Birdie (Levi x OC)

fifteen

My breath hitched as the world dissolved into a chaos of grit and thunder. I stood frozen for a split second as the dust settled, revealing two gods of war—Eren's Titan and Reiner's Armored Titan—locked in a grappling match on the earth far below. My shock was short-lived, broken by Hange's voice screaming directly into my ear.

"MOVE!"

I didn't think; I reacted. I saw the Colossal Titan's hand, a mountain of muscle and heat, sweeping across the top of the Wall like a giant trying to brush away ants. I threw myself over the edge, my ODM hooks biting into the stone as I swung beneath the parapet. The concussive force of the earlier transformation had left my body feeling like a bruised weight, and I hung there, gasping for air, my heart hammering against my ribs.

I forced my eyes open just in time to witness a nightmare. The Colossal Titan brought its hand to its cavernous mouth. I watched, paralyzed, as Ymir's limp form and a handful of screaming Garrison soldiers were swallowed whole. The casual finality of it sent a wave of nausea rolling through me.

"Soldiers!" Hange roared, her voice cracking with fury. "Eliminate the Colossal Titan! Tear that bastard out of his shell!"

The veterans surged upward, but I wavered. My hands were slick with cold sweat. How were we supposed to kill a god that breathed fire? But Moblit was already moving, and I couldn't let them go alone. I followed, zig-zagging through the air to avoid the Colossal's slow, sweeping limbs. Its size was its weakness; it moved with a heavy, predictable lethality.

"All troops, cut through the steam! Aim for the nape!" Hange yelled.

I gritted my teeth, trailing behind Keiji and Abel. We were closing in. I could see the Target. Then, the air itself seemed to scream.

BOOM.

"Fuck!" someone shrieked ahead of me.

A wall of white-hot vapor erupted from the Titan's body. It was a pressurized blast of boiling air. My vision vanished. My skin felt like it was being peeled away by a thousand invisible needles.

"Hot! It's too hot!" I heard someone scream.

"All units, pull back!" Hange's voice was faint, muffled by the roar of the vapor.

I grappled blindly, my hooks finding the top of the Wall as I hauled myself out of the cloud. I collapsed onto the stone, gasping for air that didn't burn. A few feet away, a soldier lay thrashing. His hands were a raw, bubbling crimson, the skin falling off in wet sheets. The burn I'd received from Eren a month ago was a scratch compared to this. Bile rose in my throat, and I had to look away.

"Water! Get water over here!" Moblit was suddenly there, organizing the survivors. I must have looked like a ghost, because Keiji grabbed me by the harness and hauled me to my feet.

"Are you hit? Birdie, look at me!" He checked my face for blisters.

"I'm...I'm okay. Just shaken," I managed to choke out.

Hange marched over, her expression a mask of grim calculation. "Armin's figured it out. Bertholdt isn't evaporating to escape; he's using the steam as a defensive shroud. As long as he's burning through his mass, we can't get near his nape."

"So what's the move?" Moblit asked, glancing at the towering pillar of steam.

"We wait," Hange said. "He's a furnace. Eventually, he'll run out of fuel. When he stops steaming, we rush him." She turned to Armin, her gaze turning lethal. "Forget taking him alive, Armin. If you see a opening, you kill him. No hesitation."

Armin looked like he'd been struck. This was his friend, his brother-in-arms. But the look Hange gave him was absolute.

"Armin, stay with the second squad. Watch for any change in the steam," Hange ordered. She then looked at Keiji, Abel, Moblit, and me. "The rest of you? We've got a date with the Armored Titan. Look alive, Eren's getting hammered down there!"