Terror gripped at their heart as they boosted onwards in a panic, though rather than succumbing to it, the Survey Corp traitor simply used it to their advantage as they let it fuel their movements.

With that being said, however, the traitorous soldier still found it absurdly difficult to keep themselves fully composed, especially now as they were forced to keep their eyes forward in order to avoid boosting into the trees that were in front of them. They knew that their pursuer was mere metres behind them, as evident by the familiar sound of thrusters that could be heard roaring after them as they fled, but despite this, they didn't dare turn around to confirm their suspicions as they boosted onwards desperately.

As the seconds waned on, however, the sound of thrusters sputtering out could be heart, with the traitor's pursuer deactivating them momentarily as the trees became too plentiful to avoid; they continued their pursuit of their quarry on foot, which did give them an edge as the Mobile Suit's footspeed was perhaps on par with the speed of the average Maneuver Gear.

If they poured on the speed, then perhaps they could-

BANG!

Without so much as a warning, however, the sound of a cannon being fired could be heard ringing through the air, and upon hearing it, the traitor, being mildly familiar to just what that sound entailed, widened their eyes in shock as they turned on a dime; just in time to see a 170mm Autocannon round coming their way. With a gasp, they shifted their hips to one side and let off a burst of steam through their Maneuver Gear thrusters, and by some unforeseen miracle, they were able to dodge the cannon blast, albeit just narrowly, with the aforementioned shot coming just close enough that the traitor could feel the heat emanating off the surface of the projectile.

Whilst their evasion was successful, however, the suddenness of it had caused the traitor to spin wildly out of control as they struggled to recover from their initial dodge. As they spun frantically through the air, they heard the sound of stomping coming ever closer towards them, and, on instinct, they turned towards its source and promptly widened their eyes when they saw none other than Gundam Barbatos charging towards them, green optics locked onto their form.

Without warning, the Gundam lashed out at the traitor with its free arm unit, with its digits splayed out in the hopes of ensnaring the traitorous soldier in its grasp. The aforementioned soldier didn't have much time to react to this as they widened their eyes in terror at the encroaching Gundam, but even so, they were able to suppress their fear, if only by a little, as they made a desperate attempt at avoiding capture at Barbatos' manipulators.

Firing off their Maneuver Gear thrusters at maximum output, the traitor boosted themselves to the right with as much force as their equipment could muster, and much to their relief, they were able to just narrowly avoid the sharpened digits of the Gundam with that maneuver. The unit's manipulator clenched itself shut mere milliseconds after the traitor had evaded it, though as it did so, its sharp claws managed to scratch the soldier's shin, tearing into it and practically ripping it clean off in the process.

"Tsk!" groaned the traitor in pain as they attempted to put some distance between themselves and the Gundam whilst it was recovering from its failed capture attempt. Their foot was completely gone by now, though they did their best to ignore that pain as they found themselves staring at the aforementioned Mobile Suit's head unit for the briefest of moments as they boosted away from it… and not a moment later, they felt the blood freezing in their veins when, without warning, one of Barbatos' sub-optics swiftly darted in their direction in a literal split second before locking onto their fleeing form.

'What?!' thought the traitor as they watched one of the Gundam's sub-optics lock onto their form, though mere moments before they could even hope to get over that, they found themselves gasping in a mixture of fear and shock as Barbatos swung its outstretched arm unit at them, quite literally backhanding them within the span of a few short seconds. 'S-Such speed!'

The records had stated that the Gundam was fast, but not this fast, and with no way to properly dodge that strike, the traitor was forced to make use of their… special gift in order to block it. With what little time they had to do so, they grimaced and focused as much energy as they could into defending themself against the inbound strike, and not even a second later… they felt the equivalent of several tons of TNT impacting their raised forearms, sending them careening towards the ground all the while.

A pained scream escaped the traitor's lips as they felt the blue 'arm shield' of the Gundam make contact with their body, and on impact, most of their bones shattered instantly, with parts of their body exploding as their skin tore apart, allowing their blood and flesh to leak out all the while. Like a ragdoll, the Female Titan's host was sent careening towards the ground, where their battered form created a decently sized crevasse in the ground as they landed.

