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Doctor Who/Attack on Titan - The Last Siege Part 8

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The sun was just starting to go down as Eren, Armin, Mikasa and the Eleventh Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and back into the alley. They’d only gone a few feet before Connie Springer literally ran into the four of them with an important message: the titan the Doctor had subdued earlier that day had started to try and break out of the net, and Eren’s squad that had stayed to watch it had no choice to but to kill it.

The Doctor was upset at first, but when told that there was no other way they could keep it alive without it harming others he quietly nodded in agreement with the decision.

“Eren, Mikasa; go with Connie and deliver your report to your captain,” the Doctor told the two teens. “Tell Smith I’ll deliver my final report to him in the morning.”

Eren and Mikasa nodded, understanding that the Doctor wanted them to tell Smith about the incident with the titan, and nothing of what happened afterward because they still weren’t entirely sure who in the higher ranks they could trust.

The three of them took off back to Smith’s temporary headquarters, leaving Armin and the Doctor to try and find out where Annie was being held.

As they walked down the street together toward a temporary detention facility, they began to talk about how the 3D gear worked and how the Doctor wanted to try it out for himself.

“Maybe you could use those papers of yours to convince Captain Smith to let you use the training facility,” Armin half joked.

“Probably,” the Doctor chuckled back. “Though I would like to practice in my regular clothes. These trousers are starting to bind on me.”

There was no response. The Doctor looked to his left but Armin wasn’t there. He then stopped in his tracks and looked back behind him down the alley. Then under the long shadow of a building to the Doctor’s left was Armin, struggling for breath as a young woman with blonde hair wrapped his neck in a vise-like grip with her left arm, and held a knife against it with her right hand.

“And you must be Annie then,” the Doctor said casually as he walked up toward them.

“Take another step and I cut his throat,” Annie hissed at him, her blue eyes full of icy hatred.
She had ditched her military uniform and had stolen a set black trousers and an eggplant hoodie from a civilian’s laundry line in order to blend in with the crowd. However, thanks to Eren’s description and the Doctor’s own intuition, it wasn’t difficult for him to figure out who she was.

“You have no business being here, Doctor,” Annie continued, glaring up at the Time Lord. “You need to leave right now or else everyone is going to die a lot faster. And it’ll start with this little worm right here.”

Armin could only respond by choking for air and looking at the Doctor, his eyes begging him for any kind of help while his hands tried in vain to pry Annie’s arm off of his neck.

The Doctor simply shook his head and said,

“You really think a threat like that is going to make me leave here? After all that I’ve found out?”

“You will if you value their lives,” Annie growled back, pressing the knife against Armin’s neck, and drawing a tiny bit of blood.

“But I do,” the Doctor said as he stepped toward her. “And that’s why I’m not leaving until I get this sorted out. And you’re not going to kill Armin or anyone else either, do you know why?”

Annie started to back away, her grip tightening around Armin’s neck, but for some reason the Doctor’s words had her feeling as if she was frozen back in her crystal cocoon again.

The Doctor then leaned in towards Annie’s face, his ancient green eyes meeting her young blue ones.

“Because you’re scared, Annie Leonhart,” the Time Lord said in a low, serious tone. “You’re a scared little girl.”

“SHUT UP,” Annie snarled up at him, her grip on Armin tightening even though her grip on the knife was loosening and the Doctor’s words had begun to cut her heart up like a red hot scalpel.

“Annie,” the Doctor interrupted her, starting to sound more and more like a parent. “You may be scared, but don’t let that fear keep you from doing what you know in your heart to be the right thing.”

The Doctor then took a step back, his eyes still locked on Annie while Armin’s lips started to turn blue. For a long time, Annie just looked back at the Doctor. Everything he had just said to her had been true, and it hurt. It hurt her like nothing she’d felt before. Then she felt something hot stinging the corner of her eyes; they were tears. She then let go of Armin, shoved him back toward the Doctor, threw the hood of her sweatshirt over her head and disappeared down an adjacent alley, headed for an abandoned part of Trost.

Armin staggered for a few steps before the Doctor caught him and helped him kneel down on the cobblestone road as he desperately tried to get air back into his lungs.

