(13) Failure

(Strauss POV)

The mission succeeded and I was damn ready to rest. Fighting for the whole day tends to wear you out. I looked at Levi and tried to explain what had gone down in Trost to the best of my ability, and while doing so I expanded my senses to get a feel for Levi's ki signature.

It was while doing so, that a short distance away from here I felt five other ki signatures, one was that of a titan. They had a different feeling to them, making titans easy to distinguish via my ki sense, even for a beginner like me. What confused me was that there were four humans next to it, yet they all stood still.

Suddenly three of those humans moved, while the other simply stayed there. "Something's up", I muttered under my breath.

"Huh? What was that?", I heard Levi speak to me but I payed him no mind as I took off full speed towards the ki signatures I sensed. I wasn't that fast when flying, partly due to my inexperience doing so but thankfully the distance wasn't that great.

------

(A few minutes earlier)

"I can't believe what I'm seeing". Sweat poured down Reiner's face as he let out a shaky breath. Today was one long day.

Bertolt could only nod just as anxiously as they watched two of their 'comrades'. One of them had the surprising ability of titan shifting, something that wouldn't have been too bad if anyone else had that power. Their original goal had been to recover the coordinate, a mission that they had dedicated their lives to. However, the person wielding that power complicated things. Only in their nightmares would they imagine someone like Eren Jeager to be in control of the founding titan.

The one next to him served as another headache however. Strauss Ackerman. With ODM gear, he was already powerful enough to make killing titans look as if he was taking candy from a child, but he went beyond that. His strange ability to fly, and the sheer power to punch through a titan like a sheet of paper!

"With him as he is now, I don't know if you'd be able to win even in your titan form, Reiner...". The young man in question could do nothing but nod in agreement at his friends statement.

"If push comes to shove, I'm pretty sure your explosion would still kill him. There's no way he'd walk away from that".

The two suddenly turned as they heard footsteps behind them. Their hearts dropped as they saw Marco look at them with disbelief.

"H-Hey, did all this fighting make you go crazy?"

Marco put on a false bravado, ignoring all of the ominous things that the duo just mentioned, pretending to think it was "crazy talk".

'Eren can turn into a titan... if humans have that ability, then that means the enemy is a human too... and their hiding among us', Marco's mind raced and the silence of his 'comrades' suddenly clicked everything into place.

A look of realisation flashed across his face as he immediately turned and launched away, intending to get as far as possible, he managed to get a decent distance away, but he was suddenly tackled into the roof of a building by Reiner. Bertolt landed next to them immediately after.

"H-Hey Reiner, w-what the hell are you doing?", Marco shouted at his comrade, or rather someone he had thought to be his comrade.

"You're too damn sharp Marco".

Hearing the reply didn't help appease Marco's worries at all as he started flailing and shouting. It was all for naught though as Reiner's grip remained firm.

"Reiner, what the hell is going on?". Hearing a female voice, Marco looked up and joy flashed across his face.

"Annie! Help me-"

"He heard mine and Bertolt's conversation, we've gotta get rid of him". Marco's heart dropped as Reiner suddenly lifted him up a bit. "Hurry Annie, take off his gear!"

"Hey you guys better hurry up, there's a titan approaching us!".

Despair filled Marco, as he heard Bertolts warning. Tears formed in his eyes as he began begging.

"Please, we can talk about it, I swear!"

Annie felt her heart being torn as she watched Marco wail. Her thoughts trailed back to her childhood. 'All that work to become a warrior... I would have never done it if I knew this is the type of stuff I'd be in store for'.

She tried her best to suppress her emotions, as she brought her shaky hands forward and unbuckled the gear from Marco's belt.

The three warriors zipped away in silence as their faces darkened. They stopped a bit further down the road, as they watched the titan finally reach Marco.

"No- Please No!"

They all felt as if their hearts had ripped in half. Tears flowed down Annie's cheeks, while Reiner and Bertolt had tried their utmost hardest to suppress theirs.

It was as if time proceeded to slow down more and more as Marco got closer, but a sudden shout made everyone's eyes widen.

Flying straight through the titan's neck, Strauss grabbed Marco and slowed his momentum by slowly ascending. He came to a stop in the air as he stared down the three pretenders who stared back at him with shock in their eyes.

"Our cover is blown and there's too many soldiers in Trost to fight! Make a break for it, now!", Reiner wasted no time as he shouted his command and burst forwards immediately, followed closely by his two friends.

They shot straight past Strauss, and flew straight towards the wall. Strauss however, was not slow to react and immediately flew after them while he still held Marco by the collar of his jacket in his hand.

-----

Back at the wall, Mikasa held Eren's unconcious form. The latter had passed out from exhaustion almost immediately after sealing the wall.

'I'm worried about Strauss, he suddenly took off like that...'

A few loud bursts of steam suddenly caught Mikasa's attention, and she looked in confusion at Bertolt, Reiner, and Annie shot ahead at full speed, no signs of stopping.

"Reiner, do we try and retrieve Eren? He's directly below us!".

Reiner looked down as he heard Bertolt's question. He saw an unconcious Eren, held up by Mikasa. Surrounding them however were multiple soldiers, and a few familiar faces from the cadet corps. The soldiers all wore green cloaks which had the emblem of the Survey Corps displaying proudly on the back.

"No! There's too many soldiers here, and Strauss is right on our back. Even if we win, the Garrison will manage to get to us before we have the chance to escape!".

Mikasa didn't have time to think as she watched the three swing directly over the wall, boosting away.

"Fuck you! Wait there!"

The angry shouts of Strauss made every soldier in the area look up at him. Seeing him carry someone in one of his hands served confusing them even more.

Strauss, dropped down a bit, dropping Marco on the floor as he rolled over his sides multiple times due to the momentum before stopping.

Without missing a beat, Strauss shot up and flew over the wall, intent on continuing his pursuit. Mikasa followed him immediately after, even though she didn't know what was going on.

Levi narrowed his eyes as he watched the scene unfold, the lack of information was beginning to irritate him. With a grunt of frustration, Levi also shot up, following the siblings.

"You brats better stop now-", Levi stopped his sentence midway as he landed next to the two cadets. The three people they were chasing before had landed on the ground a distance away and a blinding yellow light flashed, while the sound of thunder rumbling set in.

They watched as a 15 meter tall titan manifested into air. It took the form of a female, and had blond hair that flowed past it's face. The titan grabbed Reiner and Bertolt, and broke into a sprint, crushing any hopes of catching up to it.

Strauss watched the scene with clenched fists, shaking slightly from anger. 'They were right fucking there and I let them get away'.

"Alright you damned brat, I think it's about high time you explain what the fuck is going on. How the fuck are you flying? Why were you chasing those three cadets? Why the fuck are there titans in Trost?".

Strauss turned to Levi, a bit surprised to see the doubtful and suspicious look in his eyes. He then took a look at his sister, just to see she had the same sort of questionning expression on her face. He let out a tired sigh.

'This day just doesn't seem to fucking end'.

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A/N: I'm finally done with trost arc bruh. I know some people might question how Reiner bertolt and annie got away so I'll explain it quickly. Strauss only just learned how to fly, so he's not very proficient at it, while the warriors were all talented with the odm gear. Plus he was carrying Marco, and while he necessarily heavy to carry for Strauss, the added air resistence on top of his inexperience with flying was enough to slow him down quite a bit.

For those who haven't caught on, I'm using the ki power system from DBZ which is what let Strauss fly, and if you look at early Dragon Ball, goku also couldn't fly that well or fast.