Hand in Hand

9. Loyalty

As she swung through the Forest with her ODM gear, (y/n) studied how close Armin and Mikasa were with their comrades Jean, Connie, and Sasha. They moved together like a synchronized unit and frequently communicated with each other for constant reassurance. The dynamic was powerful and their skill was almost that of cadets way above their rank, but it was clear that Mikasa was the most skilled out of them all.

'Is their skill all because of Levi?' She asked herself.

"Look out!" Sasha shouted. "There's a titan up ahead!" Hanging from a tree a couple of meters ahead of them was a small but burly titan with a large head and sparse hair. Its red eyes glared at them as it bared sharp, jagged teeth.

"No, wait!" Advised Connie. "That's Ymir! She's one of the people Reiner and Bertholdt took." The cadets hooked their ODM gear into the bark of trees that surrounded Ymir.

"Hey Connie," (y/n) said. "It's nice to take a break and all but who the hell is Ymir?"

"This is Ymir," Connie pointed to the titan. "She's a titan shifter. We only found out at Utguard Castle when she transformed for the first time to save us from surrounding titans. She ended up getting hurt and when the fight broke out in Wall Rose, Reiner ended up taking her and Eren both for some reason."

"Is she one of the 104th?"

"Yes, she is."

"So you're telling me that in total, Levi had five titan shifters on his squad and didn't manage to realize, even after Eren first revealed he was a shifter?"

Connie raised his brows in slight shock. "Well... yeah, I guess." He turned to Ymir and hit her head with the ODM gear's long blade. "That's beside the point. Ymir, how the hell did you manage to escape Reiner? That light we saw earlier, that must've been you transforming."

Ymir didn't respond, she merely stayed glued to the tree. Her head was hung low and her shoulders high, like an animal about to attack its prey. Armin watched anxiously as her eyes shifted from each of the cadet's bodies. 'Why does she keep staring at all of us?' He wondered.

"Hello?" Connie haggled, smacking Ymir with his blade again. "Didn't you hear me? I asked how you escaped!"

"Hey, Ymir!" Mikasa snapped. "We're pressed for time so you better start-

"Ymir!" Shrieked a voice. Everyone whipped their heads around to find a small blond figure flying towards them with her arms outstretched.

Dread washed over Armin's body as he soon realized. "Christa, get back!"

Ymir sprang from the tree in a flash, headed straight towards Christa. With her jaw opened wide, she swallowed Christa's body whole and used the surrounding trees to push herself in the opposite direction, towards Wall Maria.

"This was a trap," murmured Armin. "This was all a trap to get Christa! Ymir must have sided with Reiner and Bertholdt."

As all the scouts hung frozen in disbelief, Jean scoffed and yelled, "Am I the only person who saw this coming? Of course, Ymir would want to take Christa, she's freaking in love with her!"

"I can't believe she would side with Reiner and Bertholdt," Sasha cried out. "I mean, come on guys, this is Ymir we're talking about. We spent three years training with her."

"Yeah, our time together didn't seem to phase Bertholdt and Reiner, so why would Ymir care? Out of all of us, Ymir only stuck around Christa. She never even attempted to get to know us!" Jean retorted.

"Well regardless, it's clear where her loyalties lie now," Armin chimed in.

(Y/n) ran her hands over her face, attempting to wipe away the anger that was welling up inside of her. She was tired of hearing these scouts yap about their friend. She was tired of being outside the walls, seeing her comrades murdered and eaten. She was tired of how powerless she felt in the entire situation. Hanji was injured and miles away, she had no idea where Commander Erwin could be, and here she was, surrounded by teenagers she barely knew.