The Turquoise Cure (Eren X Reader)

Chapter 9: The Camping Mission (pt. 2)

"Well, don't act like you didn't hear me!" You snarled, glaring at the tall, muscular man who was now gripping Krista around her throat, trapping her. "WHERE'S KENNY?" you hoped that your voice had carried over to the rest of the camp, but the silence that followed denied your hopes. "Hah, she thought that she was an important enough job for Kenny to finish her off himself?" The man stifled his laughter in an unabashed way, spitting and hissing as his hilarity was so blaring my expressed. "He's not here," the man behind you answered, finding the situation much less funny than the other man,
"but we need to hurry up here, Zane; there are more of them." Your eyes farted everywhere along the forest floor and brush, searching for anything that could possibly get you out of this, but the cold blade pressing against your forearms made you feel a lot more vulnerable.
    As if finally realizing your situation, you kicked backwards, causing the man grabbing you to lose his grip for a moment long enough for you to maintain a steadier grip on your blade, then pulling it to his throat, threatening to slash. He wiggles and fussed under your hold, but you had to give the man an incentive before you killed him. He had to let Krista go first. "You bitch!" the criminal named Zane muttered as he dropped Krista to the ground. Her breathing quickened from the new and unrestricted flow of air. As she begin to inch away from the scene on her hands and feet, she seemed less than forgotten by the criminals. Zane seized you around the throat, slamming your face into a tree branch as he tossed you away. The criminal you had been gripping was now back on his feet, and he brandished his blade as well, now taking quick slashes at whatever bits of your skin that he could reach. The fight was not easy- you were clearly on the disadvantage: two grown men nearly twice your weight and height were tossing you, ripping your flesh to pieces, yet they were not simply unscathed. You managed to grip the collar of Zane, smashing his face to the ground as you pulled your body on top of his, pinning his arms behind his back. You plunged your blade deep into the thick tissue of his back, causing him to scream and wail in pain. He would never walk again. Meanwhile, the other criminal was nursing a gaping wound in his neck, from which you had thrusted Zane's blade at him, effectively slashing his throat.
    The only thing left to finish off the two of them was time. Knowing this, you hurried away from the scene, wiping the blood from your eyes as the cut above your left eyebrow seeped, and red, hot blood swam down your face. You thrusted your way into the campground, desperate to get the others out before more retaliation came, but nobody was there. The sleeping packs, remains of the fire, and some signs of a scuffle remained, however. You couldn't help but notice that Eren's pack was covered in a thick layer of blood. Clutching your mouth with your blood-caked hands, you screamed into the forest, damned it be of others heard you and found you. You crouched to his pack, smearing the blood further on your fingers- it was still warm, and it has yet to coagulate. He couldn't have been gone long, and if that was true, then you could still save him before you were too late again.
    Noticing some bloody trails on the wet, dewy grass of nearly dawn, you ran as you had never run before, barreling through the forest as though you were a native. You swung past trees, cutting your hands and face on briars and twigs, but the more blood on your face only pushed you further. You didn't stop,'and you weren't going to stop, until you got the one thing you wanted, no, needed. I can't let Kenny Ackerman take away the life that I've made for himself since he took away Aster. A flash of her wet eyes and bloody figure nipped at your determination, and you sprinted faster. You had to be getting closer now: whoever took the trainees had to be moving slower than you, especially if Eren was still putting up a fight.
    After nearly 10 minutes of unabated and reckless sprinting, you saw the light of a torch up ahead in one of the nearby clearings. The light burned your eyes; you had been abiding in the forest's darkness for such a long time now. Pausing, hiding yourself behind a thick tree, you listened for voices. You felt your heart sink as you heard a moaning, a sound coming from what could only be a wounded animal, but the gasp of pain that followed told you that it was Eren. You wanted to sprint to the clearing, fight and throttle away any and everything that was hurting him and your friends, but you needed to wait; you needed to know that you were not rushing into something that could get your friends hurt even worse.
