months become a year, when the port is free of the outermost spikes and his friends are almost done with their job, leaving everything to Bertolt.
Bertolt, who still hasn't been able to generate an explosion of the exact magnitude that Armin measured. He is certainly close now, but he fears it will take more time to go from this to the goal took to get here from the beginning. Armin regularly encourages him and reminds him that even if he still needs another year to restore the harbour it will still be way earlier than they could do it without his titan.
It helps, at least a little. Bertolt knows that, but he also knows Marley doesn't think the same way Armin does. He already dramatically failed a mission once. He doesn't want to experience that again.
Bertolt doesn’t need to relive the times when everyone they ran into in the Barracks or even the street would scream insults at them. At best they would just say “Failures!”, and at worst they would be beaten up with no option to fight back. The armband that made them feel proud and every other Eldian jealous became a mark of shame. A sign that they had been given Marley's Miracle and chosen to dishonor it. They had made the same mistake as their devilish ancestors: they had run away from battle. When the novelty died down, no one in the army deigned to talk to the shifters, much less look at them.
No one except Magath. He acted harsh, sure, but that was the rule for a superior. The strange thing was that he actually understood. At that moment, Bertolt was too young to realize why the now Commander acted that way. He didn't even realize that he behaved differently than before they left.
But now, when he remembered the first missions he gave them after their return and the way he avoided others being in the room when he gave them orders, Bertolt knew that he understood. He knew their mission being successful was unrealistic, even for Marley, even if they were Eldians. He understood that they were people, even though he hid it.
Bertolt often wondered if Commander Magath actually believed them to be an inferior race that needed Marleyans to rule over them to not misuse their gift. He was afraid of the conclusion he had come to years ago, so he kept wondering as a way to ignore it.
The disdain eventually went away, helped by the success of all other missions Bertolt, Annie and Reiner went on. Now their mistake was almost completely forgotten, save for the few instances when it was mentioned in the war plans. Still, it was water under the bridge.
Bertolt feared, however, that if he made one more mistake it would never be forgotten. He would be the shifter that did nothing right, the one that wasted Marley's Miracle. He would be fed to the next in line and used as an example of what not to do as an Eldian.
He had to avoid that, he had to be successful in this.
He worked hard with Armin, who he now considered a good friend, and one day around a year and a half after the attack, he looks at Armin's position after transforming like usual.
Armin is screaming and jumping ecstatically. It's so out of character for him that Bertolt immediately understands. He's done it. He made the perfect explosion.
Two days later, he does the actual harbour cleanup. He blows up the bulk of spikes at the center and disintegrates everything just short of the first row of houses, which had been evacuated for precaution.
The result is a perfect crater with more than enough room to replicate the harbour. As he gazes under him to observe it, Bertolt feels a tear coming to stream down his titan's face.
Before his emotions get the better of him, he does as planned and walks as far into the sea as possible, right until the Colossal's flesh is completely consumed and comes out. A ship rescues him, Armin gleaming at him on it and congratulating him endlessly.
Bertolt can't believe that he was capable of doing such a thing.
He's not able to take in the fact that he just used his titan for good, that he's not only useful for war. He feels like he did that time on the training ground.
The warriors make a huge celebration, shifters and not. They go to a random bar in the internment zone where everyone knows who they are now, they have seen their titans in action. Which means they are more famous than ever.
“That was amazing, Colossal”, someone exclaims from the other side of the room.
“Yeah, you're a hero!”, another person screams.
Reiner smirks at him, which makes Bertolt aware that he's blushing profusely at the compliments. He hopes Reiner doesn't notice his blush deepening even more because of him.
“I can't believe people admire us now”, he says.
“How could they not?”, replies Eren, “You guys just saved the country”, he slaps Reiner on the back.
Armin smiles tenderly at both of them, “I'm guessing they're happy seeing other Eldians succeed. It's not something that's shown here often”
Bertolt stares at his barely touched beer, “it was all Armin's plan, so…”
Annie turns a shocked glare his way, “No shit. I thought it was Magath”
“Well it wasn't”, says Eren, clinging to his friend, “It was this genius right here”
Bertolt doubts the alcohol has affected Eren from the small amount he drank. He is most likely just really excited.
Reiner takes a sip and slaps his glass on the table exaggeratedly, “What do you think they'll have us do now?”
