Under the Tree [Attack on Titan self insert]

The Small Blade

tw before we start this one mentions suicide as in someone saying that they would rather kill themselves than be eaten by titans and like actually holding the item they'd use to do it

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             They didn't end up finding Mikasa, but they were reunited with Jean, Connie and most of the others. By then, they'd been given the withdrawal order, but no one had enough gas to get anywhere, so they all agreed to stay put.
             Jean hadn't ever even made it to the armory. He revealed that he'd been stranded on that roof for a while now, hoping they'd find him.
             With nowhere to go, Armyn and Armin sat off to the side together. They just wanted a little bit to try and sit and process what had happened. Armyn could still feel the heart squeezing that he mentioned earlier, that normally told him that Eren was in pain. He didn't know what it was supposed to mean now. He wanted it to go away.
            "Armin, there you are!" Armyn and Armin looked up to see Mikasa running up to them. She stopped a few feet in front of them. "Armyn? Where's Eren?" Mikasa was one of the few people that could always tell Armyn and Eren apart. It could've been that she spent so much time with them, or maybe it was how different her relationship was with both of them, but it was yet another thing she was overly good at.
             Armyn stared up at her for a moment, his eyes blank. He didn't really know how to tell her. Clearly, Armin didn't either, but he was the first to speak up. He was crying. "The cadets... of squad 34. Thomas Wagner. Nack Tierce—" he sucked in a breath, gripping at the fabric of his pants before he kept going. "Milieus Zeremski. Mina Carolina." He squeezed his eyes shut and sobbed. "Eren Jaeger."
             Armyn hung his head, his shoulders shaking. "They fought bravely... but they all died in battle at the hands of the titans. We... are the only remaining cadets of squad 34."
             "Their whole squad was wiped out?"
             "No... No way..."
             Armin looked up at Mikasa. "It should have been me that died!" He shouted. "I'm... worthless." He hissed, glaring as if he could glare at himself. "I couldn't do anything to save him, instead he died saving me..."
             "Stop that!" Armyn hit Armin hard on the shoulder. He yelped. "Stop. You can't say that." He hit him again, weaker. "Clearly he wanted you to live. You're not worthless, Eren... wouldn't want you to say that..." he sobbed and rested his forehead on Armin's shoulder. "He died because you were worth saving."
             Mikasa leaned down to their level. She grabbed one of their hands each. She had no expression. "Calm yourselves. We don't have time to get emotional right now." She pulled them both up to their feet, Armyn wiping his eyes, before she turned to walk away. "Marco. If we eliminate or get past the titans and make it to the armory, we can refuel there and then make it safely to the wall. Is that correct?"
             Marco looked up from inspecting the wound on Percy's leg. "Uh... yes, that sounds right... but there's just so many, we can't take them even with you."
             Mikasa glared at him. "I am strong." She said, "I am strong, not like you are strong. None of you come close to me, and looking at all of you, as far as I'm concerned, I'm surrounded by a bunch of cowardly, unskilled, titan feed."
             Armyn couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Mikasa, are you serious? You can't be—you can't take them all on your own!"
             She looked at him with eyes that said watch me. "If I fail, I die. If I win, I live. The only way to win is to fight." She turned her back towards them. Armyn recognized those words—they were Eren's. That's what Eren said to her the day they had met, Armyn could never forget that day. "So join me or don't, I don't care. I can do this on my own if I have to."
"Mikasa, wait!" Armyn ran forward as she flew off towards the armory. He sucked in a breath through his teeth.
"What are we doing?" Jean stood up and looked around at everyone. "Can we really just sit here and give up before we've even tried? We've made it this far, damnit!" He raised his sword. "Let's go, use your gas sparingly!" Jean yelled. Marco smiled a little, hoisting Percy up onto his back to follow as Jean jumped off the roof to go after Mikasa.
Armyn looked back at Armin as everyone else started yelling and following. "No idea how she inspired them like that." He laughed a little. He held out his hand. "We can keep going, together. Hearts and souls, right?" Hearts and souls to the cause was the phrase they were taught, it went with the salute. Armyn always liked it, because there were a lot of things you could put your heart and soul into.
Armin took a deep breath before grabbing Armyn's hand. "Yeah. Together—hearts and souls." They ran off the roof together and caught up to Mikasa.
"Holy shit, Mikasa's a total badass!" Connie marveled. "How is she going so fast?"
