Chapter 6

(THIRD PERSON POV UNTIL ~*~)

   “Is that Ria?” Levi grunted while seeing a girl in the distance on the rooftop. He watched the whole scene unfold before him, with the titan attacking her and Ria doing nothing. “Damnit, is she that stupid?” He started to maneuver towards her but he was helpless. Levi was too far away to save her in time. By the time he was close enough to kill the titan, Ria was already gone into the titan’s mouth. “Ria!”

   Levi was going in for the kill but in his peripheral vision, he saw Lukas about to be grabbed by a titan from behind. No point in going after Ria when she’s already dead. Levi thought, hooking and grappling to save Lukas. He arrived in time, slashing the titan’s arm that wrapped around Lukas’s body.

   “H-heichou! Thank you, I owe you my life now,” Lukas declared with great reverence, gasping for breath. He put his hands in a salute while he bowed, a couple tears creeping out.

   “Tsk. There’s no need for that because I just saved it. Now get back to work,” Levi muttered, cursing while still thinking about Ria.

   “Do you know where Ria is? I can’t find her, but it is a big town,” Lukas asked, having no clue about what happened. He looked up uncertainly after Levi didn’t respond and started to start to scratch the back of his head while he joked, “Ria couldn’t be dead, right?”

   “Yeah, that f*cking girl got grabbed by a titan. I’m assuming she’s dead,” Levi sighed while looking elsewhere, gazing into the sky.

   “W-what? We have to save her! Maybe she’s not dead, maybe she’s still inside alive,” Lukas assured, changing his blades.

   “What are you talking about? Don’t get your personal feelings involved in this when you could be saving other people’s lives,” Levi considered with a stern face.

   “You don’t want her to die either, right heichou?” Lukas reminded with a sudden change of tone. His eyes were serious and blank while his voice was calm but concerned.

   It didn’t take long for Levi to agree silently by following Lukas. They dodged other titans and whipped around to avoid buildings. The wind was hissing at their faces but they endured it, flying with the wind. Even though they saw other people getting eaten, they had to resist the urge to save them because they only had one goal in mind: save Ria. Blood, fear, and agony chorused in town while Levi and Lukas swished through. Soon, the titan was right in front of them, casually walking with an empty mind. Stupid b*stard. Levi thought.

   “By saving Ria, do you mean you want to kill that titan?” Levi questioned with a fixed glare on the titan.

   “Yes, and then after it can’t regenerate, we can cut the body from the outside to see if Ria is alive in the titan’s stomach,” Lukas suggested.

   “Do you really think that’s going to work?” Levi whispered to himself.

   “All right, here goes!” Lukas hooked onto the titan’s neck and positioned himself to attack. He fell through and attempted to slice its neck, but it suddenly veered to the right. The motion was so quick that it flung Lukas into the shingles of the roof. It lazily turned around and stared at Lukas while it slowly reached its hand out. Levi reacted swiftly, spinning his blades around which accelerated his speed towards the titan. He was about to chop off the titan’s hand but it moved with such reflexes that it matched with Levi’s. However, Levi instinctively jumped off the hand and landed on the roof with Lukas.

   “Lukas!” Lukas started moving stiffly and jerked around. There was blood around his eyes and forehead but he started to stand, using one knee and then his hand. “Do you think that’s enough to kill me?” Lukas chuckled, gripping his shoulder that was maimed and bleeding. His legs or arms didn’t seem to be crippled and were bleeding a bit but nothing major. However, he seemed to have changed with a wild look in his eyes, with fury and anger towards the titan. It was almost as if there was a silent, invisible flame in his eyes, igniting his skills and rage. The flame sharpened his senses and burning passion to kill the titan. “You’re going to need more than that to kill me,” Lukas noted cockily, moving his head around, cracking his neck. A smirk made its way onto his face and he rushed into the air, the domain of Survey Corps members. He unleashed his sharpened blades, the ones located in the top right, the ones he believed were special. Those were to the ones he killed his first titan with, the ones that saved so many lives, and the ones that were going to finish off that titan.

   Lukas glided towards the titan’s face but before the titan could snatch him with its reflexes, he hooked onto its side. The titan charged its hand down to slap and crush Lukas but he escaped. Right now explained why Lukas became a squad leader. He would have amazing skills in an uptight situation with pressure while others would cower and give into the fear. His skills for the 3D Maneuver Gear and swiftness matched with Levi’s but his specialty was short, quick but efficient attacks in these situations. Little by little, Lukas would harm the titan until it fell and that was when the last attack occurs. But that was what Lukas thought.