However… whilst the traitor flew through the air after the Gundam had quite literally slapped them down, Mikazuki, and by extension Bertholdt, did take note of how something seemed to be flaking off their skin as they fell, with the particles slowly falling towards the ground all the while.

Though Barbatos' scanners were not exactly cut out for identifying specific substances, they were still able to identify the flaking material as a sort of exoskeleton-like material, similar to the Reactive Armour employed by Barbatos whilst it was in its Fifth Form. Interestingly, the 'Reactive Armour', according to the data input via the Alaya-Vijnana system, had the consistency of diamond, an incredibly hard material that Mikazuki was unfamiliar with, though considering how it did very little to protect the traitor from his attack, the pilot reckoned that it wasn't as hard as the AV system would lead him to believe.

'Reactive Armour' aside, Mikazuki turned his unit's attention towards where the traitor had crashed at. He knew for a fact that no one would've been able to survive a hit like that, even if that strike could be compared to a simple lovetap by Barbatos' standards, but then again, they weren't dealing with any ordinary person; they were dealing with a human with the abilities of a Titan… and whilst they were incredibly fragile, especially when put up against something like Barbatos, Mika was still unwilling to take any chances with his quarry.

"...?"

'... we don't know that they're her, Barbatos…'

"...?"

'... then we will deal with that when it comes up…'

"..."

Whilst Mikazuki focused on the impact point of the traitor, Bertholdt, being the kind of person that he was, began sweating bullets as he glanced between the visual feed and Mika himself. It was rather obvious that he felt rather uncomfortable about this whole situation, though for once, it wasn't for his own sake…

"M-Mikazuki… I think they're dead… m-maybe w-w-we should-" began Bertholdt, with his tone of voice conveying his nervousness rather perfectly as he leaned forwards in the cockpit. He didn't like this situation, not one bit, and to him, the faster they left the area, the better… though much to his dismay, the pilot didn't seem to agree with him, as he simply glowered and glanced over at Hoover with an intense (by his standards) glare.

"How do you know?" asked Mikazuki coldly, with him staring over at the much taller soldier as he spoke. His gaze was certainly much more intense than he had initially intended for, with it being more of a glare than an actual deadpanned stare, but even so, he did not acknowledge this as he simply narrowed his eyes at Bertholdt, expecting a response when the taller teen had none to give.

"I… I-I.. w-w-well…" stammered Bertholdt, with him making it abundantly clear that he did not know what to say as he grew red in embarrassment. Mikazuki, for his part, only narrowed his eyes further as he wished to hear just what Hoover had to say for himself, though thankfully enough for the taller soldier, he was ultimately saved when, rather abruptly, the motion sensors in the Gundam's cockpit, paired with data input from the Alaya-Vijnana system, alerted the two of them to movement coming from the traitor's impact point.

Without missing a beat, Mikazuki turned his attention back to the visual feeds of his unit, just in time to see their traitor bursting out of the smoke and dirt clouding their impact point from view. Their attire had certainly seen better days, what with their cloak in tatters, their uniform covered in rips and tears and with what little skin they could see bruised and injured to the point of it being almost pitiful. Though with that being said, however, the last thing Mika had for their traitor at this point was pity, and even as he watched their feeble attempt to get away in spite of their multitude of injuries, the pilot couldn't help but frown scornfully at their slowly fleeing form.

"As if I'm letting you escape…!" snarled Mikazuki, with perhaps a little (a lot) more anger in his voice than he had initially intended, as he jolted his unit forwards, ignoring Bertholdt's pleading look to retreat all the while. His mind was too focused on either capturing or, more realistically, killing the Titan Shifter to process anything else at this point, and as such, he didn't even think twice before he stepped down forcing Barbatos to boost after the Female Titan's host at top speed.

From what he could see, the traitor had broken one of their arms, as evident by how their left arm was hanging loosely by their side, and had lost movement in both their legs, which could do no more than dangle uselessly beneath them as they boosted onwards. It was a pitiful sight, honestly, but as stated above, Mikazuki had no pity to offer them as he quickly closed the gap between Barbatos and the traitor within the span of a few short seconds.

