The silence that followed Sarah's words felt less like a pause and more like a cosmic void—measured not in seconds, but in the trembling heartbeats of everyone in the room.
It wasn't the silence of defeat… but the silence of truth.**
Even the stone walls seemed to step back, making space for a reality none of them were prepared to face:
this woman hadn't come to deceive them…
She had come to save whatever remained of her heart.
Hange—who usually laughed in the face of disaster—was the first to move.
Slowly, step by step, she approached Sarah. Under Levi's watchful eyes, she reached out and unlocked the shackles without saying a word.
Then her gaze settled on Sarah's tired face, where a faint trail of blood still traced her cheek.
She stared for a long moment—through the eyes of a scientist who knows exactly when she is looking at a broken human… and when she is standing before a miracle waiting to happen.
Finally, Hange spoke, her voice soft yet charged enough to shake the walls:
"Welcome to the island of devils, scientist.
Where only those who have something worth dying for… survive."
A crooked smile tugged at her lips—half madness, half understanding.
As if she had just realized they might have gained something far more valuable than information.
But Sarah, bleeding from skin and spirit alike, couldn't find her voice.
Her strength was draining, her vision blurring…
And then her body simply gave way.
She didn't fall.
Because someone caught her.
Levi.
He moved with silent precision, faster than thought.
His arm slid beneath her shoulders, the other beneath her knees—lifting her before the ground could claim her.
He looked down at her face—pale, blood-stained, barely conscious.
She felt weightless in his arms.
Too light.
Dangerously light.
As if he wasn't carrying a body, but the last fragile pieces of a woman who had refused to die standing.
"Take her to the infirmary, Levi," Hange said.
But she didn't miss the flicker that crossed his eyes… nor the silence that lasted a heartbeat too long.
He didn't answer.
He didn't look back.
He simply walked out of the dungeon, carrying her like a soldier carrying a weapon that had lost its shine… yet was still undeniably a weapon.
Inside him—
it wasn't duty.
Nor pity.
Nor suspicion.
It was something stranger…
A fracture, a question, an unfamiliar weight.
Something he couldn't name.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Levi's thoughts lingered like a shadow behind him.
He stood near the door of the infirmary—not rigid, but unsettled in a way he refused to acknowledge.
His eyes drifted to his hand—still stained with her blood—
then to her closed eyes, where silence was louder than every word she had spoken in the dungeon.
It wasn't sympathy.
It wasn't emotion.
It was a question.
"Who are you?
And why do you look less like an enemy…
and more like someone who's been fighting alone for far too long?"
The physician cleaned and stitched her wound while Levi stood guard, arms folded, silent but impossibly alert.
She wasn't a spy.
Nor a victim.
She was an unanswered question.
A question he couldn't ignore.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zeke's Letter
"To those who still believe the truth can be buried beneath borders and maps:
Sarah Jalal is not merely a Marleyan.
She is a mind Marley has drained for years without comprehending its worth.
Formulas, biochemical structures, cellular understanding…
Her knowledge brushes the edges of Titan transformation itself.
Place her in an environment that views Titans as a curse instead of a crown,
and she may reach a possibility no scientist has dared to imagine:
Perhaps those who lost their humanity… may reclaim it.
I do not write this to justify her,
nor to protect her.
I write this to disrupt the stillness of your decisions.
Ignore her—
and you lose a chance.
Use her—
and you risk destroying her.
Understand her—
and you may understand something far greater than your enemy.
Do not offer her your trust.
Trust is a fairy tale in a world ruled by hunger and fear.
But time…
time crushes the hesitant.
—Zeke Yeager."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The weight of his words settled over the room.
No one spoke.
The possibility—
the terrifying, fragile, impossible possibility of reversing Titanization—
hung in the air like lightning.
Eyes shifted from the letter…
to the infirmary door.
And then—
the unlikeliest soldier in the room stepped forward.
Connie.
His voice trembled, but his conviction didn't:
"I… I think we should give her a chance."
He swallowed hard, then continued:
"She's a scientist, right? That's what Zeke says.
