IN WHICH ARAMINTA GETS WHACKED!
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ARMS TONITE ∕ CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ARAMINTA HATED JEAN KIRSTEIN. Levi, Armin and Mikasa were supposed to head out, with the latter two disguised as Military Police using uniforms they'd just stolen from two soldiers wandering through the woods, and while they were doing that, Araminta figured it would be a good time for her to at least try and get some sleep, even if it was a lost cause.

        For the last few nights, she hadn't been able to catch even a wink of sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, the images of either Eren getting eaten by some ugly Titan or the image of the person she had shot falling out of the sky appeared, and that made her way too stressed to sleep. The stress also meant she hadn't eaten anything, since her stomach was tied into a mess of knots and she hadn't been able to keep anything down.

So, her plan at the time had been to find a nice spot to lay down and try to sleep until Levi and the others got back, and if that didn't work, she'd try to eat food. And if that didn't work, then she'd probably work out or stare at the trees and do nothing. Now, it definitely wasn't the world's most exciting plan, but it was a plan nonetheless. But, Jean Kirstein just had to ruin it all, just like he always ruins everything!

"Sasha, go tie these guys up." Levi had instructed, and the brunette nodded obediently in return. The "these guys" he was referring to were the two Military Police officers they had kidnapped earlier, who were kneeling down by the riverbank and looking very sad. Honestly, Araminta felt a bit of pity for them. Especially for the look on their faces when they found out their poor colleague Annie, who they'd thought had been killed by the Female Titan, actually was the Female Titan.

Then Levi had began to walk away, leaving Araminta, Sasha, Jean and Connie (and their prisoners) all alone, but Jean stopped him with a quick "Captain". He paused, and turned to look at Jean, who said, "Please let me do it." Now, Araminta couldn't figure out why the hell Jean would want to volunteer to tie up their prisoners, but what Jean did was Jean's business so she didn't really care all that much.

"Knock yourself out." Levi shrugged, then continued to hike up the hill after Armin and Mikasa.

"Hey, what's the big idea? You think I can't tie them up on my own or something?" Sasha asked Jean defensively one Levi was out of earshot, reaching out to swat at his arm as he passed by. He ignored her, though, yanking the two captors by their restraints up to their feet.

Instead of responding to Sasha, he turned to Araminta. "Hey, come help me." He told her, and Araminta scrunched her nose up at the invitation.

"What? You can't handle two people on your own? No thanks, I think I'll stay here." She flashed a bitter smile at him, and tried to turn away from him.

"Ew, why do you want her to go with you? So you can go make out in secret again?" Connie faked a gag, and Sasha began to do the same. Ever since she'd accidentally fallen asleep on his shoulder, the two would not let up on the two of them. Araminta threw a middle finger at them, and Jean shot them a glare, but his attention remained on her.

"Just come with me. Please." And Araminta wanted so badly to say no, but he seemed to genuinely need her to accompany him, so she let out a defeated groan and headed over to him.

        Ignoring the sounds of Connie and Sasha making annoying kissy noises at them, they began to lead the two young Military Police officers into the woods to find a good spot to tie them up. Araminta was still very confused. She couldn't figure out why Jean had not only volunteered for the job, but then basically begged her to go along with him. He obviously had some kind of plan--a much more interesting plan than her own--but she wished he had let her in on it before dragging her into this mess.

As they walked, she glanced over at him and tilted her head in hopes of getting some kind of non-verbal explanation from him, but he just quirked his eyebrows at her as if that was supposed to answer her question. It looked like her efforts were futile, so she let out a small huff and focused on walking the girl. Hitch, she think they said her name was? It didn't really matter, since Araminta would probably never see her again after this.

         Finally, they reached a cliff side, and came to a stop. The two captors turned around to face the two of them, their head bowed low in shame. "We'll forget everything we saw here today, okay?" The boy tried to reason with them, as if that would be enough for them to let them off the hook and run away.

