Lost Boys

Chapter 7: A Drop in the Ocean

Bertholdt looked out from the female titan's left hand. She was setting him on her shoulder to free both hands, while taking a wild swing at the airborne soldier with her right. The soldier spun through the air, effortlessly dodging out of the way of her attack. A grappling hook sunk into the female titan's upper back, only a few feet beneath where Bertholdt stood. It had traveled so fast he hadn't seen it move.

Annie tried to turn but the soldier was already behind her, speeding up and homing in on the nape of her neck, twin blades at the ready. Wide eyed, Bertholdt realized the soldier's path would cross where he stood. Annie seemed to have been completely blindsided by the agility of this flying man. I'm her last line of defense.

Bertholdt tightened his jaw and clenched his fist before he stepped off the Annie's shoulder. His feet flailed in the air, the second before his body crashed into her attacker. He punched the soldier's nose, loosing a stream of blood. One of the blades slammed into Annie's back at an odd angle shattering into metallic fragments, and the other sunk deep into Bertholdt's chest. He felt a loud hissing sound as air and blood flowed into his lungs.

The blade left his chest and he could feel his chest filling with fluid. Bertholdt fell away from the flying soldier who continued soaring around the female titan. The world turned black as he hit the ground.

* * *

Reiner starred up the soldier, mouth open like a guppy fish. Fortunately for Reiner the other soldier called out to his comrade, ending the pressure for him to think of a reply. What was unfortunate, was what the soldier said.

"They are with the titan! Kill them!" the soldier who had been attacking Annie yelled. Reiner watched the airborne man land gracefully on the grass even as blood streaking down from a broken nose. He backed away from Annie's female titan which tried to step on him.

The closer soldier still held Reiner in a vice like grip, and he tossed him onto the ground. The blade was positioned to stab him in the eye. Reiner swung his forearm around, catching the side of the blade and knocking it away from his head. The thin tempered steel missed his skull by an inch and broke against the rock hard ground. Shards made deep gashes across his arm and fist. One piece sunk into his eye, making his head spun, but he felt no pain. His whole body buzzed with a dizzying amount of adrenaline.

Fighting inside a titan felt like a dream. Everything was muted and strangely removed, like a dream or watching something happen through a layer of water. But now this was his own body being slashed open, and every one of his senses felt overloaded. The soldier's right arm pressed down on Reiner so hard that he heard the snap of his collarbone, while his left reached for another blade with his other hand. The soldier's eyes turned away from him for a moment.

In the fleeting distraction, Reiner took a shard of the blade in each hand and drove them into the chest of the soldier. He jolted like he had been struck by lightning, and Reiner had pulled the blades back out and wedged them in again before the soldier had recovered. The hand pulled away from his collarbone in a desperate attempt to stop the assault, but Reiner kept stabbing. Tears streaking down his face, hands trembling, the metal cutting so deep into his own hand he could feel it sitting against the bone in his palm. He stabbed the chest, arms, and face, anywhere he could.

The man's body rolled to the side. Reiner's blurry vision turned black, but he continued driving the two pieces of metal forwards as long as they hit resistance.

"Reiner!"

He froze, the blade shrapnel still in his hands. His vision slowly returned. His hands were completely shredded and unrecognizable. He knelt over a patch of broken and bloodied ground. The soldier's body lay beside him, motionless. How much time passed? Reiner looked over to see Annie, fresh titan marks under her eyes, but the female titan was only steam.

"It's over, Reiner," she said.

Her voice was calm, containing no trace of either relief or remorse. He nodded, and the opened his hands. The weapons stuck to his steaming palms, so he had to shake them free before they clattered to the ground. He felt a strange gurling inside his left eye. He blinked repeatedly and his eye spat out a thin piece of metal.

Reiner shuddered, and turned to Annie, surveying the field. There was a massive splotch of blood and broken parts on the ground. "You got the other one?"

Annie nodded. "But I underestimated him first. He would have killed me if Bertholdt didn't step forwards."

Reiner's heart dropped. His eyes caught, Bertholdt, wrapped in one of the soldier's green capes, with the wings. Not Bertholdt too, no... He slowly made his way over to the body, his lips trembled as he asked, "Is he...?"

"He's alive for now," Annie replied. "I tied it in the cloak to slow some of the bleeding until it healed. The wound looked so bad, I thought he might bleed out, but there's steam. While there's steam, he's not all the way gone."

Reiner nodded again. He could see the thinnest trickle of steam rising up beneath the cape. He put his head in his hands and turned away. He could see Annie's eyes remained fixed on the wound. On that steam.

"I'm not a coward, Reiner. I was worried about something like this when I said we should end the mission."

Annie's words struck deep. Reiner felt his body tremble. Is Bertholdt's life worth the mission? He drew an unsteady breath.

"I worried about something like this too, Annie. I told Magath that I would finish the mission, even if it's just me," Reiner said, voice getting steadier with each word. "I meant that."

"I felt sick to my stomach when I thought Bertholdt had died." Annie's voice was soft, uncharacteristically weak. "Just like when I thought you died. Just like when Marcel died. I never want to feel that way again. If he dies, I am going home, Reiner. You can do whatever you want."

"I understand." Reiner said. He opened his mouth again, hesitantly to speak. "Did you feel something when you... when you killed the soldier?"

"Yeah," Annie replied. "I did."

Reiner took a deep breath. "It felt the same to me. Not the same feeling, but the same... emotion."

"What do you mean?"

"Watching Marcel die, and killing..." Reiner gestured in the direction of the body, he couldn't stand to look at it. He knew how mutilated it was. "I felt guilt both times, more than anything else. I killed Marcel, I killed him, and... I may have Bertholdt too."

Annie laughed. It sounded harsh and grating. "Well we'd better get used to killing. You know what our orders are. This blood, all of this blood so far... is just a drop in the ocean, compared to what is expected of us."

Reiner swallowed. But before he had time to process Annie's words, he heard a sudden gasp for air. Bertholdt's face turned purple and he rolled over. He began hacking up blood from deep inside him. Reiner and Annie both rushed to his side. Annie pulled him a little more upright, and Reiner dabbed the blood away from his mouth with his sleeve. After a moment of coughing, Bertholdt collapsed back onto the ground.

Annie untied the bandage around the wound revealing healed flesh. Reiner felt Bertholdt's forehead. He was burning hot, and his body had gone limp again, eyes tightly closed. He is healing so quickly. He just needs to rest some more.

"You can carry us to the walls, Reiner. We should be there by nightfall," Annie said. "I can show you the way. Come morning, Bertholdt will have all his strength back."

Reiner took a few steps away from the others and looked down at his blood-soaked hand. I am the armored titan, and I have a mission to finish. Reiner bit his hand.

***

This part was a little short this week, but it was pretty intense.  Next chapter will probably be the finale (though there maaaay be one more we'll see).

Tune in next week for the story's conclusion "Chapter 8: The Other Wall",  on Saturday noon EDT. As always, thanks for reading!