Author's Note: Yay! Chapter 26! I did the cover artwork and everything, so I'm super committed to seeing this story through to the end. I hope you guys enjoy it and let me know what you think!

Thank you, Lonewolfhuntress for your review! Yes! I love the manga. I generally make it a rule to write stories off of the manga rather than the anime because I feel like the 20-25 minute time restrictions on the anime episodes make it really hard to put in all of the pertinent information that needs to be there.

Chapter 26

"Commander! The left vanguard has been wiped out!" a soldier shouted over his sprinting horse. Before Keith had a chance to respond, another soldier appeared.

"Commander! The left support teams and relay teams have all been wiped out! The cart guard teams are holding back twelve titans right now!"

"Twelve!?" Keith's face twisted in pain and anger. Miria exchanged a nervous look with Levi.

"Commander!" The command squad looked over their shoulders to a bloodied and terrified soldier racing toward them.

"Please let it be good news…." Miria mumbled, knowing what a hopelessly stupid request that was.

"The rear guard has been wiped out! Standby is holding back five titans right now!"

"Commander!"

"What are you orders?!"

"Commander!" The symphony of panicked cries surrounded the team.

"Full retreat!" Keith shouted, turning his horse and leading his team back to the wall. Erwin fired a signal from his flare gun, indicating the new direction of their travel. "Close the ranks! Levi, Miria, take the lead!" The pair quickened their horses and moved out in front of Erwin, Keith, and Mike. They had barely left the wall over the horizon when titans began to swarm them, and within a matter of minutes, half of the Survey Corps had been eradicated.

"Doesn't this bother you?" Miria asked Levi. He glanced over at her. "How many abnormals we've encountered on this trip? All in such a short amount of time?"

"It's no use trying to understand their behavior. Just cut them down." Levi replied, motioning to an approaching titan. It ran towards them, arms flailing wildly. "Ready?"

"As I can be." Miria muttered. One. Two. Three. Four. Seven. Twelve. Nineteen. Twenty-five. The bodies of the titans piled up as the wall neared. Despite their best efforts, despite their perfectly coordinated teamwork, Miria and Levi reentered the sanctuary feeling sick to their stomachs. Miria looked around. Eighteen. Only eighteen survivors of the nearly one-hundred-fifty soldiers that had left that morning. The jeers of the crowd didn't help matters much.

"Moses! Moses!" a woman's voice called out. Miria stiffened when she saw her: a distraught middle-aged woman with bags under her eyes and her graying hair pulled back into a ponytail. She quickly approached Keith. "Excuse me…my son…I don't see my son, Moses Braun, here. Where is my son?!"

Keith whispered to another soldier who walked past Miria and Levi to retrieve something from the cart of dead bodies. It was small and wrapped up in a bloodied cloth. The soldier gently placed it in the woman's arms as she sunk to her knees. She unwrapped it, and covered the severed arm as soon as she saw it, hugging it to her chest.

"That's all we were able to recover." Keith said to her. The wailing cries of Moses' mother filled the street. Miria's knuckles turned white as she gripped Snow's reigns. She replayed the moment over and over again in her head. Moses! Grab my hand! She had him. He had jammed the titans mouth open and if she had just been able to pull him out a little bit faster, he would still be alive. Failure. She was a failure.

"Is this how you felt last time?" Miria asked Levi. Tears began to well up when she remembered how narrowly Levi had missed the opportunity to save Furlan. It was hardly even a matter of seconds.

"Yea." Levi's voice was hoarse as he watched Keith comfort the crying woman.

"But…my son was useful to you, wasn't he? Even if he didn't achieve anything directly, his death brought humanity one step closer to beating them back, right?!" Mrs. Braun demanded.

"Of course!" Keith replied from reflex, but paused for a moment. "No. Our survey this time…this time, too, we accomplished nothing!" It was an honest response, but Miria had never seen Keith like this before. He was visibly shaken, distraught, and saying things that she would never have dreamed he would, regardless of how true they all knew it was. "Because of my incompetence all I did was get my soldiers killed! We didn't get any closer to finding out what those things really are!" Miria turned away from the scene as the jeers continued. A small gasp escaped her when she noticed the young boy standing atop a box and staring back at her. Eren. Is this what you really want? This pain of watching your comrades die over and over again? Anger replaced the shock on his face as he heard someone in front of him make a snide remark about the Survey Corps being 'snacks' for the titans. Eren slammed a piece of firewood against the back of the guy's head. Before Miria could react, another child grabbed Eren, and they ran off, leaving the man dazed, confused, and quite angry. She held back a smile. Strange how he had understood her question and provided her with an answer without ever exchanging a single word with her. Then I promise I'll do everything that I can to keep you safe.