The Gundam quite literally crashed through a multitude of trees, toppling them over as it got closer and closer towards the traitor. The green glow of its optics flickered as embers of red became apparent in them, and as it drew closer and closer towards the traitorous soldier, the unit brought its arm unit forwards to grab at them, hoping to crush their tiny body in its manipulator all the while.

And that was when it happened…

As Mikazuki lifted one of the arm units forwards, the traitor turned around to face Barbatos head-on… and as they did so, their tattered cloak, for the briefest of moments, fluttered backwards, revealing a small portion of their face in the process… and though neither he nor Bertholdt were able to see their face in its entirety… what little Mika did see… had made his body lock up in shock as his eyes widened in horror… horror that he hadn't felt in years at this point as he momentarily halted in his movements.

'... no… it… it can't be…' was all the pilot could think at that point as he a mixture of shock, horror, recognition and guilt began to churn about in his stomach… though above all those emotions… he had also felt a massive surge of rage welling up inside his stomach as he faltered briefly in grabbing ahold of his target's body.

And that moment of hesitation was all the traitor needed.

"You doing alright over there, Mina?"

"Define alright, Nac."

That comment from Mina was laced with no small amount of sarcasm, and though he could hear it loud and clear, Nac chose not to outwardly acknowledge it as he rolled his eyes and leaned against the side of the cart both he and the rest of his team were in.

Minutes prior, the signal to retreat had been fired by one of the senior soldiers at the heart of the forest of giant trees, and upon seeing it, the Survey Corps were quick to fall back, with Luke Sys' Team being amongst the first to make it out of that accursed forest. Once they had left it, however, they found themselves surprised to see several horse drawn carts waiting for them by the entrance of the abandoned training grounds, though at that point, the small team of five, among several others, couldn't complain as they piled onto one of the many carts present and allowed it to haul them back to Karanses.

According to the rider, the group that had gathered by the entrance of the forest were remnants of a part of the Rear Guard, having been saved by Barbatos hours prior. Mikazuki had directed them to a decently large resupply station that was set up during the Preliminary Expedition, and that was where they had gotten these carts from. Upon hearing that their friend had contributed to the safety of these soldiers, Mina and Nac found themselves sharing a smile between one another whilst Christa simply held a hand up to her chest in relief.

"So it is true, that Mikazuki does indeed do things out of the kindness of his heart…" muttered Christa under her breath, with her smiling a little as a four-year-old question of hers was finally answered, and though Mylius did raise a brow at what she had just said, no one else could hear her over the sound of hooves galloping over the dirt road.

"Well, Mikazuki is a pretty big softy under all that muscle. So yeah, he really is," smiled Mylius nervously, with his words eliciting a smile from Christa as she nodded in agreement, content with this confirmation all the while. Whatever the case, though, the journey back to Karanses was mostly in silence, with the soldiers present all exchanging small talk between one another from time to time whilst also keeping a critical eye out for Titans within the vicinity. Thankfully enough, Titans were few and far between right now, more so because it was getting close to sunset at this point.

The lack of light would no doubt affect the Titan's behavioral patterns, though for once, it was for the better as they were reportedly less active in the dark.

Whilst they rode on, however, Nac did start to wonder just what was going on with this whole Expedition. Whilst he was indeed a junior when it came to both combat and traversal, he still knew enough to know that Expeditions were typically not as messy as this. Under normal circumstances, the junior soldier reckoned that he would've been able to sweep this under the rug, as he knew that the inclusion of Gundam Barbatos into the overall ranks of the Expedition party would no doubt throw it into disarray… but with that being said…

'The way the Expedition party moved… it was almost as though they knew that the Female Titan would show itself…' thought Nac curiously as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. '... now that I think about it, there were a lot more flares being shot than there usually are in an average Expedition, at least according to the records… did they account for the Female Titan to show up and were trying to lead it into an ambush…?'

Rather abruptly, however, Nac found himself being shaken out of his thoughts when he felt Mina nudging his side with her elbow. Blinking a little upon feeling this, Tias turned towards his friend and gave her an awkward gaze, eliciting an explanation from her all the while.

"Sorry… you were just spacing out a little there. You cool?" inquired Mina gently, to which Nac offered her a lopsided smile, one that told her more than it needed to as he responded.

