The snowfall laid out thickly around the weary formation of soldiers moving slowly across neverending fields of dazzling white. A heavy fog had settled around the Survey Corps, obscuring the lookout of their unpredictable surroundings outside the walls. Exhausted bodies on horseback with crouched backs and heavy shoulders counted steps as their minds wandered towards the sweet promise of shelter, still a two-hour ride from their current location.

The sudden shift in weather had officially changed their excursion from an ordinary routine to a high-risk expedition. After days of traveling in miserable conditions and freezing temperatures, Shadis had finally decided to call it quits and admit defeat after the sky had opened up and unleashed a fury that clearly rivaled the troop's motivation to explore new territory accompanied by the looming threat of titan attacks.

However, as the soldiers trudged forwards, their collective minds were anywhere else than at the giant beasts that lurked around any corner. Depleted forms sailed towards their nirvana; a warm fireplace and dry grounds to settle their sleeping mats on. That was until the ground started shaking underneath their horses' hooves.

In the distance, three perverse-looking 15 meters burst out of the mist, irises blown impossibly large and grins curving just a little too wide to be natural, lunging rapidly towards the astonished formation in the back. Screams erupted from the soldiers. Commands were hastily thrown back and forth in the flurry of chaos before someone had the mind to fire a red flare into the sky, alerting the others that they were under attack.

In one of the middle troops, a brown ponytail perked up at the commotion. The scout turned on her horse, torso twisting while she adjusted her glasses, trying to get a better look at what had happened. Then, a blue blitz exploded to their right, indicating that someone had spotted an abnormal.

Hanji let out a delighted squawk, white-knuckled fists clutching onto the releases of her maneuver gear. By her side, Moblit and Nanaba were preparing to take off from their saddles, handlebars clicking into new blades and eyes narrowing determinedly before they moved their horses into action. Hanji observed for as long as she could justify to herself, mentally recording every movement around her, from the Titans' sheepish gate to her comrades' hands-on approach to the threat.

Before an official order could be barked out by their commander, another group of titans emerged out of the infinity of grey and white, east of the Corps. Hanji counted at least six, the abnormal previously spotted being one of them, but in the barrage of snow and wind, it was hard to determine the exact numbers. They were quickly surrounded by more and more of the savage creatures.

Several soldiers at the edge of their formation were swept away by a giant disfigured hand, brushing effortlessly through the group. A handful of them tumbled to the ground and were immediately crushed under the large hand. The broad-shouldered titan pulled them limply off the ground one by one, stuffing the bodies into a gap of teeth the size of tombstones. Panicked yells and broken voices broke out between the comrades left behind, terrified eyes and frantic fingers trying to raise their blades to counter-attack.

A guilty queasiness surged through Hanji's body. As hard as they tried to replicate a real-life encounter with Titans at the training grounds, it was never going to prepare the new recruits for what to expect when push came to shove. Out of all the teenagers that enlisted, merely half of them ever came back from their first mission (even counting the ones who came back in body bags) . As much as it hurt every time, the only thing the rest of them could do was keep fighting.

An eight-meter powered through the soldiers, heading in her direction. Hanji smirked. One had finally come close enough to latch onto, letting her join the action.

Quickly pulling herself out of her gloomy thoughts, she let go of the rains steering the horse, pushing her knees up underneath her body, and crouched on the saddle, surfing along on the animal's sturdy back until she had a proper aim. She discharged the ODM gear, spears blazing off with a satisfying swish that made it tickle along her spine. The hooks burst through the flesh of the titan's neck, sticking safely to its cervical vertebrae. Hanji pulled in the reels, swiftly tugging out her blades, and shot off her horse's back, eagerly starfishing towards the oversized beast, a heartfelt laugh echoing behind her.