Armin frowned. "She is going really fast..." he looked up at her. "She's using too much gas!"
"What? That's not like her..." Armyn followed his gaze. "You don't think... is Mikasa letting her emotions cloud her judgment? Mikasa?"
"Either way, she's going to run out of gas!" Armin didn't know what to do. He couldn't get to her. "At any second, she'll—"
Interrupting him, Mikasa's gear started to sputter. Armin and Armyn gasped as they saw her fall and land on a roof. Her blades shattered when she landed. She rolled off the roof, and they yelled her name. Armin was the first to go after her. Armyn hesitated for just a second before following him.
"Where is she?" Armyn looked back to see that Connie had followed them.
"I don't know, I don't see her!" Armyn landed on a roof and looked down. "Do you see her, Armin?"
"No, I lost her!" Armin cursed under his breath as he zipped through the air. "Oh, oh—wait, there she is!" He changed his direction and the others followed. "Mikasa!" He swung down and picked her up, carrying her onto a roof where Armyn and Connie landed too.
"Are you alright?" Connie asked, looking over her for a second.
"I'm fine." Mikasa nodded.
"Guys, we need to move." Armyn stood up. A titan was approaching them. On the other side of the road, another one was walking up.
"Damnit, two fifteen-meters?!" C0nnie cursed. "Great, that's just great!"
"No." Mikasa pointed at the second titan. It had chin length dark hair, teeth along its cheeks and... it looked much more fit than most titans. "That one's different."
"Different how?" Connie hissed.
Armyn couldn't look away from the titan. He didn't really understand it, but he got a weird feeling looking at it. "Does anyone else think it looks kinda familiar? Have we seen that one before?"
"Um... I dunno, I haven't." Connie shrugged. "But they all kinda look the same to me. Can we go before he thinks he's seen us too?" The titans began to scream at each other. They were ignoring them entirely. The special titan put up his fists in a fighting stance. "What is he doing? Is he about to fist fight that titan?" Connie couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't laughing long—when the other titan charged, the special one threw its fist and hit the titan's head clean off its shoulders. "OH, WOAH—HOLY SHIT."
The titan started to stand up as the other healed its hand, but apparently he didn't like it. He lifted its leg and aimed for its weak spot before stomping down. "No way... it knew exactly how to finish it off!"
"Okay, it's kinda cool and all, but we really need to go before he realizes he's fighting the wrong team." Connie gestured for them to start moving.
"I don't think he will... look, he's even walking away now." Armyn pointed.
"How did it know hand to hand combat? What even is that thing?" Mikasa questioned, mostly to herself.
"Don't try to understand abnormals, they're literally called abnormals. Let's just go now!" Connie readied himself to fly off.
"Wait!" Armin held his hand out. "Mikasa is completely out of gas."
"What? No one thought to mention that?"
"Dumbass, how do you think she crashed?" Armyn flicked him in the forehead.
Armin took off his ODM gear. "There's one thing we can do. Mikasa, take my gas and my blades, since yours broke. I'll stay here—they need you three at HQ, I won't be much help."
"Armin, stop!" Mikasa reached out to grab his arm. He jerked away.
"This is our only choice!" He yelled. "Just use this more sparingly. Everyone's lives are counting on you." Mikasa zoned out as Armin switched their gas cans.
"Do you seriously think we're leaving you here?" Armyn glared.
"I'll slow you down. Just leave me with this blade." He picked up the small blade that Mikasa had had.
"You can't protect yourself with that little thing..." Armyn frowned. "You seriously expect that to help you?"
"No. I don't, not against the titans." Armin didn't meet his gaze. "I'd rather die by my own hand than in the stomach of a titan."
After a moment of silence, Armyn slapped Armin, making him drop the blade, which slid off the roof. Armin yelped and tried to catch it. "You can't just fucking say that, jerk." When Armin finally looked up at him, he was crying, but he looked angry. "I'm not leaving you. I'm not losing two of the three most important people I have—whether you like it or not I won't let you die." He leaned down and grabbed his hand, pulling him up onto his feet. Connie and Mikasa were already ready to leave.
"We need to go help!" Connie said, looking towards HQ. "They're probably in trouble!"
"How do you expect me to come with you?" Armin looked at Armyn.
"I'll carry you on my back. We'll get you more gas at the armory." Armyn could see Connie smirking before he and Mikasa started to run. Armyn squeezed his hand and followed them, practically dragging Armin.

1714 words in chapter
20322 total words

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connie is the only thing helping me through trost arc rn. as i'm posting this one im actually writing chapter 10 and im still on the fucking trost arc i hate the trost arc with a burning passion