Obviously, I don't own AOT. This is going to loosely follow the events of the anime/manga.

Garrison Captain Sloan Emery strode to the courtroom. Her walk was brisk and purposeful with her boots making a tap tap cadence. She knew the way to the courtroom, but had only been there a handful of times. As Captain of the Garrison stationed in the Hermina District, she had little to do with what was about to take place inside, but there were whispers of a Titan helping humans. Even if her commanding officer, Dot Pixis, hadn't called a mandatory meeting requiring all Captains to attend the tribunal, she would have been interested, to say the least.

She was running a little later than planned. With everything that had recently occurred inside Trost District, she'd taken extra care in assigning duties to her squad leaders. Hermina was located on Wall Shina, just north of Trost. If Trost had been breached, the only thing separating Hermina from the Titans was Wall Rose. Hundreds of thousands of refugees were flooding the district; her commanding officers would surely understand her tardiness.

She stopped just short of entering the side door to the courtroom. She pressed the front of her white button up, noting how it wasn't as crisp as she'd like. As a high ranking woman in the military, she'd learned long ago to always look pulled together. Being a commander was hard enough, but to be a woman – everyone seemed to be looking for any excuse to pick her apart. It had steeled her, however. When others may have cracked, she only rose. She smoothed her hair back, some of the long auburn strands having come out of her tight bun in her run up the courthouse steps. Pulling her brown jacket around her shoulders, she opened the door and let herself in.

The door let her in to the right of Commander-in-Chief's Darius Zackly's stand. He barely registered her entrance as he scanned the noisy crowd, and she searched for a seat. She spied Commander Pixis and he patted a seat beside him that was unoccupied.

"Commander," she said as she approached him with a salute. "I apologize for my tardiness. Hermina was –"

"Don't even worry with it, Captain," he said with a slight smile that just lifted the corners of his grey mustache. He tilted his head in her direction and light glinted off his bald head. "Your district is having a hell of a time right now, I'm sure. I hope your squad leaders will be able to get along without you."

"I hope so. Maybe this won't take so long, but I must say I am intrigued. Have I missed anything?"

With that, the large doors to the courtroom opened and a hush fell over the chatty group. Most of the audience were wearing military uniforms. The Military Police, Garrison, and Scout Regiment had officers in attendance. Across the room were members of the Merchant's Guild and other townspeople with hands in political affairs. The back of the courtroom, where the doors were opened, common folk who were merely interested in the proceedings had gathered.

"Step forward!" one of the guards said as he jammed the boy in the back with a shotgun. The boy wasn't a day over 16 years, if that. He wore a military trainee's garb, a symbol of his youth and innocence, in a way. For a woman who was no longer a "spring chicken" – now an "old maid" to many in the capital – she felt a stab of motherly remorse for the young boy.

The guards on either side urged him forward, his hands bound in the back by a pair of handcuffs. He was forced to kneel on the court floor and he was secured with a large beam.

Ah ha! That must be him then, Sloan thought. She didn't know much about the trial, what with her hands full in her own district, but she had heard that the titan that was helping humans happened to be a member of the military.

"Shall we begin then?" Commander-in-Chief Darius Zackly asked as he rolled up his sleeves. "Eren Yeager, is that correct?"

He went on to explain the purpose of the tribunal, adding that he, Zackly, would hear from either side and make a decision whether he lived or died or whether to place him in the custody of Military Police or the Scout's Regiment.

Both sides said their piece. The Military Police were scared of Eren's Titan abilities and wanted him dead while the Scout's Regiment saw potential in Eren's condition. Sloan tried to stay focused, but her thoughts kept drifting back to her officers in Hermina. Once the merchants and Wallists – individuals who saw the walls as gifts from the hands of God – began arguing, there was no coming back from where her thoughts had drifted. The droning of voices in the courtroom turned into the buzzing of insects.

The sound of a gun being cocked broke her out of her thoughts and brought her back to the present. She looked down to where Eren Yaeger was still bound on the courtroom floor. A man was crossed the floor to meet Eren. The man was of small stature, but had a lean figure and a walk that showed his quiet power. He gave the boy a swift kick to the jaw and Sloan heard what she assumed was a tooth bounce across the marble floor. Another sharp kicked to the abdomen sent a spray of blood flying. Sloan couldn't stifle a gasp and her hands flew to her mouth. A knee to the face followed the assault, and a rain of fists came after that.

