The red flare cut through the thick smoke rising from Trost District like a screaming blade. Soldiers atop Wall Rose froze mid-step, eyes following the streak of color as it vanished into the cloudy sky. The air smelled of ash, blood, and fear—a cocktail that was becoming all too familiar.
Armin's decision was instantaneous. "I'm going," he said, and without waiting for consent, he sprinted along the Wall, the wind tugging at his cloak, the distant sound of Titans pounding the streets below fueling his urgency.
A young soldier nearby swallowed nervously. "Shouldn't we focus on defense and—call off the elite team?" he asked cautiously, glancing at Commander Pixis.
Pixis shook his head slowly, a calm smile on his face. "No. Continue the lure," he said, voice carrying across the platform. "I trust the elite team. They will not give up so easily."
The soldiers exchanged uneasy glances, but none dared question the command further.
---
Below, the streets were chaos incarnate. Smoke mingled with the metallic tang of blood, and Titans clashed blindly with humans desperate to survive. Mitabi's squad hesitated, forced back by the sheer number of Titans, panic creeping into their movements. Mikasa, blazing with a rare fire that silenced even the most terrified, skidded to a stop in front of Mitabi, eyes flashing.
"You want to retreat?" she growled. "You want to leave him here?!"
Before Mitabi could answer, Ian stepped between them. "Enough." His voice was firm, resonant, carrying over the pounding of Titans and the shouts of men and women fighting for their lives. He gestured toward the advancing monsters. "Take them down. Every single one that threatens this position. Eren cannot be abandoned—he represents a precious possibility for mankind."
Mikasa clenched her fists, nodding, though her eyes betrayed a flash of gratitude. "…Thank you."
---
High above the chaos, Alex crouched on a crumbling roof. His white hair was a bright beacon against the soot and ruin. His Six Eyes flickered with sharp intensity, analyzing the battlefield in real-time, calculating angles, predicting movement. He leaned back casually, tapping a finger against his knee, the wind tugging at his cloak.
So noisy, he muttered. The screaming, the panic, the "will-he-won't-he" tension… honestly, Eren, you're making this far too dramatic for my taste.
A 10-meter Titan lunged at a retreating group of cadets. Alex didn't move. He could—but his powers were already stretched thin. The two barriers over the breached Walls strained every ounce of energy he had, and his nose bled faintly from the overuse. He flexed his fingers. Brute force.
With a single, flicked kick from the roof, the Titan's legs buckled, sending it sprawling into the cobblestones with a sickening crunch. Dust rose, mingling with the steam. Alex's smirk widened. "Efficiency," he whispered. "Sometimes you don't need fancy tricks. Just a strong kick."
Levi, watching from a nearby chimney stack, frowned. "Who the hell are you?" he muttered under his breath. He had fought Titans all his life, seen horrors unimaginable, and yet this man—white hair, glowing blue eyes, calm as if in a stroll through a park—radiated a confidence that made even him uneasy.
Alex noticed the movement in his periphery. Ah, the stoic one. Not bad… He waved casually. "Hey. You. Tiny guy. You work fast, I see."
Levi's hand twitched toward his blades. "I don't know who you are, and I don't care. Stay out of my way."
Alex grinned. "Oh, I plan to, mostly. But if you're going to be this tense, I might have to intervene. Don't want you spraining something important."
Levi's expression didn't change. He continued cutting down the Titans in his path, precise and lethal, but Alex's amusement lingered like a shadow.
---
Back on the Wall, Pixis's eyes followed the streets below. Something was… missing. A subtle distortion in reality caught his attention. He leaned closer to the officer beside him.
"Notice anything odd about the ones that… vanished?" he asked. His tone was quiet, curious. "They aren't just dead. They're… erased. As if someone plucked them from existence. Not my doing."
The officer swallowed. "C-Commander… Titans don't just—"
Pixis nodded slowly, interrupting. "Exactly. Someone—or something—is watching. Someone with a hand in this chaos that isn't human… or at least, not entirely."
---
Inside the Titan's sweltering flesh, Eren was somewhere else entirely.
Sunlight streamed through a familiar window. The smell of bread filled the air. His mother smiled as if nothing had ever been wrong. The walls stood tall. Whole. Safe.
Warmth wrapped around him like a blanket.
"…I'm tired," he thought distantly. "Can I stay?"
"Eren! Wake up!
The voice shattered the illusion like glass.
Armin's face appeared at the window—distorted, desperate, eyes burning with panic.
"Why do you want to go outside?" Armin pleaded. "If you stay here, you'll die! We were going to see the sea, Eren! The burning water! The fields of ice!"