"Yeah… as cool as I can be while we're out here, I guess," laughed Nac without humor as he lifted one of his legs up to his chest and rested his arm atop his knee. Mina found that response to be rather worrying as she placed a hand atop her friend's shoulder.

"You know, if you have anything on your mind, you can always tell us about it. We're all here for you, Nac," assured Mina with her signature friendly smile, eliciting a genuine smile back from the aforementioned soldier as he nodded in appreciation. As he did so, Sys, Mylius and Christa all smiled at the back and forth between the two friends, though the sole senior amidst their group couldn't help but feel a small pang of guilt when he acknowledged the reason as to why Nac could be feeling this way.

'The kid's smart, that much's obvious…' thought Sys direly he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'He's probably pieced together the Commander's plan by now, though I can't exactly be too sure of that…'

"It's nothing, Mina. just something that I thought of offhandedly is all," assured Nac dismissively as he waved his friend off, eliciting a nod of acknowledgement from Mina all the while. "I should be telling that to you, though. You were nearly crushed by that Titan… are you alright? Nothing broken?"

"I… don't think so? Everyone's still a little sore, b-but I'm sure I'm fine. I'll just need a quick checkup once we're back at base, that's all," assured Mina with an attempted smile of reassurance, to which Nac flinched. Likewise, Mylius appeared very much concerned for their teammate, as did Christa, with Tias himself opening his mouth to ask a question moments later.

"Are you sure? The cart's bumpy, but I know some basi-"

And the words were quick to die in Nac's mouth, right there and then, as, without warning, a powerful flash of lightning struck a spot near the heart of the forest of giant trees, and mere moments after the sparks had impacted the unseen ground, the earth beneath the soldiers shook immensely, forcing the horse rider to halt their advance for the briefest of moments as they allowed the ground beneath them to settle.

"W-What was that?!" proclaimed an incredibly worried Mylius as he glanced over at the origin of the lightning strike, with his eyes widened to their absolute limits as he looked between it and his teammates in fear.

Christa, Mina and Nac said nothing as they observed the rising cloud of smoke coming from the heart of the forest with their eyes widened in shock, awe and no small amount of fear… though if one were to be honest, amongst the small group of five, six if one were to include the horse rider, Sys was the one that was the most terrified by the sight of the lightning strike.

'It can't be… they've transformed again?!'

ERROR ERROR.

JOINT STATUS; CRITICAL

DAMAGED PORTIONS ISOLATED; LEFT ARM UNIT.

ELECTRICAL OVERLOAD. HYDRAULICS DAMAGED. INTERNAL SYSTEMS COMPROMISED. MAINTENANCE REQUIRED.

FUNCTIONALITY LOSS: 27%

JOINT STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 12%

MAINTENANCE REQUIRED

MAINTENANCE REQUIRED

MAINTENANCE RE-

The error indicators that blared within the Gundam's cockpit monitor came as an annoyance to Mikazuki, as did the flashing red lights that indicated that one of the unit's arms were in critical condition, but even so, he was able to block it out long enough for it to go away naturally whilst Bertholdt focused intensely on the words that were being displayed on the cockpit monitor.

"I'm going to hazard a guess that… none of the words that popped up were good?" mused Bertholdt, with him looking towards Mikazuki for confirmation, to which the pilot scoffed. He didn't even need to answer that as he glared at the spot where the lightning had struck in the first place.

'So you've transformed…' thought Mikazuki venomously as he turned his Gundam's attention towards the impact point of the lightning, where, through the smoke, he could see the outline of the Female Titan's body. The optical systems of his unit had been scrambled by the damage it had received by the lightning strike, with it taking a moment or two to fully readjust to its surroundings, but even so, thanks to the Alaya-Vijnana system's input, he was able to pinpoint just where the Titan Shifter's head was as he wasted no time in jolting his unit's Longsword towards it.

Much to his chagrin, however, he had used Barbatos' damaged left arm to swing the blade, and due to its newfound damages, its mobility had been hampered severely, making it move sluggishly (by its standards at least) as it swung its weapon. The slower swing speed allowed the Female Titan to, with some effort, evade to the right and sprint past the Gundam's massive frame, with it breathing in hard as it began fleeing away from the unit once more.