Without complications, she took down the eight-meter on her own. The creature was clumsy and uncoordinated, and was unable to swat her off it's back once she landed on the disfigured shoulder. Giving it a swift pat on the back of its head, she let her blades sink into the skin on its neck. The titan was dead before it even realized it. The beast collapsed in on itself, wheezing out a thick groan, melting the snow below it as it evaporated into fleshy piles of bones. Not wasting any time, the bespectacled soldier sought after the larger crowd of titans.

About 200 feet ahead, Mike and Nanaba were chasing the abnormal, an ugly-looking thing with a round belly and an icy blue glare that Hanji half-suspected was about to shoot lasers by the pure intensity of it. With breathtaking speed, the titan ran across the frosty knolls, into the heart of their formation where it was likely to do the most damage.

Praising her timing, Hanji shifted in the air and activated the gas mechanism on her gear, projecting herself through the cluster of trees scattered about. She let branches and a few conveniently placed titan heads and shoulders bring her towards Mike and Nanaba.

Catching up to Mike who was perched on a low hanging branch as he was replacing a shattered sword, she directed a swift, "Need a bait?" to which the large man nodded, making a gruff sound of confirmation deep in his throat.

Taking off with Mike in tow, she flailed her arms crazily, luring the abnormal's attention away while Mike and Nanaba reached its neck and double-teamed to slash through its nape.

The titan roared, flecks of its steamy spit flying through the falling snow. Its shoulders flexed. Its muscles rippled beneath its flesh as it shook its head like some great hellhound to free itself of the pesky Scouts darting all about it, the wind tearing at its matted hair. When it moved, one of Nanaba's grappling hooks was ripped out of the titan's shoulder, and she fell from the sky before she could reel her wire back in. Mike, circling above the titan's shoulder opposite of Nanaba's position, released his hooks and flew at break-neck speed to catch Nanaba before she could hit the ground - or worse.

With their bait-and-trap plan in flames, Hanji flew just above the titan's forehead. She redeployed her hooks, seeking higher air, when it caught sight of her. As Hanji's hooks sought purchase in the titan's flesh, their eyes met for the briefest of moments before all hell broke loose.

Nanaba slammed against the titan's ribs and shrieked as she, in a bloodied heap, slid down its side. She thrust her sword into the dip between its ribs, and, pushed downwards by her body weight, her blade sliced through its flesh like butter. The titan, eyes darting all about, roared again. It shook its entire body, trying to free itself of Nanaba, who only slipped further down its body. Its sinewy arms wildly jerked around. Mike avoided its madness, dropping beneath its chest, but Nanaba's sword had no purchase anymore once it reached the titan's belly. Her blade slipped from its body, and she plummeted into the churned snow all before she ever had the chance to redeploy her grappling hooks.

The titan's gaze followed Nanaba's descent into the snow just as Mike landed beside its ribs. Dazed, Nanaba pulled herself from the snow, but she only managed to sit beneath the beast. The titan, on all fours, walked back just enough to expose Nanaba. Its lips curled tightly over its gums, revealing putrid teeth. Its breath fogged the snowy air as its steaming tongue hungrily spilled from its mouth. Mike redeployed his grappling hooks. They found the titan's wrist, and he launched himself towards Nanaba just as the titan lunged at her as well. It lifted its hand, pulling Mike away from Nanaba.

The titan jerked about too much for Hanji to take a chance at slicing its nape; she would be thrown off its back or get crushed by its wild hands. So her hooks flew into its shoulder instead. The wind whipped her cloak as she raced through the sky, twin blades slicing through the titan's forearm. Mike, now level in the air with her, released his hooks from the titan's now severed wrist. The limb fell into the snow, sending a flurry of ice and earth into the air.

"MOVE!" A voice bellowed from behind them as the titan sat back on its haunches and, jaws opened grotesquely, leapt into the air towards Hanji and Mike.

Despite all of Hanji's experience escaping the grasp of the titans Erwin allowed her to bring behind the Walls for experimentation, she knew she wasn't fast enough to get away from the mouth of the abnormal just beneath her. As it moved beneath her, the world around her slowed. The titan's breath was hot against her legs as its teeth grazed up her shin, close enough to wrinkle her white uniform pants. Dread sunk Hanji's stomach to the depths of her toes. Defiant to the very end, she tried to redeploy her grappling hooks, but Hanji knew she'd need a miracle to get out of this. As a titan freak who had narrowly avoided accident after accident, her luck seemed to have finally run out.

