Forgiveness

Eren's POV

I hit the side of the mountain and start tumbling down the side of the mountain. I couldn't stop rolling down the side of the mountain since it was too steep and I can't see Charlie's body tumbling with me. My body hits multiple trees on the way down, branches and stones scratching my body all over the place. I was finally able to stop once my stomach hits a tree, allowing me to lay down there.

"Eren!" yells Charlie

I look behind me and she's gracefully sliding down towards me.

"Are you okay?" she asks

"Yea, I'll be fine." I groan, "How the hell did you stop yourself?"

"Hit a tree earlier." she replies

She helps me sit and checks my mask for any cracks.

"I'm fine." I say shaking her off

She backs up a bit giving me some space.

"Still mad about her cheating on you?" she asks

"No. No I don't know, okay, this entire week was just shit for me okay?!" I yell at her, "Annie cheated on me, we nearly all died, Marco nearly died twice and now this shit."

She just sits there looking at me, gunshots and explosions echoes off in the distance.

"Look, I know I may have looked all fine and shit but no I'm not fine." I say, "I didn't even get the chance to ask her why she cheated on me."

We sit there for a minute until Charlie checks her earpiece.

"This is Charlie, Ghost team 117 does anyone read me?"

She repeats saying the same thing a couple of times before giving up.

"Nothing, we need to get higher to get some kind of connection, or we can walk to our next destination." says Charlie

"Walk to our next destination, it'll be easier since I have a map of this place." I tell her

We slide down to the bottom of the mountain and stop a stream of water.

"I suppose we can take off our gas mask for now." says Charlie

I take off the mask to wash my face with the stream of water. Charlie takes off her mask but doesn't take off her mask.

"Are you done?" she asks

"Yea, let's go. We need to head west." I tell her

We start walking along side the stream of water for about an hour, walking up and down hills, though rivers. We even stopped to see the view of a canyon, with a valley in between the canyons, it looked just like Black Canyon.

We walked for another hour until finally, we get to a mountain that was blocking our path.

"Is there a shortcut?" asks Charlie

"No, walking around it would probably take 6 hours. Walking through it will be faster but I think it'll be harder." I reply

Then we got no choice." says Charlie

We start walking up the side of the mountain, trying our best to not slip and fall from either snow or rocks.

We continue up the mountain for like 2 hours until the sun started setting so we took a break on a cliff facing the plains at the bottom of the mountain.

Charlie sits next to me and watches the sunset with me.

"Sorry for yelling at you before." I tell her

She doesn't respond so I continue talking.

"All my life wanted to find out the truth about things. But this isn't the truth I wanted to learn, I thought the truth would bring me some comfort or happiness in my life."

I sigh as I stop talking to her and we sit there for a couple of minutes in silence until she breaks it.

"Do you want the truth?" she asks

"What do you mean?" I ask

She turns and looks at me deep into my eyes.

"Why I cheated on you?"

I look at her with complete confusion.

'What the hell is she talking about?'

She removes her hoodie revealing a messy blonde hair bun sticking out of the back of her mask.

She then takes off her mask and her earpiece, revealing her identity her true identity.

"Annie?"

She then takes something out both her eyes and puts them in a small container. She looks at me again, the sun shining her eyes making them beautiful.

"What? What are you-"

"I'm sorry Eren, but you have to listen to me." she cuts me off

I nod in acknowledgement.

"I had an affair with Bertholdt during my warrior training program. But we had a rough relationship so I ended it, I only wanted to be friends. But back at West Virginia I talked to Bertholdt and Reiner because after all they were the friends I knew for a long time. But Bertholdt pulls me aside back at the base in Japan and says he wants me to feel safe and happy. I knew I should have stopped him but I just didn't know what to do."

I look at her with complete shock and confusion. Part of me wanted to leave her, the other half wanted to forgive her.

"I was ordered to hide my identity from you so that you don't attack me." she continues, "I'm really sorry, I knew I should have stopped him but I didn't and I'm sorry for acting stupid and selfish. These past 2 weeks were extremely hard for me to hide myself from you."

I honestly don't know what to do, especially because I felt so hurt but now this.

"I'm not asking for your forgiveness because I know that I did something wrong and I understand if you don't want to be with me. I just want start over."

