After Pixis' grand speech that had actually inspired and assured the hundreds of soldiers standing down below, that if they were to die today, that it would not be for nothing, that their death would have a purpose.
Having been an MP for a number of years and graduating top of his class, Lukas was given a squad to lead back into Trost. Their job was simple, they were to find Titans and lead them to the north west part of the wall, where a large number of soldiers had gathered in order to keep the Titans away from Eren's position.
His squad consisted of Reiner, Bertholdt, two Garrison soldiers and another MP that he barely knew. It didn't matter how they dealt with the Titans, hell, he'd be up for just killing them, but the plan was to lead them to a larger group, and in theory, make it much easier to eradicate them with the cannons once the district was sealed up.
However, there was red smoke fired into the sky at one point, meaning that the mission had either failed or something had went horribly wrong.
"Look, red smoke." One of the Garrison soldiers pointed out. "That means the mission failed, right?" She asked.
"It means the mission suffered a setback." Lukas corrected her. "We keep going as planned. Lead the Titans to the north west of the wall. We all saw the bright light, it's not over until the red flare comes from the Commander."
"Are you serious Lukas ?" The MP asked him. "We were doomed from the start. Trusting a Titan to help us."
"Yes, I am serious." He responded with. "I am the Squad Leader here. You'll do what you're fucking told. You don't have to fucking jump in a Titan's mouth, just let them follow you."
"You don't even know my name." The MP let out an exasperated breath. "You don't care at all, you just stroll around all day on your own, thinking you're the best around."
"Of course I know your name... Casper?" He guessed, what a shitty person he was.
"Caspian. But nice try anyway." He corrected him.
"Alright Caspian, if you wanna leave, just go. I'm sure we'll be fine without you here." Lukas told him, an annoyed look on his face.
"I'm going to join up with the others at the wall." Caspian informed him. "I'd suggest the rest of you do the same, unless you want to be led by someone who doesn't care about anyone but himself."
After that small mutiny, he was left with just him Reiner and Bertholdt, however, Eren had also begun to lift the boulder after a while, but since half the squad had basically mutinied and left, there was no point in leading Titans anywhere, so what they decided to do was discuss the situation they were in, and Lukas was not happy with what Reiner decided to propose.
"You will not go after him Reiner." Lukas threatened the tall and buff blonde. "He is going to be my bait to get the Founding Titan out of hiding, not your pathetic attempt at getting off this island!"
"It's been five years without so much as a trace of the Founding Titan." Reiner shot back with. "We don't have forever, we need to just cut our losses and leave this hell while we still can."
"I am not leaving this shithole of an island without the Founding Titan Reiner." Lukas spat out at him. "If you want to leave now and have your Titan taken away, that's fine by me. I'll even write a letter of recommendation for whatever Warrior candidates there are, but I am not leaving without the Founding Titan."
"It's useless Lukas. Annie's been scouring the inner walls for years." He told him. "Even with the information you gave us about the Reiss Family, there's nothing to be found. Nobody knows anything, and nobody wants to say anything. If we bring back something, it'll be better than nothing."
"Bertholdt and Annie will agree with me." Reiner continued on with, the blonde gestured to the tall teen standing with them on the rooftop, in the centre of Trost. "If Eren doesn't get the hole in the wall plugged up, I'll step in with my Titan and grab him, I'll make a break for it while you two can leave with Annie."
"I will not allow you to ruin all my hard work just because you want the easy way out." Lukas hissed. "I will take your Titan away from you by force if I need to, Eren is staying here until the Founding Titan shows her face once again."
"No." Reiner stood up to him, being slightly taller was the advantage he had over him. "We are a team, and we'll decide what's best for us, not you."
The two stared each other down, while in the background Eren had the boulder lifted onto his shoulders, making his way towards the outer gate while soldiers died left, right and centre protecting him.
As quick as a flash of lightning, Lukas had Reiner on his back, pinning him down on the rooftop, his pistol drawn and shoved against his throat. "If you wanna die, I can make it happen right now, otherwise we'll be doing things very differently, and you might get caught in the crossfire."
"Hey, what's going on here?" A voice came from behind them, and all three of them looked back to see that another cadet now stood on the rooftops with them, Lukas didn't know him, but Reiner and Bertholdt did, they knew him as Marco Bott.
"What were you guys talking about just now? Saying that you'd take his Titan away from him, and why'd you have a gun pointed at Reiner?"
"Oh it's nothing Marco." Reiner tried to play it off as Lukas helped him to his feet. "Me and Bertholdt were just joking around and Officer Tybur here thought we were avoiding the battle, that's all."
"Well come on then." Marco tried to also play if off. "There's still a battle going on, there's Titan's still around." With that he left, quickly, far too quickly.
"He knows. Get after him." Lukas spoke, pusing Reiner in front to chase after Marco while he and Bertholdt followed.
Reiner was a lot faster than he had been all day chasing after Marco, his warrior insincts had kicked in, and when he had caught up to him, he tackled him out of the air and onto the ledge of a window, with enough room for Lukas and Bertholdt to land as well while Marco struggled under Reiner.
"Reiner! What are you doing?" Marco cried out as his arms were restrained. "Please no... say it's a joke."
"Wish I could Marco, problem is you're too damn sharp for that to fool you." Reiner responded with.
"Somebody help-" Marco tried to scream out before Reiner clamped his hand over his mouth, keeping him quiet.
At that moment, Annie landed at the scene, having heard the screams. She was tired and panting from all the running around and fighting she'd been doing.