"..." no words were uttered by the pilot as he lowered his head in silent rage, with his grimace being more than noticeable to Bertholdt as he flinched at the negative aura that was quite literally radiating off his person as his teeth ground against one another. His bangs shielded his eyes from view, and it was probably for the best, Hoover reckoned, as the look of pure manic, unadulterated rage that radiated reflected off his irises alone would've probably killed the taller guy right on the spot.

Sweat fell from his forehead as he watched the pilot tighten his hold on his unit's arm controllers to the point where he began to leave imprints of his fingers into their handles, and though it was usually a bad idea to try and calm a raging beast with nothing more than your words and determination, Bertholdt thought it best to try and do that.

If not for his sake, then…

"M-Mikazuki… it's pretty obvious that they're not going to try anything anytime soon… they're running from you! S-So… shouldn't we…?"

He didn't even get a chance to finish that statement as, without a word, Mikazuki snarled in an almost feral manner and turned his unit around on a dime. Firing off all thrusters at maximum output, he boosted his unit towards the fleeing Titan Shifter, with the sudden acceleration causing Bertholdt to slam his back against the back of the cockpit, effectively silencing him all the while.

Thereafter, Barbatos began accelerating after the Female Titan at an almost impossible speed, especially for something as heavy as it was, with the unit quite literally charging through trees in favour of weaving past them in its pursuit.

'It can't be her…'

Mikazuki didn't want to believe it…

'It can't be her…'

He couldn't believe it…

'It can't be her…'

It couldn't be true…

'IT CAN'T BE HER!'

But even so…

It took Barbatos mere seconds to catch up with the Female Titan as it fled, with its thrusters doing most of the heavy lifting as it got up close and personal with the feminine beast, and as soon as it got within melee range, it used its Longsword to strike at its waist, fully intent on immobilizing it right out the gate.

Much to its pilot's chagrin, however, the Female Titan displayed no small amount of precognition as it, making use of its smaller height, abruptly crouched down low, managing to duck under the Longsword all the while. The weapon passed over its head, just as how Barbatos passed by it, carried onwards by its momentum, though within its chest, Mikazuki found himself grimacing as he repositioned the Land Boosters of his unit and fired them off, canceling his Gundam's momentum and boosting it back towards the Titan Shifter's position.

As it did so, the Gundam swung its Longsword towards the Female Titan at full force in an upwards direction. The damaged limb could only do so much to keep up with its pilot's movements, however, as it ended up moving just a bit too slow on the draw, allowing the Titan to jump to one side to avoid the swing that caused an aftershock that caused a slash to appear on a tree no less than ten metres away.

The Female Titan had only so much time to widen its eyes at the sheer amount of power put on display as it landed back on its feet, though by then, the Gundam, having discarded its Longsword, lunged at it with its left manipulator clenched into a fist. The Titan Shifter's host gasped in shock as they realized that the unit was about to punch them head on, weapons be damned and they didn't have any time to dodge the attack fully, so as a compromise, they got ready to block the hit in the hopes of being able to absorb most of the impact with their unique attributes.

With a focused grimace, the Female Titan raised their arms up to defend against the inbound strike, with them holding their arms up parallel to one another to maximize their defense, and mere seconds before the punch connected, a decently thick layer of diamond-like material coated the Titan's forearms, granting their limbs extra protection as they braced themselves for the inbound strike, and as it came, they squeezed their eyes shut and prepared for the worse.

Not even a second later, the Gundam's strike landed. On impact, the Female Titan felt its rightmost defending arm shatter beneath the unit's knuckles, with Barbatos' fist quite literally passing through the Titan's defenses like they were nothing with its one strike. The Titan Shifter could do no more than widen its eyes in shock as its once impenetrable defense had been bypassed, though mere seconds after, it felt a massive surge of pain going through its chest as Barbatos' fist impacted it.

The momentum of its strike had been slowed quite a bit by its exoskeleton defense, but even so, on impact, the strike had obliterated the left side of the Titan's chest, or more specifically its entire left shoulder, causing it to scream in animalistic pain. At the same time, the Titan Shifter felt itself being thrown back by the powerful strike, with it being sent flying several dozen metres backwards before rolling painfully to a stop on the dirt all the while.

