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short author's note: i am not ready.
"that bastard..." Jean remarked. "what'll it take to put him down for good? why won't he just stay dead?!" he wondered, clearly pissed. "what the hell do we do against something like that?!" he then started calming down. "hey, Armin. i think getting Eren and Elisa out of here safely might be the best we can hope for."
"he's thinner..." Armin said to himself, about Bertholdt's Colossal Titan. both Mikasa and Jean were puzzled. "the Colossal Titan. he's gotten a little thinner." then, he realized. "guys! it's exactly like Hange said! our best bet against the Colossal is a battle of attrition!"
both Jean and Mikasa gasped. "you remember their experiments with Eren and Liz? Eren could only transform up to three times, while Liz could only transform four times. if that's the case for a 15 and 14 meter Titan, a 60 meter Titan might be even less efficient! and then there's his steam. i think he must be burning through flesh and muscle tissue to produce it. everything except for his skeleton."
"so, what are you saying?" Jean wondered.
"Armin..." Mikasa called out.
"i have a plan... the rest of you need to draw Reiner away. Eren, Liz, and i will defeat the Colossal Titan ourselves." Armin declared. both Jean and Mikasa gasped. "the three of us can do it. trust me on this."
it took a moment before anyone spoke back. "alright, then." Mikasa said. "you leave Reiner to us and get going."
Armin was smiling. "sure took ya long enough." Jean said with a bit of a smile. "you had me thinkin' we were all gonna die here." then, they all went their separate ways, with Armin thinking about Eren's words.
Armin used the same technique Elisa used at the Battle of Trost, and attached his ODM grappling hooks to Eren. then, he pulled out one of his blades, preparing himself. if this plan goes the way i'm hoping it will, well... i won't get to visit the sea. he thought to himself.
"i couldn't tell you why, but when i think of the outside world, i feel courage flow through me..." one meter high, ten centimeters across. he stabbed through Eren's Titan without damaging his actual body. "Eren, wake up! the sea is waiting for us." Eren slowly woke up to consciousness.
~
Armin did the same thing with Elisa, and he told the both of them the plan. Eren and Elisa were sitting up, and Elisa's Masked Titan had one foot on the floor of the top of the wall just so she could prop herself up even more.
"okay, that's the plan, more or less." Armin said. he was on Eren's Titan's left shoulder so that him and Elisa could hear. "so now, we just have to execute it. if we can succeed in tricking Bertholdt, then... we'll win. the day will be ours."
