It was if the whole earth had stopped turning, every color and sound leeched away until nothing but that one word rang through the air like a siren. Every head moved slowly to look at the edge of the cliff in unexplainable horror.

Before Arya had time to think, her arm shot out to steady Levi's horse, where he was already crouched on top of his saddle. The moment her hand touched the reins he was airborne, throwing himself over her head and into the gorge below.

With no trees or buildings around to use as an anchor point, Levi twisted around midair and with a whirling pop and extended his ODM cables into the hardened lip of the slope. Maneuvering himself into a wide swing he extended his arm and grabbed Connie roughly around his waist.

But the added weight of two people was too much, and the steel barbs at the ends of the cables began to loosen from the soft earth. Without thinking Arya threw herself from her horse and dove onto the cable bases, holding them in place with all her might. She felt them fighting to pull from the ground as they tried to support both Levi and Connie on their retraction; pieces of metal wire digging so deeply into her hands that they drew blood.

A blast of air pushed passed her as the two men came flying over the lip of the canyon and toppled onto the ground. She barely had enough time to pull her hands away before the cables whipped from the dirt and back into Levi's holsters. Holding her hands painfully against her chest, she looked around wildly.

Connie was already on his horse, galloping at a frenzy towards the others, who were still rooted to the spot in fear.

No… It couldn't be… They had watched as Eren blasted the titans off the face of the earth as he died. The 9 were gone, the pure titans were no more. They didn't exist anymore, except in memories and nightmares. Nonetheless, from a lifetime of instinct Jean and Armin whipped around and took off, smoothly transitioning to a loose battle formation as they tore away, preparing themselves for a fight.

With trembling and bloodied hands Arya reached for the holsters at her sides, slamming them into her scabbards and drawing out the now attached steel-pressed blades. Her heart was slamming into her ribcage and rushing air clogged her ears.

She had heard every story there was on titan fights; had watched the colossal's dreaded march in the Rumbling and had even assisted in cleaning up titan remains after the battle in Stohess. But she had never come face to face with one in a fight. It was so close beneath her feet, only dirt and rock standing between her and it's gaping mouth, one that would surely devour her now. She couldn't defeat this. This was so far beyond her that all she could do was stand there frozen, awaiting her death.

Out of the darkness that was surrounding her vision a hand reached out to her, closing gentle but firm around her raised wrist. Ripping her gaze from the ground she saw Levi's face above her on horseback, swimming blurrily in front of her.

"Ride now, fight later."

His expression was piercing; both good and bad eye boring into her with protective urgency. Whatever connection they had created weeks prior on the training grounds rushed back fast and strong, freeing her body from its frozen state. Sound came back and her head cleared, making way for the mind of a soldier.

Arya didn't need to look around to know that her horse had bolted; she could feel its thundering hooves racing away from her. With a hard pull Levi lifted her into the air and onto the back of his horse where she wrapped one arm tightly around his waist, the other grasped firmly around her hilts. His horse leapt into motion and barreled away from the titan towards their comrades. Marveling at how little it bothered her to be this close to someone else she gripped him even tighter; physical touch seemed to amplify the energy surrounding them, and by the time they were closing in on the stragglers Arya was ready for a fight.

5 meters before they came up on their commanding officer, Armin pulled up short and stopped dead in his tracks. They blew passed him, Levi swearing harshly as he whipped their horse around and came to an abrupt halt.

"What the hell are you doing?! Get back in formation!" He yelled fiercely back at Armin, who was still staring blankly back in the direction they had come. A growl escaped Levi's lips. Whatever god-forsaken thing that had him bound so tightly to the woman sheltered behind him had him more focused than he could ever recall being. In that moment there were only two things that mattered: protect at all costs and fight if necessary.

His tension and anger began to lessen, however, as he took in the look on Armin's face more closely. Levi's eyes snapped to where he expected to see an enormous titan breaking free of the mountains of earth, cracking the ground with shaking footfalls towards them. Only it wasn't. From the rim of the colossal-made valley a thin jet of steam was rising.

The others were gathering around them now, Falco and Gabi pulling in close to Levi and Arya's right with looks of terror on their faces.

"Why is it just lying there?" Reiner whispered tensely, almost to himself.

Collective eyes stared out over the field at the pillar of smoke swirling out from the edge of the indented ground. For a long while they stood like this, and when it became evident that they were not being pursued, Armin led them slowly and cautiously back the way they had came and to the farthest edge away from the titan's eye, all hands on the hilts of their blades.

"It's dead." Armin said flatly, a look of both relief and confusion on his face. Steam was still pouring out from the hole left by the loosened rock, and the eye was already partially evaporated into the high noon sun.

Gabi's voice was small and quavering. "But… they don't exist." She whispered, almost pleading. "They're gone."

Falco reached out and grabbed her hand. "This doesn't make any sense, we were there! We SAW Eren blast away all the titans! How can this still be here?!" No one was able to answer this question, though none of them were able to disagree with his expression of feeling. This wasn't supposed to be possible. Dead or not, the fact that this Titan was still here went against everything they knew to be true.

"I think it's a colossal from the Rumbling..." Oz whispered, looking desperately to Armin. "Use that big brain of yours and tell me how this is real."

Armin was still staring down into the hole, wrestling with the stifling fear that was climbing up his throat. "The only think I can think of is that it fell during the march and then got buried somehow… but how could simply being underground have kept its body from being blown away? We found no evidence in over 6 years that anything of titan ecology survived, and how could it? The line of Ymir was broken..."

Suddenly he was thinking of a passage he had read years ago; texts salvaged from a destroyed monastery known to be one of the oldest in Marly. It spoke much of theories and ideas, specifically regarding the origin of the Founding Titan's power. Although he had been able to debunk most of them from the little knowledge he had of the Titan organism, one small paragraph had stood out to him.

Balance is key, you see. Day must have Night, Life must have Death, Good must have Evil. Though Light may hold more power, Darkness always comes in pairs.

In pairs…

A cold shiver ran up Armin's spine as he came out of his revere. Wiping the sheen of sweat from his face, he addressed the group without turning around.

"Whatever this is, we don't have time to deal with it. Keep your minds focused on the task at hand; we can figure this out once Historia and Mikasa are safe." No one could disagree with that either, and the thought of putting this titan on the back burner was a welcome idea.

"Oh!" Connie exclaimed. "Arya, are you okay?!"

They all turned to where she sat behind Levi as she stowed her holsters and peered down at her hands. There was dried blood along her palms and down her wrists, but the cuts on her hand weren't nearly as deep as she had expected. Even now they resembled more of a puckered scrape than a gash, and she breathed a sigh.

"Yeah I'm fine, it's not bad at all. I'll just sterilize them and- "

Arya had bent down to grab her medical kit from her side bags, only to remember that this wasn't her horse. Without a word, Levi turned them around and headed Northeast, where 100 meters away her horse stood grazing on a grassy knoll. They rode the short distance in silence; now that it was clear there was no immediate danger, their bizarre energy had quieted to a low hum. She held onto him with the lightest of touches, suddenly feeling wary of their proximity.

Once she was back in her own saddle, Arya went to work on her hands as they waited for the rest of the company to join them. She was more than alright to not speak of the energy they had, though there was something else that she couldn't ignore quite as easily.

"Thank you." She said, not meeting his eyes as she wrapped gauze around her hand. "For pulling me out of there, even though there didn't end up being a reason to. The fact still stands that if that had been a real titan, I would have been dead if it wasn't for you. That's not something I will forget."

Her thanks was met with continued silence, though she could once again feel his eyes upon her face.