Attack on Fortress

Attack on Fortress: Chapter 15 - Putting the Prep in Prep Time

As the locomotive rowed down the line with its wheels squeaking along, Eren noticed Pixis looking on in wonder. "To think? Using steam and pressure like that to power such a mechanical workhorse? It's marvellous in its simplicity!" Pixis praised.

Pixis's praise soon turned into a questioning look. His eyes lowered, and his hand rested on his chin as he thought something through. "How come the Engineer Corps never came up with it?" He pondered.

"Too bad it came from him", Eren spoke, looking over his shoulder and back down to Engineer chewing the head off another Garrison soldier. "He treats them like his lap dogs. Just because he's a key player in the operation, he thinks he owns the place."

"Let him prattle on, Yeager. We need him focused on the task at hand," Pixis firmly told him.

Eren sighed. "I know, sir. I do, it's just that... I can't stop myself from feeling disappointed by him. By all of them," Eren admitted.

Pixis raised a brow in surprise. "Disappointed? I figured you were still livid after your torture at their hands, and the fact that they hurt our people. Some of which, I recall, are close to you. Friends and family."

Eren nodded his head. "I still am, sir, but I just can't help it. I look at the Sentries, at their weapons and that locomotive. All I see is wasted potential. They could've given humanity all of it. Instead, they chose to use it against us."

Eren's downtrodden look turned upwards, catching the setting sun getting close to disappearing over Wall Rose. "They didn't come to us for help. They... they were scared. This has to have happened to them before. Why else would they do what they did?"

Pixis hummed and joined Eren in leaning against the rail. Eren noticed out of the corner of his eye Pixis' escorts were tense. It didn't escape Eren that the escorts were constantly on edge with Pixis and themselves being close to Eren. The sight of them flinching and their hands drifting ever closer to their weapons made Eren thankful that the level-headed, though eccentric, Pixis was in charge and not them. Pixis asked sceptically, "you truly believe they were too frightened to come to us? The same men that stood against you in your Titan form?"

Eren thought his words over for a brief moment. "Not scared. That's the wrong word. Controlled to do so? Corralled? Conditioned? Conditioned, they were trained to act that way..." Eren chose to look Pixis in the eyes. "What world do they live in that could justify, in their minds, that what they did was right? Who told them that what they did was the right thing to do?"

"I truly believe they knew right from wrong, Yeager. They made their choice as soon as they decided to kill our own people. I understand how you feel about their wasted potential. I can see that too," Pixis had a saddened, almost depressing tone of voice when talking about the REDs' morality.

None of which held a candle to his next few sentences. With what Eren was convinced is a heavy heart, Pixis told him. "As much as it pains me, I'm going to grant a stay of execution for the Engineer and the Medic. Literally."

Eren gave him a surprised look. Pixis' words were heavy and without doubt. Clearly the Commander had been thinking about this for a while, Eren thought. Maybe it was this decision that made him drink his second bottle of wine dry, and not the upcoming Operation? "The Engineer has more than proven his worth, and the Medic is about to. The rest are loose cannons, ready to fire from one stray gust of wind. As much as I would like to see all of them hang for what they did, I cannot doom tens of thousands for the sake of a few hundred's deserved sense of justice," Pixis assured Eren with his reasoning.

Eren could see the logic in Pixis' decision. As much as he wanted to tell the Commander otherwise, he was reminded of the Sentries below him spewing forth red-hot death and the locomotive inside the warehouse that was swiftly supplying that death atop the Walls, ready to be transported to the frontlines. All of these things were made in under an hour. Eren knew that if they lost the Engineer, they would lose the knowledge to turn the tables on the Titans. That is what Eren was assured of. In response, Eren gave a steady nod to Pixis. "I understand, sir. Although seven out of nine isn't too bad... that's if your partition works..." Eren turned his head and nodded in the REDs' general direction. "Or if they'll even agree to it- Hell, if they'll come quietly and let it happen."