Do you have to go?

Chapter 13

"What is that!?!" a man shouted from the opposite side of the cart. The horror in his voice just made for further chaos aboard the train. "The airships, they're leaving!"

The panicked voices of the passengers continued as an eruption of questions made their way through the air. "Leaving? What now?" "Why would they leave so soon?" "Why are they going toward the Rumbling?"

They were indeed headed toward the Colossal Titans and the-- Oh my god! What the hell is that? A massive skeletal creature stood twice as tall as the massive titans that made their way to us. Its large ribs descended into the crown and at the apex of the bones, large spines reach high into the sky but its face. I knew its face. It was Eren Yaeger and we were too late. 

"It's a bombing fleet," Leonhart called back to us. "They're going to blast the Titans to smithereens from above." Everyone fell silent.

We rounded to the top of the plateau where the ships had taken off from. "Everyone off the train!" Leonhart instructed all the passengers. Mr. Galliard took one of my arms and Mrs. Galliard, my baby, and assisted me out of the train. The empty aircraft hangars meant that this was a last-ditch effort, an act of desperation. The last of humanity's power is being used to stop the Rumbling. If this does not stop the Titans, nothing can. 

The speakers in the control tower above us boomed. "-we used hate. Raised hate. Believed hate to be our savior. We left all the problems we created on the 'Island of Devils'. As a result that devil was born, to return the hate we gave it. If I were given another chance, I swear to not make the same mistake. If humanity exists tomorrow..."

Memories flashed through my mind and before my eyes. All my training to destroy those we perceived to be devils. When they were just people responding to the threats that faced them. We created the Paradis Devil not devils. My parents were destroyed when they tried to reveal this truth to us. Instead, we chose to continue to hate. If I died here today, all that Marcel had done, all that anyone had done or sacrificed would mean nothing. My own hate of my own cousins made me blind to the beauty of the world around me and the people around me. My hate of my own cousins on the Island of Paradis was nothing and meant nothing and instead, I am here. Trying to forgive, but the forgiveness is coming too late. For any of us, for my child. As my mind raced, the speaker continued. My ears were ringing with rage and disappointment at myself and the system I allowed myself to uphold.

Karina had collapsed into tears several feet away from me. Other parents of Warriors and cadets surrounded her. "I used him as a tool for revenge!" she cried out, clutching a red armband. "I never did anything for him as a mother." Tears ran down her face and into the clay ground beneath her. 

"So did I," continued Mr. Finger, patting her on the shoulder. The sight of all the parents of the warriors who were nowhere to be seen made my heart drop and I suddenly came to the realization that if Eren was here, and the other Warriors were not, where were they? Are they already gone? Is Porco gone?

I pushed the thoughts away. They weren't helpful. At this moment I need to hope. Hope that the airstrike would work and that we all would have another day to make things right. To correct the centuries of wrongs.

All we could do was watch. Watch and hope.

The fleet of ships flew toward the row of Titans. And we watch as black tubs fell from them onto the Collasal Titans. A couple went down with loud thuds, but predictably, not nearly enough. I knew how tough Titans were and a few bombs were not going to do it. The best thing the airships could do is come back as soon as possible and pick up as many people as possible so we could flee. But then I saw him. Zeke. 

The Beast Titan riding on the back of Eren's Titan made a motion that I was all too familiar with. With a big wind-up and release, I watched in horror as the fleet of airships began to fall out of the sky like flies, Zeke was helping Eren to destroy the world and he had just ruined our last hope at survival. The crowd broke down sobbing. I stood in shock. Unable to move, my son cried at the loud noise, but the cries were drowned out by the cries of everyone else. Instead, I just held him closer as my eyes could not be taken off of the disaster in the sky.

The Galliards huddled around me and held on but I just watched what was our salvation drifting to the ground in a fiery end. It was over. All I could do was savor the precious few moments I had left. I knelt on the ground with my in-laws and my son and closed my eyes. Accepting my fate. Then all of a sudden, a child cried out. 

"What's that?" she said. Pointing to an area above even Eren. A plane. 

A small metal plane was flying toward the Rumbling from behind. The Island Eldians were coming to save us. It jerked to the side as Zeke unleashed another handful of rocks at it. The clang was audible from where we stood but the plane continued. 

Then I saw it. The unmistakable fireball of yellow light that is a Titan transition. I shielded my eyes as I watched the sky light up and a large body of plated armor and blonde hair descended upon Eren, it was Reiner! Another blast and I saw the unmistakable large head and awkward quadruped limbs of the Cart, Pieck's cart. "Paradis forces came to fight the Rumbling!?" shouted a distant voice at the sight of small human bodies with ODM gear. The bodies in black clothing flew about the Founding Titan. They had come to stop their own. 

All over the massive Skeletal being, erupted more and more special titans. Titans with the features of shifters but they just erupted all over the spines. White like Zeke and aggressive, the army of Titans attacked Reiner and Pieck and the human bodies that flew about slaying them one by one.  

I was glued to the battle taking place before me, so distracted that I didn't even notice the plane crash behind us. The plane that had delivered our saviors. Leonhart and a few others rushed to help the man that crawled out of the wreck and collapsed. But I could hardly take my eyes off the battlefield. 

An abomination of a Colossal titan had appeared dangling, suspended from the spines on the back of the founder like a spider web. It had Reiner in its hands. It bit down on his head and with a loud "CRUNCH! SNAP!" it threw his headless titan body to the side. 

Karina collapsed again and began to vomit. 

"Reiner!" I found myself shouting. Hot tears ran down my cheeks as I witness how deadly and brutal Eren was. The naive boy that I knew in our Warrior Candidate program was gone. His wide, always frightened eyes, his eagerness to do well even when he fell behind all of us in training. The smug look on his face when Porco pinned him to the wall when he lost the Jaw... the Reiner who came back a shell of his old self. Killed by the ghost of his best friend.

But the other rescuers continued. Titans swarmed them and all we could do was watch helplessly. 

Until a Giant bird flew into the mess.