A/N: Hello, readers! Welcome to another chapter! Enjoy!

edited on october 19th, 2021 @ 11:50am

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𝓒𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙴𝙻𝙴𝚅𝙴𝙽,
𝓣𝙷𝙴 𝙳𝙴𝙵𝙴𝙰𝚃𝙴𝙳, 𝟻𝟽𝚃𝙷 𝙴𝚇𝙿𝙴𝙳𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 𝙱𝙴𝚈𝙾𝙽𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙻𝚂, 𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃 𝚂𝙸𝚇.

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"HE'S ALIVE. THE TARGET APPEARS intelligent, and it's goal seems to be capturing Eren. If it wanted him dead, it would've crushed him. The target is fighting to escape after going through the trouble of putting him in its mouth." Mikasa explained.

"It's goal may have been to eat Eren. If that's the case, he's in its stomach. It's more reasonable to assume that he's dead." Levi stated.

"He's alive!"

Levi looked back at her. "I hope you're right." He said.

"If you'd only protected Eren, this wouldn't have happened!" Mikasa said.

Levi fully turned to face her. "I see... You're the one from back then. Eren's close friend?" He guessed. "We'll limit ourselves to a single goal. First, give up on killing the Female Titan."

"It killed many of our comrades!"

"As long as it can harden its skin, we can't kill it. Do as I say. We'll pin our hopes on Eren still being alive, and rescue him before it leaves the forest. Simon and I will tear away at it... You draw it's attention!" Levi said.

Mikasa headed in front of the Female Titan while Simon and Levi were right behind her. The Female Titan turns to face them both instead of Mikasa. She balled her fist up and goes to punch them but Levi reacts quickly and cuts her arm up all the way to her eye. The Female Titan falls back onto a tree while Levi reloads his blades as he looked over at Simon who just smirked in reply.

Together, the two of them attack the rest of her body, leaving her legs limp as the Female Titan is unable to move. Mikasa watches her higher-ups in awe.

"They're fast... so fast that it has no time to harden its skin!" Mikasa thought as Simon and Levi go to cut her arms.

"We can go for the neck... It's tired... I bet it can't move. I can kill it!" Mikasa thinks to herself as she goes to cut the Female Titan's nape. That's when Levi noticed something.

"Stop!" He warned.

The Female Titan raised her hand to stop her. Mikasa is surprised on how closer her hand is getting and realizes she doesn't have enough time to get out of the way.

Levi comes in and pushes the Female Titan's hand down with his foot, breaking his ankle in the process. He cuts open her mouth, revealing Eren who was covered in saliva.

"Eren!"

Levi grabs Eren, leaving the Female Titan leaning on the tree as the trio took off.

They landed on a branch as Levi looks down at the brunette. "Hey! We're getting out of here!" Levi informed.

"Eren..." Mikasa said worriedly.

"I think he's okay... he's alive! But filthy. Forget about it... We'll retreat. Don't lose sight of the core objective. Is it more important to get what you want? Isn't he an important friend?" Levi questioned as he took off without waiting for a reply with Simon right behind him.

Levi glanced behind him and noticed the Female Titan had tears running down her cheeks.

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Eren laid on a wagon as the Scouts were returning from their mission. He was bandaged up and wrapped in Mikasa's green cloak as she sat beside him.

Meanwhile, Allison Fallon's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Papa! Nee-san's coming home!" She exclaimed.

"That she is. We should welcome her back." Eric Fallon, Alastrine's father, smiled as he thought of his eldest daughter finally returning home safe.

Armin and Jean load a body onto a wagon as they sighed. "This is the part I never get used to." Jean commented.

Armin looks down. "No one does." He replied.

"How are my friends going to die? How am I going to die? It's all you can think about." Jean said.

"I try not to dwell on it. If I pictured how I'm going to die, I probably wouldn't be able to fight." Armin stated.

"Yeah." Jean agreed. "You're right."

Simon walked up to Levi who looked at him with concern. "You okay?" Levi asked him.

"Yeah." Simon responded. "Losing a comrade is nothing new to me. Both you and I have seen many people die. We're used to it."

The two of them walked over to where Erwin was, as Simon caught a conversation going on between a soldier who wanted to bring Ivan's body back.

"Squabbling kids?" Levi spoke up.

"Captain Levi... Section Commander Simon..."

"If you confirmed he's dead, that's enough. Whether you have the body, dead is dead. It won't change anything." Levi said.

"Everyone dies at some point. You have to accept the fact that not all bodies can be returned to their families." Simon added.

"No..."