   It was almost as if Lukas was toying with the titan, dodging its every move and leading to him slashing the titan. Sometimes he would shoot his hook randomly into the sky to distract the titan and then using the other hook to latch on and attack the titan. Lukas thought he was winning, but little did he know that every time he made a small scar on the titan, he was using his gas and his stamina was running out. To control 3D Maneuver Gear with maximum potential, it requires focus and all the muscles so it strains the person using it quickly. It’s usually fear that propels people to keep fighting but even the will to fight couldn’t always go against the limitations of someone.

   In reality, the titan was winning, losing less and healing all its previous injuries while Lukas was running out of energy. However, Lukas didn’t realize until it was too late. Lukas was standing on the titan’s arm, about to jump to go for the eyes but he felt a strain in his legs. It all came to him at once, the pain and stinging in his muscles, the clenching feeling he felt in his lungs and heart. He was heavily breathing with his breath almost catching in his throat, his heart beating furiously, and his hands hurt from gripping his blades too hard. Even if he took all the strength left, he could not jump. In fact, it took all his strength to stand, to keep fighting until this moment. He collapsed on the titan’s arm and could not do anything about his inevitable fate by himself. It felt like he couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t do anything to kill the titan. The balance of strength was certain now; the titan was far stronger than Lukas. The titan’s arm fell, causing Lukas to fall. He thought he would be able to see things in slow motion, see his life flash before his eyes but that was only in stories. There’s nothing I can do now… I can’t fight back. The blood started to drip down his face and out of his mouth. Its metallic taste filled in his mouth and was the only thing he could taste. Lukas started to close his eyes and let his muscles relax. He heard the slight but audible sound of the wind whistling to him, soothing him with its music. The music was calming him and preparing him for his death; it was trying to make his death not painful and not full of regrets but as an event where he lets everything go.

   “LUKAS!”

   Levi’s voice snapped Lukas out of his day dreaming and made him open his eyes. He saw the sky, the wispy clouds, but felt the air pushing him. Am I… falling? Lukas used up all his gas to boost him up a little and stabbed his blades into the titan’s arm. He secured himself and was now hanging off its arm, dangling from his certain death. I can’t fight back… but I can survive.

   Levi saved Lukas and maneuvered away with Lukas wrangling and struggling. “Let me go! We have to save Ria!” Lukas coughed blood and after trying to fight back against Levi, he settled down.

   “I think the other soldiers are evacuating now. That titan is intelligent and it’s dangerous. We’ll save her later because she still might be alive when it’s intelligent,” Levi uttered.

   Afterwards, Levi and Lukas evacuated and met with Commander Erwin Smith about Ria.

~*~ (BACK TO FIRST PERSON POV)

   Where am I? I awoke with my vision a little dark and blurry but went back to normal after a couple of blinks. According to what I was seeing, I was in a forest with giant trees. Giant trees… Am I back at home? Was it all a dream?

   “Erik!” I yelled gleefully, only to be greeted by a different titan.

   “You’re that titan from before! You brought me here?” The titan didn’t respond so I assumed it said yes.

   The earthy fragrance of the forest with pines, luscious grass, and flowers almost lulled me to sleep. It was good to be back home. The air was crisp and fresh with the insects buzzing about. My toes were dirty from the soil but it had a soothing feeling to it. The soil was packed down as I kicked around and jumped up and down, feeling the dirt. I ran to the trees and felt its bark with ridges and wrinkles, careful not to get splinters. Sniffing the forest scent again, I lied down on my back and felt grass tickling my feet. The wind fanned my face and the sunlight kissed my skin. There’s nothing to be bothered with. Wait, what about Levi and Lukas? What about Clara? I killed Elizabeth and some other soldiers. Erik was killed, I was brought inside the walls, Levi trained me, I was confronted by a scary bald dude, Clara and I talked, the walls were broken, titans got inside, and I… After gulping and sweating a little, all the recent memories rushed back to me, giving me a headache. That’s right, I was lifted and put into a titan’s mouth. And then… what happened?

