Power to Strive III

The Basement

Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or this story.

Previously: Erwin and Armin think Zeke's affection for Eren may be useful. Levi decides to ask Kenny about the Ackermans. Erwin thinks about taking Armin and Jean under his wing.

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Bertolt began to glow as he transformed, Mikasa and Armin fleeing.

Erwin and Levi watched in shock.

A massive spheral explosion erupted in Shinganshina.

"Armin, get down!" Mikasa yelled, holding out a hand toward him.

The shockwave ripped apart the homes caught up in it before the entire screen began white.

The silence was interrupted by soft, shuddering breaths. "It hurts." Bertolt's voice echoed as a skull appeared, left half muscles and right half bone. "It hurts so bad," Bertolt said. Armin opened his eyes in a daze. Darkness surrounded him and he stared up at the half-muscle half-bone skeleton.

Its lone eye teared up and began to cry.

"I don't recall anything like this happening to me," Eren said.

"Me neither." Ymir's own first experience of waking up as a Shifter had been seeing a vast night sky full of stars, no hallucinations of any kind. Although she couldn't remember what had happened afterward. She never saw the sun rise and suddenly, her next memory was of her walking in the middle of the afternoon, heading for the Walls. I can't believe there's a desert on this island. Armin was going to be thrilled to see it.

"Guess it's not something that happens to all Shifters," Hange said. Perhaps it was because Armin and Bertolt had a connection, they were friends. Eren said he had a weird dream when he woke up in the refugee camp.

On the Wall, Armin muttered softly, "Bertolt."

"It hurts," a female voice said.

The words snapped Armin out of his head and he looked over to the person lying on his left.

"It hurts so bad," Sasha said, eyes closed, forehead bandaged with burns on her face.

"Sasha? Sasha!" Armin lifted the blanket and saw the bloody bandage around her chest.
"You're in terrible shape. What happened?"

"I can't believe we've survived yet another crazy mission." Jean wondered for how much longer their luck would hold out. "Sooner or later, one or more of us is going to die."

"Let's hope our luck holds," Sasha said, fingers crossed.

"I'm offended none of you count my inevitable death as a loss," Ymir said in mock hurt.

They smiled sheepishly at her.

"Sorry," Armin said. "We keep forgetting. It just doesn't seem real cause we never saw it happen. Out of sight, out of mind." And it was easier not imagining it since they didn't want it to be true.

"Armin!" Eren was running over.

"Eren?"