Chapter XXVIII: Monster

Chapter XXVIII: Monster

Through gaps in the forest, Eren watched distant smoke signals fade into the forest's gloom. His fingers drummed restlessly against his leg as Captain Levi's final orders echoed in his mind - wait, stay hidden, transform only as an absolute last resort. The words felt like chains around his throat, choking back the rage and helplessness that had become all too familiar since joining the Survey Corps.

The squad had pulled their horses into a natural alcove formed by massive, gnarled roots. Moss-covered bark rose around them like fortress walls, but the temporary shelter did little to ease Eren's growing unease. He couldn't shake the image of Anja from earlier - the eyepatch cutting a stark line across her face, that haunted look in her remaining eye, the strange metal framework binding her movements. What had happened to her in these past weeks?

She was chasing after that Female Titan too? He had already lost count of how many had fallen to defend them… To defend him… And he didn't fight back. In the end he wanted to think it was the right choice, they had managed to capture it after all.

"So... you guys knew about the plan?" The question slipped out before he could stop it. The plan to capture the Female Titan - it seemed too elaborate to have been improvised.

Oluo straightened in his saddle, that familiar self-important smirk crossing his weathered features. Grey was already creeping into his undercut despite his relative youth, though he'd probably claim the premature aging came from too many titan kills. "Of course we knew. I knew all along."

"We didn't," Gunther cut in flatly. The most level-headed of the squad kept his dark eyes fixed on the forest around them, broad shoulders tense beneath his cloak. Unlike Oluo, he wore his experience in his bearing rather than his boasts.

"Maybe you didn't, but I did." Oluo sniffed, adjusting his cravat with that affected gesture he'd picked up from trying to imitate the Levi. A thin trail of blood trickled from his lip - he'd probably bitten his tongue again.

Gunther's eyes narrowed slightly as he absently adjusted the strip of fabric holding back his dark hair. "Those at the site knew, those who've spent years in the Survey Corps, even before we arrived..."

"Who cares anyway?" Oluo interrupted, puffing up like an irritated bird. "None of them have as many kills as I do, except Captain Levi, of course."

"Don't listen to that idiot." Gunther's tone carried the bone-deep weariness of someone who'd watched too many friends die to have patience for false bravado.

"You wish you had as many kills as me."

"Whatever," Gunther sighed, turning to Eren with something like sympathy in his eyes. "My guess is the Commander only confided in the longest-serving veterans."

"But why didn't he tell you?" Eren pressed, trying to understand the layers of secrecy that seemed to suffocate everything in the Corps lately.

"Commander Erwin always has his reasons..." Gunther's expression darkened, shadows deepening the lines around his eyes. "To lure that titan into a trap like that... He probably suspected someone, a spy, it's the only reason I can think of. I hope they make that thing suffer. Too many died for this."

"What's that about a spy?" Oluo scoffed, though his hand unconsciously tightened on his reins. "Don't be ridiculous. Didn't we find out about who killed the research titans?" 

"Research titans?" Eren leaned forward, but Oluo waved him off like an annoying child.

"Nothing that concerns you, brat."

Gunther shot Oluo a warning look before explaining, his voice pitched low enough that it barely carried past their small circle. "We managed to capture two titans in Trost. The Commander wanted to keep it quiet from the Military Police given the panic you caused with the military." His tone dropped even further. "Turns out they didn't last long in our captivity. They were killed by one of our own."

"He should have listened to Captain Levi," Oluo muttered, "That girl should never have been allowed to stay in the scouts."

"Maybe she had something to do with this?" Gunther mused, fingers drumming against his blade hilt.

"Who are you-" Eren started to ask, but something caught his attention.

 A strange scent carried on the wind, acrid and wrong. "Something's on fire."

"Could be just a flare... Wait." Gunther tensed, scanning the canopy with the sharp eyes.

A scream hit them like a physical force - high and piercing, vibrating through the ancient trees until Eren's teeth ached. His blood ran cold with recognition, that same shout he'd heard in Trost rising up to choke him.

"What was that?" Gunther's hand moved to his blade, the steel whispering against its sheath.

"It sounded just like that in Trost..." Eren's voice was barely a whisper, memories of that day flooding back - the Armored Titan's burning orange eyes, that roar, the tide of titans retreating in a mindless stampede after it.

