You Guys?!

It was already dusk when the Survey Corps returned to Trost at a fast pace. The sky was filled with shades of blue, purple, and orange, and there were many clouds in the sky.

With just a few meters left to reach the gate of the District, Lara squinted her eyes to see better, because she couldn't understand what was ahead of her.

In front of the group of fast soldiers, the Wall of Trost appeared to be destroyed, with cracks filling the sides of a gate that no longer existed. But the strangest thing was that, instead of a huge hole in the Wall, something was blocking it.

"Mike!" called Lara, looking at her companion, "Is that a…?"

"A rock?!" he completed, also looking at her, puzzled. "Like a boulder?!"

"Mom!" called out Lara, making Hange look back, "You can see better with your goggles, can you confirm it?"

"Yeah! Looks like it is… In fact, I believe that's a piece of the Wall! It has the same colors and textures."

As they approached what once was the outer gate of Trost, they were able to confirm their suspicions. Using the ODM gears, they climbed the Wall, bringing up the horses on a lift, and they finally could watch the chaos that was happening in front of them.

Now they understood why the sky was so cloudy. The District was a living hell. Smoke from evaporating Titans rose from all possible and unimaginable places, and you could see buildings and streets completely destroyed.

Hange, Levi, and Lara watched everything from the top of the Wall, open-mouthed. Lara felt her eyes fill with tears and her hands began to shake. Instinctively, she wedged herself between Levi and Hange, clutching at their cloaks. Her parents hugged her tightly, as if to protect their daughter from that horrific sight.

"My friends…" Lara silently cried, "My friends were here when we left…"

Hange and Levi quickly knelt down to look at their daughter face to face.

"What's the first thing I taught you, that you always remind me of?" asked Levi, holding Lara's back.

She looked at her father and took several deep breaths. A few soldiers ran past them three, already climbing down the Walls towards the District.

"You taught me to calm myself down in difficult situations," answered Lara.

"And…" completed Hange, placing her hand on her daughter's chest, to follow her breathing and imitating her movements, "I remember very well that you told us how your friends were excellent soldiers back in the Winter Training, remember?"

"Yeah!"

"So, what do we gotta do?" asked Levi.

"Focus on what matters now, which is eliminate the remaining Titans, right?"

"Good job, baby," Hange caressed her daughter's cheek. She stood up, looking to her right side. "I'll go to that direction. Lara, you go with your father."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Since Lara joined the Survey Corps, Erwin had made it very clear that she must strictly obey all orders from her superiors. And now that she was even the daughter of two soldiers, she owed them double obedience. But since Lara fully trusted her parents' decisions, she always gladly obeyed everything.

Before Hange dashed out, Levi grabbed her wrist, pulling her close to him. They intensively looked at each other for a few seconds. Levi felt the hard pounding of Hange's heart on her wrist, and for a brief moment, their bodies leaned forward, but they didn't have the courage to go on, because there were many soldiers around them.

"Stay safe, okay?" whispered Levi, worried.

"Take care of our daughter," Hange smiled.

"Always…"

"Hey!" Lara's voice was heard. They both looked down and realized that she was still between them, looking up. "Are we going or not? You two can kiss later!"

Hange and Levi let go of themselves, blushing, and each ran to one side, with Lara on the trail of her father. Hange looked back and saw that Levi was doing the same. They smiled at each other, hoping to meet again soon, safe and sound.

Levi barely ran a few meters before he stopped abruptly, looking to his left. His sudden stop caused Lara to bump into him, falling to the ground.

"Ouch, daddy!" she exclaimed, massaging her head, "Watch out!"

"Oops, baby! I'm sorry," said Levi, helping Lara stand up quickly, "Look over there! There are two huge Titans here by the gate and it looks like they're gonna attack someone!"

"So let's share!" replied Lara, already getting ready to release the ODM gear hooks, "You get that hideous mouth-opened one, and I'll get the other!"

They high-fived and flew majestically towards the Titans. As if they had settled it before, Lara and Levi took down both Titans at the same time, with the exact same moves.