   How did I get here? How-

   “ATTACK!” All of a sudden, soldiers surrounded me. I braced myself for the attack, but then I realized they were attacking the titans. Looking around, I saw that all around me were titans… for the whole time. One by one, the titans started to fall and the grip on my heart tightened inside again. No, no, stop killing them… Stop killing them or I’ll have to kill you guys again… The titans are my family but I have to protect them. This time I’m not useless. This time I can protect my family. This time they all won’t die like Erik. A couple of salty tears dripped down as I screamed and hooked onto a tree. Slashing through a soldier, I whispered, “Sorry…”

   More and more blood splattered because of me. Because I don’t know myself.

   I mindlessly killed more people but stopped rampaging after a familiar voice called my name.

   “C-clara, back off or I’ll have to kill you. I’ve already killed your friends so I can kill you too,” I threatened, my voice shaky and staring up at her with a forced smile and welled up eyes.

   “Ria, what are you doing? Do you think these titans are your family, your friends?” she took a step towards me, “I don’t think so. Are you sure titans are more important than us, humans? Would you really kill me? Would you really kill Levi… or Lukas?” her voice grew more vicious but calm as she stared me down with her blank eyes on mine, “Do you really believe in yourself? Do you really think titans will live with you, make you feel loved, and make you feel like you have a family? They aren’t your family. Actually your family isn’t here right now, so why are you killing everyone? Why are you killing everyone for these mindless giants? These giants don’t care about you at all. Don’t you feel the guilt when you kill someone? When you kill someone, you are devastating a family and all of those person’s thoughts, dreams, and stories vanish after you kill him or her. You’re killing families of other people right now so it’s okay for me to kill your ‘titan family’, right? There’s nothing wrong in killing a family for another family so I’ll just kill yours. Are you fine with that? I’ll kill every single one of them until you can’t do anything about it. You’ll just watch as you see your family die painfully in front of you. And you know what? The worst part is that you’re killing other people for nothing. These titans don’t even care about you at all. They won’t even think about you when they are being killed and after you save them, they still don’t think of you. You’re nothing to them. Nothing,” Clara reminded, holding up her blades so the sunlight reflected off of them. It showed a titan behind me.

   “They care about me and they’re my family!” I protested.

   Clara laughed and scoffed, “Oh, really? Then, why are they coming after you? They’re coming after you to eat you. You’re just like every one of us, just food to titans. What makes you think you’re so special?”

   I couldn’t say anything because my feet left the ground. Looking up, I saw the titan that almost ate me last time. This time, though, it was going to eat me. My feet were positioned on its lower teeth as it closed its mouth. However, the titan’s hand was slashed off.

   “Levi!” I gasped in shock of what just happened. I was falling but Levi caught me and looked at me with disgust.

   “Thank you, but-” I started but he left me on a branch and all the soldiers evacuated. Where are they going?

   I opened up my hands like I was going to hug someone to greet the titans but all of them came clawing on the tree. They were chomping their teeth while they peered up on me with hungry faces.

   At that moment, I felt something. I felt fear. I was afraid of the titans because their nature suddenly changed. They weren’t the family I knew.

   Swishing down, I landed softly on the ground and said, “Hi guys, I’m home!”

   However, the titans just frantically ran or crawled towards me with saliva all over their mouths. The bloodied hands were suddenly coming towards me, reaching for me. Some tried to bite me while some tried to grab me. It even came to the moment when I had to kill a titan. But this time when I killed it, I felt no connection, nothing lost. This was what Clara meant. These titans are not my family.

   After that, I had no hesitation to kill the titans and when I started slaying them, the soldiers came back helping me. I guess they backed off so I could figure it out myself. So I could realize that titans were not my family.

~*~ (BACK IN THE WALLS AT RIA’S ROOM)

   A knock was heard on the door of my room.

   “Coming!”

   I opened the door and saw Clara smiling at me. “Hi! I’m sorry I said those things to you because I was just trying to get you back to your senses. I needed you to realize that you can kill titans since they’re not family,” Clara apologized with a slightly embarrassed face on.

   “It’s okay because now I know that clearer than ever before. It’s because of you, you know. Do you want to drink something?” I asked with courtesy.

   Her eyes lightened up as she said, “Sure! I would like some tea.”

   “Okay, I’ll be back soon.” I left and returned with a tray of two cups with freshly brewed tea.

   “Here you go-” I dropped the tray and the cups shattered, with the tea spilling over. My blood from my pierced skin soon mixed in with the tea but Clara was wearing shoes so she wasn’t hurt. Clara continued advancing towards me with a … needle? I had sudden hallucinations with previous encounters with the needle but only vaguely remembered them.

   “Clara, what are you doing?” my voice trembled.

