Once In A While

Chapter 35: Traitors

"Wake up. It's time to go." Jean said as he gently shook Gabi awake. She stirred lightly, and seemed shocked to see us in front of her.

"Is your friend okay?" I asked her, eyeing the blonde boy still fast asleep next to her.

"He's fine... Are you... Helping us?" She asked Jean, surprised. Jean had told me about the little feud that went on when I wasn't paying attention, so I guessed that it was about that.

"Yeah, of course I am. We both are. Now get up, we are leaving soon."

I stood next to the candidate warriors as they rose to their feet, the grogginess of the sleep slowly wearing off. Jean on the other hand, woke Reiner up violently, his attitude towards him unchanged.

-----

"Gabi. I'm sorry for kicking you." Jean apologized to the girl once we were moving on the cart. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am fine." The girl said, once again taken aback by the sudden chance in Jean's behavior.

"Reiner. You're not getting an apology." He turned to said person.

"That's fine by me." Reiner said, avoiding our gaze.

"I can't forgive you..." Jean trailed off, the events of list night still fresh in his mind.

"What about me?" Annie inquired, her eyes falling on me. Jean didn't seem to reply, so I took it upon myself;

"You did what you thought had to be done... You've killed countless people, so have we, but this one was special to me... So I think I need some time." I told her.

"I see."

---

"The harbor! It has been captured by the Yeagerists!" Pieck announced, coming off her Titan's body.

----

"We have to kill them. That's the only way to protect the ship." Annie stated.

"We'll use the power of all our titans alongside your weapons to do that. Got it?" She concluded, staring at Mikasa, Connie, Armin, Jean and I.

"Wait a second..." Connie seemed skeptical about the plan.

"An indiscriminate attack on the harbor will catch the Azumabito in the crossfire." Mikasa explained, earning a nod from Connie.

"They may have been distant cousins to you, but to us, they're enemies who attacked our homeland." Annie retorted.

"No... It will be a problem if we let the Azumabito die, Annie." Pieck intervened.

"Indeed... I should be able to pilot the flying boat on my own. But without the Azumabito's mechanics, it will have no wings. It needs to be repaired." Onyankopon reasoned.

"I see. So we need to protect the flying boat, and the Azumabito, for the amount of time it takes for the boat to be serviced. And I suppose... You're also going to tell me that when the Yeagerists try to stop us, you'd rather we didn't kill any of them?" Annie said, raising an eyebrow at us.

"No, I don't want to kill them. We've known some of them since the training corps..." Jean admitted, his nature against murder evident once again.

"Then what's the plan? Think you could tell me how exactly we're going to buy time for the ship to be serviced and keep the flying boat and all the Azumabito safe... All without killing the enemies who'll be flying at us?" Annie was right- our plan was too idealistic. We'd eventually have to kill someone in order for it to be executed.

"You do know we're here to save people, right?! So how did the first step in our plan become murdering our fellow islanders? Why is this happening?!" Connie exclaimed, his hands thrown in the air.