A black ball flashed past her, steel catching the cloudlight. Crimson spewed from the titan's cheek. The steam that billowed from it blinded Hanji while she waited to feel massive teeth sink through her thighs, but it never came. Hanji's hooks found purchase, flinging her high above the titan. Gasping, Hanji looked below her boots at the ground so far away beneath her. Mike flew low to the ground, his boots trailing through the snow as he grabbed Nanaba and launched them back into the air away from the titan. The titan kicked and lunged and ran in circles, churning the snow black with mud and red with its own blood. A small mass, as fast as lightning, cut through its snapping jaw. Its chin fell slack against its chest, steam dribbling down its gullet.

As the lithe body of a soldier Hanji knew all too well distracted the titan while simultaneously carving it up, recognition dawned on Hanji. The way the soldier's black undercut flew away from his face, the way he held one sword backwards, the way he moved as if he were born to fly and kill all screamed Levi . His blades sliced through the place where the titan's shoulder met its armpit, rendering its arm useless as he flew across its traps. Levi lunged for its nape and carved out a chunk of its steaming flesh. The titan stilled before it crumpled into the snow in an explosion of heat and embers.

Still midair, Hanji erupted into an eager cheer but as expected, Levi didn't stick around to admire his kill or to shower in the awed gazes of his comrades. The moment the diminutive scout felt the heat of a fizzling titan beneath his boots, he released his cords and moved on to the next one.


Despite the foggy view and brewing snowstorm, the Scouts once again came out victorious. There was only one titan left standing; a strange, ugly-looking thing just short of five meters, Hanji assumed.

Taking a moment to observe its way of moving, Hanji made a mental note of it to put in her journal later. The way it seemed to sway madly from one side to the other while its head bounced back and forth on a too-thin neck piqued her interest. As if the weight of the enormous head was throwing it off balance, and she wondered how its neck didn't snap, and how it was able to move at all as proportionately wrong the poor creature was.

...And what the hell took them so long to just put it out of its misery? At this point, Hanji had expected to see Levi swirling gracefully towards it as if he was born with the wings on his back and chuck its tiny little turkey neck straight through.

Now that everything had calmed down, Hanji couldn't wait to take some time to study his fighting technique; the way he could effortlessly twist and bend his body into positions that seemed painful and sometimes even impossible, especially for an adult male body, no matter how limber and trained. She already envisioned the lines conveying the movements through his gravity-defying motions that she would sketch out in her notes tonight (purely for research purposes, of course). So, when Eld and Günter flew in front of the grinning monster, it struck Hanji as wrong.

She didn't really have a reason to believe that something was off. If they were the closest and most available soldiers to attack, there was no reason for Levi to barge through and take it for himself. Levi had never been the type to show off, and despite his overwhelming record of solo-kills only a few years into his recruitment, it was clear that it wasn't something he really cared or needed to boast about.

Watching the two promising scouts safely sway back onto the ground with the titan's withering body melting the snow background, Hanji finally let a heavy sigh leave her strained lungs. The cold air burned in her heaving chest as she finally allowed her heart rate to slow down. Peering around, taking in the aftermath of the sudden attack, the trampled scenery, and everyone's blood-spattered uniforms (some evaporating, some not) , she spotted a young girl feeding Levi's petite black mare (that he so lovingly had decided to name Horse) : a task he usually prided on doing himself.

Despite a rocky relationship at the start, as both the small, dark creatures were way too stubborn to concede to the other (a particular incident when Levi had absentmindedly taken a bite of the apple he was supposed to feed Horse and mysteriously ended up at the San with several broken toes and a distinctive bruise the shape of a horseshoe on his forehead came to mind) . Erwin had been determined to bring the two together. He had been right to push it. Once both the stubborn asses had settled out their differences, the two became inseparable.

