Atomic Bomb

"Armin!" exclaimed Lara. "Where are you going?!"

She was still shaken by her mother's parting. When she least noticed, she saw that Armin had followed Hange, not saying a word, leaving Lara open-mouthed and not understanding a thing.

Then, Lara realized what he was doing. Armin had followed Hange and asked her if he could try to negotiate with Bertholdt.

"Bertholdt!" shouted Armin, with hooks attached to a wall. "Stop right there!"

A few meters ahead, Bertholdt did stop, staring at him. Lara and her Squad watched the scene, perplexed by Armin's sudden actions.

"Bertholdt!" he shouted once more. "Let's talk this over!"

"If I agree to talk," Bertholdt shouted back, "would you all agree to die?!"

Everyone widened their eyes.

"We only want two simple things!" Bertholdt continued to shout. "We want to capture Eren and annihilate all humans in the Walls! That's the harsh reality, Armin! This decision has already been made!"

Then, Armin asked the question that was on everyone's mind:

"Who decided any of that?!"

Lara had to hold herself from shouting an "EXACTLY!"

"I decided it!" replied Bertholdt, at the top of his lungs. "All your lives will end right here and right now!"

Lara and her friends looked at each other, as if saying, "How dare he?!"

"That's very unfortunate!" shouted Armin, in reply. "I was really hoping to stop hearing Annie's screams!"

Here, we have to remember that Bertholdt liked Annie, so Armin started using this tactic a while ago, of threatening him by saying that she was being tortured, because, as incredible as it may seem, she was still inside the hardened crystal she created around her body.

"The only one who can save her from the Military Police," continued Armin, "and from being tortured, is you! At this rate, she'll end up as feed for the pigs!"

"Nice one, Armin!" thought Lara, confident.

"Fine by me!" replied Bertholdt, flying off with his ODM gear. "Go ahead! If they really have her, that is!"

That was definitely not the answer they were expecting.

"Dang it, Armin!" thought Lara, upset.

She then noticed that Bertholdt was approaching Armin, so she quickly snapped her fingers towards Mikasa, calling her out.

"Let's go!" exclaimed Lara. "Come with me, Mikasa! We need to catch Bertholdt!"

Armin tried to run off across a roof, but Bertholdt was faster and stopped right in front of him.

"What's the rush, Armin? Aren't we gonna talk?"

Armin drew his sword, but he was very apprehensive.

"Did you think that if you talked about Annie, I'd lose my cool again?" threatened Bertholdt. "Did you think it would be simple to deceive the meek and timid Bertholdt, so that he would let his guard down?"

While the two of them were talking, surreptitiously, Lara and Mikasa approached. Lara looked aside and spotted her mother, also sneaky, behind a building, ready to attack when needed, along with her Squad, which was slowly approaching the target. Unfortunately, Hange didn't see her back.

"Mikasa," whispered Lara, "did you understand everything?"

"Yes! Leave it with me…"

Bertholdt took a step forward, making Armin cringe.

"You do not fool me," said Bertholdt. "You're just buying time! This small talk is just for the soldiers to surround me and for the others to kill Reiner!"

Armin seemed very tense.

"I can tell it just by looking at you," continued Bertholdt. "You're shaking so much, you can't do a thing!"

"If you knew what I was doing, why didn't you stop talking to me?" asked Armin, still shaking.

Bertholdt stayed in silence.

"I wanted to see for myself if I could face you guys without feeling anguish and beg for forgiveness again…" he replied. "But, it seems that everything is fine now." Bertholdt then looked confident. "Yeah... I think of you all as my friends. And I will kill every one of you."

Lara couldn't believe the words that came out of that bastard's mouth.

Armin had an expression of great distress, as if those words hurt his heart.

"Is that because we are devils to you?" he asked, crestfallen.

"No..." answered Bertholdt, calmly. "None of you have done anything wrong, and you're not devils either."

"Then why are you doing this, you madman?!" thought Lara, anguished.

"But..." continued Bertholdt, "You all still have to die. That's all I have to say."

"That's enough…" whispered Lara. "Mikasa, now!"

Like a lightning, Mikasa flew after Bertholdt, ready to cut off his head. But, he was faster than she and blocked her blow. With the other sword, Mikasa ripped off his right ear.

Then, Bertholdt gave her a high kick, which Mikasa blocked with her arm, but ended up knocking her to the ground. He began to run towards Armin, and Mikasa threw a blade at Bertholdt, who again, blocked it masterfully.

Lara arrived at their side only to see Mikasa try to deliver one last blow at Bertholdt, before he flew away with his ODM gear. Armin was about to fly after him.

"No!" exclaimed Lara, holding him by the cloak. "Don't chase him!"

"He can transform at any time!" said Mikasa, putting herself in front of him.

"We need to keep our distance if we don't wanna get caught in the explosion!" added Lara.

"I don't think Bertholdt intends to transform yet..." said Armin, looking at the girls. "Because, if he does that here, the explosion could kill Reiner, too."

"We have to find a way to take Reiner as a hostage," replied Lara, "then, I bet we could fight him straight on with swords."

"You're both right," said Mikasa, who knelt on the floor. "But, it seemed like he had some sort of plan, though."

She was massaging her left arm.

"Are you alright?" asked Lara, placing her hand on her shoulder.

"I'll be," answered Mikasa, giving her a sad smile, and then she looked ahead. "But, I'm thinking... Was that the real Bertholdt? He seemed like a completely different person to me…"

"Me, too," replied Armin.

"I don't know him very well," said Lara, looking at Bertholdt still flying, "but, the short amount of time we spent together, he always treated me with great respect and seemed to be a very nice person." She took a deep breath. "What a sad outcome..."

At this moment, the three of them looked aside, for Hange's Squad had flown towards Reiner, while Bertholdt kept flying further and further away.

For a brief second, maybe even less than that, Hange looked back and managed to meet her daughter's eyes.

Instead of Lara giving her typical happy smile, her mouth dropped open in an expression of pure terror.

"MOM!!!" she screamed, with all her strength.

The last thing Lara could see was the huge flash of the Colossal Titan transformation, very close to where Hange's Squad was. She felt someone grab her green cloak and pull her off the roof towards the ground, for the Colossal Titan's explosion was so immense, that it looked like an atomic bomb.

After that, Lara saw nothing else.

Only darkness.