Nest & Wings (Annie Leonhardt x Male Reader)

Chapter 18: Wings of Freedom

Having sealed the breach, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. You follow Mikasa over to where Eren was as Armin and Captain Rico help him out of his titan form. As Rico cuts him out of the nape, the two twelve meter class titan's that took out Jan and Mitabi squads approach you.

You and Mikasa draw your blades to defend them, but before you could do anything, Captain Levi appears out of nowhere and takes out both titans in the blink of an eye. You watch in awe realizing why they call him 'Humanity's Strongest.'

"Hey you brats, what's going on here?" Captain Levi asks your group.

Armin explains everything from the Colossal Titan's appearance to Eren sealing the breach and brings him up to speed on everything that went down.

"Tsk, what a mess. You there, the two brats who took down the fifteen meter class, wanna lend a hand cleaning up?" the captain asks.

"Y-yes s-sir!" You answer nervously as you realize you'd get to work with one of your heroes. As you say that Commander Erwin, Capitan Hange and the rest of the Survey Corps arrives.

Mikasa looks understandably tired and stays with Eren while you go ahead to help the Survey Corps. She had already taken down at least ten titans by this point. Compared to that, you only got two by yourself and a third with Mikasa's help.

You motivate yourself realizing that you could use the opportunity to rack up some more kills and close the gap at least a little. As much as she was Annie's rival, being on top of the class, she was by default everyone else's target as well.

"Welcome aboard, recruit!" says commander Erwin. "This is Captain Hange. She's the head of the research squad in the Survey Corps. How about you help her out while she studies the titans?" He asks you.

"Yes Sir! I'll do my best!" You answer nervously as you stand in the presence of who might as well be the two greatest men alive.

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You follow Captain Hange as she and her squad heads into Trost. While the Garrison used the wall mounted cannons to take out the bulk of the titans that everyone had lured towards the wall, the Survey Corps had to manually clean up the rest of Trost.

As you zip by, you look to your right and see Captain Levi take out another titan in a matter of seconds. His movements resembled Mikasa's to an extent, but he was far more proficient at it. He made killing titans look easy from where you stood.

Captain Hange and her squad's objective was to capture a titan alive. Till now, you've only gotten to work with the rather cowardly soldiers in the Garrison; minus Captain Ludwig of course. Seeing the stark contrast in both ambition and skill in the Survey Corps gets you pumped.

Your squad comes across a four meter class titan. "That's it! That's the one!" Captain Hange yells out in excitement.

"Should we deploy the device, captain?" asks Moblit.

"Yes, get it ready. Look how beautiful it is..." Captain Hange gives the order and starts drooling as she analyzed the titan from a distance.

As Moblit arms a barrel-like weapon, the Captain orders the rest of the squad to cut the titan's arms and legs. You watch as four seniors cut off the titan's limbs in an instant. Once the titan was on the ground, Moblit fires a spiked net from the barrel which traps the titan.

Seeing the titan's limbs begin to regenerate, Moblit and the others bind its neck and limbs using steel rods and nails the titan onto what looked like a transport device. As a group of scouts take the titan away, you spot a seven meter class approaching.

"There's number two!" Captain Hange yells. She looked super eccentric.

"B-but captain, isn't that a little too big?" Asks Moblit as Nifa explains to you how the largest they've managed to capture till that point was a six meter class.

"No! We're doing it now. Get the nets ready." the Captain orders and goes after the titan herself. Three other scouts follow and take cut off the titan's limbs with her as Moblit fires another net and traps it.

As they got down on their feet and started restraining it, a twelve meter class abnormal comes charging on all fours and goes after Moblit. Nifa looked worried, as he wouldn't be able to defend himself from that position.

You dive in and go straight for it's nape as fast as you could. Using the technique you copied from Mikasa, you kill the titan before it could get to him.

"Th-thank you recruit!" He says, still settling down from the shock.

"Dammit, why'd you have to kill it?" Says Captain Hange as she comes over to check on Moblit. "Oh, well... Guess it had to be done, huh? Anyway, that was impressive; specially for a rookie!" she compliments you.

"You're still a cadet, aren't you? Do you have a regiment in mind?" asks Nifa, who was next to you.

"Yeah... I was always planning on joining the Survey Corps." you answer.

They looked delighted to hear that. Their reaction nearly brings you to tears as they made you feel welcome in a way that you've never felt before.

Afterwards, you proceed to take out the rest of the titans. Having run out of capturing equipment, Hange reluctantly gives the order to kill. You manage to take out two more titans, a five meter class and a seven meter class, whilst also helping the Captain take out a thirteen meter class, bringing your overall record to five kills and two assists.

While Nifa explained how it was an impressive score for a rookie, you were still behind Mikasa, who was also a cadet and wasn't willing to stop till you catch up to her. However, that could wait as there were no more titans left in Trost.

It had a lot to do with the Levi squad, as collectively they took out nearly fifty titans. Twelve of them were taken out by Captain Levi himself. In fact, it was the absence of the Survey Corps that led to so many military casualties in the first place as they would've had a significantly easier time handling the situation that the Cadets and the Garrison so desperately struggled to.

Reiner must've figured it out and waited for an opportunity to strike when the Survey Corps was absent. When you put it like that, it should have been obvious the moment they set off on the expedition; especially to you who knew that an attack was imminent. Nevertheless, working with all of them inspires you to train harder so you could catch up to them and with that, you call it a day and head back.