Even after long, treacherous missions, Levi insisted on grooming and feeding her personally before getting inside to clean up, feed, and rest himself.

With a heavy lump in her chest, Hanji scooped through their somewhat thinned formation. Most of the soldiers missing were newly recruited, as expected. It wasn't nice to think like that, but after a while, you became desensitized to the numerous losses a simple mission like this could have (and Hanji had promised herself that she would never become like that; that she'd always remember their names, mourn their deaths , and bring their patches home to give their families. The truth was, after some time, all of them became as faceless as the one before).

(She hoped someone remembered them).

But, there was still no sign of Levi. Pulling the heavy military-issued cloak tighter around her shoulders, she trotted through the knee-high snow, stepping between soldiers receiving light first-aid or tending to their horses. Some were jogging in place or flapping their arms to keep warm while they waited for their cue to head back.

Finally, she spotted the rest of Team Erwin, Moblit, and Shadis. No Levi. Her heart sank.

Shadis had a notebook in hand, writing as the others did their best to identify the bodies. Erwin held a small pocket knife and used it to trim off the wings of freedom from their uniforms ( hopefully, they had already flown peacefully away), before handing them to Moblit who labeled them and tucked them carefully into a brown paper bag.

"What are the numbers?" Hanji asked grimly as she tried to approach as respectfully as she could, more for the dead than the men counting them.

"Fifteen so far," Erwin replied gravely and looked up. His clear blue eyes were cold and appeared void of any emotion, glancing over the young bodies scattered about, but Hanji liked to think she knew him better than that. What it did prove, however, was that they had not found Levi. There was no way any of them would be this calm if they had. She was unsure if she was relieved or not.

Deciding to approach the issue head-on, she cleared her throat before finally asking, "Have any of you seen Levi?"

Erwin paused. Shadis stopped his frantic scribbling to look around.

"No," Erwin realized stiffly. "Not yet." The wide man got up from his kneeling position, shifting to get a better overview from his high vantage point. Mike followed his lead, sniffing the air, trying to catch a whiff of Levi's scent (he'd explained to her once that Levi had a very distinctive smell, neither typically male nor female, much like Hanji. Mostly, he smelled of fresh tea leaves and sandalwood, but there was also something else, something different than anyone he'd ever smelled before).

(Jokingly, he had added that the 'something different' was not the smell of the cheap soap they had at the barracks).

Moblit fidgeted nervously, casting swift, uncomfortable looks over at their bald commander. He looked like he wanted to say something. Hanji frowned and tugged at his sleeve, yanking him a few feet away from Shadis' intense glare.

"What's going on?" She sneered impatiently. The anxious male wiped some perspiration off his face.

"I didn't see Levi go down, but I believe one of the new recruits lost control of their gear and flew into him."

"What?" Hanji hadn't meant for her tone to be so sharp, but the impact of those words seemed to punch her in the gut.

Moblit exhaled deeply, rubbing his hands over his face. "Listen, I don't want anyone to get into trouble. I've always said that fresh recruits need at least six months in training before we can take them outside the walls -"

Hanji opened her mouth to interrupt, but Moblit cut her off, "...Which I know is not an option right now, but two months simply isn't -"

"Just get to the damn point, Moblit," she shrieked with tensed fists, scowling at the slender man.

"S-sorry, I'm sorry. I believe Bayer might have run into him mid-flight and thrown him off his course. I can't know for sure if it was Levi, but it looked like him with how he held his blades.. I don't know what happened after that, though. I kinda just assumed he was all right. I mean, he usually is, right?"

"Where did it happen? If he did fall, he can't be far from there." The scientist waved to get the attention of the soldier who was tending to her horse, Miletus, gesturing for them to bring it over. Moblit pointed towards a small gathering of trees about 300 feet away.

