A/N: Hello, readers! Welcome to another chapter! Enjoy!

edited on november 16th, 2021 @ 1:46pm

»»————-　★　————-««

»»————-　★　————-««

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓

𝓒𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙵𝙸𝙵𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽,
𝓢𝙾𝚄𝚃𝙷𝚆𝙴𝚂𝚃𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙳.

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

SIMON AND HIS SQUAD EVENTUALLY MET up with the southern team on the way to Ragako. Gelgar looked and saw that only Simon had returned and was about to ask about Miche, but the look on Simon's face showed that he shouldn't.

"Connie, wait!" Reiner called out as Connie was ahead of the group. "Calm down! There could be Titans anywhere!"

"Get back here, Connie!" Reiner shouted.

Connie ignores him and continues to gallop as he approached his hometown. His eyes widened as his face turned pale.

Simon looked around Ragako, he saw that the houses were damaged. The gray haired male felt as if something was very odd about the whole situation.

"Something is definitely odd about this." Simon muttered.

"I'm not quite sure what you're trying to get at, Section Commander." Oliver said.

"There's no body parts and no blood. It doesn't even look like the village was attacked by Titans." Simon explained.

"Not to mention the horses are still in the stables, meaning they didn't escape." Oliver agreed.

"Damn, what the hell is going on?" Simon thought.

"Anyone?! Is anyone there?!" Connie called out. "It's me! Connie! I came back!"

He was met with silence but then realized something. "My house!" Connie exclaimed as he began riding towards the direction of his home.

"Dad... Mom... Sunny... Martin! Please be okay!" Connie said to himself.

Connie reached his house and stopped his horse. A blonde-haired Titan with golden eyes and it's ribs showing laying on top of his house was staring back at him.

Reiner finally caught up with him. "Connie! Get back!" Reiner warned, grabbing onto his arm.

"It's... my house." Connie mumbled as Reiner looked up, letting go of Connie's arm. "My..."

"Connie..."

Gelgar and Simon walked up to the two of them. "Fall back, you two!" Gelgar ordered.

"I'll scout the area!" Rachel informed as she galloped through.

"Wait, it's... It can't move?" Gelgar questioned. "Not with those legs..."

"Th-Then... How?"

"How did it even get here?!"

"Connie! Are there any survivors?" Reiner asked as Bertholdt was right behind him.

"No... None at all." Connie replied as he began sobbing. "It's all over... My hometown... It's gone forever."

Reiner widened his eyes as he walks over to him and placed a reassuring hand on Connie's shoulder and Bertholdt gives him a side eye.

Gelgar than ran up to them. "Hey! Something's strange here." He informed. Lynne and Simon were right next to him. "Has anyone spotted any bodies?"

The two of them shook their heads. "No..." Reiner replied.

"I haven't." Bertholdt added.

"How is that even possible? Titans come and not a single drop of blood?" Gelgar asked himself.

"Everyone must've escaped!" Lynne intervened. "It means nobody here was eaten. Including your family, too."

Simon looked at Connie who had hopes in his eyes. "I see... That's gotta be it!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah. It's unbelievable to think Titans ate everyone without leaving blood behind." Lynne stated.

"That's not all that's unbelievable. If the entire village was really evacuated, why would Titans obliterate these houses with nobody in them?" Simon thinks to himself. "But what really boggles my mind is the stables. If they tried to escape without horses, their chances of survival would be slim."

"Everyone got their torches?" Gelgar asked as everyone nodded. "Let's move! Our mission now is to locate and assess the breach in the wall!"

"Yes, sir!"

Connie began following them as he got into his horse.

"Wel... come... home..." He heard a voice speak out to him as Connie turned around to face the Titan.

"Just now..." He mumbled as Simon called out for him.

"Connie, hurry up! You're going to fall behind!" Simon shouted.

"Section Commander? Did you hear that? The Titan—" Connie began.

"I didn't hear anything at all. Enough with the chit-chat. Focus on the mission!" Simon interrupted.

"But it... I think..." Connie started to say. "I don't know how, but... I think... My mom..."

"Connie! Do you not understand the situation we're in?!" Reiner exclaimed. "Hundreds of thousands of lives depend on whether we complete this mission or not! Your family might have escaped, but it's not over yet! If you're a soldier, put the mission first!"

And with that, Reiner and Simon took off. "Yeah... Good point. He's absolutely right!" Connie exclaimed before following after them.

»»————-　★　————-««

《 𝖭𝖨𝖭𝖤 𝖧𝖮𝖴𝖱𝖲 𝖠𝖥𝖳𝖤𝖱 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖳𝖨𝖳𝖠𝖭 𝖲𝖯𝖮𝖳𝖳𝖨𝖭𝖦 — 𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖳𝖤𝖱𝖭 𝖣𝖤𝖥𝖤𝖭𝖲𝖨𝖵𝖤 𝖫𝖨𝖭𝖤 》

A Garrison soldier rode his horse, looking at the Titan that was behind him.

