--- back when they plugged the hole in Trost District ---

"They're going to plug the hole with that? They're insane" Bertolt says as he and Reiner watch Eren walk with the boulder above his head, "Eren might end up getting eaten. And if that happens, we still won't know a thing".

"Yeah. If it comes to it, I'll have to do something with my titan somehow" Reiner says as he watches Evelyn sweep in, "but at least Evelyn's alive. I wonder if she has her memories still. She hurt me badly when she carved herself out of me. At least he wasn't lying when he said Evelyn was strong. But he failed to mention that she could copy titan powers".

"But, if their plan works, it'll plug the hole we finally opened" Bertolt says worriedly.

"It doesn't matter" Reiner says confidently, "we've been searching for a clue these past five years and we've finally found it".

"Hey, you guys?" Marco asks from behind them, "what were you just talking about? What did you mean by 'my titan', Reiner? What's this about 'the hole we opened', Bertolt?".

"Marco" Reiner says as he and Bertolt turn around, "that conversation just now was a joke".

"Have you lost it? This isn't like you!" Marco says worriedly, "focus on the mission! Look, the titans are coming! Let's go!".

Marco flies off as he looks back at Reiner and Bertolt who just watch him.

Eren transformed into a titan. Humans can become titans. So if the Colossal titan appeared and disappeared out of nowhere, it's probably a human, too. In other words, the enemy titans are hiding as humans somewhere. That means...

Marco says as Reiner catches up with him and tackles him onto a rooftop out of the way.

"Reiner!" Bertolt yells as he lands on the roof.

"Reiner, what are you doing?" Marco asks as he struggles from underneath Reiner, "Reiner. This is a joke, right?".

"No, Marco. The problem is you're too damn sharp" Reiner says as he looks down at Marco.

"Someone help-!" Marco yells as Reiner covers his mouth.

Annie flies over as she lands in front of the three of them, looking at the scene in front of her.

"Annie. Help me!" Marco begs as he manages to get Reiner's hand off her face.

"What's this all about?" Annie asks as she looks at them all.

"Reiner's acting crazy. Help me!" Marco begs as he looks at Annie.

"He heard our conversation" Reiner says as he looks at Annie, "we can't let him live".

"You're shitting me. You asshole" Annie says annoyed.

"A titan is coming this way!" Bertolt announces as the three of them look at the titan.

"Annie. Take off Marco's ODM gear!" Reiner says as Annie looks at him, "do it fast!".

"Why do I have to?" Annie asks, not wanting to hurt Marco.

"Back there, you risked your life for Conny, didn't you?" Reiner says angrily, "why did you put yourself in danger? Have you become attached to this evil race or something? If I'm wrong, prove it to me now! If you, and your Father waiting for you to come home, are any different from this filthy race, prove it to me now!".

"Reiner, it's almost on top of us!" Bertolt says as the titan comes closer.

"Annie!" Reiner yells as Annie grist her teeth and she takes Marco's gear from him.

"Stop it, Annie. Don't do this!" Marco begs as he watches her, "why? Why? Why? Why do this? Annie!".

"This is what makes us warriors" Reiner says from behind him, "Annie, you did well".

I see. They were waiting for all of the titans to gather.

Marco says as he watches the three of them fly off.

"Wait. Why? What are you in such a hurry for?" Marco asks as tears stream down his face, "we haven't even had a chance to talk this through!".

The three of them land on a house nearby as they watch the titan grab Marco and eat him.

"Why is a titan eating Marco?" Reiner asks in horror as Bertolt and Annie look at him worriedly.

--- the morning the troops reached Shiganshina ---

"I told you. Annie is going to be fine" the man says as he looks at the two boys who worry for their comrade, "there's no way she's getting tortured. For starters, don't you think that's unlikely? With powers like ours, one scratch and we can pretty much handle anything. And remember it's Annie we're talking about here. I bet she's in hiding somewhere practicing her kicks and whatnot".

"Still, there's no mistake her identity was revealed" Reiner says as he looks at the man.

"Even if it's Annie..." Bertolt says as he looks down.

"Oh? Does this mean you're not fully committed yet?" the man asks as he cocks a brow, "is that right? And what about the agreement we came to? Was that all for nothing? We can go at it again if you want, Reiner. But the next time you lose, you give up your armour to another warrior".

"No. That's not what I meant" Reiner says as he looks down.

"Then pull yourself together" the man says sternly, "we only have one goal. To recover the Coordinate, recover Evelyn and put an end to this cursed history. Let's end this. I want this to end with us".

"Understood. I'll try to keep Annie out of my head for now" Bertolt says with a nod.