'S-So p-p-powerful…!' thought the Female Titan's host in a panic, with them bringing their Titan body's arm up towards their destroyed arm all the while. Steam rose from the pulverised limb as it did its best to centralise their natural healing on their right arm, though they knew that they had a better chance of dying in this fight than they did at regenerating the limb completely.

The loss of its arm was… unfortunate, albeit not completely unexpected, however, as the Titan's host knew that the Gundam was incredibly powerful. Despite this, however, they shuddered to imagine how much damage the Gundam could've done to their Titan body had its attack not been mildly weakened by its feeble defenses, though before long, they had to shelve that thought rather quickly when, without any warning, the aforementioned Mobile Suit abruptly jolted towards them.

Upon seeing that its arm unit was held up, ready to ensnare it as it drew closer to them, the Female Titan flinched before rolling its body to one side. It did so just in time, as mere milliseconds after it had done so, the Gundam slammed its manipulator down onto where it once laid at with enough force to cause a minor explosion at its epicenter.

The aftershock of the failed attack was powerful enough to send the Female Titan flying briefly as it rolled to a stop on one knee, with it grimacing deeply all the while. Turning its blue gaze back up towards where the Gundam was at, the Titan Shifter's host felt their blood freeze when they noticed how the unit was staring directly at their Titan body through the cloud of smoke that now surrounded it.

This… was not good, and that was sugarcoating it incredibly badly. There was no doubt in the traitor's mind that them surviving for as long as they had was nothing more than pure luck on their part. The unit destroying their exoskeleton was just an example of how much stronger it was than their Titan form… but even so, they did take note of how, at zero range, they could, just barely, outpace Barbatos with their smaller frame and, admittedly, superior flexibility. There was always a brief lag period in between its attacks, just large enough for the Female Titan to react to and exploit…

… if they could exploit these minute openings to perhaps strike at the optical sensors of the unit before fleeing the area immediately thereafter, then they'd have a decent enough chance at making it out of here alive… it was a dangerous move to make, but ultimately, it was likely their best bet at leaving this place with their head attached.

The chances of the Female Titan being able to pull this off were not high, but the greater-than-zero chance still existed, and as things were now, its host took that chance and held onto it like a lifeline.

Rather abruptly, however, the Titan's host was brought out of their thoughts when the Gundam lunged at it, with it attempting to ensnare the Female Titan once more, if its splayed out digits were anything to go by. Reflexively, the aforementioned Titan lunged to one side in order to avoid the head on collision, and though its dodge was close, it still managed to evade the strike.

As the Gundam recovered from its failed attempt at ensnaring them, however, the Female Titan took note of how they had landed close to the Gundam's Longsword, which laid on its side close-by. The weapon looked light enough to be wielded by a Titan, even with one arm, and in a desperate attempt to counteract Barbatos' immense strength, the Female Titan picked the weapon up off the ground and swung it at the unit.

As it had expected, the Longsword was certainly lightweight, though perhaps a little heavier than it had hoped for it to be, though beggars couldn't be choosers, and for now, the Titan couldn't complain as he turned to see Barbatos charging at it head on.

In a desperate bid to force the unit away from itself, the Female Titan, after coating its entire left arm in its diamond-like exoskeleton, swung the Longsword down at the Gundam with all its strength, with it intending to slash at its cockpit in an attempt to rattle its pilot up just long enough for it to escape. It had put all of its strength into that one swing, and against anyone… anything else, that attack would've probably cut right through them with minimal issue.

But unfortunately for it and its host, Barbatos was no regular entity, and in response to the Female Titan's attempted attack on it with its own weapon, the unit simply held its left arm unit upright as the Longsword's blade was about to make contact with its chassis. Thereafter, the Female Titan's eyes widened in shock when it saw the sharp end edge of the weapon simply clanged against the side of the unit's arm mounted shield, with it doing no visible damage outside of scraping off some of the shield's blue paint all the while.

'Even its own weapons have no effect?!' thought the Female Titan in a panic as the Longsword scraped against the side of the unit's arm shield, and as it did so, Barbatos thrusted its other arm unit towards the Titan Shifter's outstretched limb. Making use of the sharpened digits on its manipulator, the Gundam pierced the flesh on the Female Titan's left shoulder before ripping it off completely, causing the aforementioned Titan to scream in pain all the while.

