57th Expedition(2)

The sun beat down fiercely on Walter's face.

"The rear recon is one of the best positions to be in." He glanced at the huge empty plains that had been greeting him forever since they left Karanes. "Can't remember the last time that a titan popped up behind us."

"No titan. No trouble. "Gareth chuckled. "Doubt any of them would be able to catch up with our horses."

"Bertha's birthday is coming up. That beef restaurant in Karanes that I'm planning to bring her to, she's so gonna love it! I just hope the expedition ends quickly this time." Walter smiled.

"We only just started and you're already thinking of that? Your daughter's lucky to have a dad like yo-"

*Thump*

Their conversation was interrupted by faint footsteps that were getting heavier by the minute. A black dot was getting larger and larger on the horizon behind him.

Walter's fingers reached for his pistol as sweat ran down his chest.

*PA*

A black smoke round streaked towards the clouds. The titan had already covered a third of the distance between them. It was running incredibly fast.

"H-how?It's a-actually catching up with us?"Gareth's eyes popped wide in shock."Our horses can't outrun it!"

Walter's eyebrows pulled together, his two hand grips already sunk into the blade compartments. The titan was extremely tall, it was at least a 14-meter class. And the terrain barely had any trees to aid their ODM gears. Little chance, he thought. Little chance and no choice. He bit his lips.

*Shiinnnggg*

"Let's do it !" His blades greeted the air beside him, screaming for blood. "Gareth!"

"Roger!"

*Whizz*

Gareth turned his horse in the direction of the onrushing titan, before flying towards its legs.

Walter eyed the approaching Female Titan. They would halt it right here, once the titan was stopped by Gareth, its face eating dust on the ground. He would send steel tearing through the nape and give it a lesson on the power of humanity.

Or so he thought.

*Fwoosh*

"G-Gareth?"

With incredible reflex and accuracy, the iron wire fired by his friend was grasped by the feminine-looking titan mid-path, who began to draw circles cruelly in the air with the mangled mess.

*Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh*

*Thump*

The pounding footsteps closed in, every single step adding an invisible press on Walter's chest, robbing him of his breath.

He saw Gareth's body being spun like a yoyo, sending a shower of red spraying everywhere. The lively person who was just chatting with him minutes ago was now a mutilated corpse being played with.

"M-monster."Walter's eyes bulged in horror as the face of the female titan became clearer and clearer. Its eerie and cold gaze was fixed at him, causing his muscles to freeze.

Sorry, Bertha, your dad … won't be able to keep his promise anymore ...

He saw the body of his deceased friend fly right at him, and a flash of red.

=====

The weather wasn't looking good. Levi had already spotted a gloom of grey clouds in the distance. Rain would soon render the signals, lives, and the plan all together useless.

"Erwin said that?"Levi asked the messenger who was panting heavily."Are you sure?"

"Y-Yes."The figure in front of him nodded, before pulling his horse around, galloping away.

"Tch."Levi brushed aside a leaf that had kissed his face, his black hair stirring, and his cloak billowing in the wind. The black flares that came from the rear hadn't stopped, something was definitely coming. He even spotted red flares on the right minutes ago. The situation couldn't get any worse.

*Pa* *Pa* *Pa*

"C-Captain."Petra's panicked voice sounded out."Orange flares!"

"What? Doesn't that mean …" Eren gasped.

"It seems the commander has decided to kill the titans in our path, instead of avoiding them. But I can't understand." Firing an orange round, Eld shook his head, looking confused. "Are we in that much of a rush to reach our destination? "

The world somehow held its breath, as a long silence descended, only the clop sounds from the hooves were heard.

"Eren. You go on ahead."Levi had made up his mind. Even though he didn't understand the order earlier, he trusted Erwin. He switched his glance to Mikasa. "I'm leaving him to you. Protect Eren."

"I ca-"

"I don't recall asking for your opinion. Eren."Levi's voice turned stern."This is an order. Go now."