Of course Sloan was used to violence, being Captain of the Garrison. Hell, she'd been first in hand to hand combat in her military training course and could still bring a man twice her size to his knees. For a woman barely five feet tall, she knew exactly how to make a person hurt. But she'd never seen a boy this young, chained with no way to fight, being so brutally tortured by a member of the military. And to make matters worse, she knew the man doing the maiming and felt sick to her stomach.

Across the room, the merchants, Wallists, and common folk were looking equally as green. Even some of the military were looking down in apprehension at the carnage that was occurring. She felt the pressure building in her chest and a heat crawling all over her back. She knew she was about to do something, but what?

"LEVI!" she shouted out, across the room. Dot Pixis turned his head slightly in her direction, but everyone else was too involved in the gruesome display to register her actions.

He heard her, however. He stopped the beating and turned to face her. If he recognized her, he showed nothing – it had been probably twenty years, after all, but she would have recognized him anywhere. His hair, dark and hanging to his ears; his face as sharp as ever with those cut eyes. He looked impassively in her direction, then at Dot Pixis, before turning back to Eren.

"This is just my opinion," he said, addressing the courtroom, "But I've always found pain the most effective punishment." He gave the boy a few more kicks before a voice broke out.

"It's dangerous."

Levi gave a snort. "Aren't you guys the ones who want to dissect him? He's not my enemy. I wonder, could any of you really kill him?"

"Commander-in-Chief, I have a proposal," Commander Erwin Smith of the Scout Regiment called out. "Place Eren Yeager under Scout Regiment control and I will pair him with Captain Levi. We'll use him as an asset, and with him under Captain Levi's watchful eye we will have no difficulties. We could use him in our trips outside the wall."

Whispers broke out across the courtroom and Zackly looked from Eren to Levi and back again.

"Then it's settled," Zackly said. "Eren Yeager is placed in the care of the Survey Corps."

Sloan stood near a pillar outside the courtroom. She was out of view of the people leaving, but could still see everyone as they filed out. After Zackly gave his ruling the court erupted in conversation. He'd had to bang the gavel several times to get the crowd back under control. He gave a short speech while the guards returned to remove Eren Yeager's cuffs, but Sloan didn't stay to hear. She slipped back out the side door and made her way to where she presently stood.

She couldn't believe he was alive. When he'd disappeared from the underground nearly twenty years ago, she'd thought he'd been killed – a casualty of the lifestyle. Now she knew better. Had he forgotten all about her? Or maybe never really cared in the first place. Her eyes grew misty as she thought about the first time they'd met…

"Come on now, Sal," Daddy said. Daddy was a large man with a nice round face and an even rounder belly. He had soft blue eyes that softened as he smiled at his only daughter, his only legacy. He and his wife, Mama, had been older when Sloan was born, unsure if they could even have children.

Sloan skipped a few steps. She was the shortest girl her age, and her little legs could hardly keep up with the older man. Her arms were laden with loaves of bread; her father with a bag of the stuff carried over one shoulder. He had been a baker by profession at one time until his back went out years ago. Now, his family skimped by on what Mama made by helping the townswomen deliver their babies and helping with small illnesses – as a type of nurse. It was a small amount, but it kept them fed and clothed.

Their modest home sat just outside of an opening to the underground. Every now and then one of the vagrants would find their way up or get a wild hair to come out of the underground, and Sal would watch with wide eyes as the Garrison would violently push them back down and resume their posts as guards.

A few times a month Daddy would feel a little spry and would have a "good back day," as he called it; a day bearable from the pain. On these days he and Sal would hole up in the kitchen, baking as many loaves of bread as feasible to bring down to the slums and pass out to the unfortunate souls that looked nearly starved. This was the first day that Daddy had allowed Sal to come with him. Normally she was only allowed to stand at the opening and watch his figure disappear into the darkness. She would wait for his return, sometimes entertaining the guards posted there.

Today, she was excited to finally walk with him and see why he always baked so much bread. She couldn't understand. People really lived down in that hole? They never ate? They never saw sunshine? Or smelled the air?

"Now Sal," Daddy said in a stern voice, "Don't leave my side, girl. And don't look anyone in the eye." They descended deeper into the underground and a smell began to waft under her nose. The smell of garbage and sewage was soon accompanied by the sights of dilapidated buildings, piles of garbage, and, it could have been Sal's imagination, but she thought she saw the body of a person lying in an alley, their legs bent at impossible angles.

"Daddy –"

"Just keep walking, Sal. They know where we meet."

