✦ The Chapter
Sarah's steps were slow—heavy—
as if the earth itself resisted carrying her toward a fate she never chose.
Every stone beneath her feet whispered the same word:
"Turn back."
But she didn't.
The air in the underground corridors was suffocating—thick with dampness, pressing against her chest like a quiet warning.
The rocky walls narrowed around her, as though eager to swallow anyone who dared enter.
Even the soldiers escorting her kept their weapons lowered…
but not out of mercy.
Their silence felt like a silent trial.
Their eyes didn't see a woman—
but a Marleyan phantom walking toward judgment.
Then, a voice sliced through the tension like a blade:
"You're a spy."
The accusation wasn't unfamiliar—
but the sharpness of it stunned her.
Eren.
He stood before her, radiating a fury unlike anything she had ever witnessed.
His eyes no longer looked human—
but like twin embers carrying the weight of loss, betrayal, and unhealed wounds.
"Do you think we're fools?" he growled, voice trembling from somewhere deep inside.
"That your arrival was an accident?
That someone born in Marley—raised under its flag—can walk into our walls wearing an innocent face?"
His words felt like a hammer crashing against the door of her already fractured heart.
She said nothing.
Not because she lacked answers—
but because none of them mattered anymore.
Words couldn't save her father when they dragged him away.
Words couldn't save her childhood.
Words couldn't save Leila.
So how could they save her now?
Silence became her only shield.
A heavy silence…
but one less dishonest than any speech she could offer.
Through this taut quiet, another voice rose—
not angry, not trembling.
Calm.
Steady.
Like a hand preventing a sword from falling.
"Eren… stop."
Armin.
His voice was soft, yet carried the weight of a mind that had not rested since the moment Sarah walked in.
He stepped forward—eyes not filled with hatred, but calculation.
A mind racing faster than the fear around him.
"We need her," he said simply, without raising his voice.
"A hardening formula. Titan secrets. Annie. If she holds even a fragment of something useful… we cannot waste it."
Eren didn't want logic.
Anger pulsed through him like a second heartbeat.
He raised his hand—not to strike,
but to condemn.
"How can we trust her?"
His voice cracked with raw disdain.
"All of this—her face, her timing, her story—it's a trick."
Then came the moment that changed everything.
A quiet, cold order—
spoken like a sentence passed in an execution yard:
"Restrain her."
Every head turned.
Levi.
He had been standing there all along—motionless, unreadable.
A shadow carved into the stone.
He spoke without blinking, without the faintest hint of mercy:
as if the very idea of second chances had died long ago.
Soldiers moved instantly.
Cold metal clamped around her wrists before she fully understood what was happening.
Pain wasn't what stung her most.
It was the feeling—
the unmistakable sensation of something inside her folding in on itself.
Life pressing hard against her chest—
as if punishing her for ever believing justice might still exist.
The smell of iron rose sharply…
awakening a memory she wished she could bury forever.
Her father.
Dragged from their home.
The same metallic scent in the air.
His last words echoing in her ears:
"Do not fear the truth, Sarah… even if it comes wearing the face of an enemy."
Her eyes burned, but no tears fell.
Tears were a luxury of a past life.
Now she was a stranger—
bound, alone,
needed for her knowledge…
or sentenced by it.
The corridor blurred as memories crashed into her:
Soldiers with blank faces.
Shots fired.
Leila's small hand trembling in her own.
The orphanage—
cold, merciless—
teaching her that the world does not protect the weak…
it consumes them.
And yet—
something inside her refused to die.
A spark.
A promise.
A name whispered in the dark.
Leila.
Knowledge wasn't power.
It was her last weapon—the only thing that kept her from becoming a ghost.
✦ Inside the Cell
Silence settled heavily.
Only shaky breaths stirred the cold air trapped between stone walls.
Every pair of eyes waited—
for someone to speak,
to accuse,
to decide.
Then came a laugh.
A familiar, chaotic laugh that didn't belong in a prison at all.
Hange.
She stepped forward, hands raised dramatically, eyes glowing with unfiltered curiosity.
"Alright, alright! Enough with the threats. This isn't a theater, unless someone forgot to tell me. We have a Marleyan scientist in custody and a mountain of questions.
Shall we begin?"
A few soldiers exchanged uneasy glances as they slipped out of the cell.
But one man didn't move.
Levi.
Still as stone.
Watching her silently.
Not just looking at her—
but through her.
He was a man who smelled lies the way others smelled smoke.
