The sound of hooves hitting brittle grass and manic breathing filled the silence. The heavier footsteps following behind made her keep her pace despite her burning throat and stinging eyes. The chilled wind hitting her face was uncomfortable, the only salvation being the thin cloth covering her mouth and nose.

Zoran woke in random spurts, shaking and moaning in pain as Val held him. They slowed at one point so she could spin him around, have his legs over her flight gear and head rest on her shoulder to take the weight off his injuries. A broken leg, a dislocated shoulder and something wrong with his back. She wasn't a medic but she knew it was bad.

There were a group of titans following them now - too many for Val to safely take on by herself without putting Zoran in danger. Two tall, one medium and a couple of small ones kept their pace with her. The tallest one wouldn't be able to reach their lowest hut even if it stretched its arms, so she took small comfort in the fact that her village would be okay.

Slowly, she began to recognise the area they were in. A small lake that led to the zig-zag stream.

"Help!" she screamed, praying whoever was on duty would hear her. "Someone fucking help!"

Only a minute later, she caught sight of a clearing with a large tree situated in the centre, the ground covered in a thick layer of branches and moss with wooden planks littering the ground. She looked up and…

Nothing.

There was almost nothing left of her village. Of Willhelm.

The houses in the trees were destroyed. Even the bridges connecting branches were gone, like they were never there to begin with. No people, buildings in ruins, and there wasn't a horse in sight.

The familiar sound of the flight gear in action brought her back, as well as blades slashing at the giants behind her.

People were still here.

She slowed the horse as more titans appeared from the distance.

"Zoran?" Shaking the man slumped onto her awake, she threw his arms over her shoulders. "You better wake the fuck up." A quiet grunt alerted her to his consciousness. "Hold onto me as tight as you can."

With his arms around her neck and good shoulder digging into her neck, he was almost choking her with the pressure. His legs were tucked safely enough over the flight gear so he didn't have to use all of his energy to stay on, but she felt his pained expression burying itself in her neck as she pressed the trigger and flew. It was hard to maneuver in a precise line with the weight, and she felt the gear shift underneath them, but they made it before it could slide down her thighs completely.

She landed on the remains of a broken house, with only the floor and a wall surviving whatever happened. Setting him down carefully, she made sure to kick away any splinters and destroyed wood, tearing off her outer-shirt to cushion his head. His eyes were fluttering open and closed, unfocused as they shifted around them.

"Val?" he croaked.

"Shut up," she said, taking in his dishevelled appearance. "Shut the fuck up. You're gonna be okay."

His shoulder was fucked. His legs were fucked. His face was fucked. His-

"Behind..."

On instinct, she stood from her crouched position and turned.

There was a man, an unfamiliar one, standing at what was once the entrance of the house. Well-built and tall, he looked like he'd be a challenge in a fight. His hair was a white-blonde and he wore a serious expression on his face as he studied her back. He had his hands over his blades but he was unmoving. Not on the defence or offence, but ready to fight if he had to.

The green cape confirmed he wasn't part of her village.

The man before removed his hold on his weapons like he could sense her fear. "What's your name?" he asked.

Val swallowed. Wetted her lips. Resisted glancing down at Zoran. "Did you kill those titans?" she asked.

He nodded.

She clenched her fists to hide her shaking. "Do you know what happened here?"

He shook his head. "What's your name?" he repeated. He inclined his head towards Zoran. "And your friend's."

"Val. I'm Val," she answered then gestured loosely to Zoran. "My friend is Zoran. Just let me tend to him, please. He'll..."

She was so out of it she couldn't hear her surroundings, only zero in on the man ahead of her and the shallow breaths of her friend, that another man landing next to the blonde startled her. He was taller though decidedly less-built, with darker hair and wide eyes.

"Reiner?" he asked. His expression was soft and confused as he darted his eyes between her and his friend - Reiner. "What- What's happening?" He looked hesitant, hovering his hands over his blades like he was unsure if he should attack.

Val knew she looked a mess. She could feel dried blood flickered over her skin with cuts and scrapes buried underneath, her ruffled and partially ripped clothes dirty. Not to mention the defensive stance she adorned, fingers clasped around the handles of her blades, ready to unsheathe at a moment's notice. She likely wouldn't be a match against these kempt men but she'd make it a challenge if she had to.

"Reiner?" he asked. "What's happening?" He stressed the question like there was a hidden meaning behind it. His eyes were focused on Reiner and Reiner's on Val. The blonde's stare on her made her skin itch and she couldn't help but feel more at ease with the brunette's hesitation.

Then, subtly, Reiner glanced at the brunette and shook his head. The other man's shoulders loosened like a weight left him.

