---
The ultimatum hung in the air, a declaration of war delivered not by a roaring Titan, but by a man in a clean uniform.
"...surrender the traitor, Commander Erwin, or the Scout Regiment will be branded as co-conspirators, and dealt with accordingly!"
Nile Dok's words echoed off the stone walls of the garrison gate, a final, chilling judgment that sucked the air from the lungs of every exhausted soldier. The initial, explosive reactions had settled into a tense, fragile standoff. Mikasa had been halted mid-flight by a furious Levi, her blades still drawn, her will a tangible force of defiance. Armin held back Erin and a tearful Christa, her own hand hovering over her ODM gear, ready to fight their own government for Akira's sake. The air crackled, a spark away from a massacre.
From his place in the center of the storm, Akira watched it all unfold. He saw the loyalty that was about to get his friends killed. He saw the fear that was driving good men to point guns at each other. He saw the whole, damn, cruel world preparing to tear itself apart over him. And he knew he had to stop it.
"Mikasa. Erin."
His voice was quiet, strained from pain and exhaustion, but it carried an authority that cut through their rage. They both froze, their heads snapping towards him.
"Stand down."
It wasn't a request. It was a command born from a deep, weary sorrow. He took a single, unsteady step forward, away from the protection of his friends and towards the line of bayonets. He looked past Nile, past the soldiers, and into the heart of the system that was condemning him.
"The only treason," he said, his voice still quiet but resonating with a chilling clarity that every soldier heard, "is letting fear make you blind. There are bigger monsters than Titans, and some of them wear crowns."
Nile's face hardened, his hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. "Insolent bastard! Arrest the traitor!"
But before the MPs could move, another voice, calm and powerful, took command of the scene.
"That will not be necessary, Commander Nile."
Erwin Smith urged his horse forward, placing himself between the two factions. He looked not at Akira, but at Nile, his expression one of reasonable, diplomatic concern.
"Commander Erwin," Nile said, his voice tight with impatience. "The decree is absolute. Hand him over."
"And I have every intention of complying with the will of the crown," Erwin said smoothly, his voice a calming balm on a raging fire. "However, you and I are both practical men. Consider the situation. This boy, this 'Titan of Light,' is now a public figure. The civilians you are meant to protect just watched him save them from two separate monsters. If you drag him out of here in chains and execute him without due process, you won't have order. You will have riots. Mass panic. You will turn a hero into a martyr, and you will make the Royal Government look like fearful tyrants."
He paused, letting his words sink in. He could see the logic working behind Nile's weary eyes.
"I propose a compromise," Erwin continued, his voice a masterpiece of political theater. "We will surrender him to the capital, as ordered. But not to the Interior Squad for a back-alley execution. We, the Scout Regiment, will escort him personally to stand a formal, public trial before the King's advisors. Let all hear the truth. It is the only way to maintain peace and order."
It was a brilliant lie. A masterpiece of manipulation wrapped in the language of civic duty. It was a stalling tactic, a way to move Akira out of immediate danger and onto a chessboard of Erwin's own design.
Nile hesitated, his mind warring between his orders and the undeniable logic of Erwin's argument. A public trial was a risk, but a riot was a certainty. He looked at the faces of the Scouts, at the simmering rage in their eyes, and knew that trying to take Akira by force here would be a bloodbath.
"Fine," Nile conceded, his voice heavy with reluctance. "We will accept your proposal, Commander. But my men will ride with you. He will be a joint prisoner until we reach the capital."
"An acceptable precaution," Erwin agreed with a slight nod.
The standoff was over. A fragile, tense truce had been called.
---
The convoy that set off for the capital was a funeral procession for hope. The journey was a long, agonizing crawl through a world that had suddenly become an open-air prison. It was a tense, miserable affair, a column of green and green, Scouts and MPs, riding together in a silence thick with distrust.
Akira rode in the center, a prisoner without chains, the eye of a hurricane of conflicting emotions. The physical pain from his injuries was a dull, constant throb, but it was nothing compared to the sharp, twisting agony of his isolation. He could feel the emotions of his comrades like a physical assault. The hatred, the confusion, the fear—it was a poison seeping into his very soul.
Mikasa and Erin flanked him, their earlier rage now a cold, simmering fury directed at the world itself. They refused to leave his side, their presence a silent, defiant statement of loyalty that only served to isolate them all further.
The tension finally snapped when Jean, his face pale and gaunt with grief, spurred his horse forward, breaking the unspoken quarantine around Akira.
"How can you ride beside him, Mikasa?" he asked, his voice cracking with a pain that was almost too much to bear. "After what he did? He let the thing that killed Marco get away! He stood there and protected it! How can you look at him?"
Mikasa's head turned, her dark eyes filled with a cold fire. "Because, unlike you, Jean, I haven't forgotten who saved us from the Beast Titan. I haven't forgotten who stood as a shield while we ran. I trust him."
"Trust?!" Jean laughed, a bitter, broken sound. "Trust got Marco killed! Trust got our friends killed! What good is trust when he's siding with the enemy?!"
Before Mikasa could retort, Akira spoke, his voice low and tired, not even turning to look at them. "She's not the enemy, Jean."
"Then what is she?!" Jean screamed, his control shattering. "A fucking friend?!"
This time, Akira turned his head slowly, his tired cyan eyes locking onto Jean's. There was no anger in his gaze, only a profound, weary sadness.
