"Harry Potter has been unconscious for roughly two weeks, and he is just now showing signs of recovery. This morning, woke up for roughly ten minutes in a daze, appearing to hallucinate as he recited three names over and over. Hermione, Ginny, and Ron were the names. But when we sent a letter to his parents questioning the existence of these 'friends', they explained that he had never had many friends before joining the Warriors unit, and he'd never been so close with any of his friends to the point that he would recite their names in a hallucinatory state. And so we must conclude that Harry Potter is no longer fit for duty, and must be sent home to receive psychiatric help," Zeke Jaeger concluded, reading off of the medical papers offered to him by one of the medical staff.

"It won't happen," said Commander Theo Magath. "That boy is too powerful to be sent home over such silliness. Sure, he's whispering names in his sleep, but he also hit his head several times during the battle and is suffering from a severe concussion. These things take time to heal. Besides, did you see the amount of damage that kid did to that fortress? He was so angry that he pulled water from the ocean just to drown it all away. Not the river just a mile away, but the ocean two hundred miles from here. The kid could be more powerful than the Founding Titan itself if that's the kind of destructive power he can reach,"

Commander Lean Kien spoke, clearly disgusted by Magath's words. "This isn't about the boy's powers or even his standing in the military. This is about his health. He won't be useful to us if he's a living vegetable. We should send him home and postpone the operation. We've been waiting this long anyway, we can afford to push it back a few more years. Or at least until he recovers,"

"We can't afford to push the operation back further," countered General Bonzen. "We've pushed it back several times in the past ten years, and the consequences of that are showing. The Middle-Eastern Alliance has created anti-titan artillery strong enough to rip through a hundred titans, as well as the Armored Titan's armor. If it wasn't for Potter's magic, the Warrior unit would have been turned to dust within that fortress. He's the most valuable asset we have, and with the Founding Titan's power, he'll be able to win Marley the entire world. And as for his physical and mental health, he's a strong kid. Stronger than most men I know. He'll push through the pain no matter the cost,"

"There are several problems with your view on Mr. Potter," said Zeke. "Firstly, his left knee was crippled by pellet fire, and the nerves around it were ripped to shreds when he ripped the pellets out. He won't be able to walk without a cane or a crutch for the rest of his life. As for his mental health, he doesn't seem to be improving. But there's another problem," Zeke sighed, pulling off his glasses as he began to wipe them with his sleeve. "Braun and the youngest Galliard have come to me with concerns regarding Potter's allegiance to Marley,"

"Do not question his allegiances, Zeke. I used to speak with the boy every day for a year and he had nothing but praise for Marley and its cause," said General Bonzen.

Zeke sighed, placing his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. "That was three years ago, General. Many things can change in that time. Braun and Galliard both reported the details of a conversation the youngest Warriors had had just hours before the battle. In this discussion, Potter displayed some kind of disdain for the Marleyan government and military and expressed how he wishes that his young sister would remain outside of the military. This leads me to question if Potter is truly loyal to Marley, or if he is just using his status as a way to propel him through the ranks,"

"And if he does climb the ranks?"

"Perhaps he'll try to launch a coup. He's already famous enough that most men in the army would possibly drop their loyalty and join him immediately. Or perhaps he'll perform some kind of mind control. I'm uncertain about the scope of his abilities," Zeke explained. "But the point stands. Potter is conflicted about his loyalties, and thus cannot be trusted in his position,"

"Let's not be too hasty, War Chief. Let us wait until the boy wakes up before we decide what to do with him. We owe him that much," said the General. And so it was decided. Harry Potter's fate would be decided after he woke up. The four moved on to the next subject, ignoring the thought of Harry Potter for now. They would get back to that eventually.

February 26th, 845

His eyes opened immediately. The pain in his arm was gone, but his leg. He couldn't feel the bottom half of his left leg. He peered down at it and his eyes widened. His knee was completely covered in bandages. But he couldn't move it. It was as if it wasn't there. Harry moved his right leg, and there was no pain at all. But when he tried to move his left leg, nothing happened. No movement. No feeling. No pain. Harry began to panic. He reached down with his right hand and pinched the exposed skin on his calf. Nothing. No matter how hard he pinched, Harry didn't feel a thing.

"Mr. Potter!" Harry's eyes shot up to his right. A nurse was standing by the door, her eyes wide in shock. "Sir, please don't move. You've been badly injured. Your knee was shattered and you're suffering from severe nerve damage. So please don't try to stand. You'll only fall,"

"What...what...does that mean? The nerve damage,"

"It means you won't have any feeling in your leg,"

"Won't? Like...never?"

