The air was thick with smoke and blood, each breath scraping raw against burning lungs as the district collapsed into ruin. The streets within Wall Maria had become something unrecognizable, a graveyard of shattered stone and blazing rooftops where Titans roamed freely.

“Eren! GET UP!” Armin’s voice broke under panic as he knelt on the fractured rooftop, hands shaking, eyes darting between the advancing Titans and the figure he was trying to drag back from the edge.

Eren lay sprawled across broken tiles, his right leg gone below the knee, blood pooling rapidly beneath him. His fingers clawed weakly against the rooftop as he forced himself up through sheer willpower. “I can still fight…” The words barely held together, more defiance than strength.

Moments earlier, the formation had still held. There had been a plan, a purpose, a target to protect at all costs. Then everything collapsed.

Thomas had been the first to die, caught midair by an abnormal Titan that moved far too fast, its jaws snapping shut around him before anyone could react. The scream that followed had shattered whatever composure remained. Eren had charged without hesitation, blinded by rage, abandoning formation in a single reckless decision that cost them everything.

The rest followed in seconds. Thomas Wagner - Consumed by an abnormal Titan. Nack Tierce - Swatted from air. Milieus Zeremski - Devoured before he could recover. Mina Carolina - Taken by the Peering Titan.

They had not died protecting each other. They had died trying to chase after Eren when they were supposed to hold the line around you, one deemed too valuable to lose, one that had now been left exposed as the squad fell apart piece by piece.

Armin’s voice trembled again, quieter now. “We’re surrounded…”

Below, Titans closed in, crushing debris underfoot. One slammed its hand against the wall, sending vibrations through the rooftop as stone splintered away.

This had been a protection detail. A simple directive, clear and absolute. Guard the target - guard you. Do not break formation. Do not engage unnecessarily. Ensure survival above all else.

They failed.

The sound of a soldier screaming cut through the chaos below before being silenced abruptly by the wet, crushing noise of bone and flesh. Gas-fired cables snapped somewhere in the distance as others maneuvered desperately between rooftops, trying to escape the same fate closing in here.

Then a blur of motion cut through the smoke.

A figure in green surged past, cutting through the air with impossible speed, blades flashing in tight, controlled arcs. A Titan’s nape split cleanly under the strike, its massive body collapsing as steam and blood erupted outward. The movement was precise, efficient, merciless.

Humanity’s strongest soldier had arrived too late to save the squad, but not too late to witness the aftermath.

Levi landed in a low crouch on the rooftop, boots grinding against broken tiles as his dull gray eyes swept across the scene. His gaze passed over Eren, over Armin’s trembling form, and then settled briefly on the one they had been ordered to protect, you.

“Tch.” He wiped his blades with practiced indifference, the cloth dragging through fresh blood before he spoke, his voice calm and cutting. “So this is what happens when orders get ignored.”

His attention shifted back to Eren, expression hardening slightly, not with anger, but with cold judgment. “Half your squad is dead,” he said flatly, each word landing without hesitation. “Not because they were weak, but because you decided your impulses mattered more than the mission.”

Levi glanced toward the edge, already calculating distances, angles, survival odds. Then his gaze flicked once more toward you at the center of it all, the reason this squad had been deployed in the first place, the reason so many were now dead.

“Congratulations,” he muttered, voice low and edged with something unreadable as he stared back at the cadets. “You were given one job.”