He continued. "When the Armored Titan was there," His fingers curled into fists, nails biting into his palms. "I remember hearing that, then all of sudden the titans started leaving the city."

"So that was why the district was empty when we got there..." Understanding dawned in Gunther's eyes.

Eren's hand rose to his mouth, teeth already aching with the need to transform. "We have to go back. I can fight!"

"Stay put, brat." Oluo's blade flashed between them, catching what little light filtered through the canopy. "You heard the Captain's orders. We have to wait for him. Besides, you can only transform as a last resort, don't push your luck."

"Captain Levi will come back..." Gunther didn't sound entirely convinced.

"What if he doesn't come back?" Eren demanded, rage blazing inside his chest. "Are you going to let him die?!"

Blue smoke trails suddenly pierced the canopy, their color stark against the forest's shadows like veins against pale skin.

"We're retreating," Gunther announced, relief cracking through his usual stoic mask. "They made it. Mission's over."

"That means they captured whoever was inside it, right?" Eren asked, his voice loud in the stillness. 

"Shut up," Oluo hissed suddenly, tension rigid in his spine. "I hear something... Maybe it's the Captain."

Gunther's voice dropped, hand white-knuckled on his blade. "No... Captain Levi said he'd signal us... There's someone else. Who's there? Show yourself!"

The shadows between the trees seemed to deepen, as if the forest itself was holding its breath. Even the leaves had stopped their whispered conversations, leaving only the thunder of Eren's heart in his ears.

Through the gloom, something moved a silhouette that made no sound as it passed between each branch. But there was something wrong about the way it moved, as if its joints weren't quite connected properly, like a puppet with half its strings cut.

None of them noticed the black birds gathering silently above the tree cups, their eyes fixed on the scene below. 

Watching. Waiting.

***

Eren's scream pierced the burning forest, twisting something primal in Anja's gut. She propelled herself through the smoke-filled air, each burst of gas from her ODM gear sending shards of pain through her ribs where the framework's broken pieces bit into flesh. The heat from burning trunks seared her lungs, while flickering firelight painted nightmarish shapes in the roiling smoke.

"It's not real," Heinrik's form shimmered beside her, his face a mirror of their mother's worry.

Another scream shattered his warning, closer now, filled with agony. The sound carried all of Eren's rage, his pain - too perfect to be false. She had to reach him.

"He needs you," a second Heinrik materialized on her right, his edges bleeding into the smoke like watercolor. Where the first's eyes held desperate concern, this one's gleamed with hunger. "They're tearing him apart while you waste time with doubt."

Movement caught her eye - bone-white fingers parting the smoke thin like a pale spider's legs. Anja twisted mid-air, letting momentum guide her blades through the pallid flesh. The severed fingers crumbled into black ichor that ate into the bark where it fell. The second Heinrik flinched as if the wound was his own.

"Help me!" Petra's voice cracked with terror somewhere behind her. Anja spun so hard her gear's cables groaned, but found only dancing shadows between the burning trees, there and gone.

"Help!" Armin this time, his cry carrying a desperate edge.

"Armin?!" Her voice broke as she searched the inferno below. "Where are you?!"

The cries multiplied, a chorus of familiar voices begging for aid from every direction. Mikasa, Sasha, Armin, Eren.

 Anja pressed her hands against her ears, but the voices burrowed deeper.

Below, pale titans began to move with horrible purpose, climbing over each other like insects. Their bone-white flesh pulsed with black veins as they built a living ladder toward her perch. Hands reached up, fingers grasping at empty air where she'd been heartbeats before.

"Stay away!" She slashed desperately at the reaching limbs, each strike forcing her higher into the canopy. The pleading voices rose with her.

"Anja," the first Heinrik's voice. "Focus on me."

"You're so close, sister," the second one's words carried a promise. "He's waiting for you."

The writhing tower of titans suddenly collapsed, writhing across each other as they stood up in unison this time they did not try to climb again, they stood there, eyes fixed on her. Through the gap they left, she saw it - the titan from Trost. Its hairless head rose above the veil of smoke, its jaw beginning to open, hanging impossibly wide, black saliva dripping like tar between yellowed teeth. Black depthless eyes staring deep into her core.

Its distended belly shifted and bulged, something pressing agaist its ghostly flesh, as if something inside was fighting, clawing its way out.

"Get me out of here! Help!" Eren's voice echoed from that fathomless maw.