"Are there any medical supplies nearby?" Reiner questioned, briefly looking at Zoran.

"The big tree in the middle of the clearing," she answered. "It's- There should be some in the highest hut."

"Bertolt."

The brunette nodded without another word and zipped up with his gear.

Val barely glanced over at Reiner before kneeling next to Zoran, placing a hand on his burning forehead. Infection or dehydration? She'd been given basic medical training but it was never her strong suit. She unbuttoned his outer-wear as carefully as she could without shifting his arm.

"Fuck," Zoran muttered, chest heaving. His under-shirt was damp with sweat. "What...?"

"We can worry about what later," Val said. "What hurts the most?"

Even in his state, he still gave her a bewildered look. "Fucking everything."

Fuck.

He looked fucked.

Even through the fabric, she could see his bone sticking out of his shoulder and the large gash below it bleeding through. She grabbed her knife out of her boot and flipped it in her grip, tearing through his sleeves to get a better look.

The skin where the bone poked through was bright red, likely from the jolts of the galloping horses and him having to hold on around Val's neck. She prodded gently around the area and Zoran jerked, teeth gritted as a scream clawed up his throat.

"Move."

A hand on her shoulder brought her out of her state.

She craned her neck to see Reiner, looking down at her.

"You're shaking," he observed. He was right - her hands were trembling to the point her fingers were going numb. "You're no help to him like this." Carefully, as though he was testing the waters, he pressed on her shoulder.

She moved.

She didn't know this man but he was her safest bet right now.

Sat on Zoran's other side, she watched as Reiner tended to him. Zoran clasped her hand as he relocated his shoulder and she felt something in her palm crack, but knew it wasn't broken so she held on. She rhythmically squeezed his fingers to note when he was conscious or not, watched with sharp eyes as Reiner felt if other bones were broken.

"Really?" Her eyebrow raised. "Your own office?"

The seated woman sighed and held her arms out in a I-couldn't-help-myself gesture. "It makes me feel special," she said. "Plus, an authority figure would be good for us. It's better than having you and Zoran deal with everything all the time."

"Do we have to call you Boss now?"

"C'mon, Val," Zoran spoke up, tipping his chair back, "let the old girl have her moment, yeah?"

"Milan always has her moment," Val said. "Why don't I ever get my moment?"

"Because you're modest," the older woman said.

"I think it's because I outshine you," Val said with a tilted grin. "You're scared I'm hotter than both of you and that's why I never get the credit."

"You get more credit than me because you're hot," Zoran argued.

"You're right. Thank you." Val sighed and leaned back with a satisfied smile. "I needed to hear that today."

He shook his head. "This woman-"

"Enough," Milan cut in, "children." Her eyes flickered pointedly between the two. "Now, I have a mission for you." The shift in the two teens was jarring - the way they could go from bickering children back into their soldier mindsets was almost eerie. "Nima found supplies left from the Corps twenty miles out, enough rations and gear to keep us going for a while. Their horses were abandoned too, as well as some blades."

"Nima didn't grab anything?" Val asked.

"There were titans so she didn't want to linger," she clarified. "They've likely spread out by now but take some extra gas just in case. Some rations, too."

"Will do." Zoran nodded then turned to his comrade. "Val?"

"We'll leave in the morning," she told them. "We've cleared out most of the titans in the area so it should be smooth-sailing from here. Should we bring extra packs?"

"Two for each horse should be enough."

Milan soon dismissed them and the two made their way to their shared hut, split in half by a sheet hanging from the ceiling as a small semblance of privacy.

The next morning as they prepped their horses, Milan approached them and handed them extra rations with a sly wink. Before they went their separate ways she laid a heavy hand on Val's shoulder and brushed a thumb over her cheek with a strange look in her eye. She went on to whisper something to Zoran and he looked as confused as Val felt, but it looked like he agreed with whatever she said.

And then they left.

After a couple of hours, Val suspected at the halfway point, Zoran spoke up.

"Val?"

"Hm?"

"You're quiet." His horse was a little behind but she still heard him clearly. "I don't like it."

"Don't you always complain about how much I talk?" she retorted, slowing her horse to meet his pace. "This should be a nice break for you."

Zoran glanced sideways at her. "You know I never mean that," he said. "And you never listen to what I say anyway, so why are you quiet?"

A couple of moments passed. "What did Milan say to you?" she asked. "Before we left, she said something to you."

He stared at her for a long second before darting his gaze ahead of them. "She asked me to look out for you." He shrugged. "Seemed weird but you know how she is. You're basically her wonder-child."

"I guess that makes you the favourite, then," she added wryly.

