"Because… it's you, Roger."
Pieck's voice was flat, her face unreadable.
When they were little, they'd lived on the same street, their homes less than a hundred meters apart.
From the first moment Pieck Finger could remember, Roger had been in her world—knocking on the door with a ball in his arms, smiling, taking her hand so they could play together.
Back then, they were simple. Being with each other felt like happiness.
Until one day, Roger stopped coming. He grew withdrawn and extreme.
There were rumors: that he'd scaled the wall of the internment zone with a group of kids to play by the sea, got caught by the Military Police, and only he made it back.
There were other rumors: that his parents were Marleyans who didn't want him and dumped him in the Eldian internment zone.
From then on, Roger kept his distance from Pieck. He seemed to carry a heavy burden, avoided conversation, and fought to be first in everything.
Even after they both entered the Warrior cadet corps together, they never reconnected.
Roger never answered Pieck whenever she reached out—not once. Even that "Pieck-chan" just now was the first tender nickname in ages.
But this time, Pieck wouldn't go soft.
She knew clearly: Roger was no longer on her road.
And he had devoured Reiner—disgracing the cadets, a criminal to Marley.
Letting him go would be unfair to Reiner.
Roger, though, wasn't thinking about all that…
He was only surprised that Pieck, inheritor of the Cart Titan, was here as well. Nothing more.
With Pieck was Annie, who had seized Roger's left hand.
Watching Roger's every move, Annie Leonhart—top of the Warrior class—wouldn't give him a sliver of a chance to break free.
Only, it was already too late.
"A fine setup. Shame I've been waiting for you all along—and ready to welcome you at any moment."
Roger opened his hand, showing his palm. He'd already sliced it with a blade.
The wound had mostly closed with time.
But if he willed it, shifting into the Jaw Titan would take an instant.
Annie and Pieck both spotted the scar at once.
Almost simultaneously, they chopped for the side of his neck with knife-hands, aiming to knock him out.
If a Titan shifter is knocked unconscious mid-shift, the transformation often fails.
But Roger had foreseen it. He transformed only both arms, using the transformation shockwave to blast them away. Then he shed the titanized arms and used the billowing steam as cover, forcing himself up from the floor.
His shattered shins twisted; black lines crept over them, and in a blink they mended and straightened.
He staggered two steps, then steadied. With one hand he snatched up Tours and Nelly and vaulted into the stairwell to the basement.
"You two! Take the tunnel—now!"
Roger shoved them.
Tours and Nelly nodded and dove into the secret tunnel they'd dug from the basement.
Once they were gone, Roger sprouted a single Titan arm again and blew the stairwell to rubble.
Boom!!
Dust rolled. Kenny, now joined by a recovered Annie and Pieck, moved in to check.
"No helping it. It's sealed," Pieck sighed.
"Tch, told you—if he dared change his name to 'Reiner' to bait you in, he was sure you'd never catch him," Kenny shrugged. "Right, Miss Annie?"
"Shut up," Annie said curtly. "Send your people. It's not too late to pursue."
"Sure, sure, you got it." Kenny drawled, kicking on his ODM gear and blasting out. "You lot—link up with the MPs when they get here. You three—on me."
They followed, weaving through the rooftops of Stohess.
Roger knew they'd come prepared. Even if the Cart Titan and Female Titan failed to subdue him, there was bound to be the Colossal Titan lurking nearby, ready to end it with one explosive transformation.
So fighting in Stohess was out of the question. If they fought, it had to be in the wooded outskirts.
They slipped out of the residential blocks. Roger, Tours, and Nelly crawled from a sewer outflow by a stream beyond the city.
Wiping grime from his face, Tours grumbled as they ran.
"Boss, how many times is this we've crawled out of a sewer?"
"…"
"Ninth."
Nelly answered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Hah! Nine lives—and counting!"
Tours laughed, not feeling unlucky at all.
Nelly's face, though, suddenly darkened.
"Boss… if I keep going with you from here… I'm going to die, aren't I?" Nelly asked. "The wanted man the Corps has been chasing—was that you?"
"Yeah. Me." At this point, Roger had nothing to hide. "I've been waiting for this day—waiting for them to find me—because I've been looking for them too. 'Reiner Braun' isn't my name. It belonged to someone I killed with my own hands."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"What are you really after?"
Nelly stopped running.
Roger and Tours halted too and turned to him.
"You never chose to trust us. So I don't need to keep following you."
"The hell are you babbling, you bastard?!" Tours flew into a rage, seized Nelly by the collar. "Your rank, the clothes on your back, the money in your pocket—which of those didn't the Boss give you?!"
"None of them," Nelly said, unwavering, meeting Tours' eyes. "They're all my own work."
"You son of a—!!"
"Leave it, Tours," Roger frowned. "Let him go. We need to reach Levi before dawn. If they catch up, we're forced into a fight. In this terrain, even I can't go all out."
"Tch!"
Tours let Nelly go, shot him one last glare, and moved to follow Roger.
"Wait."
"?"
Nelly called after them, pulled a small cylinder from his coat, and handed it to Roger.
"This is…"
"A signal flare," he said. "I told Levi about this thing. If it's him, he'll understand fast and come out to meet you."
"Much obliged," Roger said at last. "You're free now. Until we meet again, Nelly."
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