'No I can't take it'

I lean in and kiss her, surprising her but she immediately goes along with it. I kept kissing her but Annie kisses me with even more force making me fall backwards. She gets on top of me and still continues to kiss me, I gently hold her waist with one hand and the other hand to prevent me from falling backwards entirely as I kiss her back. Our tongues dancing in our mouths, exchanging saliva from each of our mouths. She held onto my face gently as we made out for at least 5 minutes before stopping to catch our breathes.

"I forgive you Annie, but just promise me you won't do that again."

She smiles as a tear falls down her cheek.

"I promise." she replies

I smile back at her and we go back to making out for 2 minutes until Ghost's voice comes through my headset.

"Eren, Charlie, this is Captain, please respond."

I separate my lips from Annie, but we still stayed the way we were.

"This is Eren, I'm with Annie." I reply

"For fuck's sake, are you guys okay, wait did you just say Annie?" he asks

"Yes sir, we're okay and yes I said Annie." I reply smiling at Annie and she smiles back at me.

"So, you figured out. Anyways we got you on our radar and we're sending a chopper over, ETA 10 minutes. When you hear a helicopter nearby, pop a flare." says Ghost

"Understood sir." I reply

"Good, Ghost out."

Once I stop talking with Ghost, Annie kisses me again and we make out again, the feeling of her soft lips never getting old. She dominates me her tongue checking every corner of my mouth and counting my teeth. We separate again after 5 minutes to catch our breath and she smiles at me.

"You know that I love you right?" she asks

"Of course I do." I whisper while smiling

I hear a chopper nearby so she gets off of me and I pop a flare.

"Are you going to tell the others?" I ask Annie as I grab my gun from the gear.

"Not until you like are comfortable." replies Annie, "Plus I don't want Bertholdt doing the same shit."

She begins to put on her disguise again, the Annie disappearing and now standing there was Charlie.

The chopper comes into view and it lands right next to us. Some Sentinels get off and set up a perimeter while we enter the helicopter. We set off back to our original destination in silence but Annie, well Charlie, held my hand throughout the entire ride.

We land near the bottom of a hill and we all get off. Ghost was there waiting for us, so we approach him.

"I'm glad you guys are okay but right now we have one last mission." says Ghost

He leads us through the camp and into a tent with Ghost team and Scout team inside.

"Eren!" yells Mikasa

She runs up to me and hugs me.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" she asks

"No I'm okay." I reply

"I was so worried about you." says Mikasa

"I have some good news." says Ghost

I approach the table with the others.

"The Russian President surrendered, the war is over a peace treaty was signed." says Ghost

Ghost team immediately starts cheering and hugging each other.

"But I do have some bad news." says Ghost

The team stops cheering and falls back into formation

"The treaty doesn't go into effect until 12 hours later." says Ghost, "So we have one last mission."

"What?" asks Bomber

"We have an entire regiment approaching us."

The entire tent was quiet.

"What do you mean?" ask Marksman

"We need to hold them off." says Ghost

"The US rangers are going to be in this too right?" asks Kit

"Only one battalion is going to stay." replies Kit

"Armory, air support?" asks Erwin

"We have all of them." replies Ghost, "But we are still outnumbered and it appears they're going to have the beast titan along with them."

"Zeke." growls Levi

"But we only have three available titan shifters, Bertholdt can't fight this one." says Hange

"He is." says Marksman, "It'll be much easier."

"But he can also destroy our forces by accident." says Ghost

"But we can use him as a bomb, put him where the enemies are approaching then he can blow them away." says Phantom

"Yes we can do that." says Erwin

"But if you think about, they're going to bring a whole army of titans." says Mike, "What are three shifters going to do?"

"Actually you have four." says Annie

"What?" asks Reiner

Annie takes off her disguise and everyone gasps in shock.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" growls Mikasa

"Helping out Eren." says Annie

"Eren you knew?" asks Armin

"Just found out a couple of minutes ago." I reply

"But will this be a fighting chance?" asks Historia

"If we plan well then yes." I reply, "I already sent a couple of squads to set up mines and traps throughout ever route towards this hill."

"The trenches are nearly done." says Javelin

"Good." says Ghost, "I want the tanks positioned evenly on every side of this hill. Every mortar we have on top of this hill, every sniper with it."