It was a concrete city. No green anywhere, with cave like ceilings. After walking for what seemed like hours and passing many people lying on the sidewalk (Sal tried to tell herself they were all sleeping, but Daddy's grim face made her think something else), they finally reached what could have been a town square at one time

"The bread man's here, everybody!" This came from a girl around Sloan's age, but much taller. The girl must have been acting as a lookout, because people began emerging from the shadows. Women with children hiding behind their tethered skirts, men smelling like alcohol with no teeth, children with dirty faces, elderly walking forward, nearly tumbling the whole way there… Sal had never seen such a display. The girl who spoke earlier jumped down from her perch on an old street light and ran up to Sloan. She grabbed a loaf of bread off Sal's towering heap.

"Hiya! I've never met anyone with red hair like mine's before!" the girl gave her a large grin, showing a gap with a missing tooth, before taking a bite out of the loaf. Her red hair was different from Sal's, more orange than the red-copper of her own, but she smiled anyway.

"Me neither," Sal replied. "Daddy says it means good luck."

"Well we could all use a little of that. See ya!"

Daddy had opened his bag and began passing out the loaves to the gracious slummers, who after taking their bread disappeared back into the shadows without words. His huge bag was soon empty, and Sal was down to her last loaf when the final person faded back into the darkness.

"Well girl, let's head home," Daddy said with a smile and placed his hand on her shoulder, turning her back toward the entrance blocks away. Truthfully, Sal was so tired she wondered if he wouldn't carry her back. She was still young enough to be carried. They began to walk away, Sloan carrying her last loaf, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and came face to face with a young boy around the same age as her. They were eye to eye, him being only an inch or two taller than her. His eyes were black and cut in angles that made him seem older beyond his years, and his dark hair was shaggy, brushing his ears. Despite living in the filth, his clothes looked unusually clean and his face wasn't smudged with dirt like the other children's.

"Is there any bread left that I may have?"

"Yes, this is the last one," Sloan replied and handed the loaf to him. His face remained expressionless as he accepted the gift.

"What's your name?"

"My name is Sloan," she said with a smile. "But you can call me Sal if you want to."

He gave a half smile in return, the expression not even reaching his eyes. "I'm Levi. Thanks for the bread." He turned and walked into the darkness.

She snapped herself out of the memory as the doors to the courthouse opened. Two Military Police walked ahead, leading the way to a carriage at the bottom of the stairs. Eren Yeager followed after them, clutching at his side and wincing with each step. All the exposed skin was black and blue with bruises. He surely had at least a few cracked ribs, possibly some bones cracked in his face. He was followed by two individuals donning the wings of freedom – the symbol of the Survey Corps. A brown haired, glasses wearing female and tall blonde man helped him into the carriage before climbing in behind him. A second carriage pulled up behind them.

"Well, Captain, I suppose your display convinced Zackly," Sal heard Commander Pixis say from behind the pillar where she was standing. "I must say, I pity anyone that underestimates you based on your size. I wouldn't have wanted to be Yeager then."

Sloan heard something that sounded like a snort or a grunt. "I hope everyone understands that we will not hesitate to use deadly force if necessary. On Eren or anyone else that we see as a threat."

"But we want to see how we can use his unique abilities as well," this was a voice she didn't recognize, possibly Commander Erwin of the Scout Regiment.

"Of course, Smith, of course," Sal could almost see him waving his hand nonchalantly. There was a pause were she imagined him drinking out of that flask he always carried with him. "If there is any way I can be of assistance to the cause, you know to call on me."

"We need Scouts, Pixis. The Garrison is by far the largest division of the military. If you have anyone that you could send our way, please. We are desperate for soldiers. If we want to make any headway in this war, we will need to build our numbers."

"I will get the word out to my people, Smith. The rest is up to them."

"Well, I believe we will take our leave on that, Commander. Best wishes in the meantime." She heard the sound of movement and imagined them saluting.

"Commander Smith. Captain."

Sloan watched their shadows as they began moving down the stairs. Her heart felt like it was about to pound out of her chest in anticipation. She shouldn't have done this. She should have left and went back to Hermina immediately. She felt a stab of guilt when thinking of her squads, dealing with the masses of refugees while she hid behind a column at the capital waiting for one last look at Levi Ackerman. It could hold her for another twenty years.

They walked past the pillar and there he was, less than ten feet from her. When was the last time they were that close? A shudder involuntarily shook her body. He turned his head slightly her way and those piercing eyes were on hers. She felt the blood leave her face at having been seen, hiding no less. Again, if he even remembered anything of her at all, it didn't register on his face. He faced forward again and kept walking.

She was able to hold herself up until he and Commander Erwin climbed into the carriage. Then her knees gave out and she sank to the ground.