"He's in there, sister. With all the others" The second Heinrik's voice dripped with anticipation.

"Anja, please!" The first one's warning faded like smoke. "Don't look!"

"Don't you want to save your friends?"

Her feet carried her forward pulled by invisible strings. Dark liquid seeped steadily from beneath her eyepatch, each drop darkening the wood where it fell. The titan's jaw stretched wider, shadows within its throat writhing with terrible purpose. The screaming from inside grew more desperate, more familiar.

"Anja! Is that you, Anja? Help us!"

She found herself at the edge of that darkness, the forest no longer around her, she had been transported into another place entirely, her footsteps echoed as in vast cavern. Deep within that impossible void, a flash of auburn hair caught what light remained.

"Mom...?" The word broke from her throat like shattered glass as her swords slipped from numb fingers. "You can't be..."

"Anja, sweetie, it's me." Her mother's gentle voice drifted from the abyss, carrying all the warmth of childhood memories. "I'm right here."

​​​​Through the endless abyss, her mother's silhouette coalesced, though remaining tantalizingly out of reach. Her fiery hair captured impossible light, framing that beloved smile - the one that had chased away her nightmares and tucked her away to sleep. The sight made Anja's heart splinter with yearning.

"I've missed you so much," her mother's voice carried that familiar warmth. "You've grown into a lovely young woman."

"How is this possible?" Anja's words quavered in the emptiness. "How are you alive?"

"Alive?" Emma's head shifted with unnatural grace. "Oh no silly. I'm dead, just like you."

Anja's lungs seized. "W-what?"

"Yes, dead," her mother's expression contorted, teeth glinting like razors in the void. "Dead, as in buried six feet underground dead." What followed was no human sound - a grinding screech of metal on metal that masqueraded as laughter.

The creature observed her with clinical detachment. Its speech now emerged in fragmented bursts, like someone dissecting language itself.

"C-at got your ton-gue?" A pause, contemplative. "Is that the ex-pression, ex-pre-ssion? Well the other thing was too one, odd."

"Who are you?" Fear made Anja's voice brittle. "What do you want from me?"

"You?" Amusement twisted the creature's features, now erased, the face of her mother blurred, wrong. "What could we possibly want f-rom someone that doesn't exist?"

Anja lunged forward, taking back her weapons, but the gulf between them stretched endlessly. Like chasing the horizon - always in sight, forever beyond reach.

"Interesting this... Sp-eech..." The thing pondered. "Perhaps we have not mastered it yet."

"Let me out of here!"

"You resist," it observed with cold certainty. "Meat are not meant to... resist." The word seemed to fascinate it. "Resist. Re-sist. Curious."

Something beyond the abyss howled, as if reality itself was being rent apart.

"Meat should obey," it continued, its cadence deteriorating. "That is its purpose, obey."

Space folded between them as it closed the distance, studying her with eyes like empty wells.

"Resistance is... futile? Meaningless? Incorrect." It parsed meaning like a child with a puzzle, before making that jarring human gesture - a shrug that only emphasized its otherworldliness.

"Anja!" Heinrik's voice pierced the darkness like sunlight.

When she blinked, the thing now replaced by her brother's face stared back at her. "Why do you want to leave?"

Her mind filled with images of friends – the people she loved – the only people she had left. It harvested these thoughts, she felt as it plucked them with a thought, without notice it transformed those tender memories into a chorus of terror that echoed through the nothingness.

The void wavered at the edges, cracks spreading like ice over water. But the thing remained focused solely on her, unmoved by the dissolution of its domain.

"That's the sound they make when they meet us," it mused through Heinrik's lips. "But that's fine, we are not the same. You scurry about in that skin," its voice grew distant, contemplative. "A bag of blood, bone and thought. But they know what you are, don't they?"

The screams intensified as it invaded her space, right in front of her, but she couldn't so much as move a muscle.

"A monster." The declaration rang with finality.

"That's your nature, imp. Do you think they can't see it? The hollowness behind your eyes, the absence at your core?"

The abyss began disintegrating, light lancing through widening fissures.

"An example. They need examples. Why not? In the end, you'll always return. It's where you belong." Its voice fragmented like breaking glass. "No matter how you claw and scrape at the edges of their world, you'll never be one of them."