Annie sighs, “I’m guessing back to the front lines”
“We can still help rebuild the Harbour, though”, Bertolt doesn't look away from his full glass, “Well, at least you two”
Reiner pouts his lip in thought, “I wouldn't dislike that, but we shouldn’t waste out titans on that if we can fight”
Bertolt thinks of having to hear screams and look at craters under him the size of towns again and gets a full body chill. He forgot in the midst of his training that it was an exception. He would never get an opportunity like it again.
“If you say so”
The next day, Bertolt is sent undercover to blow up an armory. He’s grateful that Marley has shifted their strategies more towards colonization in the latest years. They wouldn’t destroy a city just to occupy it and have to rebuild everything, so Bertolt gets less mass killing missions.
It doesn’t feel good either way to destroy decades if not centuries of work in under two seconds, but at least the price is not human lives.
Bertolt comes back three days later without a trace of the hope he had gained in the last year and a half thanks to Armin’s training, but everyone else is ecstatic because of the progress on the harbour in just the time he was away. There are already two provisional docks which could only be built thanks to the Armored and Female titans that carried and supported them. Bertolt realises that the priority Marley gives to being able to invade again means that the generals would never take the same approach as Armin, and Bertolt has to return to the life he had before and the one he signed up to. He can’t really complain when every other Eldian is way worse off than him.
Still, Bertolt wonders more and more each day why he does this anymore. At first he wanted to make his family have a decent life and he pretended to fall for the propaganda telling himself it was for his loved ones.
But then his parents died, and everyone made him believe that the only way an orphan could ever be anything other than residue was to become an Honorary Marleyan.
And then he actually became one. Sure, no one cared that he was an orphan anymore and his status came with Marleyan privileges, but the more Bertolt was on the battlefield, the less he could ignore the deaths he was causing. Eventually, he just got used to the burden mainly because he didn’t want to pass it on to anyone else.
Bertolt often wishes there was a way to retire without having to die and harm his loved ones, especially now that the number of people he cares about has grown, but then again, that’s just his thinking habit that he’s unable to shut down.
He spends months watching the Port be rebuilt, occasionally being deployed but building a habit in Liberio with his friends. Each time he comes back, Armin asks Bertolt how he’s doing with visible concern. He begins to tell Armin the truth instead of dismissing it as usual. Bertolt is sure Armin already noticed how much he hates it by his low spirit when he returns, and they have become good friends, so he forces himself to open up. Reiner always said he needed to do that more.
“I’m sorry we can’t do anything about it, Bert”
Armin rubs his back and Mikasa gives him an understanding look. They are sitting on the newly built dock for their pause while Eren is in charge covering for them.
“It’s okay, I signed up for this myself”
Mikasa’s expression becomes stern, although fond, “I’m sure you didn’t do it knowing it would come to this. No one would”
“It doesn’t matter, anyway. It’s not like I can just run away and live normally now”
Armin stiffens and gazes sharply at Mikasa. Then, he relaxes and meets Bertolt’s eyes, “Would you run away if you could?”
“No”, he looks down at his lap, “I couldn’t leave Reiner. Annie would probably be fine without us, maybe even better, but I would never be able to get him to leave”. Bertolt thinks of the time Reiner took him to meet his whole family for the first time. They were all so bound together that Bertolt began to understand why Reiner clung so tightly to his duty as a warrior. He would get to see his cousin Gabi grow in an infinitely better environment than they both did and be able to give his uncles and parents comfortable homes. They were so happy telling anecdotes on the dinner table that Bertolt almost forgot they were Eldians in the internment zone
He is taken out of the memory by Armin’s response, “Yeah, that makes sense”
Him and Mikasa exchange a sad look, “Eren is like that, too”
With the new functional port had come a number of different minor troop deployments to stabilize the battlefields that had been neglected. He feels conflicted, mainly because Reiner and Annie get no time to breathe between building and fighting and he gets to stay with Armin, Eren and Mikasa. Bertolt almost never sees the other shifters, and when he does they are too exhausted to do anything other than eat or sleep.
So, he is surprised when a few months into the new routine Bertolt built with the transfers, they run into Reiner and Annie as they’re returning from their job at the port. They say they will be staying for a few days, probably even a week, given that the blimps needed maintenance.
They make the most of Reiner and Annie’s break, spending every moment they can together. The shifters even assist with the work on the port, spending days passing materials to Mikasa as she builds or delivering messages to and from Armin.
Not even a week after the shifters’ arrival, they are all exiting the port into the city after a long day of work when they hear Armin screaming from the edge of one of the docks.
“Reiner, Bert, I need help!”
Neither of them hesitate as they turn back, noticing that Mikasa and Eren do so as well, telling Annie that she can go home and rest already. And so she does, ever the altruist.