"Let's hurry, Eren." Mikasa tried to persuade him.

Eren slumped his shoulders in defeat as he urged his horse ahead with her. Their figures gradually disappeared beyond the horizon.

A gust of strong wind blew again across the fields that were sparse with trees, tugging at Levi's uniform. He heard another flare being fired again from behind. The titan was going to be a pain to deal with, appearing so deep in the formation only meant that it had taken out a significant number of members, and none of them was able to stop it.

"What a mess… we let it penetrate deep into our formation," Levi muttered as he kicked at his horse, making it speed up.

They had to get to the forest of giant trees before facing whoever was coming. Levi wanted to avoid a battle on flat terrain as far as possible. However not long after, just as he finally saw the cluster of gigantic trees in the distance, Petra's voice dealt a savage blow to his hopes.

"500 Metres to our rear!" She sounded the alarm."Heichou , she's here!"

"So… that's the titan? It's the first time I've seen such a feminine-looking one." Gunther remarked.

"This titan is not normal!" Eld warned. "She was able to catch up with us all the way from the rear."

Levi meanwhile studied the approaching Female Titan. She was tall, probably a 14 or 15-meter class, and had a speed abnormally fast for her large size. From what Hange shared with them from her experiments, such an action consumed a lot of stamina, she would need to slow down sooner or later.

"Oluo, you fire the round."

"Roger!"

*Pa*

A line of black smoke sank into the skies.

*Whizz* *Whizz*

Levi saw multiple figures approaching the Female Titan from all directions. Another squad nearby had taken the initiative to engage. With a kick and swing, the Female Titan slammed them to a grisly death the moment their grapple hooks had attached to her body, sending their lifeless bodies to color the ground red.

His eyes widened in disbelief. The way the titan killed his fellow soldiers, was seriously abnormal. Instead of killing them to eat afterward, she did so for the sake of it. She was definitely one of those titan shifters Erwin had warned him about.

"Draw your swords." He cooly uttered. "We'll stop her … here."

The anguish cries of his squad members mixed with the singing of steel filled the air.

"Damn you!"

"I'll rip you apart!"

"You'll die a painful death!"

A bone-jarring clang sounded out as his hand grips pressed against the blades on his sides, sliding them out in one swift motion. He tilted his head slightly downwards, bringing the right blade further in front before spinning it around to face backward from him.

It was the way he had held weapons since his days in the underground world. Holding a sword across his face, he could see the figure of the titan reflected on it getting closer and closer, along with the faint red glow in his eyes.

"Oluo."

"Eld."

"Gunther."

"Pe..."

"Yes, heichou ?" Petra's sweet voice sounded in Levi's ears.

"Petra." He completed his sentence, he had decided to trust his teammates. To trust her.

"Go for the vital spots of the titan, as you have done in training. The Female Titan might try something similar to what it did just now, so be ready to release your hooks any instant ."He stole a second glance at Petra. "Remember, don't overcommit."

"Yes, Captain !" They replied in unison. , spreading out their horses in a wedge formation with Levi as center, while the female titan approached rapidly from behind them.

*Thump*

200 meters…

*Thump* *Thump*

150 meters…

Levi's fingers tightened around the handgrip, the metal cold, but his heart colder. Numb from the familiar pain whenever someone he knew died.

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump*

100 meters…

"NOW!"

The 4 members of Levi's squad gave their horses a sharp pull, causing it to slow down, the sudden decrease in speed allowing the Female titan to overtake them. At that instance, they took off from their horses at once in perfect coordination, their grapple hooks hitting the vital spots of the Female titan with superb precision.

*Whizzzzzzz*

"DIE!" Approaching the Female Titan's body, they swung the blades to their sides, ready to slash at their targets.

It was at this moment. Levi couldn't believe what he saw.

The Female Titan's legs were slowly lifting off the ground.