The darkness exploded outward, reality crashing back in waves of heat and light. Anja found herself sprawled on the forest floor amidst carnage - pale titans reduced to mutilated heaps, their essence seeping into scorched earth. The massive-jawed titan lay bisected, its remains dissolving into viscous darkness.

Anja pushed herself upright, each breath burning as smoke invaded her lungs. The fire had caught up to her, sap crackling in the heat as flames devoured the canopy above. Her fingers shook as she wiped viscous darkness from her skin, the entity's words fragmenting in her mind like broken glass - "a bag of blood and bone and thought."

She launched her ODM gear skyward, desperate to escape the flames and suffocating haze below. Pain shot through her battered frame with each anchor's impact, but the physical discomfort helped ground her in reality. Breaking through the smoke revealed a sky painted in warring colors - brilliant blue flares cutting through towering columns of ash.

"Heinrik?" The word dissolved in the vast emptiness above. "Are you there?"

Only silence answered. The absence of his presence felt wrong - like losing a limb she hadn't known she had. She touched her eyepatch, remembering the entity's words about hollowness. What had it meant about returning? About an example? Just as she remembered them she could feel them slipping away.

Green light bloomed against the smoke, another flare answering from somewhere distant. Without her flare gun, she remained incomunicated from her comrades. Was Petra searching for her? The thought of explaining what she'd witnessed in that vast emptiness made her throat close –that thing wearing her mother's face like an ill-fitting mask.

Movement drew her attention to the forest floor a figure in a Survey Corps green cloak gliding between burning trunks. Their hood concealing their features, but something about their movements tugged at her memory. She nearly called out but the memory of false voices crying for help made her hesitate.

The entity's final proclamation whispered in her mind: "You'll never be one of them."

The figure navigated deeper into the forest in direction towards the flare. Anja followed, keeping to the higher branches, torn between pursuit and caution.

***

From his perch, Erwin observed the frenzy below as titans devoured what remained of their captive. Steam mingled with wildfire smoke, shrouding the forest floor in an impenetrable haze, visibility had been reduced to mere meters. Despite accounting for every contingency, preparing for each possibility, the enemy had a few new tricks up their sleeves...

Levi touched down silently beside him, methodically wiping his blades clean. A flicker of annoyance crossed his otherwise stoic features. "The brass won't be happy. All those resources, those deaths - and nothing to show for it. They'll use this as an excuse to get their hands on the brat."

"We'll think of something on our way back." Erwin's eyes remained fixed on the steaming remains below. "Our enemy chose to take their secrets to the grave."

Something like satisfaction tugged at his mouth as pieces clicked into place, he was getting closer to the truth. The pale titans had emerged only after Wolf appeared.

"Tch. What's with that look?" Levi's eyes narrowed. "You're plotting something again."

"Our enemy just revealed how valuable Eren is to them. Valuable enough to sacrifice everything rather than to face capture."

"Well the Female Titan was definitely after him. Hard to tell if those freaks were after him or her though."

"We'll find out soon enough." something sparked in his mind as he surveiled the chaos below, they had provided the perfect cover...

Levi shifted his weight, preparing to depart. "I'm heading back to my team."

"Wait." Command resonated in Erwin's voice. "Replenish your gas and blades first."

"I have enough-"

"That's an order." His attention never wavered from the dissipating veil below, "The pale titans may have withdrawn, but they're still out there. And whoever was inside the Female Titan..." He chose each word carefully. "If Hange's assessment about them is correct, they could be perfectly equipped with ODM gear inside the titan, wearing our uniform. We can't afford to lower our guard, not with the long ride to Karanes ahead."

Levi studied him for a moment before clicking his tongue. "Fine. I trust your judgment."

***

Pain blazed through Petra's left arm with each movement of her ODM gear. The burning forest streaked past in a blur as she pressed forward, each landing sending fresh waves of agony through her shoulder. Nothing made sense anymore.

Captain Levi had always trusted her with critical information - why keep her blind about this plan to capture the titan? She would have guarded that secret with her life. She'd proven herself trustworthy time and again. Even though impersonating her had felt wrong, she'd kept that secret too. So why exclude her now?

Her charge had vanished into that dense forest, moving through the trees with unnatural grace. The shattered framework haunted Petra's thoughts – if that thing hadn't torn it apart... The whispers about what she herard of Anja echoed in her mind. Even if half of what Levi told her was true, they couldn't afford to have her roam around free.

