A/N: Hello, readers! Welcome to the last chapter of season one! Enjoy!

edited on october 28th, 2021 @ 12:06pm

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𝓒𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚃𝙷𝙸𝚁𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽,
𝓣𝙷𝙴 𝙳𝙴𝙵𝙴𝙰𝚃𝙴𝙳, 𝟻𝟽𝚃𝙷 𝙴𝚇𝙿𝙴𝙳𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 𝙱𝙴𝚈𝙾𝙽𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙻𝚂, 𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃 𝙵𝙸𝚅𝙴.

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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." Josiah 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 him. "I hope you're right." He said.

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

Levi fully turned to face him. "I see... You're the one from back then. One of Eren's friends?" 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. I will tear away at it... You draw it's attention!" Levi said.

Josiah headed in front of the Female Titan while Levi was right behind him. The Female Titan turns to face him instead of Josiah. 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.

Levi attacks the rest of her body, leaving her legs limp as the Female Titan is unable to move. Josiah watches his superior in awe.

"He's fast... so fast that it has no time to harden its skin!" Josiah thought as Levi went to cut her arms.

"We can go for the neck... It's tired... I bet it can't move. I can kill it!" Josiah thinks to himself as he 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. Josiah is surprised on how closer her hand is getting and realizes he 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 pair took off.

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

"Eren..." Josiah 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.

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 Josiah's green cloak as he hovered over him with Mikasa at his side.

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."

As the Survey Corps began moving out, Josiah was riding his horse between the wagon and Mikasa as he looked over at Eren with concern.

"Titans!"

Mikasa and Josiah look behind them and saw two soldiers with their friends corpse on their back with an Abnormal Titan right behind them. 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. Josiah watched as Dietar got caught by the Titan, he uses his ODM gear to fly his horse 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?!"

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. A body with a familiar bite mark on its hand tumbled out.

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.

They were on their way back as Eren snapped his eyes open. "You shouldn't get up yet." Josiah informed when he tried to get up. "You need to rest."

"Where's the Female Titan?!" Eren questioned.

"She got away." Josiah responded.

"Why? Why did everyone...? What about the operation?"

"It failed." Josiah bluntly replied. "You need to rest for now."

"How did I get this? Did you save me?" Eren questioned as Josiah blushed.

"I've lost too many damn people in my life. I didn't need to lose you. Besides, I think Mikasa would have my head if something happened to you." Josiah explained. "We're almost to the wall now."

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

"Is it me, or are there fewer than this morning?"

"Another bad one..."

"Another disaster."

"They left this morning shouting and roaring, and now they're already back? What did they even leave for?"

"Beats me. But from the brooding looks on their faces... I'd say they succeeded in pouring our tax money down the drain."

Josiah saw Eren get up angrily. "Eren. Ignore them. They're not worth it." He warned.

Eren stopped when 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.

Josiah saw the kid as well, smiling sadly as he saw his younger self with Clayton and Soren on either side of him. Clayton had an annoyed look while Soren had a blank expression.

He blinked as the kid replaced the picture of him and his childhood friends.

"So cool! The Scout Regiment's awesome! Even when they're so beat-up they keep on fighting!"

Eren sat back down as Josiah just had a blank expression at the kid's words.

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.

Josiah had his head down as he clenched onto Eren's hand who was sobbing in his sleeve.

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

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

Word Count: 1456 words.