𝙃𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙩 || Eren Jaeger

𝑔𝓁𝒶𝓈𝓈𝓎 𝑒𝓎𝑒𝓈

13

____________

A shrill scream pierces the air.

It twists, breaks, and withers like a mangled, dying thing.

Jo remembers taking the cloth gingerly in her hands. Staring at it. She remembers the texture; slightly rough and scorched, the fibers miraculously holding together. Floch said something apathetic of the sorts, to which Caleb cursed at him for. The details are fuzzy. But she does remember Caleb's pitying hand cradling the small of her shoulder. 

And then... that's when the scream happened. It scared Johanna. She's never heard such a horrible sound that extreme in her life.

On another note, her throat hurts. A lot. And she's not sure why.

"Jo, please," Caleb tries to lift her off the floor, his voice barely audible, "Jo..."

That's when she realizes... it's her that's screaming.

Funny, she doesn't recall losing the strength to stand. But now she's sitting on her knees, keeled over, the floor cold against her forehead. The cravat is clutched in her right hand. Clutching, clutching, squeezing so hard that her nails tear through the cloth and prick the skin of her palm, drawing fresh blood.

Caleb doesn't pay attention to the passerby soldiers as they shoot brisk yet astonished glances— the scream of pure melancholy issuing from Jo's mouth shaking their core.

"Jo, you're going to hurt yourself!" Caleb says more adamantly now. He lays a tender hand on her back, but the ear-splitting screams like nails on chalkboard make him recoil.

Jo can't hear him over the sound of her heart crippling.

Her father is dead. Her father is dead.

Screaming is the only appropriate response.

"They're surrounding us and aiding the Armored Titan against Eren! We need more reinforcements!" A soldier says from afar.

Right... one thing becomes suddenly apparent to her, and she chokes back her sobs. There's a war happening out there. The fate of mankind rests on their efforts to protect Eren. And after that, protecting the world from Eren.

The wetness in her eyes recedes. The change in composure is alarmingly quick— silver eyes overtaken by a dull glaze, the tear-streaks on her cheeks left as mere traces of the grief she's being denied. The grief owed to her.

But there's no time for mourning now. Not when a storm of bullets is pouring down on Shiganshina.

Jo rises up robotically. "Devo—" her voice is thinner than thread. It hurts to speak, but she says it anyway. "Devote your heart."

Caleb looks at her with a mixture of pride and reverence. He does the salute.

As she starts to walk away, he raises a hand tentatively. "Wait, instructor. Do you need help? I can—"

"No." She says, painfully hoarse, "stay north of the building. I'll be at the frontlines with my comrades. Do not follow me."

He nods. He knows better than to go against her.

Jo walks out to the terrace of HQ just in time to witness one of Marley's airships sinking from the sky, coming to a rapid descent and finally crashing at the outer gate across town. The burning embers light up the surrounding area.