Chapter 36: Clean cut

"Fuck, how could such a thing happen, and against two normal people at that!" shouted Zeke Yeager, Marleyan captain of the warrior unit, made up of only titan shifters and tasked with taking away the founding titan from Paradis.

He was the boy wander, the inheritor of the beast titan and so many more titles, known and not known, that one could even forget a part of them.

And instead of accomplishing what he thought would be an easy mission, taking out two recruits with the power of four of the nine titans, turned out to probably be the greatest loss in his career.

He knew the two's previous accomplishments, how no titan was enough to make them sweat, but he thought that four titan shifters of a unit of people trained since youth would be enough to take them out, but his plan failed.

And not only did it fail to kill the targets that would potentially be a thorn in Marley's side, were it only that it wouldn't actually be a big deal, but they lost Pieck, the Cart Titan, in a secondary mission, which made it a devastating loss.

Before it even began they lost the Jaw Titan and during this mission they not only had apparently already lost the female titan, but they had now lost a second one too.

Reiner and Bertholdt shared his same disappointment and rage, when Reiner saw that their blades couldn't pierce his armor he grew happier than he had ever been.

For some reason he though that if it was them then they could have somehow found a way to injure and kill him, it wasn't a real belief, more like a fear at the back of his head.

Bertholdt had remained hidden during the fight and was tasked with transforming only if they entered a building after Zeke's ambush failed, they would have had all the time in the world to leave if he transformed in the open.

Reiner was to attack if they chose to stay in the open, as he was probably the only one who had a chance in an actual one versus two, they couldn't penetrate his armor and just one lucky hit would have killed at least one of them and in the worst case he wouldn't be injured anyway.

Pieck was to hide and wait for an opportunity, if her ambush failed she was to retreat.

Everything had been perfectly according to plan.

Everything had been accounted for.

An ambush from inside the wall would have trapped them inside the city where they would have to either fight Reiner or die during Bertholdt's transformation and if they survived both, existed the chance that Pieck could take them out in a moment of carelessness while they were retreating.

But nothing went right, the ambush had been evaded, Reiner ignored after a short skirmish while Bertholdt wasn't to intervene, and even the second ambush was destroyed with Pieck taken away.

"You two, what are the chances of those two keeping Pieck alive?" asked the captain, in cases like this, asking his two subordinates about their enemy seemed the most sensible choice.

"...Probably none" replied Bertholdt in a heavy tone "Neither likes to kill people, but they probably won't shy away from it in our case, their first priority has always been saving the greatest amount of lives..." and taking one of them out would save many or their people, but this last part was left unsaid.

"Damnit" shouted the captain once again, he had never felt really threatened in this mission, the enemy was weak and they had the initiative, but everything was going wrong.

He took a moment to recompose himself, still tired from the transformation, it hadn't even been an hour since their enemy had left, but they already lost hope of reaching them, they didn't even see in which direction they had gone.

"To hell with this, let's proceed with the next part of the main plan, it time to go to Wall Maria"

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In a different location, outside the perimeter of the three walls, three people could be seen.

One was a slightly handsome young man with a body filled with untold power, raven black hair, deep green eyes that looked like emeralds and a neutral expression, but someone who knew him well could tell that he was worried about something.

"What's with that dark face Kle? Be happy! We took out one of them!" replied the man's best friend ever since birth, another person with strength above normal human standards with absolutely inhuman reflexes that bordered precognition.

She was a beautiful young woman of the same age, blood red hair and sapphire blue eyes that looked deeper than the sea, her face was adorned by an easygoing smile.

"I guess that's right, but we still a new tipe of weapon, the blades won't cut it again armored titans" replied the man while his expression lost the previous uneasiness and blossomed in a very slight smile.

"That's the spirit, now... What do we do with this one?" she said as she indicated to the third person's direction with a nod.

The third person, contrary to the two sixteen year olds, was unconscious and lacking of all four limbs.

"I have no idea, are you sure she is even alive?" asked Klemens, he thought that these things were more resilient than he previously assumed.

"Positive, I can feel pulse and she still breaths regularly, albeit both are slower than normal, I vote to off her immediately, I'm not a fan of needless suffering and she doesn't seem like someone who talks even under torture"

"I think so too, but I still think that we should at least have a conversation with her, no torture, just a couple of questions, even if she lies you can pick that up and we can exclude some things"

"Are you sure? You won't grow soft after speaking with her and want to spare her right?" asked the girl with a mocking grin plastered on her face.

"Do I have to remind you who used her veto power to spare Annie? And how did that end? She probably betrayed us already" said her companion with his normal neutral expression.

"She did not!" shot the girl back "There are other ways that they could have known we were coming!"

"Like? And it's not only that, she didn't say that more of them would arrive so soon"

"Maybe she didn't know either! She's been cut off from them for quite a long time" scoffed the girl back.

