The Birth of Freedom

Flight of the Valkyries

RIAN

The light burned my eyes as Armin and I ascended from the darkness into the broad light of day at the same time as Aurora and Mikasa appeared from the opposite end of the street, the silver from Mikasa's blades glinting, and the red of Aurora's hair catching the light as they grappled their hooks and propelled into the air. 

Relief at seeing them airborne flooded my system only to turn to ice as the Female Titan lifted her foot in the air and brought it down in a mighty stomp, caving in another part of the tunnel exactly where Eren was hiding.

No No No.

"EREN!" Aurora screamed as she grappled onto the Female Titans leg and slashed her blade across the meaty calf, causing the Female to stumble back and turn to engage her and Mikasa in combat and seeing my opening, I grappled over to the collapsed tunnel and dropped the floor with Armin on my heels.

He can't be dead... not after all this...

"EREN!" I cried out as I scrambled over the rubble when suddenly I spotted Eren's hand sticking out through the debris. Rushing forwards, I grabbed onto the large chunk of rock above his hand and heaved with everything I had with every nerve ending in my body set alight.

What the hell?

Clarity, focus and strength rushed through my veins as I hefted the rock upward, the debris slowly giving way as Armin gasped behind me at my sudden surge of power. The memory of Shiganshina flashed in my mind as I remember Aurora doing the exact same thing as she had heaved an impossibly heavy beam from above our Grandfather's body in a desperate effort to save him, at the time I had thought it was pure adrenaline that had caused her small body to be able to move the heavy load but now knowing we were different, I knew that wasn't the case.

What are we?

Groaning sounded from below as I pushed the large rock aside before collapsing to my knees from exertion and leaning my head against it just as Armin scrambled forward and pushed aside the last free bits of debris to reveal a bloody Eren impaled through the chest by a giant spear of wood. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of all the blood around but I slowly exhaled as I saw the shallow movement of his chest, he was still breathing. 

Thank god.

"Come on, stay with me!" Armin pleaded as I crawled over to him and placed my hand on Eren's bloody head and groaning again, Eren opened one teal eye just as the sound of a crashing building echoed all around us. 

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" A voice boomed as a familiar cloaked scout descended rapidly from above us and landed on his feet before running towards us with wide eyes. 

"Jean he's stuck!" Armin urged as he went back to trying to dig Eren out of the rubble, "Help me get him out!"

There was no getting out of this, if we pulled the spear from his chest, he would bleed out Titan or not, and there was no way we had time to dig him out even with my strength to aid us, the only way Eren would get out of this now was if he transformed. Which given past experience, shouldn't be an issue considering how injured he is, so why is his body not taking over?

What is holding him back?

"Why didn't he just change into a Titan?" Jean puzzled and began to move more debris as the zipping of grapples shot above us as our comrades joined the fight.

"He couldn't transform!" Armin panicked as his hands began to bleed from the sharp rocks, "I think something is holding him back from being able to take on Annie."

"What?!" Jean shouted as he stopped his digging to stare down at Eren's bloody face in shock, and frankly, I couldn't blame him, we were all depending on Eren's Titan, and now Aurora and Mikasa were taking on the fight that his Titan should have shouldered.