When they get close enough, Bertolt can make out Armin submerging a stick under the surface and barely keeping himself in place, looking like he’s about to fall over and get completely soaked.
Eren laughs, “Armin, why are you stirring the ocean?”
Armin’s movements look just like that, since he keeps trying to balance himself and crouching to get the stick deeper and under him
“Shut up and help me, I need to get this measurement”
Reiner then takes the stick from him and does the same, this time with much more poise. He takes it out and Armin marks the top of it with a marker, where the water reached.
“Perfect, thank you”
Eren pouts his lips, “What was that for, anyway? You made us come all the way here just for that”
Armin glances at where they came from and smiles to himself. Bertolt feels a sense of dread grow inside of him looking at his friend. He has never seen Armin smile this way before. It feels like self satisfaction.
“Where’s Annie?”, Armin asks
Mikasa frowns, “We told her she didn’t have to help, so she left”, she takes a step towards her friend, ”What’s going on, Armin?”
Armin’s eyes meet Bertolt’s. He’s as determined as he’s ever seen anyone. Without looking away, he says,
“We’re running away”
They all watch Armin throw the stick with his full strength into the sea, perplexed. When the sea rustles, Bertolt feels time dilating. He makes out a huge mouth coming out of the water. At first he thinks it’s a dog, but every instant that passes reveals a larger snout. When the eyes show, Bertolt is blinded by a flash of light, and that’s when he realises that Reiner is transforming.
Because a titan just emerged from the sea and is coming towards them.
Bertolt’s mind becomes a haze as he bites his finger and gets far enough away from his friends to not harm them with his transformation despite the lack of explosion. This feels like an ambush, but Bertolt’s gut tells him that someone that plans to ambush enemies doesn’t ask how they are doing or support them through hard times. They would never train them and lead the plan to rebuild their city. Which means Armin is telling the truth.
Bertolt notices right then, as his Colossal emerges, that Armin had staged the perfect situation for an escape. Late enough that most people are home already, isolated enough that they wouldn’t be noticed, and fast enough to not be stopped. But most importantly, somewhere he could transform and take Reiner by force.
Now from the sky, Bertolt sees the Armored and the strange titan next to him. They look like they’re one millisecond away from coming into contact in a fight. Bertolt has no time to think, he has to make use of Reiner’s shock. He himself doesn’t understand anything, but he can’t waste the only opportunity he will ever have of being rid of Marley’s shackles. Bertolt hopes trusting Armin doesn’t cost him his best friend.
He takes one step, and Reiner watches the Colossal titan’s foot land on top of him without moving a muscle. He steps hard enough to do harm, but not enough to blow Reiner to bits.
Bertolt barely makes out the titan eating Mikasa, Armin, Eren and Reiner as he crouches to come out of the nape. He feels a pit in his stomach, waiting for it to swallow, but it never does.
Bertolt knows he has made the right choice, so he lets himself be taken into the mysterious titan’s mouth.
“Surprise.”
Annie states it with no inflection, but Eren startles at their presence nonetheless.
“Since when are you here?”, he asks enthusiastically.
Reiner chuckles, giving Eren one of their exuberant handshake-to-mid-hugs, “We got here this morning but we slept through the entire day”
This time, it’s Bertolt who asks, “And how long are you staying?”
“They said a few days to a week”
Eren begins to celebrate by throwing his fist in the air and screaming, but Armin interjects, “Did something happen? You’ve been working non stop for a while”
Annie shakes her head, “They said they’re doing maintenance on the blimps. I think some of them malfunctioned or something. I’m not complaining, though”
“We aren’t, either”, Eren replies, glancing at Armin's direction. They are not complaining. The opposite, actually. This is the best thing that could have happened.
But it’s a year earlier than they had planned.
Armin has learned to expect almost anything, usually at the expense of his sanity. In situations like these, though, he’s glad he has that habit. And that Erwin ordered him to consider every possibility.
He’s glad he told Jean to go to the same bush at the park next to the University every day and look for a letter in case of emergency. Armin has to get the letter there as soon as possible.
He doesn’t sleep, spending the entire night planning the strategy and writing it down to then hide it in the bush the next day early enough to avoid being late at the port. Armin hopes Jean can reach Hange and Sasha in time to make his plan possible, but he will have to find out in three days when he starts to carry it out.
The first good sign comes when he waves the stick in the water and Sasha moves it from below. That means green light to go through with it.