Klemens let out an exasperated sigh, he knew that she was impossible to talk to in cases like this.

Not only was questioning Annie's allegiance badmouthing one of her closest friends other than him, but it was directly questioning the ability she had the greatest pride in, almost blind faith even, her instincts.

They told her that Annie was a good person and that was her truth.

But as an awkward silence was about to start spreading, the two's captive had woken up, but still feigned sleep.

"It's useless" said the girl pointing her gaze at the now awake limbless woman "I can feel the change in your breathing and pulse rhythm, I know you're awake"

"Since when can you do that?" asked the boy flabbergasted, it was different from what he was used to, did she discover a new ability like her instinct?

If so he wanted a new power too, the only things he had was some useless luck and recently he began to think faster, but that's it.

Well, if you didn't count his monstrous strength that's it.

"I don't know, I only know that my senses are gradually growing sharper as time passes!" replied the girl while puffing out her moderate chest.

"Ok... ok, I'm awake, but you can kill me since I won't tell you anything either way even if you torture me" replied the captive woman with a feeble voice.

If she was in pain from the absence of limbs, she sure wasn't showing it at all.

"Oh no, neither of us here likes torture, even if it's an enemy, we're not devils after all" replied Liesl, throwing a jab at the appellative that the Marleyans gave to the people of Paradis.

"You sure look like two to me, I survived many battlefields in many wars, but it's the first time I've been defeated instantly like that" replied the captive, now with slightly more strength than before, it was evident that at least a little, she was getting better.

Not that they would let her.

"Aww, thank you" replied Liesl, understanding that it wasn't a compliment but giving her thanks in a seemingly genuine way.

"I don't thing that it was a compliment" interjected Klemens.

"I know, anyway what is your name?" asked Liesl to their captive.

"And why would I answer you?" replied sharply the woman.

"Well, don't you want your name to be written on your tombstone?"

"Pieck Finger" answered Pick Finger after a bit of pondering, it wasn't a problematic question either way "Will you really build me a tombstone?"

It wasn't something that people did during a was, much less to their enemies, building a tombstone to the enemy was a waste of not only money, but also of time that could be used to fight the enemies.

"Well, I believe in basic human dignity, even for an enemy" replied the girl, the boy didn't show it, but he nodded inwardly.

Human dignity was a concept he came up with, it meant the most basic treatment that a human would get, just by being human, it didn't matter if it was male or female, young or old, friend or enemy, and a tombstone was one such thing.

"I don't know what that means, but thanks anyway"

"You seem weirdly ok about being about to die" stated the only male around.

"I am, but showing it would change nothing other than leaving a bad last talk while alive"

"I can respect that, anyway, I'll ask a few questions, you can not answer them" he didn't need an answer anyway, Liesl's new weirdly powerful senses would be enough to read the woman.

"You can go ahead, but you'll be wasting time, kill me and let's get this done with" stated the woman.

It may seem for an outsider that she didn't care, but it wasn't like that, she was more than scared at the prospect of dying, she was terrified.

She still had so much to do in her life, she wanted to see the end of the war, to see her people finally recognized as peers, but alas, everything was now useless.

"I will at least try, so... first question: you only have three other companions free, is that correct?" he asked, predictably not receiving any answers, but it was expected.

Her pulse didn't reveal anything either, Liesl wasn't an expert in pulse rhythm anyway, she could just feel it.

"How old are you?"

This time she answered "18" and it was true.

She didn't know why she answered, she just felt something compelling her to do so from deep inside her.

"Oh, just two years older than us" answered Klemens offhandedly "Last question, where would you like to be buried?"

It was the first time either of the two killed a person, and it wasn't during a fight like it happened to many soldiers, no, it was in cold blood.

It was against a person who couldn't fight back, an enemy, yes, but she was only someone who was under orders to do what she was doing.

"I've never really thought about it, but maybe in the middle of a vast plain would be nice" replied the woman, still not knowing why she was doing so, maybe she just wanted to have one last talk with someone, even if it was her soon to be killers, or maybe it was because of something else, she didn't know.

"Good, in that case... Goodbye, Pieck Finger" he said, swinging his blades at her neck at incredible speed, he didn't want to make it suffer so it was going to be the smoothest execution possible.

She hadn't even felt it, and her head was already on the ground, cleanly separated from the body in a perfectly smooth cut.

"...You didn't have to do it, you know? I could have done it" said the young man's companion and closest person after a full ten minutes of silence.

Even in a situation like this she was worried about him.

"It was my choice, now come on, let's find some wood to cremate her, I have no intention of giving someone the chance of inheriting her power" so he left, without looking back at her.

He didn't want her to see the tears going down his face, but doing so he failed to see even more coming out of her eyes.