When Lara landed on the ground, she got a terrible fright, nearly falling backwards again. Ahead of her were Mikasa, Eren, and Armin, completely stunned. Armin was holding an Eren who looked extremely weakened, with some red marks on his face. Behind them was a huge, fifteen-meter Titan, kneeling in front of the great boulder that blocked Trost's gate.

"But what the–" whispered Lara, her heart racing, "You guys…?!"

Eren, Armin, and Mikasa bewildered looked from Lara to Levi, who landed on top of the Titan's back he took down.

"The Wings…" mumbled Eren, with difficulty, "... of Freedom!"

"Hey, kids…" called Levi, "What the heck happened here?!"

"Oh!" shouted Lara, holding her head with both hands and hopping in place, "It's you, guys! I can't believe it, my God! Are you okay?! What happened?! Why are you here?!"

"Calm down, Lara," said Levi, appearing beside her and putting his hand on her back, "Now tell me, who are you?"

"It's Mikasa, Eren, and Armin!" exclaimed Lara, looking indignantly at her father, " I showed them to you this very morning!"

Levi looked at Mikasa, thinking: "Oh, so it's your fault that I've lost to Lara in our fighting plays for the last eighteen times in a row?"

"Oh, sure…" Levi finally replied, impassive, "Now I recall. Can you three explain what's going on?"

"Sir…" began Armin, shy, "It's a long story…"

♦♦♦

After the Survey Corps and the Garrison Regiment arrived, Wall Rose became safe again. While the wall-mounted cannons fired at the Titans, the Survey Corps soldiers exterminated the remaining.

When it was all over and the moon was already shining high in the sky, Hange accidentally found Lara and Levi walking on a deserted street, inspecting some evaporating Titan bodies.

"Lara!!!" exclaimed Hange, worried, as she ran towards her daughter.

"Mommy!" Lara also ran, her green cloak billowing behind.

Hange fell to her knees on the ground to hug Lara tightly, who hugged her mother with the same intensity. As usual, Hange inspected every inch of her child to check if she was all right.

"OH!" shouted Hange, turning Lara around, "You got hurt! Look how much blood!"

"Where?" Lara looked over her back, "I don't feel anything…"

"Here, on your right calf!" Hange looked closely, "You're probably not feeling pain because of the adrenaline!"

"Wow… Daddy, look! My first scar!"

"Girl?!" exclaimed Hange, shaking her daughter, "Are you insane?! This is a deep cut, you'll need stitches. Oh, Jesus, my blood pressure…"

Levi approached, looking surprised, and Hange glared at him.

"Levi!" she called out, angry, "Come on! How did you miss something like this?! Look at it!"

"I-I-I-," stuttered Levi, wide-eyed, behind Lara.

"Mommy, please don't talk to him like this… We were killing Titans until now. It's hard to see this stuff in the middle of the action."

Lara looked up and Levi whispered, "Thanks, I owe you one!"

Hange sighed, putting her goggles on her forehead.

"Sorry, Levi…" she said, going towards him and hugging him, "It's just that I was so worried about you two… I heard a lot of Titan's grunts from the place you had run to."

"Actually," replied Levi, also hugging her, "we didn't even get to run that much. We had to stop right away."

"That's true!" said Lara, "Daddy stopped so suddenly, I almost fell off the Wall!"

"YOU WHAT?!" exclaimed Hange, giving Levi a little slap on his chest.

"Whose side are you on, after all?!" he asked his daughter, still holding Hange's waist, completely outraged at Lara, who gave a cheeky laugh.

"I'm only joking, mommy."

"One of these days, you two are still gonna give me a heart attack!" exclaimed Hange, letting herself go of Levi.

"Stop being so dramatic," he said, clearly upset that he was now holding nothing.

Hange took a deep breath and composed herself.

"Alright! What matters now is that you both are alive and safe," Hange then acquired a mischievous expression, "You won't believe what I've got!"

"What?" asked Lara and Levi at the same time.

"We captured two Titans for my experiments!"

"Oh, no… Here it comes…" Levi rolled his eyes, crossing his arms, while Lara celebrated with Hange doing a funny dance.