A man who could read intent like blood on a blade.
Sarah felt his gaze like a weight pressing against her skin.
As if saying:
"You're here… and time is running out."
The door shut behind her with a harsh metallic clang.
The room grew even colder.
Hange stepped closer, studying Sarah as though she were a rare specimen.
"I'll skip the polite introductions," she said sharply.
"Why are you here? And what does Marley want?"
Sarah lowered her gaze.
Then slowly… raised her head again.
Forced the truth out like something bitter:
"I was sent. Forced. Marley doesn't ask permission. It commands."
Hange laughed—too loudly, too unexpectedly.
"How refreshing. A scientist who admits things this early! I almost want to trust you… but this isn't a tea party."
She adjusted her glasses, eyes narrowing.
"Zeke said you're brilliant. That you may know something about hardening. But we don't take monsters at their word."
Levi stepped forward, silent but sharp.
His presence made the air itself tighten.
He looked down at her with cold disdain.
"So Marley has run out of good liars," he said flatly.
"And decided to send a pretty face instead? Hoping our soldiers would melt at your feet?"
He leaned closer—voice sharp as a blade:
"Pathetic strategy. Almost insulting."
Sarah didn't flinch.
She didn't shrink.
She didn't beg.
But the room grew smaller—
and her past grew louder.
Hange fired questions like arrows:
"What's your connection to Zeke?
What do you know about the Founding Titan?
Why is Marley suddenly desperate for answers after years of pretending not to care?"
Sarah breathed deeply.
"When you search for truth," she whispered,
"you cannot keep someone in chains."
Levi scoffed.
"Pretty line. Suitable for a grave speech."
He moved closer—so close she could feel the air shift.
"Do you think pretending to be noble makes you less dangerous?"
Sarah lifted her chin.
"I'm not pretending. I'm simply trying not to die in silence."
In an instant—
before anyone could react—
Levi struck her.
A sharp, merciless slap.
The crack echoed like a suppressed gunshot.
Blood welled beneath her eye—warm, stinging, sliding down her cheek like a dark red signature.
Levi's voice dropped low—deadly:
"Remember your place."
She tasted iron.
She tasted memory.
The child who learned to survive beatings in silence.
The girl who held her sister through nights of cold hunger.
The woman who had run out of things to lose.
Slowly—
painfully—
she lifted her head again.
Her voice was steady.
Bleeding, but unbroken.
"You already know why I came," she breathed.
"And I don't know who told you…
but Marley isn't the only side with spies."
Levi froze.
Hange's smile faded.
Armin's eyes widened with unspoken questions.
Sarah continued:
"Marley is holding my sister—Leila. A doctor. A civilian. She has nothing to do with your war… yet she is kept in a camp because of me.
So yes—I am here for her.
Not for Marley.
Not for you.
Not for this cursed war."
Her voice deepened into a vow:
"If knowledge is the price to save her…
I will give everything."
The truth filled the room—raw, undeniable.
Hange stepped back, the weight of Sarah's words settling into her chest.
Levi didn't speak.
But something small—almost imperceptible—shifted in his eyes.
Not sympathy.
But recognition.
She wasn't an enemy.
She was a survivor—
just like them.
Silence returned—
but it was no longer a silence of threat.
It was a silence of understanding.
✦ Flashback: The First Night in the Orphanage
The night was freezing.
Shadows stretched across the orphanage walls like monsters watching children from afar.
Sarah held little Leila tightly, trying to warm her with her thin arms.
Tears slipped silently down her cheeks—unseen, unheard.
The world outside kept turning.
Inside, their world had ended.
The matron's harsh voice snapped through the darkness:
"Crying won't feed you! Quiet down and sleep!"
But Sarah wasn't crying out of fear.
She cried because she realized, for the first time,
that childhood had been stolen—from both of them.
She whispered into Leila's hair:
"Don't be scared, Leila… We'll grow up.
We'll get out of here.
I'll take you somewhere far away…
where no one can hurt us."
And in that moment—
in that cold, forgotten night—
a vow was born.
A vow stronger than hunger, fear, or war.
Sarah would fight the world for her sister.
No matter the cost.
✦ Ending Note
One night is enough to change everything.
Secrets surface.
Walls crumble.
And destinies begin to shift.
In the next chapter—
Sarah wakes in the infirmary…
but what awaits her outside the door
may be far harsher than her wounds.
Stay close—
the next confrontation will open new fronts in this quiet, growing war.
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