         "Yeah, you will. Because you will die here!" Jean exclaimed, whipping a knife out of his pockets and flinging it around in the air. Araminta leapt back in surprise, as did the two soldiers. Hitch clung onto her partner, who was holding his hands up in some form of surrender.

        "What?! That's not what he said!" He shouted, his voice wavering out of desperation. "Please, talk some sense into him!" He looked over at Araminta, who was still a bit stunned by Jean's sudden outburst. But, she knew Jean too well. She knew this wasn't something he would do under normal circumstances--threatening the lives of soldiers who were probably just as young as they were. No, this must have something to do with his plan.

         So, Araminta went along with it. "You heard him!" She hissed, digging into her own pockets to find some kind of weapon to intimidate them with. "It's-Its too dangerous, letting you two run free!" Luckily, she still had her own knife tucked into her belt, which she pulled out and pointed at the two.

        "We'll just have to take it upon ourselves to kill you!" Jean grinned maniacally, waving the knife around in their faces. Araminta couldn't believe how well he was playing the role of some kind of psychopath--actually, no, she kind of could believe it.

        "Please, believe us!" The boy begged. "We know you guys are fighting to try and save humanity! Right, Hitch?" He asked the girl, who began to frantically nod, squinting her eyes shut as if it would make the problem go away.

         "As if we could trust you two. Especially you, Mr. Bowl Cut. How can we believe you're in your right mind when you've got a haircut like that?" He demanded, an insult which Araminta didn't find totally necessary, but enjoyed nonetheless. "You'll get absolutely no sympathy from me!" He declared, then launched himself forward to attack.

        Conveniently enough, though, just before he reached the two, his toes got caught on something and he fell forward in a face plant.

        Oh, Araminta was so glad she had gone with him now. This was much better than the plan she had put together.

        The knife flew out of his hands, bouncing off the wall of stone and landing in the grass in front of Mr. Bowl Cut. To Araminta, it looked like he was getting ready to charge Jean, which she couldn't have. Instead, she decided she would attack him before he was able to get the chance.

          She grabbed ahold of his still restrained hands and lifted them above his head, smacking his back against the wall. The knife she was holding found its home pressed to his neck, and she let out a low laugh.

        "I'm pretty sure I'm faster than you, Mr. MP. Should we test that theory? A little race? My knife versus your knife?" She whispered, tightening her grip on his wrists. No, she didn't have any plans on killing him, not unless he tried to jump them first. She was just hoping her little intimidation would be enough to get him to back down.

         "No, please believe me, I'm on your side!" He choked out, stretching his neck as long as he could.

         "Why should we believe you, huh?" Jean was quick to recover from his fall, standing up beside the taller boy and hissing in his ear. "We're so incredibly outmatched, you really think we can save humanity?" His eyes flickered over to Araminta, who frowned at his question.

        "What...?" Mr. Bowl Cut seemed confused by his question, his worried expression softening. "But... Then... Why are you still with the Scouts?" He asked, his voice still strained by the arch in his neck.

         We're so incredibly outmatched... You really think we can save humanity?

         Araminta knew he was acting. By then, she had figured out this was all some kind of act in order for Mr. Bowl Cut to prove himself to them. Still, Araminta couldn't help but wonder if a small part of him did mean it. How many of her comrades had adopted the same mindset over the last few days? Most of them, probably, and she really couldn't blame any of them. It really had been a bleak couple of weeks, at some point she had nearly let herself grow doubtful of the cause.

However, ever since the day she had watched Eren turn into a Titan and seal up the breach in Wall Rose, there had never been a doubt in her mind that the tides where changing--at least not one that had lingered around for very long.

"I joined the wrong regiment." Mr. Bowl Cut said with a sigh, looking up to avoid their incriminating gazes. "As long as you guys have it in you to keep risking your lives and to keep fighting... I will trust you." He told them, then tossed the knife away from them.

Well, Araminta felt pretty satisfied by that. She pulled the knife away from his neck, and he let all of the air he had been holding in his lungs.

        Right as she pulled away from him, though, she felt a blunt object collide with the side of her head, knocking her down onto her back. Her ears began to ring, and her vision became blurry. She barely managed to make out the outline of Hitch, though, holding a great big stick between her hands and preparing to swing it at Jean, who did not look very happy.

