“Sorry,” she said in a voice barely discernible; coming out of vocal cords that seemed ill equipped to speech.

The Titan form of Ymir turned and ran towards the rolling green fields where the huge armored Reiner stood fighting perhaps a dozen titans, while Berdolt hung nearly uselessly by the wire of his ODM gear, waving his swords this way and that while slicing only through the air in front the the Goliths surrounding him.

Historia felt her body empty in a horrible, Earth shattering sort of disbelief as Ymir went back towards the horde of Titans attacking the self declared enemies of humanity. In that moment Historia could not think; she could not breath. She knew the only thing Ymir could be doing was going back to rescue them. Without a conscious thought and before she knew what her body was doing, a retractable grappling hook belt referred to as Omni-Directional Movement gear had attached itself to Ymir’s back; pulling Historia along behind Ymir, with her huge bent body growing larger with each fraction of a second that passed. Historia saw now that Ymir had hardly moved away from the horse, and was only a few leaps and bounds away from where she started.

After what felt like an age, Historia’s ODM cord and gone entirely back in its holster, she grabbed hold of Ymir’s huge shoulder. She was crouched and acting on adrenaline and instinct.

Historia found her sword already in hand, lifted it, and with a swipe indicating more confidence than she had, cut open the nape of the titan with the hope of digging out Ymir. As soon as the blade made the cut, the titan skidded to a stop and collapsed in a heap near a patch of evergreen trees.

Historia looked down at the wound to see not Ymir as she had expected, but a gaping bloodless wound revealing a far less bloodless arm cut off between elbow and wrist. Historia was horrified seeing the small human bone and muscle within the long thick fibers of the titan and froze in that moment.

The titan horde seemed not to have noticed this easy new target as they seemed presently hellbent on eating the armored Titan and Bertolt with him. Gnashing away at Reiners tortoise shell plates, sometimes so hard their teeth broke in their mouths; Berdoult, stuck in human form because of proximity to Reiner, was starting to get desperate and appeared to be shouting something and pantomiming in a throwing motion.

There was the sound of squelching as Ymir ripped out of her Goblin-esque other form a short distance to the right of the cut made by Historia. The sight of the flesh tearing around Ymir’s face and eyes when she detached from her other form, never failed to send shivers down Historias spine.

“What a dumb mistake to make, you know nothing girl!” Historia heard Ymir’s loud and cranky voice. Free from all but most extraneous bits of her titan’s muscle tissue, and the area around her eyes deeply lined with long fissures in the skin; it became clear how heavily Ymir was bleeding; pouring may have been a more accurate understanding. However, Ymir herself seemed unconcerned and Historia’s fear was being washed away with an anger that kept her from feeling much guilt about her mistake.

“You never listen to me Ymir. I will always be your ally, but I won’t let you run off! You have to stay here and be at my side!” Shouted Historia as forcefully as her little voice could muster

Too quickly, nearly cutting her off; Ymir responded “You don’t understand! This world is more complicated than you could possibly imagine, those two enemies of humanity are going to be killed and we are the only ones who understand each other and what we have gone through!”

“You’re being ridiculous Ymir, don’t sacrifice your own life just because things have gotten complicated!” Historia grabbed Ymir and scanned the horizon for a way out of this. They were on the edge of the forest where the trees were starting to thin out and give way to hilly grasslands. The forest was safety, towards home, obstacles for the mindless beasts that resembled people, and trees to glide into if need be. She was not sure if Ymir could turn back into a Titan or not, but hoped that if she were quick enough, she might be able to grab Ymir and go before she changed her mind again.

In the far distance Historia spotted long dots moving the speed she would expect for running horses and started waving her arms above her head and screaming frantically. She was not worried about the herd of Titans noticing her because they seemed to hold a singular focus on Riener and Bertolt, with nary a backwards glance thrown in the direction of either of the girls.

Reiner, now had one arm missing; not a clean cut but instead bits of bone, tendon and a few slivers of armor plating like broken pottery remained. The site was truly upsetting to look at, and it was still a mystery to Historia how the titan bodies could withstand so much abuse and continue to operate. She knew that they lacked the ability to feel pain but how someone with an arm in so many pieces could continue to fuction was beyond Historia.