"Goddamnit," Hanji sighed and turned back to her other squad members. An icy gust brushed across her cheeks, sending shivers down her spine. In her peripheral, she saw Moblit tightening the scarf around his neck. Forcing her frozen feet to trudge through the deep snow, she addressed Erwin.

"We need to gather some people to look for Levi. Moblit thinks he went down over there somewhere," she pointed to where Moblit had shown her and added, "He might be injured."

Erwin's expressive eyebrows narrowed, creating a deep wrinkle of worry between his eyes. He gave her a curt nod before approaching Shadis. "Commander, I request to assemble a rescue party to look for Captain Levi. He is an invaluable asset to the Scouts, and I wish to retrieve him as soon as possible, sir."

"...And I would like to take the lead please, sir," Hanji added a little clumsily, giving the most formal salute she could muster in the midst of the rapidly intensifying snowstorm.

"Very well," the mentally deteriorating commander drawled, pulling the strings of his hood a little tighter around his face. "You can have four additional soldiers for your party, but the rest of us will head towards the sanctuary north of here. It's our safest bet in these conditions. I assume you know the way?"

"I'd also like to bring some additional medical supplies," she added firmly.

"You can take whatever you need," Shadis replied, switching his weight from one foot to the other while shrugging off the snow gathering on his cloaked shoulders.

"Thank you, sir!" Hanji saluted eagerly, turning towards the others, giving hand signals to Nanaba and Mike, before searching their troops, deciding to bring two promising lower-ranked scouts, Petra and Nifa. Petra seemed to hold Levi in high regard and would do whatever she needed to make sure he was safe, and Nifa was smart and perceptive. Hanji would have preferred to bring both Erwin and Moblit but reasoned that the rest of the group would need Erwin if anything unexpected happened on the way back, and Moblit had never been the most reliable rider, especially not in harsh conditions like these. He had a great mind for analytics and the more theoretical aspects of the military but had always been a little delicate. Bless his heart.

The team quickly equipped themselves for their new purpose, mounting their horses, and steered in the direction where Moblit had pointed out the mishap to have occurred. Meanwhile, the rest of the troops saddled up and began their trek towards the safehouse about two hours north from where they had been attacked and a day's ride from the wall. One day in optimal weather conditions, that was.

The rescue squad got their horses ready, gathering emergency provisions, first aid supplies, and extra blankets in the horses' side pouches. Hanji also brought a few torches, rags, matches, and kerosene in her backpack. The sun was already setting, and it was unlikely that they would reach the camp before the sky turned pitch black.

As they steadily pushed towards the patch of woods where Levi was believed to have plunged to the ground, Hanji couldn't help but feel relieved that the daylight had started to dim around them. Despite the plunging temperature, at least their chances of running into titans declined significantly during nighttime. At this point, they had to count whatever blessings they got. The dread seeping down her neck had turned into freezing cold marbles rolling down her back. The thought of something happening to Levi made her feel like crawling into a ball and hiding in a snow dune.

The horses moved slowly through the deep snow, and Hanji had to clutch her thighs tightly around Miletus to not lose her balance. After only about fifteen minutes, the effort along with days of riding, left her muscles roaring with fiery exhaustion. The weather was quickly shifting for the worse, the wind picking up and sparkling crystals whipping across flushed cheeks. The back of the person in tow was as far as any of them could see.

For a moment, Hanji wondered if they should be holding onto a rope to keep them together, but as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she heard Mike's gruff voice call out from the front.

"He's been here."

Hanji instantly ordered her horse to increase its pace into a trot to keep up with the blonde. His large stallion had paused a few meters away from the small wooden patch the young scout had pointed towards.

There, hardly visible on the ice-covered ground was a spot of crimson red, fresh enough to still leave traces in the snow where it had melted under the warm liquid. Mike didn't need his nose to trace the fresh tracks, as they kept appearing every few feet away from the array of tall Scots pine trees.

"Why wouldn't he seek shelter in the woods?" Nifa asked uneasily. "He'd be significantly safer there."