Damn it, Jean! This was all his fault! If he'd never dragged her out there to help him with his stupid plan, Araminta wouldn't be laying on the ground, with her eyes squeezed shut and jaw clenched tightly to help with the intense throbbing in her skull. She could hear shouting, but she couldn't really make out what any of the words were supposed to be. Slowly, she propped herself up, beginning to rub the side of her head where Hitch had smacked her.

"I'm gonna kill you, Kirstein." She grumbled, finally peeling her eyes open to see the three standing above her. Well, Hitch had dropped her stick, which at least meant she didn't have to worry about getting whacked again. Jean rolled his eyes at her comment, bending down to help her stand up.

"Sorry. I didn't see that you'd already dropped your knife." Hitch apologized, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. Araminta had half a mind to smack her with a big stick, but honestly, if it was one of her comrades being threatened with a knife, she would have done the same thing. Except for Jean.

She was most angry at Jean, whose arm she began to smack repeatedly. "You should have told me you were planning to test them! I don't get why you dragged me out here!" She yelled at him, ignoring the way her own shouts made the side of her head pound even more.

"You're being dramatic! You're fine!" Jean shouted back at her, raising his hand to block her smacks.

        "You're lucky we're low on numbers, otherwise I'd kill you right here and now!" Araminta told him, jabbing her finger in his face which he quickly swatted away.

      "Yeah, yeah, I don't doubt it." Jean couldn't hide his own amusement, the corners of his lips quirking up into a smile. At that point, Araminta couldn't deny that she found it all a little bit funny, too. She let her own grin spread across her face, then turned to look at the man of the hour; Mr. Bowl Cut.

        "So, you're going to help us, right?" She asked, even though she already knew the answer. After listening to his words, earlier, she discovered a familiarity in them. Something about his entire attitude was very reminiscent of someone she cared about very much, someone she also missed like crazy. For now, she wanted to keep him around as long as possible.

         He nodded back at her. "Good." Araminta put a comforting hand on his shoulder, giving it a good shake. "Because we're counting on you."

ARAMINTA DIDN'T KNOW HOW MUCH MORE TIME SPENT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE SHE COULD HANDLE. Every night she spent out there, the more she began to grow incredibly restless. She was also starting to feel extremely useless. She wasn't being any help to Eren by kidnapping Military Police officers and threatening them with knives in the woods. She wasn't being any help to Hange when she was getting her head whacked with a branch. She wasn't being any help to anyone, except maybe Captain Levi.

For the second night, she had listened to him torture an Interior Police officer. Luckily, she had become slightly adjusted to the whimpers of the man, and the sound of breaking flesh, but the churning in her stomach still remained the entire time. At least it wasn't enough to make her throw up this time, though. Instead, she had distracted herself by counting the stars in the sky one by one, to the best of her ability. She gave up around 368, though. By that point, she was pretty sure why was counting doubles.

         Right when she was considering using the gun she was holding to shoot herself and put her out of her own misery, the stars she was counting must have aligned because she was saved. There was a rustling noise coming from the tall grass, and they could make out two hooded figures approaching them. Her grip on the gun tightened, prepared for Levi to give the signal for them to shoot, but it never came.

         Instead, the two figures pulled their hoods down, revealing themselves to be Hange and Moblit. Araminta let out a sigh of relief, releasing her grip on the rifle so it fell down to her side. It had been days since she'd last seen Hange, and days since she'd last gotten any updates besides what the Military Police officers had told them on what was going on.

        When Hange had initially left to go handle things in the interior, Araminta had wanted to go with them. That way, she could not only spend time with the person she considered to be her mentor, but it felt much closer to the action. Out there, in the middle of nowhere, Araminta felt so useless and out of the loop. But, Levi was her captain, and he had insisted she stay with him. At first, she had considered running away, but considering she didn't even know how to get to the interior from where they were, she figured that wouldn't have done any good.