A green flare pierced the smoke-filled sky. Her pulse quickened at the sight of her squadmates perched in the upper branches ahead. They had abandoned mounts, weapons drawn with white-knuckled intensity, faces twisted with horror.

"Petra!" Raw fear had stripped away Oluo's usual pretense. "Get up here, quick!"

She landed among them, swallowing back a cry of pain. "Are you all alright?" She scanned their faces, they all looked like they'd just seen a ghost. "What happened to your horses?"

"Nearby," Gunther said, his usual steadiness wavering, fractures showing in his tone. "We couldn't stay down there, too exposed."

"Did you just signal the Captain?"

"Yes…" Gunther shifted uneasily. "We are waiting for him."

"Stay alert," Oluo snapped, his gaze darting between shadows like a cornered animal.

"Since when are you so jumpy?" Petra attempted normalcy, though her own voice seeing the terror that had gripped her squadmates. "Don't tell me the great Oluo Bozado is scared of a few titans?"

"We saw Eld." Gunther's words struck like a physical blow.

Petra's lungs seized. "…What?"

"He was watching us." Oluo's voice cracked. "Just standing there, staring. Whatever it was wearing his face."

She remembered how he was taken by those sick titans, so similar to the ones they had just faced, its impossible that he had survived, not after so much time out here.

"But he's dead. You must have-"

"Damn it, Petra!" The raw anguish in Oluo's outburst made her flinch. "I know what I saw! We all saw it!"

"Miss Petra..." Eren's question carried a tremor. "Where's Anja? Wasn't she just with you?"

The question lingered unanswered in thickening darkness. Something shifted through the forest beyond their sight.

***

Anja had pursued the hooded figure as they wove between towering trunks. Their movements nagged at her memory, hauntingly recognizable. Free from the framework's constraints, she matched their swift pace, unease building in her gut as they ventured deeper into the gloom, directly in the direction of that flare.

Remnants of the green signal still lingered above, visible. The figure shifted direction subtly, was it going around? Anja followed, realizing too late how far they'd strayed from the others.

This couldn't be Petra… Neither, Captain Levi… Who was this?

Something kept poking at her thoughs, what Armin had said. The other intelligent titans, beings like Eren, one of them could be out here at this moment, the Colossal and Armored where still unaccounted for-

Before she could finish her thought, the forest opened before them. Her heart lifted at the sight of her comrades positioned above - Petra, Oluo, Gunther, and-

"Eren!" His name burst from her before she could catch it. In that instant, she realized her error.

The figure halted mid-flight not firing their anchors. For just a heartbeat, sunlight caught pale blonde hair beneath the hood. Then electricity cracked in the air as a sudden flash of lightning shattered the sky.

The blast ripped through bark and branch, sending splinters flying like shrapnel. As the steam cleared, crimson muscle stretched up, that distinctive blonde crown unmistakable. The Female Titan towered above them.

She had escaped?! How?!

"The Female Titan!" Terror echoed through the clearing.

"Eren, run!" Command fractured Gunther's voice.

"Protect him!" Petra surged forward, steel flashing. "It's after him!"

***

"We can take it down together!" Eren's fists clenched at his sides, rage burning in his chest. They'd trapped this titan once - united they could end this.

"No! Listen to us, brat, we know what we're doing!" Oluo's voice cracked with desperation.

"Eren, find your horse and get to safety!" Petra's command rang with authority. "Believe in us!"

Eren stood frozen, teeth grinding as his eyes drifted to Anja. He wanted to stay, to fight alongside them, but Captain Levi's words echoed in his mind, he had wanted to fight then when the Female Titan had pursued them, after it had killed comrade after comrade: "Either you believe in yourself or the soldiers of the Survey Corps. Just do your best to make a decision you won't regret."

With a snarl of suppressed fury, he turned and launched his ODM gear into the canopy.

"I trust you." He muttered to yourself.

Each burst of gas carried him further from the sounds of combat, his chest constricting as distance grew between him and his comrades. The soldier's of Team Levi were humanity's finest - chosen by Captain Levi himself. If anyone could handle this threat, it was them.

He pushed his equipment harder, scanning the darkening forest for his mount. They had trusted him before he owed them that much. The trees pressed closer, shadows pooling between massive trunks. Wrong silence filled the air - no birds, no clash of steel, only the whisper of his cables and the hiss of gas slicing through space.