    Quieting yourself as much as you could, you peeked your ears, straining to hear whatever words you could make out from the clearing. "She'll find you," a cold, drawling voice sounded. You were surprised: the only times that Mikasa spoke with you, her voice was sweet and loving, but this voice was nothing of the sort. "You have Eren, and you have us, and as long as she's still out there," Armin squeaked through flustered breaths, "She is out there." Eren interrupted, spluttering and wheezing as he spoke. Your heart ached at hearing his broken down voice. How could he have this much faith in you after you were so negligent and self-absorbed that you had allowed him to be taken away? Even still, you refrained from revealing yourself just yet.
    "I don't know why these kids put so much faith in that girl," an unfamiliar voice that had to belong to another criminal rang out. His voice was pitchy and sounded like that of a man who smoked too much pipe to maintain a clear set of lungs. "I mean, really," he said, "how much trouble could a tiny little girl really be?"
    You didn't know what it was, the only explainable attribute was instinct, but you clutched your blades, sprinted from behind the tree, and raced into the clearing knowing that it was the right time. Quickly surveying the area, you could see Mikasa and Armin tied to the same tree, a soldier stationed near them, Jean tied to a tree adjacent them, stationed by the same soldier, and Krista lying on the ground, bloody and unconscious, and being guarded by a rank-looking man who stroked her still-shining blonde hair with a sickening reverence. You tried to search for Eren, but you didn't have time: the guard near Mikasa, Armin, and Jean had spotted you and tried to advance on you. You brandished you're blade, catching him by surprise and getting a fast, effective lash at his stomach. As he squealed, you took the opportunity to launch your other blade into his throat. A he gurgled, you caught Mikasa's eye as she shouted, "Behind you!" You dropped to the forest floor just as a shotgun bullet pelted directly where your head had just been. As the man reloaded, you observed that he was the one who had been stroking Krista. You wasted no time in kicking him in the shins, knocking him to the floor, and striking him in the chest with your blade. You realized too late, however, that you should have went for the throat. As you tried to pull your blade from the man's chest, you pulled up merely a handle- the rest still within his body, leaving you with only one functional blade against an unknowable number of enemies.
    Thinking quickly, you dashed to the tree that contained Mikasa and Armin, slashing violently at the rope that en captured them. There was no time for words, however, because a piercing, blood-curdling scream rose some 400 meters away that made you run. You didn't have to know what was happening: you just knew. There was a man that you had missed, and he had taken an already injured Eren and bolted upon your entrance to the scene. As you ran, you felt the panic beginning to settle in. Eren could already have been badly hurt before I got there; what if it's too late to save him? Tears brimmed in your eyes, but you swallowed them as you approached where you had heard the scream coming from. Surely enough, you spotted a dark, lanky, outline dragging a body through a thicket of trees; the body was struggling, but it was still living. Not waiting to strategize, you made a mad dash, using the darkness as your advantage, flinging your small body into the man, surprising him, and causing him to crash to the ground. In your haste, you had lost your blade, but there was no time to fret, because the man was already in the position to tussle, and his smirk was present in the slowly steadying growth of light illuminating the dark of sunrise. "Really," he said, and you recognized him as the one who had spoken of you earlier, "what can you do to me?"
    He made the first move, trying to throw a punch downward, where your face would have been. You managed to roll to the side in the dark, scuffling along the brush as you made it behind him, where you launched a powerful kick into his ribs. He sputtered only momentarily before he regained his bearings and slapped out a hand towards you. He just barely caught your hair, which had long since come undone from its braid as you had been running, and jerked you downward. You aimed for his ankles and you violently flung your body towards him from the ground. He fell backwards and became slightly disoriented, which you used as a chance to leap. You jumped, gripped your quads around his neck, and tackled him to the ground. It was over now. You had the upper hand, or so you thought, as you squeezed his throat with your burning legs, but a  blast that knocked you backward and into the ground deterred your plans.
