You're Not Alone

•48•

My eyes flutter open. Above me I can see trees and the slight ray of sun shining through the leaves. My leg burns and I have a pounding headache.

With a pained grunt, I sit up. I see Ymir next to me with her right arm and leg healing, then there's my brother who is missing both his arms and still unconscious.

"You're awake," Reiner draws my attention.

I look up to see Reiner and Bertholdt above us on two separate branches. Bertholdt is sitting criss-cross and Reiner has his arms folded over his chest.

"Welcome back..." he smiles, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

Memories resurfaces of the battle we had and I remember that they had accomplished kidnapping both Eren and I. We're in large trees, which means we are away from the wall now. Just how far did they take us?

"You realize they will come after us, right?" I glare.

They don't say anything back and I hear my brother sit up beside me. He looks up at the two traitors and tries to stand, but he realizes he doesn't have any arms.

"What the hell?! Where are my arms?" He yells.

"Eren," Ymir's cold voice speaks up. "I'm not in any better condition. Seem's like we're all having a shit day."

"Ymir. What did they... What did they do to me?" Eren asks the girl.

"Sorry," Reiner scoffs. "That was... That was my fault."

Eren looks up and I meet Reiners gaze as well with my eyes set into an infuriated glare. How can he be like this?

"You can pin your injuries on me. Guess I was in kind of a hurry back there. Bit your nape without thinking about your arms. Luckily Sophie came out just fine... other than her leg."

"Is that right?" Eren hangs his head. "So. I lost."

"You would've beat that prick if he didn't play dirty and have the giant colossal body fall on you," I keep my eyes on Reiner, challenging him.

Eren goes and bites the nub of his right arm with a scream, but Ymir takes his shoulder and squeezes it. He can't transform, I think it's because our bodies are too weak right now. I know mine is.

"Easy there hothead. Take a look at where we are," Ymir sighs. "This is the giant forest within Wall Maria. Wall Rose is leagues away. Which means... we're deep in the heart of Titan country. See?"

I look down and just below us are about five to eight Titans around the tree we're on, some more scattered around near us.

"I think our buddy down there is an abnormal. It may look like he's just kickin' back, but those eyes haven't left us once."

The largest Titan below us is laying on his back, one arm wrapped around the base of the three. His other arm is under his head like he's basking in the sun. Creepy.

"Lots of smaller ones down there, too. That's plenty bad enough. Another big one over there," Ymir turns her head to the right to a large Titan hiding behind a tree. "Fixated but keeping his distance. Strikes me as the shy type. And then there's these chumps. Dirty bastards. They had the foresight to suit up in full gear. 'Of course they took the ones you two had."

Yet again, I glare at the two boys across from us. I examine their gear, recognizing Bertholdt to be wearing mine.

"Point is, changing into a Titan isn't gonna accomplish very much right now. One, they can do the same thing if they want. Two, they can zip into the trees if not. Three, we're basically surrounded on all sides. Power or no power, getting out of this would be tricky as hell, even at the best of times. Ya read me? There's nothing to gain by being a dumbass."