With that, the conversation ended. It wasn't an awkward silence that followed them - she didn't think they were capable of making things awkward between them - but it felt heavy. It always did when they so much as hinted at their relationships with Milan.

It took them another two hours to make it to the location, and another hour to realise there was nothing there. No bodies, no supplies, no gear to take. Only themselves and their horses.

They pondered if they were at the wrong location and had to triple-check the surrounding area in case they missed something. There wasn't enough food for them to linger for the night so they knew they'd have to return empty-handed. Another waste of supplies for a dead-end.

There were a couple of titans which the pair took down with ease, but the silence surrounding them felt unusual.

Then there was a distant thumping.

It got so loud so quickly that only Val had time to zip up to a higher branch as a large titan ran- no, sprinted - towards them. It shouldered the branch Zoran was on and he fell, crashing to the ground.

It kept running. Right past them. It looked more human than regular titans, feminine-looking with lean muscles and even proportions which looked strange for a titan.

And it didn't turn back. When it would've clearly smelled them, or even heard the pained yell from Zoran as he hit the ground.

Val didn't have time to think about that as titans appeared out of seemingly nowhere. She rushed down to the ground and picked up Zoran, hauling him over her shoulder. He was unconscious by the time she set him on her horse.

He was barely moving.

She was barely breathing.

Val sat behind Zoran and her horse set off, his following closely behind.

Bertolt returned at one point though Val barely noticed. She only realised when Reiner was stitching the gash on Zoran's arm and he had a bottle of alcohol to clean him - they were prohibited in regular huts and were saved for the medical one only. She tore her eyes away from Zoran to see the brunette putting down rolls of bandages and a splint.

"Val?"

It was an hour later when he was finished, she knew since the sun was far past the halfway point in the sky. She guessed it would only be a couple more hours before it would become dark.

Reiner's forearms were splattered with blood and it made Val's stomach churn. Blood that dripped from Zoran's nose and down his clothes was wiped clean, and his leg and arm were in splints, wrapped in layers of bandages and cloth.

"Are you hurt?" Reiner brought her attention back to him again. "Val?"

"No," she answered. "I-" She looked up at Bertolt. "Did you see anyone? Is anyone else here?"

He glanced to Reiner with the same reluctant wide-eyed look as before.

Val stood abruptly and walked to the entrance of the hut, ignoring her stiff legs. Her fingers were ready to pull her gear's triggers and search every damn hut when a hand grasped her arm.

She spun, pushing the offending limb away.

Reiner, of course.

She twined her fingers around his harness and shoved him back into a wall, relishing in the surprised grunt he let out. The wall would've fallen if not for the tree keeping it propped up, but that was the last thing on her mind.

She wasn't at a height disadvantage, only an inch or so shorter than him, so she pressed her face close to his and stared him in the eyes, fingers tightening around the straps.

"Do that again," she dared, pressing him further back into the wood. "Go on. Try to stop me."

For a long weighted moment, they stared at each other. The angry desperation on Val's face and Reiner's stoicness clashed to form a lilt of tension. She was ready to fight - he could feel it in the way her hands gripped his harness, ready to throw him to the ground.

"Okay," he said. "Go."

She did. Pushed herself away and pulled the triggers on her gear.

Zipping on branches and scanning the huts on her level, there wasn't a body in sight. She went to her and Zoran's hut, to the medbay, where Nima lived, and finally, to Milan's office.

The place was in shambles too. Papers were littered everywhere and half the floor was missing, as well as the furniture they were all sitting on just the night before. There wasn't anywhere to even check. No hiding places, nothing.

On the ground was a journal. Willhelm Members, was scrawled on the front and Val wanted to laugh at the irony. Of course Milan kept track of that stuff without telling anyone and of course they were all fucking missing now.

With a wretched sigh, she dropped the book and collapsed to the floor with her legs hanging over the edge. She knew it would break at any moment under her weight but she couldn't bring herself to care.

They were all just… gone. The only sign that people lived here were the huts and farmland by the lake but nothing else. The brunette man was lucky he could find any medical supplies in the mess, let alone anything unscatched.

Holding her head in her hands, she resisted pushing the heels of her palms into her eyes with a groan.

There were no horses so they might've escaped whatever happened here? Nima taught her titans don't go for animals so they'd have been safe, and there's no sign of blood anywhere so there can't have been a struggle.

What…?

Val glanced between her knees at the forest ground when her entire body went cold.

Bodies.

She somehow hadn't seen them when she arrived. There were so many bodies huddled together on the soft moss, blood coating nearly every inch of them. Horses, she noticed, were dead too; trampled, it looked like. They almost blended into the ground.

She jumped down, unfeeling of the pain in her knees as she landed on a layer of moss.