"He's probably disoriented," Nanaba replied grimly.

"You're right," Hanji agreed. "If he hit his head, he's probably concussed, and even if he's not, it would be easy to get confused in these conditions. He might think he's moving towards the troops"

"At least the tracks are fresh. He can't be far away if the wind and snow haven't covered them yet," Mike added to the conversation, waving them to come along as he continued down the clumsy path with random sections of blood varying in size and intensity that lead through the illuminated carpet of glittering white.

Suddenly, the tall man jumped from his horse. Hanji quickly pulled Miletus' reins, jumping off the small stallion before it came to a stop, and saw Mike pulling something out of the snow. For a split second, Hanji thought it was Levi. However, what he drew up was a dark green piece of fabric.

"It's Levi's cloak," he stated monotonously, holding it up for the others to see.

"What does that mean?" Petra asked anxiously. "Do you think something took him? My father told me about these vicious dogs that live outside the walls in the forests. They apparently hunt in packs and are extremely dangerous"

"No," Hanji quickly interrupted. "He's likely reached the point of hypothermia when he feels too hot and has started undressing. We need to keep going. With the freshness of the tracks, he's not going to be far from here." After a beat, she added, "And keep a lookout for more pieces of his clothing, or for any signs of digging."

The wind was tugging mercilessly at their clothes, the raging winter whipping at any hint of bare skin. Hanji felt her long lashes sticking together behind her glasses each time she blinked. But, she had to keep going. If Levi had started undressing, the urgency to find him increased tenfolds. The uncoordinated route he seemed to be taking made more sense now. At this point, his breathing and heart rate was probably slow, which meant that he would be dazed and the loss of consciousness wasn't far away. However, the most pressing matter was finding him before he could start digging.

She had read about it in her father's old notes. As a scientist, he took part in several excursions outside the walls with his research team before his retirement. Once about twenty years ago, one of their men had gotten lost in a winter storm, with the temperature dropping way beyond sub-zero. Eventually, they had found him frozen to death, naked and buried in the snow. This had of course, as the brilliant scientist he was, prompted Dr. Luis Zoe to expose himself to similar conditions in minimal clothing, but with his coworkers and a medical team on stand-by. Besides the loss of two fingertips to frostbite, he had luckily been all right. His conclusion had been that the behavior was an autonomous process of the brain stem, which was caused by the final stages of hypothermia that produced a primitive and burrowing-like behavior of protection, as seen in hibernating animals such as bears, hedgehogs, and woodchucks.

Her muddled thoughts were interrupted by Nanaba's voice.

"What's that over there?" the veteran called out, swiftly swinging off her horse. Hanji slowed her pace, finally seeing the dark patch Nanaba had seen. When the blonde bent down and began rummaging through the snow, Hanji was unsure if she hoped it was the top of Levi's head peeking up from a snow dune, which meant that he had tried to bury himself and would confirm her dread of him reaching the final throes of hypothermia, or if she hoped it to be another piece of clothing.

Or maybe just a pile of cones or a large rock .

"Gloves," sounded Nanaba's muffled voice underneath layers of a thick, woolen scarf. With wide steps, she shuffled back over to the rest of the group. "It's his gloves."

She handed the thickly lined leather to Mike who immediately gave them an experimental whiff before removing his hand from his own glove to feel the fabric. Quietly, Mike muttered his assessment, "Some of us should keep looking on foot. It can't be more than a couple of minutes since he discarded them. The tiny bastard might be hiding in places we can't access on horseback."

Hanji didn't hesitate to give them her commands. "Nanaba, Mike, you'll be continuing on foot with me. Petra, Nifa, you'll proceed with the horses. I don't think I need to tell you to come and get us if you find anything."

The two younger women saluted their superior and disappeared into the fog. The sound of their horses' hooves lingered far longer than the sight of them.

"All right, you old bloodhound," Hanji muttered, giving Mike a mischievous shove. "Let your snoot lead the way."

The man snorted unamusedly but did as he was told.