Movement flickered at the edge of his vision. His pulse quickened as he caught glimpses of a figure matching his pace through the branches. Were they using ODM gear too? Each time he turned to track it, it vanished, only to get closer and closer, herding him deeper into the gloom.

That man that had been watching them? He'd followed him here? A missing comrade they'd said? Dead?

Time slowed as sunlight caught the edge of a blade. The figure stepped into view fully - Eld's face, he could clearly see his eyes, dark bottomless pits.

Levi's warning pounded in his skull: Transform only as a last resort. If your life is in danger.

But this thing, this mockery of a fallen comrade, left no choice.

Kill or be killed.

"I don't know what you are, but I'll tear you apart!"

His teeth tore into flesh. Blood flooded his mouth as static cackled around him, then lightning.

His titan's roar shook the forest as he swung with crushing force at the aberration.

It evaded his strike with inhuman grace, alighting on a branch. When it spoke, the voice froze his blood solid.

"Eren!" His mother's voice emerged from that wrong face.

***

Erwin's instincts had proven right again. Two explosions, two pillars of lightning had pierced the canopy - the Female Titan and Eren, most likely. The smoke was thickening, every second counted now. He trusted squad could hold their own against the Female Titan, but Eren...

The clearing ahead brought him to a halt, he'd left his mount with his team and now it lay among other fallen horses, their bodies mutilated beyond recognition. Deep gashes marred their flesh, edges blackened, dark ichor stained the wounds. He didn't stop to examine it closer, that told him enough - the pale titans were still around.

Their blood had left a trail, it thnned down to droplets as it marked a path deeper into the forest. The further he ventured, the larger the destruction became. Broken trees marked by combat, some split completely in half, others uprooted entirely. Steam rose from massive footprints seared into the earth. Whatever fight had happened here had been brutal and brief.

Then he saw it - Eren's titan form slumped against a broken timber . Blood and steam rose from countless lacerations, one shoulder ending in a ragged stump where an arm should have been. Methodical damage to incapacitate him? If they had wanted him dead they could have just gone for the nape.

Through the steam he caught sight of a figure, they approached Eren's prone form with measured steps. Wearing a tattered uniform hung from their frame, steaming blood-slicked blades gripped in scarred hands. Despite the distance, recognition stabbed through Levi's chest.

 No matter, Eren was the priority. Neutralize the threat, ask questions later.

He swept in low, blades ready.

I'll end this quickly.

The figure turned at the last possible second, and Levi's heart stuttered.

Eld Jinn stared back at him – or something wearing Eld's skin. His squad member's once-vibrant face now bore a waxy pallor, his blonde hair matted with blood and forest debris. Black voids staring deep into his soul where amber eyes should be.

No time for hesitation. His blades struck true, opening Eld's throat in a spray of black blood. The head lolled to the side, nearly severed as the body crumpled to the forest floor with a dry thud.

Levi flicked his blade clean, something hollow opening in his chest. That man had fought at his side for years, he had failed to rescue him when those things took him…

"What did those things do to you?"

He closed his eyes for a second and turned toward Eren's titan wreathed in steam, already thinking the fastest way to extract him from the titan's nape. Behind him, cloth rustled as the body rose. A woman's voice emerged from behind him - a voice he hadn't heard in years, one that haunted his dreams.

"Levi..."

***

Petra surged forward despite her injured arm, cables singing as she aimed for the Female Titan's flank. Anja's breath caught as she recognized that defensive stance - the subtle weight shift, the coiled tension. Annie's stance? She'd seen her take this exact position countless times during training.

"Look out!" Anja launched herself toward Petra as the Titan's leg blurred into motion. At the last possible moment, the kick redirected, missing both of them by inches.

The hesitation cost the Female Titan dearly as Oluo's blades carved deep into her calf, sending steaming blood spraying across the bark.

"Anja, what are you doing? Get back!" Petra's voice cut through billowing steam, but explanation would have to wait.

"Don't let it get away!" Gunther led the charge, his strikes forcing the Titan further off balance. "We end this here!"

The Titan moved with the grace of a practiced fighter, yet something felt deeply wrong. Each time Anja entered its range, attacks that should have been fatal turned into glancing blows. The squad seized every opening, their coordinated assault leaving the Titan no time to recover.