        "Hange." Levi greeted them in a low voice, stepping away from the Interior Police officer to approach his comrade. "You're back, I'm assuming with news?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

        "Yes." Hange nodded, pulling a rolled up piece of paper from their cloak. "But let's go sit down and eat first. Moblit and I are starving, right, Moblit?" They asked their assistant with a nudge, who gave a quick nod in response.

        As they trudged back to the camp they'd set up, Araminta's nerves were eating her alive. She walked close to Hange, her eyes glued to the paper as she tried to imagine what it said. Maybe it was news of Eren's death--no, that was unlikely, Hange would look much more solemn than they did. It was most likely some kind of good news, but Araminta wasn't quite ready to get her hopes up. Every time she did that, it was thrown in her face.

        After a very antagonizing five minutes, Hange and Moblit got their food, and passed the paper over to Levi. Araminta and the rest of her peers gathered behind their captain, squeezing together to try and catch a glance of the paper. Araminta pressed her chin against his shoulder, furrowing her eyes as she tried to read it.

        "And there you have it, the coup d'état was successful. Premier Zachary has control of the capital and administrative district. For the time being, the nobility hasn't rebelled." Hange informed them, then spooned a bit of beans into their mouth.

        "But, what about the Boss Reeves incident?" Armin queried, and Araminta glanced up at Hange to hear their response.

        "We got a confession that proved the charges unfounded." Hange said proudly, a small smirk creeping onto their lips. "His son, Flegel, really pulled through big time. Just like how it's written there, the charges were complete bogus, they were an abuse of power, and King Fritz was a total fraud. So, all of our actions were justified as self defense. In other words..." They paused, and smiled widely at the group.

       "We're all free people now."

        Araminta sucked in a breath, glancing over at Sasha who was also gasping. She couldn't help the cheering that escaped her lips, pulling Sasha into a big hug and jumping up into the air. Finally, they wouldn't have to camp out in the middle of nowhere much longer. Instead, they could continue their investigation of Eren and Historia's whereabouts, and not have to worry about being outlaws. To say she was relieved was an understatement.

        "Looks like the gamble paid off, then." She heard Levi say to Hange, and when she glanced over at him, she swore she saw the ghost of a smile resting against his sharp features.

Hange nodded. "Yes, it did. It wasn't just Erwin, though. Many individual's choices helped to change the world." They looked over at Araminta and her comrades, and she felt her chest swell with pride.

"The problem, though, is that part of the Interior Police, their leader, Eren and Historia are somewhere else. If we don't find them soon..."

"Actually..." Hange reached into their cloak, pulling out a black, bound book. "I think I might have a clue that can help us. Let's get there and finally put an end to this battle!" They announced, and that was more than enough convincing for the squad. Hange didn't need to tell them where the clue came from, or where they were going, they just needed to tell everyone they found a lead, and that was enough to get them packing.

In the blink of an eye, they had their camp completely deconstructed, and were ready to venture off to where Eren was being held. Apparently, they had very strong reason to believe Eren and Historia were being held beneath some chapel on Rod Reiss' land, so that was exactly where they were going. It all happened so fast, Araminta didn't really have a chance to stop and catch her breath. After days of stressing about finding Eren, they were finally going to try and rescue him.

All there was left to do now was hope he was still alive. If he wasn't, there was no way of telling what she would do. She still had so much to tell him, so much she wanted to do with him.

         She wanted to go to his father's basement with him, and learn the secrets of the Titans with him. She wanted to tell him she reciprocated his feelings, and then she wanted to kiss him all over his face. She wanted to find constellations in the stars with him, and be able to stare at his face glowing underneath the moonlight. She was absolutely not ready for him to be dead.

"He's Kenny the Ripper." After spending what felt like forever zoned out and barely paying attention to what was going on around her, Araminta was finally grounded back to reality by Levi's voice.

        Kenny the Ripper. Kenny Ackerman.

        He was the one she had heard Levi interrogating the Interior Police officer about, the one that was working with the Interior Police and had attacked on the day Eren was kidnapped. "He's going to be our biggest obstacle. In terms of how much of a threat he is, equate him to me as an enemy. No... With those weapons of his, he's deadlier than me."