Eren's vision wavered.
"The sea…" he whispered.
Outside, Armin's blade was still embedded in the Titan's arm, sending painful jolts through the connection.
"Because we were born into this world!" Armin screamed, voice breaking under the weight of it. "We are free!"
The dream collapsed.
The house burned away. Warmth turned to agony. Steam roared in his ears.
Eren's eyes snapped open—not the Titan's, but the boy's, buried deep within its nape.
"I'll kill them," a voice rumbled, shaking the street itself.
"Every last one."
---
The shift was immediate.
Even the Titans felt it.
In the streets, Eren's Titan struggled under the weight of the Great Boulder. Steam rose off its form in thick waves, twisting the air with heat and pressure. Mikasa darted between fists and falling debris, every motion precise, deadly. Ian barked orders to the remaining squad, trying to maintain order, his voice sharp over the chaos.
"He's up!" Rico shouted, disbelief and terror tangled together. "He's—he's lifting it!"
From his rooftop perch, Alex stood slowly and stretched, arms raised overhead like he hadn't just erased a Titan moments earlier.
"Finally," he sighed. "I was this close to carrying it myself. That would've been tragic—for my back and my manicure."
But the roar had consequences.
Titans poured in from every direction, drawn like moths to flame.
"Protect him!" Ian Dietrich shouted. "Defend the Titan at all costs!"
The elite squad moved with practiced precision—but numbers pressed in from all sides. Mitabi's team was being forced back, Titans crawling over rooftops and down alleyways, their grins glowing in the dying light.
Alex's gaze snapped to a fifteen-meter Titan reaching for Mitabi.
His expression flattened.
Alright, he thought. A little flair.
He stepped off the roof.
He didn't fall.
He walked downward, as if the air itself had agreed to hold him. Hands came together in a familiar motion.
"Don't look," he murmured.
"Crumple."
The space around the Titan's head compressed violently. To the soldiers below, it looked like the air itself had clenched a fist. The Titan's upper body collapsed into itself and vanished in a spray of red mist.
Alex landed silently behind Ian.
"Left side, Captain," he said calmly.
Ian spun. "Where did you—"
"Focus," Alex interrupted, pointing. "You take the small ones. I'll deal with anything that threatens city planning."
Armin ran, heart hammering, mind racing. The streets below were a storm of chaos, yet through the smoke, he could see Eren, barely conscious inside the Titan. He moved with desperate precision, blade striking the nape, voice shouting commands.
"Remember! The Scouts! The sea!"
Inside, Eren's mind flickered. The Scouts… the sea… I was born for this…
The Titan roared. Flames erupted from Eren's vision as consciousness returned, snapping him fully awake.
"GO, EREN!" Armin screamed.
With one final, desperate heave, the boulder slammed into the breach.
Eren screamed as he moved.
Every step sent shockwaves through the street. His legs cracked under the boulder's weight, muscle tearing and reforming in brutal cycles.
"Move!" Mikasa was everywhere at once—steel flashing, Titans falling before they could reach him.
Soldiers dropped. Time stretched unbearably thin.
Alex moved through the chaos like a flaw in reality itself. He was never where Titans struck—and wherever he passed, they simply stopped. Limbs twisted, vision erased, bodies collapsing without spectacle.
But the cost showed.
His face was pale now. Blood slipped from his nose, wiped away with the back of his hand.
Limitless burns through energy like crazy here, he thought grimly. Need to finish before I drop.
Eren reached the gate.On top of the Wall,
The impact shook Trost.
Dust swallowed the street.
Then—
Silence.
Rico fired a yellow flare into the sky.
Victory and the Void
"It's over," Rico whispered, collapsing. "We won…"
Alex leaned against a scorched chimney, watching Mikasa pull Eren from the Titan's nape, tears mixing with ash.
"Not bad, kids," he murmured.
His gaze lifted toward the inner wall.
Something retreated.
"Patient," Alex said quietly, smirking despite the tremor in his hands. "But I see you."
He exhaled.
"I really need a nap," he added to a passing crow. "And maybe Pixis' entire flask."
Then he stepped into the shadows—
And was gone.
---
Alex observed silently from a distance, energy strained, nose bleeding, barriers wavering. He grinned faintly. "Come on, kid. Don't make me step in again… I'm tired," he muttered. Yet every instinct screamed—he'd intervene if necessary.
Levi didn't know him, yet he felt the same chill that ran down every spine when Alex appeared. The man in white hair was chaos contained, a predator enjoying the stage of humanity's desperate survival.
And at the center, Eren Yeager awakened.