When he was able to breathe again, Armin clumsily got up and looked down the alley that Annie had run down.

“C’mon, let’s go after her,” he said as he started toward the alley.

“No, just let her go,” the Doctor replied calmly.

Armin stopped dead in his tracks, in complete shock at what the Doctor had just said.

“Wh-what on earth for,” Armin shouted in disbelief.

“Think about it Armin, she’s got nowhere else to go,” the Doctor continued. “If she goes back to her associates she’s dead, and she’ll only be captured again if she goes back to the military. We’re the only two people she’ll be able to turn to now.”

While it all made sense, Armin still couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He also couldn’t believe that the Doctor could be so nonchalant about the whole situation.

“S-sometimes I just don’t get you Doctor,” Armin huffed glaring up at the Time Lord. “You say that you want to help us but you don’t seem to want to do whatever is necessary to rid the world of the titans! I’m more than willing to do whatever it takes to ensure humanity’s survival, and I know a lot of other people are too!”

The Doctor just stood there listening and watching the blond teen rant about “doing whatever was necessary.” He’d seen that look in Armin’s eyes before, as a matter of fact he was all too familiar with it, and it scared and angered him at the same time.

“Let me ask you something Armin,” the Doctor replied in a low, dark tone. “If you are willing to do whatever it takes to save humanity, even if it means sacrificing your own, what good will you have accomplished if you rid the world of the titans but have nothing human left in you or your friends once you’re done? Aren’t you no better off than your enemy? You need to take a good look in the mirror and see if you can live with the person you’re becoming.”

It was as if a fifteen meter class titan had stomped on Armin’s very soul; and his angry expression slowly melted into one of shocked horror as the Doctor’s words sunk in.  What had happened to him? He was willing to throw away everything that made him human, including capturing and torturing a young woman for information, all to win and survive. And for the first time in a while, he was asking himself if it was worth it.

“You’re right, Doctor,” Armin started to sob. “I haven’t liked the person looking back at me in the mirror. As a matter of fact I’m terrified at what I’m becoming.”

He then buried his hands in his face, ashamed that he was starting to break down like this.

“Wha-what do I do,” Armin cried. “How do I get the person that I was back?”

The Eleventh Doctor then placed his hands on Armin’s shoulder and continued in a softer tone.

“Armin, we all have a choice in life; and in your heart you know how to get back the person that you truly are. All you have to do is make that choice.”

Armin’s watery eyes looked up into the Doctor’s understanding ones, his tear streaked face full of anxious hope. Could it really be that simple?

“I’m only being hard on you because I know what it’s like to feel like you’re losing everything,” the Doctor continued, his expression changing from sympathetic to remorseful. “I know what it’s like to be on the losing end of a war for your survival; and I’ve seen what sacrificing everything that makes you good and decent does in a war like that. Because of that attitude, my home is gone. I saw my entire home burn because someone was willing to do whatever it took to destroy their enemies. And I never, EVER want to see anyone go through what I’ve gone through ever again.”

The Doctor paused, his expression changing again from remorseful to stony, almost as if he was trying not to remember something. He then patted Armin on the shoulder and then told him he should try and catch up with the others.

“I’m going back to my quarters,” he added flatly. “I have to see if my clothes are dry yet.”

He then turned around and started to walk back toward his quarters, leaving a crying, red-faced Armin standing alone in the alley.

“What happened Doctor,” Armin called after the Time Lord who didn’t pay him any mind. “What happened to your home?”

End of Part 8
NOTE: "Doctor Who" and its characters (c) the BBC and its respective owners
"Attack on Titan" and its characters (c) Hajime Isayama

Happy Canada Day guys! Canada 
I did my best to tie in some of the Doctor's past with what's happening in the world of AoT. I'm also hoping I got the personalities right as well. 
For all the horrible things that Annie's done, deep down I believe she's just a scared kid. Plus I've always wanted to write the Doctor saying this to her.
Hope you enjoy, and thanks for all the support! :glomp:

-VicodinFlavoredMints ;)

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oceangirl1's avatar
Oh god the Doctor's speech to Armin at the end was beautiful.