Miria wiped her forehead and blood streaked across the area her hand had touched. She loosened the tourniquet on the soldier's arm. Seventeen.

"He must have bled out on the trip back." Hange said. "There's nothing we could do." The words were meaningless. The titans had swarmed so quickly and aggressively that it gave Miria and Hange next to no time to address the battlefield injuries.

"How are the other three?" Miria asked, removing her gloves and tossing them onto the cadaver.

"Their blood loss was too heavy. I'm just trying to keep them comfortable in their final moments." Hange admitted. Fourteen.

"Fourteen survivors." Miria mumbled, locking her fingers behind her head and letting out an exasperated breath. "What the fuck happened?"

"There was no way to prepare for that. No drill that we could have run to prevent against it." Hange assured her.

"Wasn't their behavior strange to you? I mean, we made it almost all the way to the first supply point without encountering a single titan. Record time, even. Then all of the sudden dozens of abnormals show up and begin swarming from all different directions? I can't shake this feeling that we're overlooking something." Miria bit her lip and furrowed her brow in concentration. What was it? What was she missing? Think.

"Squad leader." Moblit's voice pulled Hange and Miria out of their thoughts. "We identified two other soldiers with serious internal injuries. It doesn't look like they're going to make it."

"In addition to the three in critical condition?" Hange clarified. Moblit nodded. Twelve. "Please let—" Hange was cut off by the arrival of Erwin, Mike, and Levi.

"How are things looking?" Erwin asked, glancing down at the dead body in the room.

"Twelve survivors." Miria replied, crossing her arms.

"There's blood on your face." Levi muttered in disgust. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped her forehead with it.

"Leave it. It doesn't matter." Miria said, but made no effort to stop him.

"Twelve survivors…." Erwin looked down at a tie in his hands. "Abysmal." He thought for a second again and looked up at his surviving comrades. "Not the numbers I thought we would have when I became commander."

"Commander?" Miria asked. He showed her the iconic Survey Corps bolo tie.

"Keith just asked me to take over for him. Which, of course, means that you and Levi have been promoted to captain. Mike has been promoted to squad leader." Erwin glanced at Moblit. "And Moblit…if you'd like, I would trust you in the position of squad leader as well." Moblit's jaw hung open in surprise.

"Thank you, Commander Erwin, but I think I prefer to stay with Squad Leader Hange."

"W-wait a minute, Moblit!" Hange exclaimed, grabbing his shirt in the forceful way that she often did. "This is a big opportunity for you! You've earned more than just being a recruit!" Moblit smiled at her and Hange frowned. "You don't have to worry about me!"

"He's not a recruit, Hange." Erwin corrected. The pair looked over at him. "Moblit is being promoted to the executive officer of your squad. You two will be making management decisions together." Moblit's smile widened and Hange resentfully returned the sentiment. Miria chuckled to herself at the thought of Hange knocking on Moblit's door later that night and insisting that he stop trying to protect her, but ending her rant with falling into him for comfort. It was a strange relationship, but a sweet one nonetheless. They needed each other. They made each other's existence bearable. Miria looked over at Levi. It was true for their relationship, too. She slowly reached up her hand, intending to wipe away the speck of dirt on his cheek. "Miria. Levi." She brought her hand up to her own face at the sound of Erwin's voice, awkwardly scratching her cheek and hoping no one had caught her failed attempt to show Levi a bit of affection.

"There is a class of seven-hundred Cadet Corp graduates that will be choosing their branch three days from now. I anticipate at least a hundred or so will want to join the Survey Corps. You'll need to identify soldiers with exceptional talent for the Special Operations Squad. I would prefer you hone in on those who can display a similar level of teamwork as yourselves.

"Fine." Levi huffed. He turned to Miria to speak, but the words never reached her. A deafening crash replaced his voice and the hospital shook from its foundation. Miria grabbed him for balance.

"What the hell?!" Hange yelled, running to the window. The few mobile soldiers followed her. Screams floated up to them as people desperately tried to pull loved ones out from under rumble and boulders that lay scattered across the streets.

"An explosion?" Erwin asked, glancing around. Miria pushed her torso out of the window, trying to get a better look. She noticed a silhouette against the orange and pink sky. Her blood ran cold. She felt her courage leave her body.

