---
The word hung in the poisoned air of the ravaged forest, heavy and sharp as a guillotine's blade.
Treason.
It was a verdict delivered with the cold, final authority of humanity's strongest soldier, and it shattered the fragile remnants of hope that had followed Akira's victory. For a moment, the entire Scout Regiment was frozen, the gears of their minds grinding to a halt as they tried to reconcile the two images before them: the crimson hero who had obliterated a monster from their worst nightmares, and the unconscious boy at their feet, now branded a traitor.
Mikasa was the first to break.
A sound that was half-sob, half-snarl ripped from her throat. In a flash of steel, her blades were in her hands, not aimed to kill, but held as a defiant, desperate shield in front of Akira's still form. She planted herself between him and the Captain, her dark eyes blazing with a furious, unwavering loyalty.
"You're wrong," she hissed, her voice trembling with a rage that made the air around her vibrate. "You're wrong! There's a reason! There has to be!"
Levi's face was a mask of cold stone. He didn't even flinch at the sight of her drawn blades. "He protected a mass murderer, Ackerman," he stated, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. "He let the Female Titan escape. That's the only reason I need."
"He saved us!" a new voice cried out. Erin, her face streaked with dirt and tears, limped forward, using a broken tree branch as a crutch. Her own Titan form lay steaming and defeated just yards away, a testament to Annie's betrayal. "He saved all of us from that other monster! How can he be a traitor?!"
"He let the bitch who killed Marco get away!" a voice roared back, filled with grief and raw anger. Jean stumbled forward, his face a twisted mask of pain. "He stood there and let her run! He protected her! What are we supposed to think, Erin?! That he's on our side?!"
The 104th was a fractured mirror, the cracks spreading rapidly. Connie stared, his mind unable to form a coherent thought. Sasha and Mina huddled together, their faces pale with fear, looking from their fallen hero to their furious Captain, lost and terrified. From a distance, Christa watched, her hands clasped over her heart as her idealistic image of the Titan of Light crumbled into dust. This wasn't a hero. This was a tragedy.
"Enough."
The word was not shouted, but it carried an authority that cut through the chaos like a cannonball. Commander Erwin strode into the center of the tense standoff, his presence alone a calming, formidable force. He placed a hand on Mikasa's shoulder, a silent command to stand down. Reluctantly, her blades lowered, though the fire in her eyes did not dim.
Erwin looked from Levi's cold fury to Mikasa's fierce loyalty, his gaze sweeping over the confused and angry faces of the surviving soldiers. "He is not a traitor until I say he is," the Commander stated, his voice quiet but absolute. "He is an asset we do not understand. His actions were illogical, which means we are missing information." He looked down at Akira's still form. "A weapon this powerful acting against its own interests is not a simple traitor. It is a puzzle. And I intend to solve it. Secure him. And prepare the company for retreat. We've lost enough today."
His words were final. Akira was not to be executed on the spot, but he was no longer a hero being carried home. He was a problem to be managed. A weapon to be contained.
---
The journey back to the walls was a somber, silent procession of defeat. The triumphant charge out of the gates that morning felt like a memory from another lifetime. Now, they were a broken, battered remnant, their ranks thinned, their morale shattered, and their greatest hero now their most dangerous prisoner.
Akira was not in the infirmary wagon with the other wounded. He was in a separate, heavily guarded supply cart, his hands bound in thick steel cuffs—a precaution Levi had insisted upon, much to Mikasa's fury. He lay on a bed of rough straw, still lost to the world, a fallen star stripped of his light.
Mikasa and Erin rode alongside the wagon, their faces grim, a silent, conflicted honor guard. They were there to protect him, but from whom? Their own comrades? Or from himself? They didn't know.
The whispers among the other soldiers were a poison that spread through the ranks.
"Did you see it? He just... stood there." "She killed Dita and the others... and he let her go." "What if he was working with her the whole time?"
Armin, riding beside a shell-shocked Jean, tried to force logic into a situation that defied it. "It doesn't make sense," he muttered, his mind racing. "He knew it was Annie. Mikasa's Ki Sense confirmed it, but he must have known too. He wouldn't protect a simple traitor, not after what she did. There's a variable we're not seeing... a reason he would protect an enemy that outweighs protecting us. But what on earth could it be?"