    You rummaged towards your left side, where felt a warming sensation of leaking blood meet your fingertips. You were losing consciousness, and the dark figure that had shot from an unknown location was getting closer. Eren was still lying in a heap on the ground, but he was no longer moving, and the man that you had previously attacked was still doubled over, trying to adjust his breathing. Seemingly pinned to the spot, you laid back, stationary, as the man approached you, pointing his pistol directly at your head. "Kenny says 'hi,'" the man's voice mercilessly spoke as he looked you in the eyes.
    It all seemed over, but then, just like that day with your father so many years ago, something deep within you managed to prod through. Hearing Eren stirring, you felt that sense of protectiveness. You lunges forward, grasping the head of the gun with your left hand, causing a searing pain in your left side, but knowing exactly what would happen. The shot blasted a hole right through your hand, but it was better than your dominant one, which you launched into the man's face as you sprang to your feet, Pershing him. You pried the gun from his fingers as you relentless punched him, and finally, gave the last shot.
    Breathing heavily, that sickening feeling in your chest of committing murder sinking further and further and your adrenaline waning, Eren mumbled, "(Y/N)?" You hurled yourself over to him and placed your remaining intact hand onto his face, stroking him as you assessed his state. His face was bloody and bruised, and his nose looked quite broken. Not mention that his chest was exposed, his shirt long peeled from his body, and his abdomen apparent with bleeding cuts from hasty knife work. "Hey," he said, in a faraway, dazed tone, "I'll be fine; stop crying." You hadn't realized the thick flow of hot, salty tears streaming from your eyes. "I'm sorry," you said, rubbing your eyes with the bloody sleeve of your left side, which was burning all the more as the adrenaline wore off. "Hey, it's okay to cry," Eren said dreamily, wiping some smeared blood off of your face in a seemingly fond expression. "It's not that," you sobbed, breaking down. He seemed confused and concerned, but he listened and sat up to hold your non-profusely bleeding hand as you broke down. "It's my fault that they got you, and-and it's my fault for whatever happened to the others, and-and whatever they did to Krista..." your voice trailed off as Eren cupped his large, warm hands over your cold, sopping face. "Shhh," he hushed you, rubbing your shoulders and pushing your head to rest on his chest. "It's not your fault," he soothed you, pulling you away to look him in the eyes. You would have lunged forward and kissed him, but the sun was quickly rising, and you could vaguely see figures approaching quickly from far away. The blonde hair was unmistakeable as Armin's, and a tall girl with black hair was rapidly approaching, supporting a girl with shining blonde hair as Jean lapped at her heels.
    "(Y/N)! Eren! Oi!" Jean yelled, approaching faster at the sight of your curled, bleeding bodies slumped against the tree.
    After what felt like a lifetime of explaining from yourself and everyone else, Krista had insisted on treating wounds, as she had become conscious once again. She bandaged up your hand and your left side, which still bled profusely, but she concluded that the bullet had passed through, and that it had just missed your lung, but one of your ribs was likely cracked. After she could finish with you, you begged her to work on Eren, to which she obliged. Before long, you were all as patched up as you could be for the time being, and the only thing left to do was find the way back to the training corps. camping grounds. As you trudged off, being supported by Mikasa, who had retained her faith that you would come back for them when they had been captured, and Eren being supported by Jean, you couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Uh- (Y/N)," Krista said, concernedly, "did you hit your head? Was I not thorough enough?" You stopped, allowing everyone to look at you in confusion. "No," you said, still smiling, "it's just- Armin's already went through two ink capsules in his report from just today." Armin laughed as well as everyone else. "Well, it'll be easier to explain to Shadis why we're late if we have the documents." Eren laughed now, and he sidled over, dragging Jean with him, closer to you, where he said, "Now, who said we're going to be late? Don't you guys remember how (Y/N) hauled out asses up here yesterday?" He smiled at you, and you felt your heart fluttering again. Despite it, however, the six of you trudged onward, slowly hit steadily, back to headquarters.