*Click* *Click* *Click* *Click*

His squad abandoned their route of attack at once.

Levi felt his shoulder's dropping as he breathed out, especially upon seeing a blonde-haired figure getting away from the female titan.

She was safe.

He had held back from engaging and left it to his squad, because he anticipated that the Female Titan might be trying something ... fishy.

He was right.

Upon seeing the Female Titan jump, he kicked at his horse, making it charge forward.

This way, once she landed, he would be as close to her as possible.

To kill her.

*Click*

*Whizzzz*

Levi took off from his horse, his hook already latched on to her nape. Cool air brushed against his hands as his body began to spin. The wind swirled along with his swords, crying for vengeance.

His comrades who were killed by the Female Titan, were gone forever.

Forever.

Levi's eyelids fell slowly as his eyes narrowed.

"It's over for you…"

"Goodbye."

The weight of his swords brought themselves to bear against a surface that strangely shone like crystals. No sooner when the first strike landed, the second was already on its way. And when the second was done the third and fourth blow fell hard and fast. The fifth even quicker as Levi's blades slashed faster and faster, heavier and heavier, drawing forty more deadly arcs in one seamless motion. His fingers tightened on the grips, sending the steel in his hands swinging ferociously again across the nape in one final slash.

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

*Swishhhhhhhh*

The attack ended as quickly as it began - in an instant. But Levi's eyes widened in disbelief. He understood now why Erwin gave that instruction earlier …

-1757 words(excluding A/N)- 1st chapter of the week.

==================================

Warning : (Very Long A/N below) -

I've been thinking about the plot for a while ever since I started writing. I honestly didn't expect it to go past even 100 collections. I was writing this for fun and thought of sharing it with whoever might be interested in it , as the 139 ending feels hit just so hard…

Before I continue, I just wanted to say a thank you to all of you for reading the fanfic. Especially those of you who voted. I hope you have enjoyed it! ^ ^ .

As you have seen so far there are already some differences with the canon storyline. Certain events that have happened because of a reason in the original aot story, may occur again here for a different reason. The plot in this story is not intended to follow the canon storyline fully. Especially the ending arcs.

Also, I would like to apologize for the slow updates.

I normally give myself 2-3 days after finishing a chapter to do some re-reads and grammar checks to make sure the quality is okay and whether I might have missed something.

Infodumps can be very jarring so you have my promise I`ll try to avoid that as much as possible, at the start of the fanfic I believe that were some sections where I did that :/

It didn't help that work was quite busy + I kinda hit a writing wall.

I had a plot planned out for this already from start to finish, but there were one or two plotholes that surfaced recently when I was fleshing out the details for the later arcs, that would prevent me from giving the ending I would like it to have.

So it made me lose motivation writing for a while because I couldn't bring myself to continue writing without getting at least the rough outline and structure correct.

This fanfic is just an alternative plot of AOT , as well as how Eren would have acted in it, whilst trying to keep him in character as much as possible. Also with a strong focus on romance for eremika. I want to add more fluffy moments for that, with more light moments to the story. (No harem, even though it might look like one is forming sometimes).

Keeping the characters from going out of character can be pretty hard sometimes, so If you are expecting them to be 100% like in the original story I don't think I can meet that expectation, but that doesn't mean I won't try my best to portray them as well as I can while maybe changing some things.

I plan to address most of the unanswered questions of aot in this fanfic eventually (my own take on it) , so especially later on you might find some of the *side*-characters having different motivations due to what happened to them in the story, but that is if the plot ever reaches that far. It's necessary for the story later on. I also plan to expand beyond the aot story itself , a lot of questions will be answered , especially nearer to the ending arcs.

If you choose to continue following this plot, just a reminder again the cause for some events in this story are going to be different from the original aot , you have been warned ...

All credits and rights for aot belong to Isayama. He is the author of the Aot story. This fanfic is for fun and not for commercial purposes or to make money.