Blood was already dry on their skin as she checked for pulses. Wherever she stepped, there was a body underneath her, piled on top of each other as if they were thrown from the trees.

A graveyard of her people.

And then she saw Milan. Her white hair coated in blood, pale eyes half-open and staring blankly ahead of her; it felt like she was looking right at Val. Her fingers were clasped around an ashen wrist that belonged to Nima, whose body laid several feet away from the limb. Ripped off.

It looked as though Milan's lower body was buried under the pile or moss, but she quickly realised she'd been ripped in half. A pool of sticky blood pooled underneath Val's feet and she felt sick - could feel it rising in her throat, but she couldn't vomit. Her body refused. She could only stare at the body of her mentor as she stared right back.

She fell to her knees in the blood-coated ground, looking out over the mass of bodies. Would she have been one of them, if she stayed, laying underneath them on the forest floor, or would they all be alive, walking among the trees and laughing off the close-call?

Feeling her stomach turn again, Val scrambled to her feet and stumbled to a nearby tree to cling onto as she vomited. She threw up everything she'd eaten until she was dry heaving, stomach clenching as it tried to find anything else to spew. Her throat burned as she spat bile, gagging on the disgusting taste. At least the smell was better than the bodies.

"Val?" a hesitant voice spoke up. She glanced over, eyes half-lidded, and saw Bertolt standing behind her, awkwardly holding out a skin of water. "Here." He practically shoved it on her lap and stepped away.

With a huff, she undid the lid and tipped some in her mouth, swishing it in her cheeks before spitting it out. With some of the awful taste gone, she was able to swallow some water without wincing.

She tossed the waterskin to Bertolt who stumbled a bit before catching it, and used her gear to fly back to the broken hut. Zoran was awake, his head reclined on a dirty pillow Reiner must've found. The blonde glanced at her but said nothing as she knelt by Zoran's side, holding a hand to his head. Still warm, but not as bad as before.

His fingers curling around Val's wrist to pull her away gave her pause. His eyes were knowing and it made her throat tighten.

"Val?" he whispered, throat croaky. "Are…?"

She looked down and ran a hand over her forehead. "I'm sorry. They're..." She swallowed, unable to meet his eyes. "They're dead. I'm sorry, Zoran."

He was silent. She didn't know if he was looking at her, but his grip around her wrist loosened and she felt his body slump, saw his unsteady breaths expanding his chest from the corner of her eye.

After a couple of silent minutes, in which Bertolt came back with wood and extra rations, Val looked up and saw Zoran had his eyes closed. He was usually a light sleeper but the pain was probably too much for him to stay awake.

A part of her was envious. The backs of her eyes were burning with the need to sleep but she doubted she could.

The wind picked up for a moment and the smell of the bodies hit the group. Val resisted gagging at the smell and held her bandana over her nose, grateful that it smelled of smoke from sitting too close to the fire.

"The rest of our squad should be here soon," Reiner spoke up. He had a piece of cloth around his mouth and nose, too, as did Bertolt. They were a bit away from the pile of bodies but the smell was still pungent, only getting worse as time passed. "We sent a flare before we found you."

Val looked up to see Reiner staring at her over the flames, a crease between his eyebrows. It seemed to be his default expression. "Squad?" she asked.

"We got separated by a group of titans at noon," he said. "We sent a flare when you were on the ground and they let one off too. Looked to be a few miles away."

She nodded, focusing her eyes on the fire. Bertolt was poking a stick in the embers, hand in his chin.

"There's a diary listing the villagers in one of the offices," she said. "I'd like to confirm the dead before your friends return."

Bertolt looked up. "It's nearly nightfall. I don't think-"

Val met his gaze and he fell silent, shifting. "You're going to take us back to your walls in the morning, right? Have us as your prisoners, I'm guessing," she said. "I'd rather know everyone's dead before I leave them behind." She added with a tight smile, "If it's not a bother, of course."

Uncomfortable under her stare, Bertolt turned to Reiner.

"Don't run," the blonde warned. "You won't get far."

Val scoffed and stood up, dusting off the backs of her thighs and ass. The sun was still in the sky but it wouldn't be long before it dipped under the horizon. Maybe an hour before it got too dark to recognise their faces.

Stood at the edge of the hut's broken floor, she glanced back to see Reiner staring at her. This time, the crease between his eyebrows was gone, and he almost looked sorry for her. Pitiful.

She turned back and pulled her gear's triggers, letting the hooks attach to a high branch. She flew through the air, collecting Milan's journal and a broken pen.

A/N: After planning this story meticulously for two weeks straight, it's finally here! Please let me know what you think, I'm very curious (and nervous lol) about uploading this.