Hidden within the formation, riding silently, Reiner and Bertholdt listened to the whispers, a cold relief washing over them. The focus was entirely on Akira and Annie. They were safe, for now. But a new, more profound fear was taking root. Akira wasn't just a powerful enemy. He was an unpredictable force with his own mysterious agenda. He was a wild card that could ruin all of their plans.
"This is good," Reiner said quietly to Bertholdt, his voice low enough that only he could hear. "Let them tear each other apart. It gives us time."
Bertholdt just nodded, his eyes fixed on the prison wagon ahead, a silent prayer on his lips that the monster inside would never wake up.
---
Akira awoke to the smell of damp stone and despair.
His head throbbed, and his body was a symphony of aches and pains. He wasn't in a clean, white infirmary bed. He was on a cold, hard cot in a small, windowless cell. The air was heavy and cold. He looked down at his hands. His wounds had been cleaned and bandaged, but his wrists were shackled in heavy iron cuffs, the chains bolted directly to the damp stone wall.
He was a prisoner.
The scrape of a boot on stone made him look up. Two figures stood in the flickering torchlight outside his cell. Commander Erwin, his face an unreadable mask of calm, strategic thought. And Captain Levi, his arms crossed, his eyes burning with a cold, contained fury.
The cell door creaked open, and they stepped inside.
Levi didn't waste time. He slammed a hand on the stone wall right next to Akira's head, the impact echoing in the small space. "Let's cut the crap, Nakamura," he snarled, his face inches from Akira's. "Why did you protect the Female Titan? Who are you really working for? How many more of you are there?"
Akira just stared back, his cyan eyes clear and calm, a stark contrast to the Captain's rage.
Erwin placed a hand on Levi's shoulder, a silent signal to back down. He stepped forward, his approach that of a surgeon, not a brute. "Your actions in the forest were... illogical, Akira," the Commander said, his voice a calm, probing scalpel. "You knew it was Annie Leonhart, didn't you? You've known for some time. Why didn't you inform me? What is your true objective? It clearly isn't the same as ours, which is to eliminate the threats to humanity."
This was it. The moment of truth. Akira knew he couldn't tell them his real mission. He couldn't explain that he believed the Titan power itself was a curse that could be purified, that the warriors from Marley were just as much victims as the people inside the walls. They would think he was insane. They would lock him up and throw away the key, and his chance to save everyone, all of them, would be lost forever.
He had to be misunderstood. He had to take the blame.
He looked from Erwin's probing gaze to Levi's simmering rage, and for the first time, he spoke, his voice quiet but filled with an unshakeable resolve.
"My objective has not changed, Commander. It is to protect humanity." He met Erwin's eyes, a silent challenge passing between them. "All of it. Sometimes that means making choices you won't understand. Annie Leonhart is a part of that humanity, whether you like it or not."
Levi's face contorted in a mask of pure rage. "She's a mass-murdering monster! She's not—"
RRRRIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGG!
The frantic, desperate clang of the castle's main alarm bell cut him off. It was the sound of imminent disaster.
The cell door burst open, and a soldier, his face pale with a terror that went beyond the battlefield, stumbled in. "Commander! Captain! It's an emergency! A report from the southern garrison at Karanes!"
Erwin and Levi spun around, their interrogation instantly forgotten. "What is it, soldier?!" Erwin demanded, his voice sharp as steel.
The soldier was panting, his eyes wide with a horror that chilled the room to its core.
"It's... It's Wall Rose, sir! It's been breached! There are Titans inside the Wall! We don't know how! They just... appeared!"
The words hung in the air, an impossible, world-shattering statement.
Erwin and Levi froze, their minds reeling from the implication. Titans inside the second wall? It was a catastrophe beyond their worst imaginings.
Then, slowly, as one, their heads turned back towards the cell.
Back towards Akira, who had heard everything, his head bowed in the darkness, the heavy chains on his wrists glinting in the torchlight. His cyan eyes glowed with a faint, sorrowful light.
Their greatest weapon, their only hope against a threat of this magnitude, was chained to a wall, branded a traitor.
And Erwin had to make an impossible choice.
---
•To Be Continue•
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