---
The words hung in the dead, steam-filled air, a verdict delivered from the brink of oblivion.
"...she is now on our side...."
For a single, horrifying moment, the world was silent, every soldier frozen by the sheer, impossible weight of Akira's final command. He had collapsed, a broken puppet with its strings cut, but his words remained, an undeniable, world-shattering decree.
Then, the silence was broken by a scream.
It was not a scream of fear, but of pure, undiluted, and agonized rage.
"ON OUR SIDE?!" Jean's voice was a raw, broken thing, the sound of a man's soul being flayed open. "ARE YOU INSANE?! SHE KILLED MARCO! SHE KILLED HIM!"
Grief, raw and untamed, finally overwhelmed him. With a guttural roar, he launched himself forward, his remaining blade held high, his face a twisted mask of tears and hate. He wasn't a soldier anymore. He was just a boy who had lost his best friend, and the monster responsible was kneeling just a few feet away.
He never made it.
A blur of black and green intercepted him, a force as swift and unyielding as a striking snake. Mikasa stood in his path, her own blades held not in a killing strike, but as a firm, undeniable barrier. Her face was a pale, emotionless mask, but her dark eyes were a raging storm of conflict.
"Get out of my way, Mikasa!" Jean snarled, his voice cracking.
"No," she said, her own voice a low, trembling thing. She hated this. Every fiber of her being, every ounce of her own grief, screamed at her to stand aside, to join Jean, to carve her own vengeance into the monster before her. But Akira's last words, his last, desperate command, were a chain around her heart. "His last order... we have to honor it."
"HONOR IT?!" Jean's laughter was a bitter, broken sound that tore at the hearts of everyone who heard it. "He's lost his mind! She's a mass-murdering bitch, and he's protecting her! Are you blind?! Or are you a traitor, too?!"
The accusation hung in the air, a poison dart. Mikasa flinched as if struck, her knuckles turning white on the hilts of her blades. The family of the 104th, forged in fire and blood, was fracturing, breaking apart right here in this field of ash and death. Connie and Sasha could only watch, their faces pale with horror, caught between two loyalties that could not coexist.
---
"Enough."
Erwin's voice, calm and absolute, cut through the raw, emotional chaos. He strode into the center of the standoff, his presence alone a formidable force. But his command was not aimed at the grieving soldiers. It was aimed at his Captain.
Levi, who had been moving with a silent, deadly purpose towards the kneeling Female Titan, his blades a blur of motion, froze mid-stride. He turned, his steel-grey eyes burning with a cold, murderous fury. "Erwin. Get out of my way. I'm ending this."
"No, you're not," Erwin stated, his voice quiet but unyielding. He stood directly in Levi's path, a commander blocking his own attack dog. "Look at the board, Levi. Not at your anger."
He gestured with a sweep of his arm at their new, horrifying reality. "Akira is incapacitated. Erin has been captured by the Armored Titan. The Colossal and Beast Titans have escaped. We are deep in hostile territory, our forces are decimated, and our mission has changed from extermination to rescue." He paused, his gaze shifting to the silent, kneeling Female Titan. "And right there is a fifteen-meter Titan shifter who, for reasons we do not understand, is now loyal to Akira. She is a weapon. A weapon we desperately need. We don't have the luxury of vengeance right now, Levi. We only have the mission."
The cold, hard logic of his words was undeniable, but Levi's fury was a raging inferno. "She killed my squad, Erwin! She slaughtered them!"
"And she may be the only thing that can get us close enough to the Armored Titan to get Erin back," Erwin countered, his voice never rising. "This is not about what we want. It is about what we must do to win. And we must use every piece on this board, no matter how much we despise it."
---
As the commanders argued, Annie made her own move. She knew that as long as she remained a monster, she would be a target. She had to show them, had to prove her intentions.
With a deep, groaning sound of tearing flesh and hissing steam, the nape of the Female Titan split open. The movement was slow, deliberate, and it drew the attention of every soldier on the field. The fight between Mikasa and Jean faltered, their heads snapping towards the new movement.