   “Don’t worry, it’s only going to take a little bit,” Clara reassured while she stabbed the needle into my neck, blood starting to drip off the… shot. However, Clara wasn’t done because she whipped out a butcher knife closing in on me.

   “It’s time for you to die, Ria,” Clara giggled swinging her knife. She was going to hit but she stopped right before it hit and instead started to slowly puncture my skin.

   “I change my mind. You’ll die slowly,” Clara said in a sing-song voice. She continued to venture deeper with her knife and I screamed. She covered my mouth saying, “Shut the f*ck up.”

   Now she started to viciously move her knife and lifted it back up. Then, she stabbed me in my shoulder, getting a whimper from me.

   “S-stop it,” I pleaded. The pain increased, calmed down when she stopped her knife, but just as quickly as the pain stopped, it came back. It was burning, it was carving my skin, it was unbelievably painful.

   “Should I carve out your face too or slash your body with my blades like you did to my friends? I’ll carve your face first,” Clara decided, placing the cold knife on my forehead. That caused me to panic and scream but when I moved, I was just digging the knife into myself. She traced my face with her knife as if playing with the blood coming out. My face was turning into a picture for her; a bloody picture with blood as paint and her knife as the brush.

   “Ria!” Lukas charged in and tackled Clara, fighting her with his fists while Clara had her knife.

  “Clara, I don’t want to do this but I will kill you. Let go of the knife before I kill you,” Lukas demanded, “We can’t have any traitors in this building.”

   “Will a good squad leader do that? Will you kill your squad?” Clara asked, moving instantaneously so that her knife was against his throat.

   “I will,” Lukas gritted his teeth and punched Clara. She dropped her knife and was knocked back into the wall. He took the knife and quickly finished her off by slicing her throat. But before she died, she looked at me with warm, hurtful eyes while saying, “Don’t you remember?”

   Lukas then proceeded to come to me and looked at me. “I got so worried when I heard the glass shattering after seeing you in the kitchen. Then I heard your screams. Don’t get in a situation like this again, and right after I thought you died,” he wrapped his arms around me while he sobbed.

   “I guess Lukas has a heart too,” I joked softly, trying to recover from what happened.

   “What do you mean? Of course I have a heart, I’m not cold like heichou,” Lukas denied, his voice muffled.

   “Levi has a little bit of a heart too but you have a bigger heart. How can I look at you like this, with me so hopeless and bloody?”

   “Don’t worry, Ria, I’ll always be there for you no matter if you think you’re hopeless and bloody,” Lukas thought about what happened the other day, “unlike last time…”

   Unexpectedly, I felt a sudden change in heart beat and my head was dizzy. The effects of the shot were kicking in, I guess. Was I going to die?

   “I’m sorry, Lukas…” my voice trailed off as I went unconscious.

   “Ria? Ria! Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me again…”

   … Don’t you remember? Clara’s voice echoed in my mind one last time before I was pulled in by the darkness.

~*~

LALALA CLIFFHANGERS ARE MY BEST FRIEND. ATTENTION THE PICTURE ON THE SIDE WITHOUT THE EDITED QUOTE IS DRAWN BY FansyL ON DEVIANTART. I ASKED FOR PERMISSION TO USE IT AND BY ALL MEANS CHECK OUT THE BEAUTIFUL ARTWORK THAT IS MADE BY FansyL AND LOOK AT THE ORIGINAL ARTWORK. THE LINK TO THE ORIGINAL ARTWORK IS ON EXTERNAL LINKS. I DID NOT DRAW IT. CREDIT GOES TO FansyL. I USED THE PICTURE BECAUSE I THOUGHT HE KINDA LOOKED LIKE LUKAS EVEN THOUGH IT'S EREN. Anyway extra long chapter for you guys, do you feel the love? Do you feel special? I apologize for any grammatical or spelling mistakes since I was writing this pretty quickly. Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYONE READING MY STORY! I’m really happy to think people like my first fanfiction. Thank you all for 400 reads and the votes and comments! I appreciate everyone who is reading and every single read counts. It just makes my day, you know? Oh and if you’re confused, those two chapters covered the “incident” that caused Ria to realize something which was that titans were not her family. Hehe this chapter may be a little violent but… it’s a violent story, kind of. I’ll update no later than next Sunday so don’t worry! I would really appreciate it if you could vote or comment what you think! THANKS AGAIN! Thank you for reading this chapter and bye~ ^.^