"You won't be able to walk on that leg for the rest of your life, sir. You will have to rely on crutches or canes," The nurse replied. Harry was silent. He stared at her for several moments. And then he fell back onto the bed, his eyes resting on the ceiling. Tears built up as the images and voices returned. He shut his eyes, wishing they would stop. He heard the nurse leave the room, no doubt grabbing someone. Harry took his few moments of quiet to clean himself up. He wiped at his eyes, drying them with his sleeve as he pushed himself up into a seated position on the bed. He rested his back and head against the wall. At that moment, the nurse re-entered the room, accompanied this time by Zeke Jaeger, General Bonzen, and Commander Magath.

Jaeger stepped forward. "Potter, are you feeling any better?"

"I feel...fine? I can't feel my leg,"

"I explained the situation," the nurse spoke, clearly distressed by what Harry had said. She was an Eldian. If the Marleyan's present thought she had left such critical information unsaid, she would be punished. Perhaps her family too.

"She did. I'm just...still processing it all," Harry clarified.

Bonzen knelt beside Harry. "Are you still...seeing things?"

"Sir?"

"You were whispering names in your sleep," Bonzen turned to Zeke. "What were they again?"

"Hermione, Ginny, and Ron," Zeke supplied.

"Right. Them. Do they sound familiar?"

"Hermione...Ginny...Ron...no. No, those names don't sound familiar. I was saying names in my sleep?"

"You were. They were afraid you were going crazy," answered Bonzen.

"They? Not you, sir?"

"The thought never crossed my mind,"

Harry frowned. So much was swarming through his mind that he wanted to lie down, cry, and sleep. But he couldn't do that. He needed to stay strong in front of his commanding officers. Harry swung his legs over the bed, getting ready to stand, but his left leg didn't move. He was forced to remember the fact that it wouldn't move now. He had to move it himself. So Harry grabbed hold of his leg and pulled it off of the bed. The nurse rushed forward, trying to push him back down so he could rest. "Please. I need to stand," Harry spoke. The nurse sighed, grabbing a nearby wooden crutch before handing it to Harry. She helped him get to his feet, resting her hand on his shoulder as Harry gained his footing.

"I'll need this for the rest of my life..." said Harry, peering down at the crutch and his leg. He felt tears come to his eyes, and he couldn't stop them. It was too much too fast. Harry's future was gone. How could he go out into battle with a crutch? How could he run his new empire without the use of his leg? His adolescence was gone. No longer could he run around the training course or play with his friends. He would be forced to sit on the sidelines. He would have to watch his friends play. He would have to watch them train. And he would have to watch them go out into battle without him.

His mind raced with the stolen possibilities. The stolen dreams. They were gone, and they would never come back. This was his life now. The life of a cripple. Forced to live in such a state that he couldn't help himself. Anger built up inside of him as he thought of all he had lost. But he bit it down. He forced it so far within himself that everything went numb. And when he could feel nothing at all, Harry turned back to the others. The nurse and the general were watching him with sympathy, Magath appeared fearful, and Zeke looked on in a mix of sympathy and doubt. What was there to doubt? Did Zeke think he was faking this injury? Did Zeke think he was faking his emotions?

"The others?"

Zeke replied. "Braun and the youngest Galliard both suffered from minor injuries, but they recovered quickly. The rest were fine. They're all assisting in clean up,"

"Clean up?"

Magath sighed. He motioned for Harry to follow, and the two moved out of the nurse's cabin. Harry wasn't used to the crutches, so his movement was rough and slow. But by the time they'd made it a few dozen yards down the trench, Harry had gotten the hang of it and was able to keep up with the Commander's slow pace. They eventually made it to one of the trenches ramps, moving up to the ground level. There, Harry saw the full carnage he had unleashed.

The entire north side of the landscape had been tarnished by a massive tsunami that had washed in from the ocean. Debris and rubble were spread out everywhere, and he could spot bodies in the distance. But there was something off about it. The devastation had come in widespread from afar, but it had condensed down to a cone near the fortress. Harry had done this. He remembered it now. The rage. The pain. The devastation. The burning. The air. The shrapnel. The cold water reached up to his waist. Harry had flooded the entire fortress with water, washing away bodies, blood, and debris. He had pulled it in from the ocean. "Why the ocean? The river's right there,"

"Wait...you don't remember doing it?" Magath asked.

"I remember pieces of it. I remember the fire. The air. And the shrapnel. Even the water. But I don't remember pulling it in from the ocean,"

"Well, you had quite the episode, kid," said Bonzen. "According to Leonhart and Finger, you created a maelstrom of elements. A ring of fire, a blizzard of earth, a hurricane of wind, and a flood of water. You destroyed everything,"

"Including their titan forms," whispered Harry, remembering. "I remember now. Their titans were destroyed by the rocks and flames. Reiner was unconscious and Marcel..."

