Marlowe was suddenly having second thoughts. The barrage fire from the beast titan, made them unable to successfully counterattack. Moreover, most of the experienced scout units had just been slaughtered. All in all, things were looking pretty bad. And to top it all off, Marlowe could see that Eren had been thrown right at the top of the wall from the other side.

The survey corps was losing on all fronts.

'Is this the day I die?' He thought to himself as he held the reins of his horse.

'I wonder how Hitch is doing… knowing her, she's probably still in bed…'

Why was he thinking about his former partner all of a sudden? Was it regret? That he never got to tell her how he truly felt?

He didn't know when it started. Maybe it was like that from the very beginning, maybe it was only due to events regarding the coup. He just knew he felt something for the girl.

'It doesn't matter anyway' Marlowe thought as he looked towards the enemy titan standing in the distance.

"All troops!" Commander Erwin suddenly shouted out "Attention!"

Marlowe looked towards his superior, as did everyone else. He had a bad feeling about what they would hear next.

"I will now announce our final operation!" The commander cried out as soldiers lined up in front of him "we will perform a cavalry charge!"

A charge? This sounded more like a suicide.

"Our enemy is the beast titan! Obviously, this will make us the perfect target for the enemy! We will wait for him to begin throwing rocks, then all fire signal flares at once! This will somewhat reduce their accuracy!"

Marlowe's first thought was correct. This was a suicide mission. Even if they did fire the flares, the accuracy didn't really matter with this many projectiles.

"While we act as a diversion, captain Levi will kill the beast titan!"

The young scout wasn't sure about any of this. Maybe, he had a long life before him. However, even if he was scared, he wasn't a coward. If the commander asked him to give up on his life, he would gladly do it for the sake of the mission.

As Marlowe rode forward, with fear on his face, his only regret was that he never told Hitch of how he truly felt.

Was he dead? It didn't seem so. His head was hurting, and he was pretty sure that would never be happening if he wasn't alive. He must've fallen off his horse.

Marlowe slowly opened his eyes. The battlefield around him was quiet. Dead bodies of his comrades were sprawled all over the large plain in front of the Shiganshina district.

He turned to look for enemies. In the distance, he saw a slowly dissipating body of the beast titan.

'Did we win?' Marlowe thought as he turned to look right.

Captain Levi was chasing after the cart titan, killing off the remaining titans in the process.

'Well, I can't really do anything to help him' he thought as he tried to stand up.

"Hey!" Marlowe cried out as he began walking towards the inner gate "did anyone survive?!"

His only response was the deaf silence that hung over the plain.

Marlowe went over to look for the body of the commander. It wasn't an easy task, since the mutilated remains of the scouts had been thrown all over the battlefield. After a thorough search, he finally found the body of the devil behind all this.

This had been a crazy gamble from the commander, and Marlowe still didn't know if it paid off.

"Should I bury him here?" He asked himself as he crouched over what was left of the commander.

Suddenly, he heard the dead man murmur.

This scared the boy for a second. He jolted away, wondering if it was all due to him hitting himself in the head. A second later, he heard the commander speak again, this time more clearly. As Marlowe looked closer, he saw that the man was breathing.

"You're still alive…" He said as he thought about what to do.

Should he finish him off? That seemed like a right idea. Curbing the pain of the living devil seemed like a mercy to him, but what other options did he have?

"This syringe has the power of turning any of you into a titan" Commander Erwin said as he presented the scouts with the box.

"In the event of capturing the enemy shifter, we could use it to take his power over, and heal a fatally wounded soldier in the process. I've entrusted the serum to captain Levi…"

This was it. Marlowe used anything he could find to try and close some of the wounds of the commander. It wouldn't save him, but it was enough to keep him alive.

"You're not going down yet" the boy said as he picked the commander up.

He tried to run as fast as he could with the weight of Erwin on his back. Marlowe knew that there was a possibility of captain Levi using the syringe on someone else, so he needed to hurry. He tried calling for his horse, but it was useless.

After what felt like forever, he crawled through the rubble blocking the inner gate. He heard a commotion over some rooftop.

'There are survivors' Marlowe thought to himself as he tried to use his maneuvering gear.

Fortunately, it still worked. When he made it to the top, he saw Eren, Mikasa and Levi who was just about to give the box containing the serum to the young shifter. He saw that they had captured one of the warriors.

'I made it in time' Marlowe thought as he jumped onto the rooftop.

"Captain" he cried out gathering the attention of everyone present "commander Erwin is dying! He's been hit! His organs are spilling out! He won't stop bleeding!"

The scouts looked at him with a shock as he set the commander down.

"I thought the injection might help!"

Upon hearing that, Levi stopped in his tracks. Instead of giving the box to Eren, he went over to check up on Erwin.

"Captain…?" The boy in question asked with panic in his voice.

Only now did Marlowe notice that there was one other soldier here. He seemed to have been burnt in some way but was seemingly still alive.

"He's still breathing" stated the short captain as he held one of his hands over Erwin's mouth "we're giving him the injection."

Suddenly, Mikasa and Eren stood up to face off the captain.

"You just said you'd use it on Armin…" The young shifter towered over Levi.

"I'm choosing to keep alive the man who will save our nation" the short captain responded slowly.

Marlowe could hear Mikasa taking out her blades. The dark-haired girl approached Levi from the other side.

"Do you two have any idea of what you're doing?" The captain asked calmly "we're talking about Erwin Smith. The very man who started all of this. You're just telling me to let him die here."

The two scouts stood undeterred.

"There's no time" Levi said as he tried to walk past them "get out of my way."

Eren took hold of the captain's arm which was holding the box.

"What's going on here?" A new voice spoke out.

Marlowe looked at the newcomer. It was Dina Yeager. She'd just landed on the rooftop and seemed not to believe in what she was seeing.

"Dina…?" Eren spoke out disbelievingly.

"The warriors escaped" she said with wide eyes "what are you doing here…?"

"You have to help me!" The young shifter cried out as he pointed towards the charred body on the ground "he wants to kill Armin!"

"Armin…?" Dina said as she looked towards the bodies lying on the rooftop.

The blonde woman suddenly noticed that Erwin was here.

"Erwin!" She cried out as she ran over to the man.

This time, it was Eren who seemed not to believe in what he was seeing.

"Captain!" Dina yelled at Levi "give me the syringe! We have to inject Erwin before he dies!"

"What…?" The young shifter looked towards the woman with tears in his eyes.

"Eren" the blonde explained "I know it hurts… You're not the only one who suffered losses in your life… Believe me, I would know…"

"You're trying to kill Armin!" The boy shouted angrily.

"No" Dina slowly responded "this is a tough decision, but saving Erwin is the right choice…"

"Like hell!" Eren cried out as he took out his own swords.

"Please" the woman said, trying to curb the boy's anger "Eren, just listen…"

"You're not my mother!" He shouted at her.

Marlowe swore he could see hurt on Dina's face. A single tear ran down her cheek, as she closed her eyes.

"That may be…" She slowly started "…but I can tell, you're tired from the fight…"

Dina walked right over to Eren who was still holding the captain's hand.

"As for me…" the blonde continued, with shaky voice "…I have a lot of strength… I could transform again… and I'm pretty sure I could easily beat you."

The boy stared at the woman with fear.

"It seems that this is the only true way to get though to you, Eren" Dina exclaimed with audible hurt "we could waste even more time and let both of them die…"

"So, what's it gonna be…?"