Chapter 31 - The Shifters

" Reiner!! Are you ok!!?? Reiner!!" (Bertholdt)

" *gasp* *pant* *gasp* *deep breath*" (Reiner)

" What happened? What wrong?!!" said Bertholdt while holding onto a pale-faced Reiner who was breathing hard.

" Urhghhhg*vomit*" (Reiner)

" Oh god! We need to get you to the hospital!!" (Bertholdt)

" No!!!!!.....Urghhg.....don't.....we need to....urhgh....finish what we...started!" (Reiner)

" Who or what did this to you!!??" asked Bertholdt with worry.

" I...I.....don't know....one moment....I was trying to....destroy the wall....the next...some kind of spike...urghgh" replied Reiner as he remembered the sensation again and vomited.

" Take your time, take a deep breath," said Bertholdt while rubbing the back of Reiner.

" Ugh....It was.....it came out of nowhere....it went straight up my.....urghhgh" replied Reiner while shivering a lot and vomiting.

" You...you...have to find....Annie.....we need her help....I can't do anything...I can't...." said Reiner before fainting.

" Reiner? Reiner!! Please wake up! Reiner!!!!!!" shouted Bertholdt while shaking Reiner violently. Reiner didn't wake up and this started to make Bertholdt afraid, despair. Finally, he decided to do what Reiner told him before fainting.

" Got it, don't worry I'll go find Annie, I'm sure she will help us, I'm sure of it! Don't you worry I'll be right back," replied Bertholdt frantically and placed Reiner on a bed. He came out from the underground hiding place and started to go search for Annie. His mind was shaken, seeing the state of Reiner, the recent behaviors of Annie and the plan that was starting to fail, fear started to seep into his mind. He couldn't think rationally anymore and started descending into madness.

[I don't know what happened to Reiner but I must help him, yes help him, help. I must not let what happened to Marcel happen again. Must find Annie, I must, she would know what to do, yes, she would, she was the brain we were the brawns. She didn't leave us, no she didn't, no. Arghhh...wait, what was that.....no.....yes...Annie, brains, brawns. Asriel.....F.u.c.kin Asriel...]

[That bastard Asriel, I will kill him when I get the chance, chance! There's no way Annie would fall in love with him, she must have been acting, acting...Yes, that's right. Acting. She must've been undercover to get information from that bastard. F.u.c.k.i.n.g bastard, bastard, how dare he touch Annie like that, that! I'll make him pay, pay, pay....Don't worry Annie I'm coming to help you, yes, help, you won't need to keep acting anymore. I'll save you, yes save. After that, if you don't want to continue the mission, that's fine, we can go back together, together. We can get married, live in a beautiful house with our children, we can live peacefully, no need to think about Reiner or anyone else, just the two of us. Yes, just us. Us.] thought Bertholdt with a twisted smile on his face.

Bertholdt went to the headquarters first to see if she was there, but when he reached there, he saw that the headquarters was crawling with titans trying to get in. He didn't see anyone else around the HQ so he started to go towards the frontlines. On his way, he was intercepted by Connie, Sasha and the rest.

" Hey! Bertholdt, over here!" (Connie)

" Hmm?" murmured Bertholdt as he turned around to face Connie.

" Hey man, I'm glad we ran into you, where's your squad? Why are you alone? You ok?" (Connie)

" Yes.....no....I mean yes....right.....my squad.....they are at the back while protecting the wall, I was sent to find Annie for help," Bertholdt replied in a barely audible voice amidst his deliriousness.

" Huh? Whatever man, we are currently trying to group up with the rest of the cadets to figure out what we should do. You should come with us, maybe you'll find what you need there." (Connie)

" Yes... right...." (Bertholdt)

[Something doesn't seem right. I have a bad feeling about Bertholdt, he seems like he is losing it. I better be careful.] thought Christa and followed the rest to the meeting point. After some time they made it to the place where the rest of the 104th cadets are.

" Asriel!!" Christa smiled brightly and shouted cutely while jumping into Asriel's embrace when she spotted him. Asriel was talking with the rest of the cadets and his girls when he heard Christa's cute yell. He was surprised by her hug but returned the favor with a warm smile. Bertholdt was releasing a lot of killing intent towards Asriel without even masking his desires. When he saw Annie, he was smiling like a fanatic, longing, and l.u.s.ting for her. He decided to wait for an opportunity to talk with Annie and also kill Asriel.

" Heya, Christa, did you miss me?" asked Asriel with a soft voice. Asriel noticed Bertholdt's killing intent and his look towards Annie but decided to ignore it. [Oh? It seems like someone wants to lose their anal v.i.r.g.i.nity but wait, maybe he already did it with Reiner hahaha....ahh this is interesting, I guess seeing Reiner in a bad state made him lose it, oh wait, ahh I see heh, the last straw was her haha.......Try and touch her and I guarantee that you will suffer worse than what I did to Reiner.] thought Asriel.

" Mn!" replied Christa energetically as she rub her head into his chest.

" Christa, you do know that we are here as well, right?" (Annie)

" Eh! Ahhhh....umm....I.....I...fuwaaa....." Christa realized what she was doing and quickly separated while stuttering with a red face and steam coming out of her head. She missed him too much that she forgot where she was. The other cadets were looking at them with different feelings, some were pissed that they were so easy going and even flirting when death is all around while others were just jealous about them and some even cried as they saw their goddess was already taken. Jean and Sasha just ignored them but seeing their actions lessened their fears a bit while Connie was occupied thinking about something. None of them spoke up though since they were quite afraid of Asriel.

Even though Armin decided to move on, he still regretted not saving Eren when he could. Mina saw him moping around so she decided to cheer him up while also trying to cheer herself. She was also extremely saddened by what happened to her friends, she felt powerless, weak....pathetic, all she wanted to do was go home, shut herself up in her room, hide under her blankets and cry her hearts out.

She wanted to forget everything that happened but what Asriel said made her realize that crying and hiding won't solve any problems. So she decided to steel herself and move on, she must avenge her friends, she must survive so that her friends' death were not in vain. She must stay strong, for others and for herself. Armin was grateful towards Mina for trying to cheer him up and decided to stop moping around and waited to see what the others would do.

" As much as I want to pamper and spoil you girls, we have bigger problems right now," Asriel smiled a bit and changed into a serious mode while petting Christa who was enjoying it way too much. Annie and Mikasa were extremely jealous of Christa right now, so they took Christa away from Asriel. Christa tried to struggle but it was futile and was helplessly dragged away. Asriel had a wry smile as he watched his girls' antics.

Asriel looked around and saw that everyone was feeling down and had lost hope, so he decided to raise their morals a bit.

" Alright guys, listen up." (Asriel)

When everyone heard Asriel they all turned serious, stopped crying and quite down to listen. They subconsciously treated him as their leader since he was releasing a bit of his aura as the king of all titans, making him look dignified. He was the top 1 amongst the cadets as well and also because he killed a lot of titans on his way here with relative ease and speed that they now relied on him.