"But Zeke, you had told us Evelyn was a traitor just like Grisha and Dina were. You told us she was punished. She's as evil as the people within the walls" Reiner says as he looks at Zeke.

"I made a mistake those years ago. I am bringing Evelyn back home" Zeke says confidently.

"War Chief Zeke!" a mechanical voice says from out of nowhere.

The three men stand up as they run to the edge of the wall and look down at their four legged titan comrade.

"Enemy troops are approaching" the titan announces. They've reached the foot, and Evelyn is with them".

--- present time ---

The troops cheer as Reiner disconnects from his titan, the entire top half of his face blown off.

"We did it" Jean says with a smile, "you were such a pain in the ass for us. Serves you right, scumbag!".

Jean looks to his left and sees Conny and Sasha, both crying.

"What the hell are you crying for?" Jean asks as he grabs the two of them, "come on, get up. This isn't over yet! Don't cry! We're the ones who killed him!".

"It's not over! Ready your equipment for the next round!" Hange says as they throw their arm out.

"Armin" Mikasa says softly as she goes to Armin and puts her hand on his shoulder.

"It's not like we have any chance to negotiate" Armin says as he looks at Reiner, "it's our side dealing with the overwhelming lack of information. We don't have the power to capture someone who can turn into a titan. There was nothing we could do".

Just then, Reiner starts to scream as everyone gasps, Eren standing up. All of the Scouts on the other side of the wall look in the direction of the scream. The Beast titan grabs one of the barrels from the back of the quadruped titan and throws it over the inner wall.

"Nail him with the Thunder Spears!" Hange orders, "we'll just have to blow his body to bits!".

That scream just now... was it for Bertolt?

Armin asks as he looks down.

"Wait! We need to get away from Reiner!" Armin says as he looks at Hange whilst pointing the barrel the Beast titan threw, "up there! The Colossal titan is coming! We'll all get blown away!".

Where are you, Reiner? I'm coming!

Bertolt says as he holds onto the inside of the barrel.

They got us.

Erwin says as he watches the barrel.

"Shit! Everyone. get away from the Armoured titan!" Hange orders as everyone flies away as quick as they can, "the Colossal titan is falling our way!".

Eren gets up as he starts to run.

Shoot! At this distance... none of us can avoid it.

Armin says as he spots the barrel nearby.

I'm close to the ground. It's now or never. I'll blow this place away.

Bertolt says as he goes to bite his hand when he sees how badly beaten up Reiner is.

"Reiner!" Bertolt yells as he jumps out of the barrel, using his ODM gear to get to Reiner, "Reiner?" he asks as he kneels down to Reiner, putting his hand to Reiner's chest, "he's alive. But he transferred his consciousness throughout his whole nervous system? But that was a last resort. To think he'd actually do it. It's hard to believe they cornered you like that. Reiner, I need you to do something for me. You're going to have to move a little. And if you can't, I'm sorry. Prepare for the worst. I'm ending this".

"In any case, our mission objective just came falling into our laps" Hange says as the troops and Eren watch from afar, "you could even call this lucky".

"Target approaching from ahead!" Moblit reports as Bertolt comes flying towards them using his ODM gear.

"Our plan is as follows: Levi Squad protects Eren under Armin's command" Hange announces as they look around at everyone, "all others work together to take down the two targets!".

"Roger" the soldiers say as they set off, Hange going with them.

"Please wait!" Armin says as he catches up to Hange.

"Armin?" Hange questions as they look at Armin.

"This is our final chance to negotiate" Armin says as he races on ahead.

"Bertolt! Stop right there!" Armin yells as he lands on a rooftop.

Armin, what are you trying to accomplish?

Eren asks as he watches Armin.

"Bertolt! Let's talk this over!" Armin yells as he squeezes his eyes shut.

"If I agree to talk, would you all agree to die?" Bertolt asks as he lands on the clocktower nearby, "we only want two simple things! We want Eren, Evelyn and the demise of humanity within the walls! That's the harsh truth of reality, Armin. It's all been decided already!".

"Who decided any of that?" Armin asks as he moves forward slightly.

"I did" Bertolt says as he looks down, "I decided it! Your lives are coming to an end right here!".

"That's very unfortunate" Armin yells with a slight smirk, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to hear Annie's screams any longer! The only one who can save her from the savages of the Military Police is you, and no one else! At this rate, she'll end up as feed for the pigs!".

"Fine by me!" Bertolt yells as he flies off, "let them feed her to the pigs! If they really have her, that is!" he says as he and Armin land on the same rooftop, "what's the rush, Armin? Aren't we going to talk? Did you think that if you talked about Annie, I'd lose control again? That since I'm the meek and timid Bertolt, you could fool me into letting my guard down?".