Everything goes as he predicts, down to his friends telling Annie to go home and her actually doing so. Armin is taking a considerable risk, however. He’s not sure Bertolt will figure it out and be able to take out Reiner. Armin knows his friend is a sceptic and an overthinker, so he is confident enough in Bertolt’s deduction to base his plan off of it. It would be dangerous to reveal anything without proof and risk not being believed. If worse comes to worst, they still have two titans able to fight. Everything is in their favor.
Bertolt
does
figure it out, though, and everything goes smoothly. As smoothly as traversing the shore inside a titan’s mouth can be.
Sasha spits them out after what feels like hours. The position is perfect, just far away from Liberio to see a silhouette of the houses in the outskirts. Even though the underwater trip felt endless, it shouldn’t be midnight yet, according to the distance that separates the airport from Liberio and Sasha’s swimming speed.
After they’ve finished coughing up the saliva and airing out their lungs from inhaling titan breath, Sasha greets them with her deep Cart titan voice,
“Hi, y’all. Hange and Jean are waiting, we need to get going.” Mikasa says hello back as she hops on her back and ties herself and an injured Reiner into the harness attached to it while Eren bumps her giant fist before doing the same.
Bertolt watches with contorted eyebrows and accelerated breath, “What the hell is happening, Armin?”
He then extends a hand for Bertolt,
“Hop on, I’ll explain on the way”
He grabs Armin’s hand and, after they’re strapped to the harness, Sasha starts running at top speed.
“We’re going to the airport and escaping on a blimp”, Armin begins explaining, glancing to his left to look Bertolt in the eyes hoping that it calms him down even a little bit.
Bertolt is trying to take deep breaths, but the shakiness in his voice is undeniable, “How are you gonna steal an airship? And where the hell are we going?”, Bertolt cups his face in his hands and sighs desperately, “And what the fuck is this speaking titan?”
“I’m Sasha”, she answers, which makes Bertolt make a little jump in place. Armin sometimes wonders if her battle instincts come at the expense of her being blind to everything else, “The Cart Titan”
“There are more titans than those known to Marley”, interjects Mikasa.
Armin decides to rip the band-aid out and hope for the best. There is no easy way to take in everything they need to tell Bertolt.
“We’re going to Paradis. I know you already know we’re not devils, and I’m sorry for not asking earlier, but now you’re gonna have to live there. It’s way better than Marley, at least”, he continues after Bertolt’s nod, “Long story short, we’re not bound by Fritz’s vow anymore. The history is too long to explain now, but you’ll find out how things got to where they are when we arrive. Oh, and also, I’m assuming you’ll join us and try to free the Eldians and Marley”, Bertolt nods again, making Armin glad that he doesn’t have to resort to threats, “That’s basically the gist of it, we’re trying to bring peace.”
Armin braces himself for the part he’s least looking forward to, “Right now we’re destroying the airport to keep Marley from attacking us while we prepare our strategy”
Bertolt says nothing. He just stares straight ahead. Armin eventually stops waiting for him to reply, trying instead to decipher what his friend is thinking. Armin doesn’t realize that time has passed until Sasha warns them that the airport is now visible.
The view around them has turned from green hills to flat lands, meaning anyone could see them passing by if they looked hard enough. There are some small dispersed villages in this area, but the late hour and the darkness coupled with the Cart’s small size are perfect for a discreet trip.
The airport is guarded only by the entry roads but they are getting in from the back thanks to the cart’s agility. Sasha drops them off right at the fence and turns back for Hange and Jean.
She comes back a few minutes later with their two comrades who had been waiting on the middle point between a village and their position. They exchange greetings as if no more than a week had passed, despite having been apart for two years.
“How is he doing?”, asks Hange, glancing at Bertolt sitting down and observing all of them.
“He’s processing”
“I hope it doesn’t take too long”
Hange then shoots Jean a reassuring nod, “I’m ready. Get everything set up”
They then jump over the fence on Sasha’s back and disappear behind it, even after Sasha jumps back out to strap the rest of them on and take them as well.
A few minutes later, Armin sees the lighting of Hange’s transformation and hears the clanking of Warhammer hardening as Sasha rushes to the nearest airship.
Everyone except her gets on, Mikasa carrying Reiner’s still unconscious body inside. Armin can’t see it, but he gets chills at the thought of Hange slamming their weapon on every blimp and destroying what will take years for Marley to get back.
Finally, Sasha’s footsteps approach and she enters, this time in human form, followed by Hange.
They then untie the ropes and, just like that, leave for Paradis.