"The target has come within range! All cannons, prepare to fire!"

"Not yet! Wait for the order!"

Soon enough, the cannons fired towards the Titan as Rico finishes it with the killing blow. She uses her gear to fly away as the Titan falls down onto the ground.

Rico then landed on a roof as she stopped herself before she crashed. "Did I get 'em?" She asked herself.

"You did it, Captain Rico! At this rate, they'll never break our defense!"

"No... The Titans' strength is in their numbers. If they attack as a group, this line won't stand a chance. But... What is it? Something isn't..." Rico trailed off.

"This is strange..." Hannes mumbled as he rode his horse by the wall.

"Captain Hannes! Is something wrong?"

"We haven't even spotted a single Titan yet. We've got to be getting close to the hole now. And yet, doesn't it seem awful quiet around here?" Hannes questioned.

"Hopefully, we can sneak in and out without stirring up a storm."

»»————-　★　————-««

《 𝖤𝖫𝖤𝖵𝖤𝖭 𝖧𝖮𝖴𝖱𝖲 𝖠𝖥𝖳𝖤𝖱 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖳𝖨𝖳𝖠𝖭 𝖲𝖯𝖮𝖳𝖳𝖨𝖭𝖦 — 𝖲𝖮𝖴𝖳𝖧𝖤𝖱𝖭 𝖳𝖤𝖠𝖬 》

Connie and the rest of his team were holding torches as they rode in the pitch black dark. The torches only giving them the light they needed.

"When? When will they show? When will it happen? At any second, they could leap out from the shadows." Gelgar thought. "No... The closer we get to the hole, the more inevitable it becomes. Damn it! This is driving me crazy!"

Everyone stops riding their horses as they spotted Nanaba, Ymir, and Christa holding torches of their own as they approached from the opposite line. The two groups stared at each other with sweat coming down their foreheads.

"Did you follow the wall here, too?" Gelgar asked.

"Yeah. Where did you find the hole?" Nanaba questioned.

"Huh?"

"We didn't find anything to the west. Didn't you find it your way?" Nanaba asked.

"No... There's no hole this way either." Gelgar replied.

Silence had followed between the two groups. "Is it possible we missed it?" Lynne asked.

"No way. Not a hole big enough for Titans to use."

"Should we go back and look again?" Gelgar questioned.

"We'll need to, but the horses and the rest of us are exhausted." Nanaba responded. "If we only had some moonlight..."

"Yeah..."

The dark clouds then suddenly moved away as the moon shined down on them.

"What's that?" Gelgar asked, seeing a tall building in the distance. "Castle ruins?"

Both groups galloped to the castle ruins without a second thought.

"It looks like a mess, but we can make it work for one night of rest." Gelgar announced.

"Right. Luckily the moon is out." Nanaba added.

»»————-　★　————-««

Everyone was resting within the castle until a shout woke Simon up. "Everyone, wake up! Go to the tower! Quickly!" Lynne shouted from up above.

They all appeared at the top of the tower where they saw Titans surrounding them.

"I couldn't see them in the darkness, but then the moon..."

"Why? Why can they move?" Gelgar questioned. "It's been so long since the sun set!"

"What's going on here?" Christa asked.

"Hey! Look at that!" Connie shouted, pointing at something.

Simon gasped when he saw the same Titan that had killed Miche.

"It's huge! What the hell is it? A Titan? No, it's more like... it's like a beast!" Connie exclaimed. "Right?"

"Section Commander, you okay?" Oliver asked, noticing his leader was in distress.

"That... was the Titan that killed Miche." Simon mumbled. "What the hell is it doing here? Did it come back to finish the job?" He thought.

Simon looked over to see Reiner, Bertholdt, and Ymir all in shock, like they were scared for some reason.

A Titan soon came over and made the castle ruins shake.

The Titans kept trying to get into the castle. "Hey, wait! Wait, wait, wait up! Don't you be coming in here! You're fricking kidding me. Gotta be fricking kidding me." Gelgar mumbled to himself.

"I'd be drinking right now if it wasn't for you! This is all your fault!" Gelgar shouted as he pulled out his blades.

"Stand back, rookies." Nanaba said as she rushed forward and pulled out her blade. "Leave it to us. It's time to show off our ODM gear."

Simon just sighed to himself, not knowing what to do. He could easily transform and defeat the Titans surrounding them. But as a result, he would reveal himself as a Titan to the 104th.

He just watched as his comrades flew down to defeat the Titans down below.

»»————-　★　————-««

A/N: Another chapter is done! Thanks for reading!

Word Count: 1615 words.