Nest & Wings (Annie Leonhardt x Male Reader)

Chapter 15: Fear Precedes Reason

As Eren emerged from the titan's nape, Mikasa rushes towards him without thinking twice and hugs him. Tears start pouring from her eyes as she listens to his heartbeat and confirms that he's alive. It was the most sincere expression of affection you've ever seen in your life and it makes you feel bad for antagonizing her as Annie's rival back in camp.

The rest of you head down towards them and Armin hesitantly approaches Eren. He gets really emotional as he touches his left arm that had somehow grown back after being severed off by a titan.

"Does that mean... Eren did all this?" Jean says, looking at the evaporating bodies of all the titans Eren took down.

The rest of you stare at the scene with an array of complicated emotions. But for the time being, you were relieved that everyone, including Eren were safe. Reiner helps Mikasa carry Eren out of Trost while you and the others go ahead of them to get an elevator ready to take Eren down to the other side.

While scaling the wall using ODM gear was straightforward enough, making your way down it while carrying someone else was extremely difficult. Mikasa brings Eren over to the elevator as everyone gets in and you make your way down to safety— or so you thought.

While you were safe from titans on the other side, you weren't necessarily safe from people. Before you get a chance to even talk to the still unconscious Eren, you are interrupted as reinforcements from the Garrison led by the Section Commander, Captain Kitz Weilman, arrive and ambush you, just as your group makes it to the floor on the other side of the Wall.

While you, Mikasa and Armin were in agreement with Annie and Reiner, in that Eren being a titan could be extremely useful as an ally, Captain Kitz and the Garrison soldiers felt otherwise. In their fear and lack of awareness regarding titans, they arm themselves and point their weapons at Eren. You and the rest of your group are ordered to return and await further notice.

While you, Annie, Reiner, Bertolt and Jean reluctantly obey their orders and head back, Mikasa and Armin decide to remain by Eren's side as he had yet to gain consciousness. Down at the temporary base that the soldiers had set up behind the wall, you regroup with Connie, Sasha, Marco, Hannah and the others.

"Recruits are to maintain their equipment and await further orders!" says one of the Squad Captains.

As you sat down with the rest of your group, you overhear Connie catching up with the other cadets who had managed to get back before the others ran out of gas.

"So that's how we refueled our gas and got out of Trost." Connie explains.

Christa expresses her concern. "I see... I'm sorry, we requested supply support for you guys several times but—"

"We finally got our hands on some too." Ymir adds.

"So the people that aren't here are all...?" Christa asks. She looked extremely concerned for everyone as usual.

As Connie reluctantly says yes, Ymir seems to be in disbelief as she asks "What about Mikasa?" noting how she was absent.

"N-no, I thought she came back with Jean and the others." Connie answers and looks over to where you, Jean and the rest of your group were.

"Jean, don't tell me Mikasa got injured..." Says Ymir while Connie corroborates and inquires as to what happened after they left.

None of you could answer as Jean explains, "We were ordered to keep it confidential. Although I don't think they'll be able to keep things hidden for long. That's assuming we'll even be alive by then."

As he explained it to them, you couldn't take your mind off of what just went down. You kept thinking to yourself "What are they going to do with Eren? Will he be alright? What does Annie and Reiner make of this? Is Eren the Founding Titan they were talking about?" As you contemplated, you hear what sounds like an explosion following a bright flash of light.

❋❋❋

Everyone panics and starts speculating as to what happened. A soldier points towards the smoke and says, "Over there, the smoke! It looks like it's inside the walls."

As they kept muttering amongst themselves, trying to make sense of what happened, you dread as you knew exactly what that meant. You panic and your forehead starts sweating as you turn around to check on Annie, Reiner and Bertolt. You catch a whiff of relief seeing all three of them present, but it also meant that it had to have come from Eren transforming.

Probably thinking the same thing, the three of them rush off towards the smoke. You and Jean in turn follow them to a rooftop to find a half transformed Eren protecting Armin and Mikasa from the Garrison's cannon fire as they were backed against the wall.

Everyone watched in disbelief as Eren emerges from the nape, fully conscious this time. You couldn't clearly make out what was going on as the scene was obstructed by a cloud of dust and smoke from the explosion, as well as the steam from the titan's body that had begun to evaporate. As the dust settled however, you see Armin step out of it and plead for Eren's safety.

"He's not the enemy of humanity! We're willing to share everything we know." Armin exclaims.

"We have no intention of hearing your pleas. We've seen everything we need." Replies Captain Kitz with little regard for the valuable information Armin likely had. It was apparent that he was overtaken by fear at this point.

"It doesn't matter what we think of him. Many here have witnessed him in action and how the other titans went after him. It cannot be denied that he's an invaluable asset to humanity." Armin explains articulately.

"Prepare to attack!" Says Kitz in ignorance, having apparently lost all sense of reason.

"That fucking coward!" You yell from where you stood as you get increasingly frustrated with him. Jean grabs you as you attempt to jump off the roof and charge towards him. 

"Have you gone mad?" Jean yells at you.

"We're frustrated too, but try to control yourself. Going down there won't help anyone." Reiner explains and helps you calm down.

It was rather uncharacteristic of you to get mad like that, but after witnessing everything that went down and all the lives that were lost, seeing the Captain's ignorance towards what could be the only glimmer of hope for humanity infuriates you. Captain or not, you couldn't afford to stand by and let him take that away from mankind to selfishly accommodate his own cowardice.

Armin makes one last attempt at convincing them and explains, "I'm a soldier who has long since pledged my life for the revival of mankind and I'd gladly risk my life to follow that conviction through. To that end, I want to elaborate that if we utilize his titan power in addition to our remaining forces, recapturing this district would no longer be impossible. Praying for the glory of mankind, I'll vouch for his strategic worth with all I have!"

You were impressed by Armin's approach as always, and it wasn't just you as you notice how Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt were completely taken aback by his speech. However, it seemingly had no effect on that brainless barbarian. Despite even the other captains asking him to reconsider, he ignores them and goes on to give the signal to fire.

"That's enough!" someone exclaims and grabs his hand, stopping him as he attempted to signal the cannons. "As always... despite having a large body, you're as feeble as a fawn, aren't you?" It was the Commander of the Garrison; Dot Pyxis.

"Are you blind to the brilliance of that salute?" He asks and says, "Go and take command of the reinforcements, I think it'd be best to hear what they have to say."

You breathe a sigh of relief as he takes the three of them to the top of the wall, away from the others. You and the rest of your group head back to your stations before someone notices your absence.