"Annie! You gotta help me!" Marco thought she was to be his saviour.
"What's going on here?" Annie asked.
"Reiner's acting crazy!" Marco explained. "Get him off me!" He pleaded.
"He heard me, Bertholdt and Lukas talking." Reiner informed her. "If we let him live he'll expose us."
It was then that Annie truly grasped the situation they were in. "You shitheads, what the hell?"
"A Titan! Coming this way!" Bertholdt announced.
"Annie! Take off Marco's ODM Gear." Reiner ordered her, and she froze in place. "Do it now!"
"Wait, why should I have to?" Annie asked, this wasn't her fault at all.
"Back there, you risked your life to save Connie. I saw you." Reiner informed her. "Why'd you put yourself in danger for him? Seems to me you're becoming sympathetic towards the enemy. You wanna convince me I'm wrong, well now's the time to do it." He pressured her. "Think of your father. He's waiting for you to come home. If you and him are any different from the filth within these walls then prove it here and now!"
"Hey! It's almost on top of us." Bertholdt yelled.
"Annie!"
Annie then chose to obey what Reiner was telling her, beginning to take off Marco's gear while he screamed and pleaded with her to stop, to just talk. But his pleas fell on deaf ears, and when Annie removed his gear, she threw it through the window so that Marco couldn't retrieve it.
The four of them then retreated to a rooftop a couple houses down, none of them being able to tear their gaze away from Marco being eaten.
"Why is Marco being devoured?" Reiner asked, his voice now shaky and unsure of himself, but all three of the others heard and reacted in their own way.
It was at that point Lukas realised how deep they were in with the Islanders, not that he could say anything about that, but even Annie, the permanently stone faced warrior, was crying while the boy Marco was being eaten.
He doubted that these three could do what needed to be done, not anymore at least, beforehand they probably could've, but not after living here so long, seeing what it was like for these people. They weren't devils at all, they were just ignorant and brainwashed people, believing that the rest of the world had perished.
"If you guys want to go after Eren, you can, but I still want to use him as bait, and I will stop you." He told them, keeping his voice low. "But if you want to go home, I'll talk to Captain Magath and General Calvi about it. I'll tell them that I beat you up and threatened to take your powers."
"We can't go back empty handed." Bertholdt was the one to speak up now. "They'll take our powers anyway, even with you vouching for us. This whole mission has been a failure from the start."
"Alright then..." Lukas gazed off into the distance, where he could see Eren successfully plug the hole in the wall. "But I'll do everything in my power to keep Eren and use him as bait, including fighting you all at once if I have to." He told them. "If you do somehow manage to grab Eren and get away, I'll come back here and burn the cities to the ground until the Founding Titan shows up."
He left the rooftop almost immediately, he wasn't going anywhere in particular, he was just moving without thinking. Watching someone being eaten by a Titan was a lot more horrific than he ever thought it would be, especially when it was his fault and he didn't deserve it at all.
Marco was only a kid, and they had stood by while he was fed to a Titan right in front of them, all because he couldn't keep his mouth shut when they were out in the open.
Marco's face had been so broken, betrayed, terrified, scared at what had been happening to him. He had felt like crying too, even when he didn't know him at all. All that Lukas could see and hear were his screams, about how they didn't even talk it out, they just killed him with no second thought. These people weren't devils at all, no, he now realised that he, his fellow warriors and Marley were the real devils.
There wasn't any point in arguing it, he knew it to be true now, but he wasn't going to let that change anything, he couldn't, he had done too much to let it be for nothing, and before long, he had nearly flown into the wall he was so lost in his mind, his thoughts turbulent, he couldn't get his head on straight, all the guilt built up over the years was finally reaching a breaking point.
Several hours later and the sun had set over Trost, the mission was a success, but the MP's had arrested Eren anyway and taken him to the interior where he'd presumably be put on trial or some bullshit like that.
To be honest, he couldn't give two shits about that right now, because he was currently sat at the top of the wall, legs hanging over the edge looking over the city that had been destroyed during the day. All he wanted was to sit and feel the guilt pour out of him all on his own, but of course, he couldn't even have that.
"Hey... your Sergeant said you were up here." Of course it was Petra who'd come to see him. "Look, if you don't want to talk that's fine, I know how hard it can be. I can leave you be if that's what you want."
"No..." His voice broke at his first words to her. "Don't leave." It was all he said, but it was more than enough for Petra to understand what he meant and what he was asking for.
Gingerly, she took a seat next to him on the edge of the wall, she was slightly concerned because he wasn't wearing his gear, but she knee he wasn't clumsy and wouldn't fall off.
"Lukas..." She touched his shoulder with her hand. "I... I don't know what to say..." She trailed off, he was just looking down at the district, and it made her worry even more about him. "I can't make it any easier for you, but I will be here for you whenever you need me."
He finally turned to look at her, and what she saw almost broke her heart. Lukas was crying, the man who had gone years barely laughing or showing any emotion had tears running down his cheeks.
Her immediate reaction was to lunge forward and wrap him in a hug, it was slightly awkward over the edge of the wall, but she held him tight, arms wrapped around him with his chin resting on her shoulders.
"It's okay to cry Lukas." She whispered to him. "You'll feel better when you let it out." She always knew what the right thing to say was, it wasn't fair that she could do that.
In response to her words, he wiggled his chin off her shoulder to bury and hide his face into her shoulder while his arms latched onto her. He never wanted to let her go, she just had that effect on him. He knew he'd have to let her go eventually, but from now on, there was no way he was going to waste a single second of what little time he'd probably have with her.