Not The One Who Dies ⇀ Attack on Titan *Original*

Part 32: A Fools Game

"Such a shame... I will miss him, I truly wish we didn't fall on different sides." The beast titan said, looking at the crumbled man on the ground.

Logan didn't hear or understand the words. He felt the hands on his arm loosen as he broke away from the boy holding him down. He heard the whoosh of a sword break through the air before a grunt followed it.

"Don't, Burtholdt. It's his brother." Reiner mumbled causing the shaky boy to nod, putting the sword back into the holster. The duo watched the strong soldier, that they once called captain, crawl his way over to the bloody corpse, digging his hands into the dirt as he inched closer and closer to the family.

"Arthur... come on... get up, we gotta go, old man, we gotta go! Levi, Eren, the rest of our family is waiting on us! We need to go so get your ass up!" Logan yelled, his voice cracking in the last few words. It was clear to everyone there that he wasn't trying to command the corpse, he was pleading his older brother, one of the three people he thought would beat this world, to get up, to survive.

Logan finally reached the corpse, pulling his body ontop of it to try to guard his older brother. He pounded his fist on the older mans chest as his mind finally began to process what he was seeing. Logan's eyes welled with tears as he finally looked up to his older brothers face, a small, proud smile stuck on his face. Logan thought back to the seconds before the ape titan's fist came down, Arthur had looked to his younger brother. In his last moments on the planet, he wanted to look at the boy who had changed him, healed his heart, and gave him a second chance at a family.

Logan felt tears spill off of his face and down onto his older brothers chest.

"Please... brother...please don't leave me in this world alone." Logan pleaded one last time, laying his head down onto his chest, placing his ear to it. In that moment, he knew his brother was truly gone. There was no heartbeat, no sign of life, nothing. The boy let his body rise, sitting on his knees as he looked down at his brothers corpse.

"I'm sorry, Capt- Logan. I wish it could've been different." Reiner said from behind the kneeling captain of the scouts. Logan looked up to the sky as one final tear ran down his face before he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before steadying his breathing.

"Are you? Are you sorry, Reiner?" Logan asked, his voice no longer vulnerable, it was now rugged and pained. Reiner looked at the boy with widened eyes as Logan lightly chuckled to himself.

"Do you have any idea what you've just done? Do any of you have any idea just who in the hell I am!?" Logan shouted, much to the surprise of the three shifters there.

"I have a good idea, Logan Castle... I knew your father, and your brother... We were friends when we were younger." A shirtless man with blonde hair and glasses said, titan marks coming from his eyes. Logan eyed the man, taking in every feature, every tiny recognizable trait he had. Logan began to growl as he looked at the man,his blood beginning to boil.

"That's where you're wrong... monster." Logan started, getting to one knee. Burtholdt drew his sword once again as the best titan rose his hand to his mouth, just incase the boy tried anything.

"My name, is Logan Ackerman... And I'm going to kill you. There isn't anything you or your other traitor friends can do about it. Not for humanity, not for the scouts you've killed, for my brother." Logan said, standing up, staring the titan shifter in the eyes, finding the one thing he was looking for.

Fear.

Logan turned his head to look to the two men he'd once called friends, comrades in arms. Reiner had his sword to his hand, ready to transform, Bertholdt pointing his own swords at the boy.