"She's a soldier, Jean," Akira said, his voice quiet but firm. "Just like you. A soldier who follows orders."
Jean scoffed, ready to scream again, but Akira's next words stopped him cold.
"Tell me something," Akira continued, his voice dropping to an almost hypnotic murmur that seemed to draw in everyone nearby. "If Commander Erwin ordered you to attack a village full of enemies... and you knew they had families, friends... people who loved them just like you love your mother... would you follow that order?"
The question hung in the air, a poisoned dart. It wasn't an accusation. It was a mirror.
Jean's mouth opened, then closed. The furious, righteous anger in his eyes flickered, replaced by a dawning, horrified confusion. He saw himself in that question. He saw the uniform he wore, the orders he followed without question. He saw the possibility that the "enemy" wasn't just a monster, but a person on the other side of an order. The simple, black-and-white world he had been clinging to since Marco's death began to crack, revealing terrifying shades of grey.
He couldn't answer. He just stared at Akira, the anger in his heart now at war with a new, terrible doubt. With a choked sound of frustration, he pulled his horse back, retreating into the formation, his mind a chaotic storm.
Behind them, Armin's eyes widened, a new piece of the puzzle clicking into place. That's it, he thought. He's not protecting a person. He's protecting a principle. He sees the soldiers, not the monsters.
---
As the convoy passed through a narrow, forested path, the simmering tension exploded into outright chaos.
"TITANS! THREE OF THEM! COMING FROM THE TREES!"
The cry came from a panicked MP. A small group of stragglers from the Wall Rose breach, a 5-meter, a 7-meter, and a lumbering 10-meter, burst from the woods, their dead eyes fixed on the line of horses.
The Military Police formation shattered instantly. They were road soldiers, bureaucrats with guns, completely unprepared for a real fight. They fumbled with their rifles, firing uselessly as the Titans advanced.
"IDIOTS! YOUR BLADES!" Levi's roar cut through the panic. The Scouts reacted as one, their years of brutal training taking over. They were a whirlwind of green capes and flashing steel, launching from their horses and engaging the monsters with a lethal efficiency that made the MPs look like children.
But in the chaos, the 10-meter Titan, ignoring the zipping soldiers, broke through the line. Its eyes landed on the most prestigious-looking target—Nile Dok, who had been knocked from his startled horse and was now scrambling backward on the ground, his face a mask of pure terror.
The Titan's massive, grimy hand reached down, its shadow falling over the MP Commander.
Akira saw it all. He saw the terrified man who had just condemned him to death, about to be turned into a smear on the forest floor. He was a prisoner. He was injured. He was supposed to do nothing.
But his body moved before his mind could object.
It wasn't a choice. It was an instinct.
A surge of raw, cyan Ki erupted from him. With a sound like cracking stone, the iron cuff on his right wrist shattered into pieces. In the same fluid motion, he leaned down, his fingers closing around a sharp, fist-sized rock from the road. He didn't even stand. He just twisted his body, putting every ounce of his remaining strength into the throw.
The rock flew not like a stone, but like a cannonball. It whistled through the air and struck the 10-meter Titan square in its right eye. The impact was explosive, turning the creature's eyeball into a shower of gore. The Titan roared in pain and surprise, its grasping hand flinching back just as it was about to close around Nile.
That split second was all Levi needed. He descended like a spinning blade of vengeance, his swords a blur as he carved a deep, perfect gash into the Titan's nape. The monster collapsed, its corpse crashing to the ground just feet from the stunned MP Commander.
Akira slumped forward against his horse's neck, a wave of dizziness washing over him. The single, explosive burst of Ki had taken a massive toll on his already battered body. His breathing was ragged, and a fresh trickle of blood ran from his nose.
---
The remaining two Titans were dispatched with ruthless efficiency by the other Scouts. The silence that fell afterward was heavier and more uncomfortable than before.
Nile Dok sat on the ground, his fine uniform covered in dirt, staring at Akira with wide, shocked, and utterly bewildered eyes. The traitor, the Class-S threat, the boy he was escorting to his execution, had just saved his life. The world no longer made sense.
Levi landed beside him, wiping his blade clean with a practiced motion. His face was a mask of unreadable complexity. He had seen the act. He had capitalized on it. But he didn't understand it. This wasn't the move of a simple traitor. It was the move of something far more dangerous: an unpredictable force that operated on a logic he couldn't begin to fathom.
Mikasa and Erin were instantly at Akira's side, their faces etched with frantic worry. "Akira! Are you okay? You idiot, you're hurt!" Erin cried, trying to help him sit up straight.
Mikasa simply pressed her water canteen to his lips, her touch gentle, but her eyes burning with a mixture of pride and terror.
---
From a hidden perch in the high branches of a nearby tree, Pieck Finger lowered her spyglass, a slow, thoughtful smile spreading across her face. She had seen it all. The internal conflict of the Scouts. The incompetence of the MPs. And the boy's impossible, illogical act of heroism.
"Oh, you are interesting," she whispered to the wind, her mind racing. "You protect the very people who want to kill you. You are not a weapon. You are a fool. A magnificent, powerful, and utterly fascinating fool."
She knew, with a certainty that thrilled her, that this boy was the key, not just to the Founding Titan, but to the entire future of this war. And she couldn't wait to see what he would do next.
---
•To Be Continue•
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