Bertolt was in better shape, but she wondered for how long, as Reiner was now dedicating his one free hand to swatting titans away from Berdolt’s tiny human body, leaving no defensive capabilities for himself.

Before Ymir had time to reconsider what was occurring behind her, Connie and Sasha arrived with the horse Historia had left behind to catch Ymir earlier. Historia leapt onto the saddle and waited for Ymir to follow, who hesitated and looked back at the boys.

“You’re so much more important than them!” Historia bellowed, “You aren’t like them, and if you are going to live your life for yourself you need to forget whatever it is that has you so worried about them. They cannot save you or me, they can’t even save themselves. Leave them.”

With that Ymir climbed behind Historia onto the mount, and in an instant, they were moving at top speed back towards the circles of walls that encased humanity. The quick gallop of the horses jostled the two girls together and Ymir could only hold tight around Histoira’s waist that felt so small in her arms, for someone who seemed to have such a hold on her. Ymir gave in to the moment and buried her face in the spot Historia’s neck meets her shoulder, allowing herself to really take in her smell; sweet, and sweat, and leather.

After a period of time that seemed to take ages but also flash before her eyes, Ymir saw how large the approaching walls had become. She had been swinging in and out of sleep for nearly the entire ride, and she no longer had any idea when the last time she slept was. With her multiple transformations since her last opportunity to sleep, she wondered if she would pass out from exhaustion if asked to go on any further. She certainly doubted she had the ability to transform again, if she so desired.

She looked about and noticed how thick the forest was right up the second wall Rose. In the past this never could have happened. Though the spot they were entering though had never been a city, the outside of the nodes where the gates were located, trees had never been allowed to grow tall; there had been far to much logging, traffic and farming in this formerly populated area, to allow for the new growth of saplings and the increasing height of juvenile trees.

The wall itself was the same as ever, huge, gray, and ostensibly no stacked stones to see. Just looking at it gave Ymir Shivers, one hundred meters tall and impossibly hard. Even the Armored and Colossal titans had been unable to break through anywhere except the gates, on the smaller quadrant cities. For the near century that humanity had occupied the walls, no one knew how the structures had been formed, and even now that was still true, but a new piece of precious information was finally gained about their construction. When Annie, the Female Titan, had attempted to scale the wall by driving her fingers into it, a chunk had broken from the wall, revealing to the world that titans occupied the interior. The walls were made from the same crystal that later came to encase all of Annie’s body, which now lay hidden by the military somewhere Ymir was unaware of, though she was sure it was somewhere underground, as titans cannot transform in places where they do not have enough space for their larger bodies to fit.

When the horses finally reached the safety of the little gates that connected the walls to the rest of the world, they opened just enough to let the still living members of the scout regiment through before sealing the cage off again. Once inside the district Chlorba, which Ymir assumed they had chosen to enter because of the emergent situation, people stopped to dismount faster than usual, with some already off their horses before everyone was even inside.

Ymir found herself surrounded while she was still astride her horse, it was overwhelming seeing all these faces she was unfamiliar with surrounding her. So many questions from various officers outranking her that she found herself unable to tell apart voices.

She chose to say nothing, a strategy that had long behooved her. She was shocked that so many sensitive military matters were being discussed outside of the outpost.

Chlorba like all the gated districts, was a small node city on the edge of one of the wall, in this case the second wall, and like all the walled off-shoots, had a military base, but unlike some cities, Chlorba had chosen to build its barracks right inside the gate instead of deep in the city; allowing for shorter rides into and out of the walls; in this case however, the proximity was giving people too much candor. It was located on the west side of the wall and was not often utilized by the scouts. 

Erwin, who, like always, was tall, thick with muscle, and had a serious face with sharp square features, was climbing off his horse. Unlike always, he was now missing an arm. Where his shoulder stopped was maybe five inches of upper extremity leading to field-dressed bandages that were badly soiled. Its thick scabs long since forming, crusting over, and now lightly oozing plasma and fresh blood. People fussed over him and tried to get him to medical attention. He was a strong man but was losing energy faster than Ymir thought possible, he looked visibly tired in a way she had not seen from him before, but he stopped just in front of the crowd forming around Ymir; he seemed to have something he needed to do before he was rushed off the medical care.

