In Between The Ends

Chapter Forty Four

The force of Arya's final sentence crashed around them like breaking waves, and a sense of purpose so strong it nearly shook the cobbled walls around them flooded their hearts. Levi's left hand clamped down on the edge of the table with a resounding crack as the wood beneath his fingers splintered; at the same moment Mikasa snapped the arm of her chair almost clean off, her eyes wild.

Armin leapt to his feet with a pained growl, gripping his injured chest as his own chair clattering backwards onto the floor behind him.

"She's right. I refuse to spend the rest of my life the same way I did as a kid: cowering in the shadows of titans. We do this now, and we do it together. For Hange, for Sasha; hell, even for Eren! We can't let his final act amount to nothing, not when we have the power to end it."

Their backs straightened, chins raised high towards their commander. The dim aura of the boardroom did nothing to lessen the light in their eyes that shone past the darkness that had threatened to overcome them, wrapping itself around their suffocating fear and harnessing it. It had always been their undoing; now it was their weapon.

"Well holy shit." Connie said as Jean clapped him on the back with a grin. "I guess we're doing this."

"Hell yeah we are!"

Reiner and Annie were sharing a hopeful look with Gabi and Pieck while Falco leaned back with a relieved sigh, and Mikasa reached out to grasp Armin's shoulder tightly as determination lit up her face.

"How do we find it?"

"There's gotta be something in these books that can point us in the right direction."

"If we can take a boat Southeast along the coast-"

"-pack enough for at least two weeks-"

"-what about if we-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH."

Their purposeful chatter was cut short as President Wohl stood, a hard look creasing his already wrinkled face into a twisted mask of hysteria.

"That's quite enough, indeed. I'm pleased to see that your righteous fervor is still intact, but just as with the rescue mission to Paradis, whatever you're planning cannot be rushed! You can't just go around inciting open war with the Jaegerists OR go parading into other countries dropping bombs for your own purposes!"

"Open war with the Jaegerists has been on our doorsteps for half a dozen years." Jean said curtly. "It's no longer an if: it's a when. We can either wait for the axe to fall at some unknown moment in the near future, or we can make our move now before they manage to get their hands on the Founding Titan."

Armin held up his hands in a calming gesture. "If we have to go through Southern Marly and then straight east through the unclaimed portion of the continent, then we will; no one wants discontent with the other nations. When it comes to the Jaegerist though, Jean is right. We need to find the Tree of Ymir and destroy the source before the Jaegerists manage to figure this out for themselves. After that, we can use fake intel to lure the Council and Ymira off the island and take them into our custody; cutting off the head of the snake, if you will."

"Yeah, the Jaegerist's army will fall apart without the Council!" Connie exclaimed. "There might not have to be a war at all!"

One of Wohl's advisors stepped forward, visibly distressed.

"That may be true, but launching bombs on foreign soil is a sure-fire way to tempt other nations into going to war alongside the Eldians!"

Scoffing, Reiner stood up as well and went to stand next to Jean.

"Bombing the tree won't do us any good against the titan organism anyway, so you can stop worrying about us pissing off our neighbors."

"God, that's right." Armin said under his breath, catching eyes with Reiner. "There's no way any of our weapons will be able to destroy it, even if we hit it with all the thunder spears and explosives on the planet. The full force of my colossal wasn't even enough to bring it down."