"C-commander…." Her shaky hand pointed to the colossal, skinless beast that towered over their fifty-meter wall, gripping the wall with one hand. Colossal. It was the most accurate description of it. Even against a setting sun, Miria could make out its pink and red flesh, the defined curves of every muscle, the off-white coloring of its tendons and teeth, and, perhaps the most frightening, its eyes. There was a ferocity in them, an almost humanity that she was unfamiliar with in other titans. "What is that?" There was a lag in response. Miria turned up to look at Erwin who was hovering over her as he hung halfway out of the window, examining the titan with the same fear as the rest of them. He had never seemed quite so human to her before—so powerless to it all. "Commander! Your orders? Should we engage the titan?" Her sudden call to his new title shook him out of his dazed state.

"W-what?" Erwin glanced around the room at the exhausted and injured soldiers. Only seven of the twelve survivors were capable of fighting, including Erwin. Capable was a loaded word. They were capable of moving, but their bodies had been completely exhausted by expedition. She was sure Erwin knew that. "No. load the injured soldiers and retreat to headquarters within Wall Maria. Leave the dead or near dead." Leave the dead. The words still haunted her. They scurried for an unbearably long time. They loaded the injured soldiers into wagons. They grabbed their possessions. They mounted their horses, all while ignoring the screams and cries for help of the civilians. It was a terrifying scene: people trampled over each other to escape the titans; people left behind the injured to increase their own chances of survival; a few loyal people stood with their loved ones until they were both devoured. People jumped from the edges of the docks, attempting to make it onto already full boats. The sound of their bodies cracking against the sides of the canal or boat made Miria cringe. Each horrifying scene played in front of her as she rode with her corps to the safety of Wall Maria. Blood. There was so much blood. Shiganshina had fallen. She thought about Eren and Dr. Yeager, praying they had made it out in the chaos. She turned away from the titan filled city as they crossed the wall, and kept her gaze forward. She had to focus on preventing any further casualties within the Survey Corps. The treatment of the injured soldiers was her primary goal now. They rode to the top of a hill, stopping only when another deafening crash echoed around them. Miria turned to the source and felt that fear again—the same fear she had been so accustomed to her whole life. Another titan stood there, smaller than the one that had taken down the wall, maybe only fifteen-meters, but it was just as terrifying. Miria examined its stance: it stood there, legs locked into a combat position, one arm outstretched to the ground, holding itself up for balance, and the other outstretched behind it. She couldn't see this one's muscles as well as the other's. Thick sheets of…something covered it like armour. Its eyes glowed, and while she couldn't see the intelligence in them, she saw the intelligence in its movements. The titan stood, the short tufts of its pale blonde hair moving in the wind, and let out a puff of smoke and fire from its mouth, as if it were celebrating its victory, celebrating the hole it had left behind in Wall Maria, celebrating the fear it had instilled in humanity.

"Do we retreat again?" Miria whispered into the wind. It carried away her words, never allowing anyone else to hear them.

"Hange, Moblit. Take the injured soldiers into Wall Rose. The rest of us will go to headquarters and pack up. Everyone reconvene at the Wall Rose barracks. Go!" Erwin's orders were clear and concise now. He had stepped into the role of commander quite naturally, especially taking into account the unprecedented disaster before them.

"Miria!" Levi called out, when he noticed her sitting with Snow, completely unmoving. She turned to him slowly, her face paralyzed with terror.

"O-over one third…this is…this is over one third of our territory. How are we…what are we supposed to do?" she stammered out. It was an uncomfortable situation for her. She always had a plan. Always. She was rarely without answers, or at least a means to come by them. This wasn't a situation she was familiar with. She had no answers. She had no presuppositions to build from. She had no experiments, no tests, no equations that she could try. She realized how tiny and insignificant her existence really was. Her mother had been a pioneer—a revolutionary, so she assumed it was in her blood. She was supposed to be that, too. Miria realized then how truly unimportant and powerless she was. She thought back to Erwin's face when he first saw the titan towering over the wall. Was that the realization he had, too? Levi brought his horse over to Miria and snatched Snow's reigns of her hands. She jumped at the sudden reaction and he led Snow, slowly bringing both him and Pom to a gallop.

"It's not our job to worry about that." Levi stated plainly. "Focus on the mission." Miria wondered how he could say that. How could he just focus on one thing at a time when someone much bigger was happening? She glanced over at the armoured titan again, like a petrified little child. Her lip quivered and her voice shook. She just wanted answers. She just wanted to feel safe again.

"Levi…what's happening?"