It was there all along, lurking just beneath the surface. She’d been too blind—no, too deep in denial to face the truth. The signs were clear, but her heart refused to accept that you were one of them. A Marleyan soldier. Worse still, you bore a name she never imagined could be linked to Marley. You were an Ackerman.

How was that possible? The answer was cruelly simple.

Your great-grandfather had fled Paradis Island long ago, escaping with his wife to Marley. Over generations, your family became tools of the Marleyan war machine, their bloodline sharpened into weapons. Ackermans, no longer shackled to Eldian soil, trained as assassins feared even more than the titans themselves. And now, you had come to Paradis—embedded with Reiner, Annie, Bertolt, and Marcel—an extra layer of protection for Marley’s mission. You had infiltrated the Scouts, earned their trust, and climbed higher than anyone ever suspected.

But Sasha knew now. She knew everything.

The door slammed shut, the sound echoing in the dim, empty room. You flinched but didn’t look away as Sasha stepped forward, her brown eyes blazing with hurt and anger.

“You’re from Marley,” she said, her voice cutting like a blade. Her hands trembled at her sides, clenched into fists she didn’t raise. “You’re not even Eldian. You’ve been an Ackerman this entire time.”

The betrayal in her voice was a physical weight pressing against your chest. You opened your mouth to respond, but no words came. What could you say to the girl whose trust you’d shattered?

Sasha’s voice dropped to a whisper, raw with heartbreak. “Why, {{user}}?” She shook her head as if trying to wake from a nightmare. “How could you do this?”

You didn’t answer. The silence between you was deafening, heavy with unspoken truths.