"Stand down, Eren. You should know" Jean says as he stands on Eren's shoulder as Eren tries to go to Armin, "you've got a slim chance against him. This isn't your fight yet".

Shit. Armin, why?

Eren says as he watches Armin and Bertolt.

"I know what you're doing. You're just buying time" Bertolt says as he looks at Armin, "surrounding me with soldiers and distracting me with this ruse while the others finish of Reiner! I can tell. You're standing there shaking so much, you can't do a damn thing".

"If you knew that much, why did you even come and talk?" Armin asks as he holds his blade out towards Bertolt.

"I wanted to know" Bertolt says as he breaks eye contact with Armin, "to know whether, if I faced you guys again, I'd start whining and begging for forgiveness again. But it seems like I'm fine now. Yeah, you're precious comrades to me. I also intend to kill you".

"Is that because you think we're spawn of the devil?" Armin asks as he looks down.

"No. None of you have done anything wrong, nor are any of you devils" Bertolt says as he looks back at Armin, "but you still have to die. That's just how it is".

Mikasa flies up from behind Bertolt as she goes to strike him but he turns and blocks her attack with his blade. With her other blade, she manages to cut off his ear in his attempt to dodge her second attack. Bertolt jumps and kicks Mikasa as she falls down the edge of the building. Bertolt runs at Armin but Mikasa throws her blade at Bertolt, Bertolt knocking it away. Mikasa runs up the roof and goes to swipe for Bertolt but he flies away from the two of them.

"Armin, don't chase!" Mikasa says as she put her arm out in front of Armin who tries to chase after Bertolt, "there's no knowing when he'll transform. If we don't keep our distance, we'll get caught up in another explosion" she says as she kneels down.

"I don't think Bertolt intends to yet" Armin says as he watches Bertolt, "Reiner's on the verge of death, so if he did, he'd finish Reiner off. We could take Reiner as a hostage and fight him straight on with swords".

"We should but it seemed like he had some kind of plan" Mikasa says as she looks at Armin, "still, was that really Bertolt just now? To me, he seemed like a different person".

"Me too" Armin agrees.

Hange's squad continues to fly in towards Reiner when they all realise he's switched positions from sitting up to lying down. They all land on the rooftops of the street in order to observe.

This is a very strange feeling. I don't feel that scared at all. I can see everything clearly. I feel like, no matter how this all plays out, I can accept whatever happens. That's right, nobody's in the wrong. There's nothing we could do. Because this world is just that cruel.

Bertolt says as he flies upwards as high as he can get.

"He's going up, don't tell me" Hange says as they watch Bertolt.

"But I thought Reiner was over there!" Moblit says from behind them.

"Quick, get out of here!" Hange says as Bertolt bites down on his hand and transforms.

"Hange!" Moblit yells as he pushes Hange into a well in order to cover her from the blow of his transformation.

Evelyn and Levi both stop what they're doing as Erwin watches in horror. Everyone far away enough watches as the explosion comes towards them. Mikasa and Armin hide behind a building as they hold onto each other. Eren grabs all of his friends and ducks down, covering them all. Anyone unlucky enough to be close enough to him is killed by the blow.

"You guys alive?" Jean asks as he looks around, "Eren, thanks".

Mikasa and Armin fly over as they land on Eren.

"Are you guys okay?" Sasha asks as she looks at the two of them.

"We're fine" Mikasa says as she looks at Armin.

"Hange's Squad?" Conny asks worriedly.

"They were so close to Bertolt" Armin says as he looks down.

The six of them watch as Bertolt starts to slowly get up from the ground, moving at the only pace he can.

"You don't think the only ones who survived are us, right?" Jean asks as he looks at everyone.

Bertolt scoops his arm through the houses in Shiganshina and throws them around, setting fire to the houses below.

"Armin, what now?" Jean asks as he looks at Armin, "if we don't hurry, we'll be flattened by burning houses!".

"Armin, you're in command. We follow your orders" Mikasa says as she puts her hand on Armin's shoulder.

"We retreat" Armin says as he looks at them all, "rally at the Commander for new orders. We'll engage the Colossal titan in a battle of attrition as originally planned".

"Hold up, Armin" Jean says as he looks at Armin, "it'll be a disaster if we let Bertolt near the wall and the others. If the houses in the inner gate catch fire, they'll be sandwiched between the fire and the Beast titan".

"That means we have no choice but to fight Bertolt here, right?" Armin says worriedly, "and we have to do it with the people we have here, right?".

"Armin! The fire is coming closer. Your orders!" Conny says as he looks at Armin.

"Hurry it up!" Sasha yells.

"What will you do... Beast titan?" Erwin asks as he turns around to look at the Beast titan, "is this exactly what you wanted?".