The Grey Angel (Attack on Titan x OC)

Chapter 59

-Nora Ackerman POV-

We took off and began fighting the Marleyan soldiers.
We saw that Marley managed to shot Zeke, who fell down.
"Nice shot" I said.

"Not now, Nora" said Jean.
"The Cart Titan is still up!" said Armin. "We can't win this fight unless we deal with her!"
I saw soldiers getting ready to shoot.

"Armin!" I yelled and went for him, making sure he didn't get shot.
Connie shot a Thunder Spear into the home, killing the soldiers.
"Don't lose focus!" I yelled at Armin.

"Fall back!" shouted Jean. "That way is no good!"
"Nora..." said Armin. "I'm sorry" and I knew he wasn't just apologizing for losing focus... he was apologizing for not taking my side.
"I know" I whispered and we left.

"Can't take out the Cart with those soldiers" said Mikasa.
"I know" said Armin.
"Circle around them!" I heard my grandfather. "We'll strike the enemy from behind!"

"I think Pyxis has the right idea" said Armin. "We don't have enough firepower to risk a frontal assault"
"We need to attack them from the rear" I agreed.

~

I saw Zeke getting up...
"No" I whispered.
I saw him take a breath...

"Please, no..." I whispered.
'Don't take my grandfather away from me... please...'
But then... he hesitated...

"Nora" said Armin, while killing a soldier.
I snapped out of it and killed a soldier who was close to me.
But then... Zeke... screamed...

"No!" I screamed.
We saw lights... everyone who drank from the wine... turned into a Titan...
"No!" I screamed, I was broken.

"Nora!" yelled Armin and took me in his arms.
I was screaming, I couldn't hear anything anymore...
I lost my family.
Mikasa was protecting us, while Armin was trying to snap me out of it.

-Armin Arlert POV-

This was bad... Nora was hurt... knowing she just lost her grandfather... it was the final straw...
She was screaming and crying in my arms...
"Nora" I hugged her tightly. "Please, snap out of it. We need you! I need you!"
"I'm gonna kill him" she said and got out of my arms. "I'm gonna kill that bastard. All we need is his spinal fluid, right? So I can kill him"

"Nora! Wait!" I yelled, but she was already gone...
She couldn't think clearly anymore... this war... it was really getting to her...
Mikasa and I went after her... but when she arrived, the guy on the Cart Titan shot straight through Zeke's neck...

Mikasa and I used our Thunder Spear to destroy the Cart's back armour.
"We're just a little too slow" I said.
"Damn it!" yelled Nora and killed the remaining soldiers.

"You can't win now!" shouted the Cart Titan. "This battle is over!"
"Not even close" said Nora.
"Miss Silva!" shouted a guy.

"Magath" she said. "It's Ackerman"
"Stand down!" he yelled.
"Why should I?" she yelled back. "Zeke took everything from me! When I get the chance, I will kill him myself! This is your only warning. Don't get in my way!"

She went after the remaining soldiers, she didn't rely on anyone. But the Marleyan soldier never went after her...
I saw Eren get out of his Titan...

'Zeke is alive?'
But then... someone shot Eren's head off...
Zeke caught his head...

~

-Nora Ackerman POV-

The walls began to crumble...
Armin grabbed me and pulled me to a roof.
"Are you okay?" he said and touched my face, looking if I was hurt.

"Holy shit" I said. "He did it"
"My name is Eren Yeager" I looked at Armin... he could hear it as well. "I'm addressing my fellow subjects of Ymir, speaking to you directly through the power of the Founder. All the walls on the Island of Paradis have crumbled to the ground. And the legion of Titans buried within have begun their march. My only goal is to protect the lives of the people on Paradis, the island where I was born. Right now, the nations of the world are united in the desire to exterminate my people. And it won't end with our island. They won't be satisfied until every last subject of Ymir is dead. I won't let them have their way. The Titans of the walls will continue their march until every trace of life beyond our shores is trampled flat. And the people of Paradis, are all that remains of humanity"

"Great" I said and looked at Armin. "Trust Eren, you say. He wouldn't do anything crazy like that, you said. Eren has completely lost his mind!"
"Let's go to the others" he said.
When we found the others, I saw Falco tied up.

"Eh, what the hell?" I asked. "Why is Falco tied up?"
"He turned into a Titan" said Jean. "Ate the Jaw"
"No freaking way" I said and checked Falco.

"It's over" said Jean. "Maniac or not. I never thought Eren would slaughter everyone who lives outside of the walls. And when he's done... everyone who hates us will be dead. The entire outside world was a threat to our existence and now it's going to be trampled flat and left empty. These people called us Island Devils... said we'd kill them all unless they killed us first. We became what they thought we were. And we're doing what they feared we'd do. Because we have to... in the end... it's on them. This is only happening because the world picked a fight and lost. There isn't anything we could've done differently, was there?"

"But..." said Armin. "Even so... Eren is going too far. He's committing genocide against the world..."
Armin grabbed my hand, and this time I didn't pull away...