"Deadlier than... you?" Araminta repeated quietly, her eyes widening. He nodded, and she felt her heart sink. How in the world was she, a fifteen year old girl who'd just barely graduated into the military, supposed to take on someone worse than Levi?! Maybe if they had more manpower, she'd feel more confident about what they were getting themselves into, but for now, it was just the nine of them, which wasn't much of an army.

"What if we waited and met up with the troops--" Connie began, but he was swiftly cut off.

"Absolutely not." Araminta and Mikasa said in unison, narrowing their eyes at their friend.

"Yeah, I know, absolutely not! If we wait until morning, Eren will probably get eaten!" Connie was quick to backtrack, scoffing at his own suggestion.

"But, if what the captain said is true, it's not like he has no weak points." Armin glanced back into the cart, referring to Kenny the Ripper. Jeez, just the name was enough for Araminta to feel sick.

"What do you mean?" Jean called back from his horse, glancing over his shoulder at the blond.

"I mean, I'm sure he's trained plenty, but having combat experience is something else."

"I wonder, how is it that you lived with Kenny the Ripper, but know almost nothing about him?" Hange queried, turning Araminta's attention back to her captain.

He frowned. "Sorry, but I only found out his full name a few hours ago. Apparently it's Kenny Ackerman. Is he some kind of relative of yours?" He looked over at Mikasa, who was shocked by his question. She looked hesitant to answer him, but began to speak nonetheless.

"I... I heard from my parents, when they were alive, that my dad's side--the Ackermans--were persecuted in the cities. My mom's family was Oriental, so being a different race meant that they didn't fit in anywhere. Both were pushed deep in the mountains near the edge of the walls. So that's how they met and got married. But I never found out why the Ackermans were persecuted. My dad didn't seem like a different race like my mom was."

Araminta watched Mikasa's features drop as she told her story, and felt her heart sink. In an attempt to comfort her friend, she reached out and rested her hand on top of Mikasa's, and though she looked a bit surprised by the sudden contact, she didn't push her away. Instead, Araminta felt her relax under the touch, a soft exhale escaping her nose.

         "Has there ever been a moment where it's felt like a power suddenly awakened inside you?" Levi asked her, and that question made her tense up once again, like something else awakened inside her.

        "There has." She answered, her eyes growing wide.

         Levi nodded, leaning back in the cart and folding his arms. "Kenny Ackerman had a moment like that, too. One day, out of nowhere, he felt an absurd amount of strength surging within him, and he knew exactly what to do. I've felt moments like that, too."

         Araminta glanced down at the floor of the cart, trying to make some sense of what he was saying. Mikasa had a moment of absurd strength. So did Kenny Ackerman, and so did Levi. Levi had grown up with Kenny Ackerman, a man with incredible strength that rivaled even Levi. Even Mikasa was one of the strongest people Araminta had ever seen, probably the only other soldier she'd seen come close to Levi's strength. Kenny Ackerman. Mikasa Ackerman. Levi...

         A lightbulb switched on in her head, and her eyes flickered up to Levi's. "Captain... You don't think... Maybe you're a--"

         Before she got a chance to say it, she was cut off by Jean's voice, loudly announcing that they had made it. She snapped her head to the side, to see they had indeed made it. Out in the distance, under the glow of the moonlight, she was above to make out the silhouette of a chapel. Her stomach lurched at the sight, and she subconsciously tightened her grip on Mikasa's hand.

         Beneath that chapel, Eren and Historia were waiting for them. But also waiting for them was a squad of Interior Police officers, Kenny the Ripper, and a whole lot of death.

WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!!!
I UPDATED!!!' WOOO!!! sorry i hit
a horrendous writing block but i am
slowly but surely making my way
through it 😍😍 i missed araminta so
much i cannot wait for her and eren to
be reunited next chapter hee hee hoo
hoo!

ALSO this banner was made by the
very talented mellichors <3