"We'll say Ivan and the others went missing. That's my final decision. Give it up." Erwin informed as he walked away with Levi and Simon following him.

"Don't the three of you have any human feelings at all?!"

"Hey, Dieter... You're going too far!"

As the Survey Corps began moving out, Simon was on his horse with Oliver riding right next to him and the rest of the squad was behind them.

"Titans!"

Mikasa looks behind her and sees two soldiers with their friends corpse on their back with an Abnormal Titan right behind them.

"Titan spotted by the rear!"

"Full speed!" Erwin ordered.

"I don't see any large trees or buildings. We can't fight freely out here." Levi informed.

"Fleeing to the wall will be quicker." Erwin informed.

Levi groaned and slowed down his horse. Dietar continues to gallop when the Titan's hand comes down and tries to grab him.

Dietar ducks his head out of the way but by doing so he drops Ivan's body. He gasped and turns to see Ivan's body getting picked up by the Titan. He stops in his tracks and goes to kill the Titan.

"They're going to catch us!" Armin exclaimed.

"Do we have to fight?" Jean asked.

"Maneuver Gear has limited utility in open areas! And look... They just keep coming!" Armin said.

"Then what do we do?" Jean questioned.

Armin looks towards the dead corpses wrapped in the bloodied cloths. "We..." He trailed off.

Jean looked over and gasped. Mikasa watched as Dietar got caught by the Titan, she uses her ODM gear to fly off the wagon and kill it. Moments later, Dietar steps out of the dead Titan's hand, clutching his shoulder.

On the wagon, a soldier turns to Levi, expecting an order. "Just abandon the bodies. They'll reach us." Levi ordered as the soldier looked at him as if he was insane.

"B-But..."

"In the past, many bodies haven't made it back. These guys aren't anything special." Levi informed.

"Are we doing this? Are we really doing it?!"

"Damn..." Levi mumbled, his hand touching his leg as Simon looked at him in concern.

"He must've injured himself when we were fighting the Female Titan trying to save Eren." He concluded.

The soldier looks at the Titans approaching them and then looks back at the corpses.

"We have to!"

He opens the small door at the end of the wagon and begins pushing the bodies out. Simon looked over to see a familiar body with long white hair tumble out as he quickly looked away.

"I'm sorry, Rin..." Simon thought, clenching the reins of his horse.

Another body with a familiar bite mark on its hand followed soon after.

Levi watched as the body rolled away as the wagon began to get faster and lighter. Soon, they were able to get away, saying goodbye to their friends and comrades.

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The Survey Corps had finally made it back to the walls as everyone had grim faces as Simon could hear the civilians talking about them.

"Aren't there fewer than there were this morning?"

"Man... Far fewer..."

"Another disaster."

"Just this morning, they left raising a ruckus, but they're already back? What was the point?"

"Who knows? But judging by the gloomy expressions, they managed to waste more of our taxes, if nothing else."

Eren gets up but then something catches his eye. A kid was standing on a few crates was peeking his head up from the crowd. Eren gets reminded of when he was younger how he used to watch the Survey Corps return back from their mission with Mikasa.

"So cool! The Survey Corps is so awesome! They got the crap kicked out of them, and they still fight!"

"Section Commander Simon!"

Simon froze as he turned and saw Alastrine's younger sister running up to him with her father following right behind her.

"My Nee-san is apart of your squad! I think it's so awesome she goes out there and fights for our freedom! I want to be just like her when I join the military next year!" Allison exclaimed.

"Where is my daughter?" Eric asked, looking around for his eldest daughter. "We wanted to welcome her back."

Simon closed his eyes as he let out a long sigh and got off his horse. He reached into his pocket and took out Alastrine's Wings of Freedom badge before kneeling down next to Allison and putting it in her hand.

"This is all I could retrieve from her body. I'm sorry." Simon said.

"Nee-san is... gone? She's not coming back?" Allison muttered as she broke out into sobs.

Simon kept his emotionless expression as Eric clenched his jaw in anger, grabbing onto Simon's cloak. "You bastard! This is why I told her she should've joined the Military Police! But no, she wanted to join the Survey Corps because she wanted to be in your squad! What kind of damn leader are you?!" He shouted.

Oliver clenched his fist. He was about to step in until someone already did it for him. "Hands off of him." Levi said, removing Eric's hand from Simon's collar and clenching his wrist. Eric yelped in pain, knowing that his wrist was most likely dislocated.

"You even think about laying a hand on him again, I'll do more than just a dislocation." Levi threatened.

"U-Understood, Captain Levi." Eric said as Levi released his wrist and rubbed it gently. "Let's go, Allison."