“Ymir saved my life in battle today. Without her I would not be alive.”

For the moment atleast, that was able to quiet people down and they began to fall away and disperse, but everyone could sense that was not the end of the questions. Who was Ymir Loyal to? Why did she keep her powers a secret? What did she know about Reiner and Bertolt? Did she know where titans, especially ones that can turn into people come from? These were all questions that Ymir knew she would be asked in short order.

After the others had gone Levi remained, as he seemed to be the de facto leader of the scouts while Erwin and Hange were too injured to function.

He stood on the ground below the still astride Ymir. Levi was a prepubescent-sized man, who was fierce in a fight and incredibly strong. No one even compared, except maybe Mikasa. He was a quiet person and when he did speak, it revealed a thick accent from the underground. He still used the slang he grew up with and often spoke in vulgarities. He also had a tendency to be physically rough with Erin and other subordinates, that had he not been such an effective weapon, would have landed him in military discipline.

“I damn well didn’t need another one of you unhinged brats turning into a titan. You might be the only one worse than Erin to have this power. So I am going to keep you in the dungeon till we figure out what to do with you, because I don’t want you to transform and run off.”

“No!” Historia let out like a yelp. She knew not to talk back to the commander but didn’t want to be pulled away from Ymir after almost losing her. She stared Captain Levi straight in the eye. She was determined not to lose her nerve.

“Even if Ymir did save our comrades, she still stole Erin and hid her powers from us,” Levi said flatly.

Down in the cells under the barracks, Ymir sat on a wooden chair provided to her, along with a bed and a table. She was pleasantly surprised that her prison had furnished her with a table and chair, it almost made up for the lack of sunlight.

Everything was dark in the brig, and the only light available came from a couple sparse torches, none of which were in her cell, meaning the nearest light was some distance from her. It was also very moist, the air never seemed to move and the water felt so thick she felt she should be able to jump into the air and swim.

The cell had stone walls on all sides but one, the side with the door, was entirely made of bars that ran from the floor to the low ceiling. Outside the cell was a hallway leading up the stairs, which was being occupied by the two soldiers who had escorted her inside. There was one other cell next to hers that sat empty.

Ymir did not have to want for friendly company, Historia was down there only minutes after Ymir’s cell door closed, before the officers with all their questions even had time to show up. Historia arrived so quickly that Ymir had to wonder if she was simply standing sentry in the stairs of the cellar, saying nothing as the guards brought their new prisoner down the single file staircase, only staring with giant, nocturnal eyes, like a opossum.

With a gasp Historia ran up to the bars, gripping the posts in her fists.

“It’s not fair that they put you in here! You saved me, you saved everyone.”

“I don’t think Levi or the rest of them sees it that way,” Ymir snickered.

Historia waited quietly down in the glowing torch light of the cellar with Ymir for a brief period, worried that she may be asked to leave if she said anything, it seemed likely that Historia had walked into the cellar without permission but had not explicitly been barred either, but soon higher ranking officials started to arrive. Military Police arrived first followed by leaders in other regiments, no one so much as glanced at Historia.

“I am Sargent Elberich Klien with the 8th Garrison regiment and this is Alice Thomas with the Military Police” on and on until all the members of their little gang were introduced; which appeared to number six in total. All in their identical except the insignia uniforms; the unicorn, roses, or wings, long sleeve orange jackets made of leather over a plain shirt. White pants with a brown padded wrap and a belt with suspenders to support their harness; leather straps climbed down their thighs to help spread body weight while using ODM gear before the emergence of above the knee boots just to add a bit os sex appeal.

When they were winding down on introductions and it seemed as though they were getting ready to switch to a more interrogative mode of conversation, Levi open the heavy wooden door at the top of the staircase, briskly walked down and announced:

“This is my soldier; get the hell out of Here.”

End of Chapter I