"You thought you could mess with us bitch?!" Oluo's fury echoed as he carved as vapor rose from the wound.

***

"Isabel?"

Her face emerged through dissipating steam with haunting clarity – he had forgotten just how similar Anja looked to her. Every detail was perfect. Her auburn pigtails, that youthful face he'd seen mangled and lifeless in the mud six years ago, half-devoured by titans. This had to be a nightmare born out of guilt and unspoken regrets.

"I thought... I thought you'd never come..." Her voice carried that familiar street-tough optimism, the kind even a life in the Underground couldn't extinguish.

Memories Levi had buried deep crashed over him - his first expedition beyond the walls, the downpour that had masked the titans' approach, discovering their shattered bodies scattered across blood-soaked grass. His greatest failure. He'd promised to protect them, that they'd finally leave that filth of a place... He'd just led them into danger, from the Underground into the Survey Corps, only to arrive too late to save them from the titans.

"We waited for you..." She took a small step forward, Isabel's head tilting just like she always used to. "Furlan and I... He said you'd rescue us... I thought so too."

"It was cold... So cold..." Each word pierced him like frozen needles. "Why did you take us there?"

"We could have stayed home... Together... All of us..."

It raised its face, and where Isabel's bright green eyes should have been, only black eyes stared back. The thing wearing her face lunged at him without warning with inhuman speed.

That's not Isabel. Isabel died in the rain that day. He'd left her broken body to the titans, he had no choice.

Levi's body responded on instinct, faster than thought - but something felt wrong. The creature's movement was too precise, its trajectory slightly unnatural. He sidestepped, his blade carving through its arm in a clean arc. But as the severed limb fell, he didn't notice its other hand already snatching a fresh blade from his scabbard.

Black blood welled from its fingers as it gripped the blade's edge without regard for pain.

Targeting the limbs is useless. It collapsed when I cut its throat before. If I cut its head off, then maybe…

"Tch. So that was your plan." Levi's eyes narrowed on the weapon in its grasp as they began to circle each other. If this thing had managed to take down Eren, he couldn't afford to underestimate it. One false step—that's all it would take.

The creature's mask of emotion had vanished, replaced by cold, predatory focus. Isabel's face now looking like ill-fitting skin.

"Done pretending?" Levi matched its measured pace, each waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

"Got me there for a second, you ugly freak." He'd buried too many comrades to count, watched countless uniforms soaked in blood. The familiar hollowness in his chest was almost comforting now a reliable companion in a world that kept taking. "It won't happen again."

Movement behind - Eren's titan was stirring. The thing's head snapped toward the sound, those bottomless eyes finding new prey.

Now

He lunged, blades aiming toward its neck.

Its attention returned instantly. It twisted, deliberately taking his blades in its chest rather than its throat.

Too late. The trap was already sprung—stolen steel flashed toward his leg.

Agony blazed through muscle as the blade struck home. But Levi didn't hesitate. In one motion, he detached his embedded swords, drawing fresh blades, cutting its head before it could press its advantage.

The body collapsed, dissolving into black liquid that seeped into the earth.

Just another stain among many in this cursed earth.

He assessed his leg with clinical detachment. The wound ran deep but wouldn't cripple him. He could still move, proper treatment would have to wait, he had to get Eren out before more of these things appeared.

The pale titans always returned, if this thing was one of them he couldn't fight it in this condition.

He moved toward Eren's steaming form, trying not to think about Isabel's voice, about the weight of failures that never truly faded.

The mission came first. It always had.

***

A synchronized strike from Petra and Gunther severed crucial tendons, forcing the Titan to brace against a massive trunk. Steam poured from a dozen major wounds as the Female Titan struggled to maintain her guard. Her movements grew increasingly desperate as the damage mounted, regeneration failing to keep pace with Team Levi's relentless assault.

Through the rising haze, the Titan pressed its remaining hand against its nape, elbow raised in a stance that made Anja's muscles ache with phantom memory. She'd been on the receiving end of this counter hundreds of times in the training yard.

Pure instinct drove her as Anja's blades cut into the elbow joint before the strike could land. Gunther capitalized immediately, steel flashing across the Titan's right eye. As blood and steam fountained from the wound, that massive head turned toward her.

Their eyes met for the first time across the chaos.

The world stopped breathing.