"When will they be here?" asks Marksman

"2 hours." replies

The entire tent bursts into chatter.

"How are we supposed to hold this hill for 8 hours?" asks Marksman, "This won't be like last time, these are Russians, not Chinese. They have titans, a titan shifter that can fucking control titans."

"Captain!" a Sentinel officer comes into the tent.

"What is it?" asks Ghost

"Our squads are back but..." he stops talking and by the looks in his eyes it didn't look good.

"Speak." says Ghost

"Out of the 3 squads we sent," continues the Sentinel officer, "only one made it back in each squad."

Ghost leaves the tent and we all follow him out to three wounded Sentinels.

"What happened?" asks Ghost

"We were setting up the traps and once we were done we left, but after 20 minutes of running back, someone attacks us, she took out my entire squad in a blink of an eye. I was the only one and she stabs me in the shoulder but releases me telling me to you something." says the first wounded soldier, "She said, 'Tell your Captain that today is the day where your entire squad will be killed right in front of your eyes.'"

"Recon." whispers Kit

"Captain! We have an enemy messenger." yells a Sentinel

Captain walks across the trenches and there standing at the bottom of the hill was Recon with a squad of Russian soldiers.

Ghost's POV

"Stay here." I tell the others

I walk down the hill and approach her until we were at least 6 feet apart.

"I hope you got your message from your Sentinel." says Recon

"Only takes one man to tell the story doesn't it?" I ask

"You learned." replies Recon

"What do you want?" I ask

"I could give you a chance to surrender, you and the entire battalion there." says Recon, "Then maybe I'll show you some kind of mercy."

"I don't think that's an option." I reply

"Then we will attack and make sure not a single one of you will be alive to tell the story." says Recon

"We will continue to respond to your attacks." I snap back

We stand still for a couple of seconds before Recon chuckles.

"I hope you know your intel is wrong." says Recon

"What do you mean?" I ask

"I'm a commander of a regiment, and I brought my regiment to partake in this fight."

"What?"

"You'll be going against two regiments." says Recon, "Are you still going to fight?"

'Two fucking regiments, are you serious?'

"I don't think surrender is an option we can take." I reply, "Neither is talking."

"You made your choice." Recon turns to leave but stops, "Don't ask for mercy when I kill your squad in front of your eyes."

She leaves and turn to leave too.

"What did she say?" asks Marksman

I stand there in silence, looking at Recon was she walks into the forest near the hill.

"We're going against two fucking regiments." I reply

"You're kidding me." says Phantom

Kit collapses onto his knees and shakes his head.

"What are you going to do?" asks Erwin

"Surrender isn't an option, neither is talking." I reply

"But this is suicide!" yells Hange

"If we lose this battle, the Russian President is most likely going to call off the peace treaty." I reply, "Every country will continue to burn."

I leave the group and enter the tent with Phantom and I let out a long sigh.

"I don't how to lead these men." I tell Phantom, "It if was Malvik here he would know what to do."

Phantom cups my cheek and turns my face to look at me.

"They'll follow you anyways." says Phantom

I look at her and nod.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 hour and 30 minutes later

(I got this speech off a Korean movie called "The Great Battle")

"Everyone listen up!" I yell

Every Sentinel and Ranger stops what they were doing and gathers around me. I climb up a Humvee and look at every soldier around.

"When we heard that the Russian army was coming, all of you asked me. 'What are you going to do Captain?'" I yell, "And I said, I was going to fight. What else can I do?"

Every Sentinel and Ranger looks at me with sad and scared eyes.

"I didn't learn how to kneel, I didn't learn how to bow, I didn't learn how to surrender. What I learned, when you need to fight you fight." I continue, "When someone tries to steal something you cherish, you fight for it! And that moment is right now!"

All the worried, scared eyes of the soldiers began to fade away and turn to determined eyes.

"Look around you!"

Everybody turns and looks at each other.

"These are the people you cherish! Your brothers, families, loved ones are the ones you cherish!"

Everyone looks at one another, some even hug or give them a handshake.

"Let's fight to protect them!" I yell

Marksman lifts up his sniper rifle and looks at the others.

"Let's fight!" yells Marksman

The entire battalion roars with Marksman, waving their guns or their fists in the air.

"LET'S FIGHT!"