"Well then..." said Jean. "What do we do? Should we stop him? Think on it. Eren tricked Zeke and kept him from castrating us all with his euthanasian plan. And Historia could've taken the Founder, but Eren opposed that because it would've costed her life. He did this... for his friends. Eren wants to protect us even if it means killing everybody else on the planet. He's doing something more horrible than we can imagine. For our sakes"

"You're joking, right?" I said and they looked at me. "Protecting us? What about everyone who turned into a Titan just now? My grandfather... don't tell me that was to protect us as well"
At that moment, we saw the Titans, fighting our soldiers...
"Wait a sec" said Armin. "The Titans are going after our soldiers? Did all the Marleyan troops get eaten? But why? Eren's using the Founder's power! He should have total control over all these Titans!"

"Who cares why?" said Jean. "They're eating us! Let's go and help!"
"What will you do with Falco?" I asked.
"I don't know" said Jean. "When he turned, I think he ate the Jaw Titan. That means we can use him. Feed him to one of our guys who Zeke transformed. We can bring someone back! If we find Commander Pyxis..."

My eyes widened...
'I... I could have my grandfather back? But... that would mean... killing Falco...'
"No" said Connie. "We save my mom. Take him to Ragako and feed him to her. All right?"
"Wait a sec" said Armin. "Guys, Zeke told us this kid was one of Marley's warrior candidates and that Reiner and the rest of his unit all treat him like an older brother. The war is basically over now, Marley is about to be trampled flat, which means Reiner and the Cart have nothing to fight for unless we give them something. If we kill their friend now we'll be offering the two of them a whole new reason to keep coming after us. And we get nothing out of it. Please..."

"What?" said Connie. "You think bringing back my mom is nothing?"
"That's not what I meant..." said Armin, but Connie grabbed Armin's shirt...
"For four years I've had to watch lie helpless in the ruins of my home!" yelled Connie. "Do you have any idea what that's like?! You ate Berthold! That's why you're still with us, right?! Well my mom can be with us too now! Don't you dare!"

"Connie!" yelled Mikasa, a Titan got closer...
I grabbed Armin and we dodged the Titan.
Connie grabbed Falco and took off...

"Connie!" I yelled.
"Too late!" shouted Jean.
A lot of Titans were approaching us...

"Well, great" I sighed. "No walls to keep the Titans off us now..."
"We're gonna have to take all of them out" said Jean.
"You got it" I said and we began killing the Titans.

It hurt... killing the Titan forms of people we knew...
I still hadn't seen my grandfather... but I knew... I was gonna have to be the one to kill him...

~

-Armin Arlert POV-

We gathered at the top of the building, the Yeagerists were helping us.
"Now! All at once!" shouted Jean and we began taking out the Titans.
Nora and Mikasa were amazing, killing so many of them...

When we gathered back at the top, I saw Nora freeze.
I looked down and we saw Commander Pyxis.
She slowly took my hand, I knew we had to talk after all of this.

We weren't used to fighting... honestly, we were bad at it. We've never had a fight like this one... and I hated fighting with her...
"Eleanor" I whispered. "I can..."

"No" she said. "If anyone is killing him... it's going to be me. I have to do this"
"Okay" I whispered.
She took off before I could say anything else and fired a Thunder Spear into his neck, killing him...

After taking a few more Titans out, she went back to the top.
I looked at her, her expression was ice cold...
"Nora?" I said and she looked at me, tears were in her eyes.

I just took her in my arms, but she didn't hug me back.
"I'm sorry" I whispered.
"We can talk after this" she whispered and left to kill the last Titans.

~

-Nora Ackerman POV-

We found Mr. Braus, safe and sound.
"Glad you're here, Mr. Braus" said Armin. "Good to see you"
"I'm glad you all made it through okay" said Mr. Braus. "Apologies for giving you more to deal with"

He led us to the cellar and we saw Gabi.
"Gabi?" I said. "Why are you here?"
"Please, Miss Ackerman" she said. "Believe me, I will not cause any more trouble. I just want my friend back. So please, let Falco go. I swear you'll never hear from either of us again"
None of us answered...
"Where is he?" she asked worriedly... "What's wrong?"

We explained why Connie took Falco...
"So... his mom got transformed into a Titan?" asked Gabi. "And he's gonna have her eat Falco? But why?"
"When Connie's mom got turned, the limbs on her Titan body were so weak she couldn't even roll over" said Armin. "We left her. And for four years Connie has been visiting her"

Gabi fell on her knees...
"I'm... so sorry" she whispered. "But still, I... can't let Falco die for it. Why do this? Can't Eren Yeager just use his power to turn Connie's mother back to normal? They say that the Founder is supposed to be able to do anything, right?"

"I can't say for sure" said Armin. "But if Eren could do that... I think he would've done it for our comrades that Zeke turned into Titans, instead of leaving them for us to kill"
"If you don't know for sure, then why don't you go and ask him?!" yelled Gabi. "Does every person beyond the shores of the Island really need to die? He doesn't need to go that far, does he?! Ask him why he doesn't just destroy all the military basis?! Isn't that enough?! He had the power to strip the armour off Reiner! Don't tell me he can't!"

"What did you say?" I asked. "Where is Reiner?"
"What does it even matter?!" she yelled. "He got hit by a chunk of the wall and he's too hurt to move!"
I kneeled down in front of her and laid my hands on her shoulders.

"You're telling us that Reiner's hardening came undone?" I asked. "When? When did that happen?"
"He said it fell off when the walls were collapsing" she said.
"Oh you have got to be shitting me" I said. "All the hardening came undone when the walls came down... Annie..."