"Coming to my rescue as always, Levi?" Simon teased.

"I couldn't let him hurt you." Levi responded. Simon smiled as he hopped back onto his horse and his squad continued on.

Commander Erwin was being bombarded with questions from the civilians.

The expense and casualties from the expedition were more than enough to discredit the faction that had supported the Survey Corps.

As those responsible, including Erwin, were summoned to the capital, it was decided that Eren was to be handed over.

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Night had fallen as Simon was in his office. He had a meeting with Erwin soon but he needed to collect his thoughts.

He looks up to see a picture of his squad that they had taken together. He grabs a black marker and takes off the lid before making a huge "x" over Alastrine's face, covering it completely just like he did when Sean had died. He capped the marker and threw it on his desk before throwing a vase to the wall.

"Damn it!"

Simon fell onto his bed and cries. Another person died and he couldn't do a damn thing to prevent it. First it was Farlan and Isabel, then his twin brother, and finally Alastrine.

Who else had to die because of him?

He sat in his chair and took out his journal, opening it to a new page.

Dear Sean,

We just got back from an expedition when we ran into a Female Titan. This Titan is like Eren and I, a human inside a Titan's body. Lives were lost while trying to capture her, including Alastrine and Levi's squad.

How many more damn people have to die because I couldn't prevent their deaths? First it was Farlan and Isabel. I tried to prevent their deaths by turning into my Titan form, but in the end, they still died. As a result, I refuse to use my Titan form unless we're in a life-or-death situation. Since the discovery of Eren being a Titan shifter, it made things easier for me.

And then you had to go and die, sacrificing yourself to save mine. Which was a stupid thing, if I'm being honest. You know I could've protected myself. But you did it anyway.

I'm tired, brother. I just want to be put to rest. I don't want to keep fighting anymore.

Always,
Simon.

Simon closed his journal and placed his head down on his desk, still blaming himself for causing the death of one of his squad members. 

"You really are pathetic."

Simon glanced up to see his twin brother looking at him. "S-Sean?" He mumbled.

"I mean, first you let Farlan and Isabel die, then me, and then Rin. Who's next? Oliver? Dillon? Rachel?"

"Please stop..."

"Oh... what about Levi?"

"Stop!"

Simon tried to calm down his breathing as he closed his eyes. "It's not my fault..." He mumbled.

"You know damn well it is. You're a Titan shifter, Simon. You could've prevented our deaths but in the end, you're just a pathetic coward, aren't you?"

"I'm sorry! I was supposed to be the big brother and I couldn't protect you. I loved you, Sean. I still do."

"Then why did you let me die? Tell me, Simon!"

"Simon?" Levi's voice broke the gray haired male out of his thoughts.

"Go away, Levi."

"If you think I'm leaving you here alone when you're having an anxiety attack, you're mistaken." Levi informed, closing the door behind him. "I was there when your brother died, wasn't I? I'm the only one who's seen you in your weak state."

"How many more damn people do we have to lose, Levi? I'm tired. I'm tired of it all."

Levi let out a long sigh as he embraced his husband, letting him cry into his shoulder. Levi ran a hand through his gray hair, trying to calm him down.

"I can't do this fighting shit anymore..." Simon sobbed.

Simon just stayed in Levi's arms, trying to stay calm until there was a knock on his office door. "Name and business." He called out.

"It's Armin Arlert, Section Commander. I have news that you might want to hear."

Simon wiped away his tears and put on his emotionless persona again. He opened the door. "Come in, Arlert." He allowed the blonde to come in. Armin's eyes widened when he saw Levi in the room.

"Was I interrupting something, sir?"

"Not at all, Arlert. Levi and I were just finishing up." Simon reassured him. Levi gave one last look at Simon before leaving his office, closing the door behind him.

"What can I do for you, Arlert?" Simon questioned, turning to the blonde.

"Right. I wanted to let you know I have a suspect on who the Female Titan is. She's actually someone who was in the 104th. I wanted to let you know before I tell Commander Erwin." Armin responded as Simon nodded for him to continue.

"Her name is Annie Leonhart."

"Hmm... She was the only one from your division who joined the Military Police, am I right?" Simon asked as Armin nodded.

"I can see why you would suspect her. All evidence points to her as well as the way she reacted to Eren's nickname, "suicidal bastard" which only the 104th cadets would know." Simon continued.

"That's what I was thinking, sir."

"All right. Let's go inform Commander Erwin."

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A/N: Another chapter is done! Thanks for reading!

Word Count: 2702 words.