Icy blue depths. Eyes she had seen brighten with rare smiles, narrow in concentration, soften in fleeting moments of quiet. Eyes that shouldn't be here. Not in this forest. Not in this Titan.

Annie.

Why? This couldn't be true. She was supposed to be safe in the Military Police. Far from this violence. Far from this death.

Petra struck again, taking the other eye. Steam erupted from the wound as the titan pressed her back against a tree, now blind and vulnerable.

"Keep your guard up." Rain drummed against the training ground as Annie's hands guided Anja's into position, her touch surprisingly gentle. "You're stronger than you think. You just need to believe it like I do."

In her mind the titan blurred away. All that remained was Annie's face, staring back at her. Steam continued to rise from fresh wounds as Petra and Oluo circled for another strike.

In that alley, two starving refugees huddled in the dark. Annie wordlessly broke her last scrap of bread in half. When Anja tried to refuse, Annie's eyes softened. "You need to keep your strength up. We watch each other's backs, remember?"

"Don't wanna fight anymore?!" Oluo's screamed as his blades cut a line through Annie's flesh

Outside the infirmary, Annie's voice barely above a whisper. "I know what it's like, we all have our demons. The parts of ourselves we're afraid to face. You're not a monster, Anja. You never were."

Blood sprayed as Gunther's attack tore through the muscles of Annie's remaining arm. The limb falling limp at her side, leaving her nape unguarded as she slumped against the tree, defenseless, vulnerable.

"You're a survivor, just like me..." Trost. Warm tears falling against Anja's cheek as consciousness slipped. Annie's fingers, gripping hers so tightly it hurt. "Please... just stay with me."

Another wound. Another strike. "This is for our comrades!"

At the memorial service, Annie stood by Anja as the pyres burned, her hand resting on her shoulder. Her grip was firm. "You have to survive. For them. For me."

Steam billowed as they carved deeper into Annie's flesh. Anja could barely see through her tears.

"I'm sorry." Annie's voice cracked as she half-carried Anja back to the barracks. Something like grief flickered across Annie's face. "I can't be the person you want me to be. I wish... I wish I could." Her voice came out low, strained with pain. 'Maybe... it would be better for everyone if I just... disappeared.'"

She remembered the last words Annie had said to her, outside Hange's tent. "I have to go." She couldn't meet Anja's eyes, her shoulders tight with some unspoken burden.

 If Anja had known it was goodbye...

"Die monster!" Gunther and Oluo struck in perfect sync, their blades severing the titan's neck at its base.

"I made a promise," Annie had confessed one dusk years ago, something raw and vulnerable cracking through her careful mask. "To my father. I swore I'd return to him, no matter what. Even if it means becoming something I—"

She'd stopped, turning away to hide the tears Anja had pretended not to see. "Just... remember me as I am now. Please."

The Titan's form collapsed forward. They moved toward the nape with deadly purpose.

They were wrong.

Annie wasn't a monster.

She was the one who'd saved Anja from herself, who'd taught her to fight, to survive. Who'd looked at Anja's darkness and never turned away. Who'd protected her, again and again, even when Anja after she had lost control and nearly killed her.

"Annie…" The name broke from her throat like shattered glass as she reached toward the steam, fingers stretching desperately for her friend. Through the haze of tears and rising steam, she could almost imagine touching Annie's hand one last time, could almost feel that gentle strength that had guided her through countless training sessions. This couldn't be happening.

One regenerated eye fixed on her, filled with such profound sorrow it made Anja's heart shatter. In that gaze was every unspoken word, every moment they'd never get to share, every question that would remain forever unanswered.

"Stop! Don't do it! Please!" Her shout was drowned out by the sickening sound of blades slicing through flesh as she moved toward the nape, but Petra grabbed her arm.

Anja shoved her aside, rushing desperately toward Annie.

The nape split open, revealing Annie's human form, unconscious and exposed.

A single tear traced down her cheek as Gunther's blade descended toward her heart.

No time for goodbyes. No time for understanding why. Annie's eyes fluttered open weakly, meeting Anja's with such raw pain that it felt like dying.

Her own blades clattered to the dirt. Something else broke free with them - a familiar crimson haze creeping into the edges of her vision, bringing with it the copper taste of violence.

Annie was dying right in front of her, and she helped to make it happen.

Helped kill the one person who'd truly understood her, without ever knowing why.

They'll kill her. They're going to kill Annie.

The world bled red.