And if there's even a tiny chance she can understand something about Titans—about the hardening—then maybe…
maybe she could help my mom."
A silence heavier than sorrow filled the room.
"I'm tired," he said barely above a whisper.
"Tired of visiting her and seeing nothing behind her eyes.
If this woman can help—even a little—shouldn't we try?
Haven't we lost enough?"
Even Levi's stare shifted, almost imperceptibly.
Almost.
Hange inhaled deeply.
"Then… we try."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The next morning
Hange found Levi in his office.
Sunlight crept across the wooden floor, but not enough to warm the room.
"Levi," she said, "You'll be responsible for watching Sarah while I'm gone."
He looked up sharply.
"You're serious?" His voice was low, controlled.
"Absolutely," she replied. "This isn't favoritism—this is strategy."
A muscle in his jaw tightened.
"I'll do it," he said. "But don't mistake acceptance for agreement."
At the door, Hange paused.
"Did you see her eyes, Levi?"
He didn't answer.
She continued, softer now:
"If those aren't the eyes of someone fighting to survive…
they're the eyes of someone who's already lost too much."
He didn't turn.
But his voice, when it came, was a shade thinner:
"I saw something.
I just don't know if it's worth worrying about…
or worth betting on."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
In the infirmary
A thin beam of sunlight warmed Sarah's cheek.
Her breath was shallow but steady.
Sasha sat at her bedside, holding a bowl of steaming soup.
"Hi… I'm Sasha," she whispered. "I'm glad you woke up."
Sarah blinked weakly, offering a faint smile—
not of weakness, but of someone who refused to let go of life.
And then—
Levi.
He appeared in the doorway, his presence filling the room without sound.
"You decided not to die," he said flatly.
Sarah's voice was hoarse, but steady:
"Seems so."
"Zeke wrote about you," he continued, crossing his arms.
"Says you might matter to this island."
Her expression shifted—pain, recognition, disbelief.
"Zeke…?" she breathed.
She chuckled once—short, bitter.
"He promised Marley he'd destroy this island…
and promised you he'd abandoned Marley.
A perfect traitor.
He only serves himself."
Her gaze sharpened, striking him with unexpected clarity:
"Don't worry.
I'm not one of those who believed in his fairy tales.
Marley isn't my country…
It's just the grave that tried to bury me alive."
Levi raised a brow.
"Good. We've had enough of people marching in with the classic speech:
'They ruined my life, so allow me to ruin yours.'"
She inhaled shakily.
"I don't care about speeches. Only truth."
"That doesn't earn my trust," he said.
"But it makes talking to you… tolerable."
Then he turned to Sasha:
"Keep an eye on her.
If she starts getting too philosophical, give her more soup."
He left—
but not quickly.
As if he had left a question behind.
And maybe a piece of something he didn't want to name.
Sasha placed the bowl in Sarah's hands.
"I don't know anything about spies," she said softly, "but hungry people deserve good soup before anyone judges them."
For the first time since she reached this island,
Sarah felt something warm settle inside her—
Not safety.
Not trust.
But something close to… a beginning.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Flashback – "Warmth That Resembles Life"
The orphanage was freezing.
Leila burned with fever in Sarah's arms, her small body trembling like a fallen leaf.
Sarah wrapped her tighter, whispering through chapped lips:
"I won't let them take you from me.
Even if I have to fight the whole world."
That night, a vow was born.
A vow that still shaped the woman lying in the infirmary now.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Levi watched from the doorway, arms crossed.
Even in sleep, Sarah's face was tightened in silent battle—
as if she was still protecting someone in her dreams.
He didn't understand the feeling that stirred within him.
But he understood one thing:
This woman was fighting.
And this time…
she might not be fighting alone.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Questions for readers
Do you think Levi's feelings have begun to shift… or is it all in our imagination?
Can Zeke's words be trusted, or is there a deeper plan at play?
What future do you see between Sarah and the Survey Corps—friendship? conflict? something else entirely?
When the doors of memory open… can the past reshape the future?
If you enjoyed the chapter, please vote & leave a comment — your support helps the story grow ❤️