A small, human figure, steaming and covered in the visceral slime of the Titan body, emerged from the wound. She was battered, exhausted, her blonde hair matted with sweat and blood. She landed silently on the scorched earth, her movements weary but full of a familiar, deadly grace.
Her blue eyes, no longer cold and distant, but filled with a profound, unreadable sorrow, swept over the scene. She saw the hate in Jean's eyes, the conflict in Mikasa's, the cold fury on Levi's face. Her gaze lingered for a moment on Akira's unconscious form, a flicker of pure, agonizing pain in their depths.
Erwin's gamble had to be made now. He turned from Levi and addressed the girl directly, his voice ringing with the authority of a commander making an impossible choice.
"Annie Leonhart!"
She looked up, her gaze meeting his.
"You have committed acts of treason and mass murder against the people of Paradis," he stated, his voice cold and formal. "Under normal circumstances, you would be executed where you stand. But these are not normal circumstances." He took a step forward, offering the most unthinkable of bargains. "Akira Nakamura has declared you an ally. I am offering you a chance to prove him right. Help us get Erin Yeager back. Fight with us. And your judgment will be postponed. Refuse, or betray us, and I will let my Captain here cut you to pieces. What is your answer?"
Annie looked from Erwin's calculating gaze to Levi's murderous one. She looked at the faces of the soldiers who wanted her dead. Then, her eyes returned to Akira, to the boy who had sacrificed everything for her. She had no other choice. She had no other side to be on.
She gave a single, sharp nod. The unthinkable truce was forged.
---
The mood of the company had changed. They were no longer a defeated remnant, retreating in shame. They were now a fractured, volatile, and terrifyingly powerful hunting party. The mission was clear: pursue the Armored Titan, and rescue Erin.
But the new alliance was a poison that spread through their ranks. Annie was not a prisoner. She was an ally, riding with them, her face a mask of stoic indifference. The glares she received were like physical blows. Jean rode as far away from her as possible, his grief now a simmering, venomous hatred. Connie and Sasha rode close to him, a small island of bitter loyalty.
The most intense conflict, however, was a silent, cold war waged between two women. Mikasa rode on one side of the wagon carrying Akira's unconscious body, her hand never leaving the rough wood. On the other side, keeping a respectful but determined distance, rode Annie.
They didn't speak. They didn't have to. Their Ki did the talking for them. Mikasa's was a cold, sharp wall of ice, a silent promise of death that said, He may have spared you, but if you make one wrong move, I will kill you myself. Annie's was a quiet, sorrowful storm, a desperate plea that replied, I know. I deserve it. But I will protect him, too. They were two rival goddesses, bound by their love for the same fallen god, and the tension between them was a suffocating, unbearable thing.
---
As twilight began to bleed across the sky, they made a brief, tense camp in the shadow of a small, defensible ruin to tend to their wounded and prepare for the long chase ahead. Akira was moved from the wagon, his unconscious form laid gently on a bedroll. His breathing was shallow, his face pale, the evidence of his torture a brutal, angry map of bruises on his skin.
While Hange and Armin frantically worked to stabilize him, the rest of the squad stood in a tense, fractured circle, the unspoken questions hanging in the air like smoke.
Mikasa, her face a mask of cold fury, finally broke the silence. She walked across the small campsite, her boots crunching on the gravel, and stopped directly in front of Annie, who sat alone, isolated from the others, cleaning her ODM gear with a detached, mechanical focus.
She didn't draw her blades. Her voice, when she spoke, was not a yell. It was quiet, cold, and more dangerous than any scream.
"Was it worth it?"
Annie stopped her work, her hands freezing on the intricate machinery. She didn't look up. She just stared at the metal in her hands, her blonde bangs hiding her eyes.
"Killing them," Mikasa continued, her voice a low, trembling whisper of pure, undiluted pain. "Levi's squad. Marco. All the others. All for your mission." She took a step closer, her shadow falling over the seated girl. "Was it worth it, Annie?"
Annie remained silent for a long, agonizing moment. Then, slowly, she lifted her head, and the look in her tear-filled blue eyes was not the look of a monster, or a soldier, or a traitor. It was the look of a girl whose heart had been broken in two.
"No," she whispered, her voice cracking. "It wasn't."
---
•To Be Continue•
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