[center][h1]Trost[/h1]
[@HecateProxy][@Poi][@Wolverbells][@SheriffLlama][@LordVoldemort][@Solace][@LetMeDoStuff][@FrostedCaramel]
[h2][color=7ea7d8]Lauren Jones[/color][/h2][/center]

[color=Gray]She'd gone, again.  Off into danger and deliberately ill-equipped to face it.  Lauren lacked the strength to call after Mora, felt too stunned as she realised what she was doing and just let her swap gas canisters with Connor and then take her own.  It made sense to her, logically.  Tactically, it was the best decision they could make with their minimal resources but it terrified her in a way she could never express to watch Mora rush off to face Titans with little to no gas and alone.  There would be no one to save her, like she had saved Lauren.

But she understood.  Had she not done the same thing, recklessly charging an Abnormal Titan from the front in a desperate and foolhardy attempt to save one of her team?  An experienced leader, a more level-minded leader, would have sacrificed that one soldier and focused on removing the threat before them and retained order and discipline.  She was neither and had reaped the results, knowing not whether her efforts had even made any difference; for all she knew her entire squad was dead because she had acted rashly rather than accept the inevitable death before her and taken steps to limit it elsewhere.  But she was not like that, she never could be.

And neither could Mora, so she understood.  She said nothing as she watched Mora leap off the building to go and warn the others, knowing that if their roles were reversed she would have made the same decision, come to the same conclusion.  It was pure selfishness that made her want to keep those close to her within arm's reach, where she could [i]know[/i] that they were safe but they were soldiers now, that was no longer an option.

[color=7ea7d8][i]Come back safe, please.[/i][/color]

[color=7ea7d8]"Connor, let's go."[/color] She slowly levered herself up, leaning against the chimney behind her and pushing herself up with her feet, careful not to twist or knock her injured side.  The bleeding underneath her shirt was slight and had slowed but now the material was sticking to her skin, peeling away and sending jolts of pain up her bruised and battered body.

There was another move they could make that was more than simply running away.  She may have been injured, may have been unable to fight the Titans anymore, but she was a soldier and she was not yet useless.

[color=7ea7d8]"Take me to HQ.  We'll act as the central point for the others to retreat to."[/color] She spoke quietly but confidently, still forced to breath lightly to reduce the pain in her chest.  She could see the hesitation in his eyes and assumed it was because she was asking the opposite of what Mora had ordered.  [color=7ea7d8]"We don't have the gas to get to the Wall and then up it and the gates will be closed by now.  Our only option is to get to HQ and find a safe place to gather everyone else.  I'm not going to be a liability for everyone else and risk your life for nothing.  Now, let's go."[/color]

Awkwardly they travelled towards HQ and stopped on a tower which she pointed out when it came into view, remembering it from the few days they had spent in Trost.  It formed part of a church building but was set back from any of the larger streets which the Titans mostly used, preferring the lack of obstacles as they tramped through the town.  The tower gave a good view of the surrounding area and had plenty of room for what remained of the cadets to assemble.

Lauren stepped away from Connor, looking over the wrecked town with numerous fires raging across the battlefield.  How had they started, she wondered? The Titans did not wield any weapons, did not understand fire so how had so many sprung up?  She shook her head, ridding her mind of unnecessary thoughts and reached for the last of the flare guns and fitted in the red signal.  Firing it up into the sky directly above them and watched the plume spiralling up followed by the cartridge exploding its burst of colour so bright against the overcast sky.

[color=7ea7d8]"Your squad's gone, I don't know what's happened to mine.  I wonder if everyone else is in the same state we're in."[/color]  She said to Connor, her eyes drawn instinctively towards the left flank.  The place she was meant to be holding, leading her team against the Titans but she had failed miserably.

For the longest time no one arrived and she began to worry that the signal was not clear enough, that the cadets were just falling back, waiting for a refill team which would never come.  She bit her lip, leaning heavily against the stone crenellations running around the tower, eyes darting across the city roofs in search of any small figures zipping along with their Gears toward them.  She finally heard the clunk of grapples hitting the side of the tower and the telltale hiss of gas before two figures up and landed on the flat tower top.

She recognised Gregory, remembering how he had come to her after her injury on the mountaintop and thanked her and apologised profusely for getting him to safety.  Despite her lack of memory of the incident she'd accepted his thanks awkwardly and he'd kept in touch, often breaking off from his group of friends, many who looked ashamed at their cowardice in leaving him behind during the avalanche, to speak to her.  With him was a young woman she vaguely recognised but had barely spoken to.  They both had the drawn faces of those who had seen comrades they'd grown to know over years of training die gruesomely before them.

[color=a36209]"Lauren! I figured you'd still be - you're hurt!"[/color] Gregory's wide smile and palpable relief at first seeing her were wiped from his face when he saw the way she was leaning heavily against the wall and the blood dripping lazily down her side.  She warded him off, checking their gas reserves and receiving the grim news which she had expected: barely any left.

[color=7ea7d8]"Listen, we're safe for now up here so we'll wait for any others to arrive.  We need to get into HQ somehow, the refill teams are probably dead or at least trapped in there."[/color] She nodded to the fortress-like building clearly visible two streets over from them, surrounded by several smaller Titans which clawed at the walls in their clumsy attempts to get at their prey inside.

[color=7ea7d8][i]So now we wait.[/i][/color]

Her hand strayed to her side and she felt her strength slipping away.  They didn't have long before the Titans would start to congregate around their rallying point and after that their already slim chances would become even slimmer.  She glanced up at the sky, trying to gauge the time and decided she'd give the others ten minutes before they made their move; it was as long as she dared to do nothing.[/color]