"Braun was unconscious due to the physical strain done on his body by the damage to his titan form. And Marcel was hit by a piece of shrapnel, but it was slowed by the titan flesh around him to the point that it did no damage," Zeke explained. "The two of them recovered in days, but they're slower now. They're weaker than before. Their numbers are lower,"

"And it's my fault,"

"Yes,"

"Zeke," Bonzen spoke, his gaze boring into Zeke's head. Harry didn't pay attention to their argument and instead focused his attention on the carnage in front of him. The flooding had been so destructive that Harry doubted it could ever be fixed in any meaningful amount of time. It would take decades to repair all of the damage he had done. Two hundred miles of flooding and destruction, and they had only cleared bodies within ten square miles. Harry stepped forward, moving down the hill towards the city. After some commotion, Zeke and Magath joined him in his walk.

Harry spoke first. "What's the situation with the Hizuru?"

"Only four soldiers survived the battle. Two were killed in a struggle and the other two surrendered and are in custody. The troops that were outside the fortress were either eaten by titans or escaped to the west across the border," Magath explained. "The Middle-Eastern Alliance has strengthened its border and is ready for an attack. They haven't moved to fix the damage you did across their border. I'm assuming this is because they don't want to risk sending soldiers off away from their stations on the border,"

Harry frowned. "They'll strengthen their borders anywhere they think we'll attack. They'll separate their navy to avoid the same fate as the Hizuru's; being destroyed in one shot by the Colossal Titan,"

"They've separated their navy so that no two ships are close to each other. It isn't possible to defeat them all in one go, even without the Colossal Titan," said Zeke.

"We don't need to defeat them in one go. All we need is a precise and devastating number of strikes that they can't calculate. They will be forced to pull in their navy for support if we launch an attack on several key naval ports. Even if they don't call every ship back, we could take out several dozen ships," Harry could sense Magath and Zeke exchange a look from behind him. He smirked. If they thought he would lose his ability to brainstorm tactical advances, they were sorely mistaken.

"And if they chose not to send ships?"

"Then we win their naval ports. We'll be cutting off their inner-alliance trade. And because most of their ports are linked to rivers going inland, we could cut the alliance into thirds, fourths, and sixths. They'll suspect we'll try to take the Glise and Orglos ports, seeing as those two are the closest ports to the west and east borders, respectively. But if we launch four attacks at once, we could draw their attention away from two ports near the center, leaving the alliance's center open to attack. When we invade the center, they won't have a choice but to send the rest of their navy in for a counterattack. Their outer ports will be ours, and we'll be free to push their borders with their supply lines cut,"

"Someone's feeling better," It was Commander Kien. He was standing on the outskirts of the city, his eyes on Harry. He was smiling. "You're still too damn smart for your own good, Harry,"

"Perhaps he is," Zeke mused. Harry couldn't tell if he was winning over Zeke's trust, but he didn't care. Zeke could trust him or not trust him, that was his problem. Harry was too focused on thoughts of the war. "Any other thoughts, Potter?" Harry frowned. He couldn't think of anything else at the moment regarding the war. But as he examined the sight of destruction ahead of him, Harry couldn't help but reach toward it. Closing his eyes, Harry reached out with more than his hand, feeling for the fallen debris. When he found it, Harry felt it. The image. The precursor. How it had been before it was all destroyed.

He yearned for it to return to the way it had been before, and when he opened his eyes Harry was met by a wonderful sight. Stretching over ten miles, piles of rubble lifted off its place on the ground, hovering in place for a single moment before reforming into its past shape. Walls. Roofs. Floors. Homes. Streets. Towers. All of it was rebuilt exactly the way it had been before. There were a few instances of holes or deformed structures, no doubt caused by pieces of the rubble being carried back with the ocean weeks before. But the main structures were all there, and most of the city had been repaired.

"You...fixed it," Magath whispered, awestruck by the sight. All of them were. Harry thought, looking on in disappointment. Sure, he was impressed by his power and ability to repair such damage, but he was saddened by how little he had repaired. A fifth of the damage. Ninety-five percent of the damage was still there, with torn-down buildings and washed-away debris still piled up on the destroyed roads. He had done a lot there, but there was still so much to do. It would take days or even weeks for him to repair the damage he had done.

"There's still so much more to fix,"

"Yes, but what you did was more than enough for now," said Kein thankfully. "Go get some rest, Harry. The others went back once they heard you were awake. They must have passed you," Harry frowned. How was that possible? But then he remembered. One of the Commanders had been running drill, having his soldiers run in a straight line back up to the trench opposite of Harry and the others. The other Warriors must have gone up the hill on the other side of the commander's unit. Unlucky, but it made sense.

"I'll stay here and help for a bit,"

"Go and see your friends, Harry. We can handle the rest here. That's an order," said Magath. Harry sighed. He didn't want to see them. The embarrassment from before still lurked in his mind. First, he exposed his true feelings about Marley's government, and then he injured his friends. It was too much. He didn't want to see them. But an order was an order. So Harry turned and began his slow walk back to the trench. All the while his eyes burned with worry and fear. Harry wasn't sure what to expect when reuniting with his closest friends.