Before it could fully register the pain, however, Barbatos struck it once more with the back of its hand, with the simple strike being more than enough to dislocate the Titan's jaw as it staggered backwards in agony. It took a moment or two to fully recover from the strike, moments that the Gundam refused to give it as it advanced upon the Female Titan and began striking it mercilessly.

The attacks made use of less than a small percentage of what the Gundam was fully capable of, but at the same time, they were still enough to tear apart the Female Titan with each and every hit. An upwards jab to its ribs caused it to stagger several meters in the opposite direction, and a quick haymaker to its head caused the eyeball closest to the impact to explode into a fountain of blood and Titan gore.

At one point, one of the Female Titan's arms had regenerated to the point where it could be feasibly used to defend itself, though before its fingers could regenerate fully, the Gundam locked onto its slowly regenerating arm and grabbed onto it. Not wasting any time, the unit brought its other arm down onto the still smoking limb and karate chopped it at the elbow, and in an instant, the newly regenerated limb was severed once more, and, to add insult to injury, Barbatos began beating the Titan with its own severed arm before discarding it in favour of using its own two fists.

Through it all, however, the Gundam did not target the Titan's legs, not to the point of severing them completely, at least. No, it didn't do such a thing, its pilot didn't want it to happen.

Though he didn't consider himself a sadist, Mikazuki still felt a massive amount of anger directed towards the Female Titan, so much anger that he very well wished for its host to suffer as much as humanly possible. Granting it full use of its legs only gave its host the false hope of running away at a certain point, and that was the only reason why the Female Titan was not laying on the forest floor, with all four of its limbs ripped off, and it was also why he was prolonging this one sided beatdown for as long as he was.

Mikazuki Augus knew what it felt like, to have hope be sapped away from someone with little to no mercy, and after all that the Female Titan had done, all the lives it had taken during the Expedition… lives that could've been saved if Mikazuki had been faster… he reckoned that it deserved it.

Despite this, however, it was only a matter of time before the Female Titan's legs gave out, and before long, they did, with the aforementioned Titan going limp with its back against a tree all the while. The Titan Shifter went slack the moment its rear hit the ground, with its regeneration ceasing as its head tilted downwards lifelessly. It seemed to acknowledge the fact that it was over, as evident by how it wasn't even trying to flee, not anymore, and by all means it was probably justified.

All exit routes had been accounted for and blocked off in their entirety by the Gundam's internal CPU, all potential counterattacks were null and void, and by this point, Barbatos had beaten it so badly that, were it not for the Titans admittedly impressive regeneration capabilities, it would've been nothing more than a walking scab.

But even so… things weren't exactly looking the best for Mikazuki, and by extension Bertholdt, who were both sitting and standing within the cockpit, respectively, with widely varying expressions plastered onto their faces.

Bertholdt, for his part… appeared horrified at what he had just witnessed. One couldn't blame him, really, as he had a front row seat to watch a Gundam tear apart a Titan Shifter with its bare manipulators. The knowledge of this being their enemy should've eased the man's horror at watching Barbatos so viciously rip them to shreds, but alas, his queasiness returned to him in full… and he had almost emptied the contents of his stomach upon seeing the end result of the carnage.

As for Mikazuki, however… the pilot couldn't help but feel a small rush of dopamine flowing through him as he watched the Female Titan's battered and bruised form sitting before him in defeat. There was something… nice about this, to be able to pummel the source of your frustrations into the dirt with sadistic glee, and it had gotten so intense that, at one point, Mikahad briefly overloaded the Alaya-Vijnana system, granting him a nosebleed all the while.

Barbatos was, rightfully, concerned over its pilot as it tried to snap him out of his bloodthirsty state a good number of times, though it was less than successful. Mikazuki was so adamant on tearing the Female Titan apart that he had found himself lost in his fury, so much so that the Gundam ultimately chose to go silent as it allowed him to indulge in his frustrations until he was satisfied.

And now that they were all satisfied, the pilot found himself bringing his hand up to his lips and touching the blood that was flowing down it ever so slightly. He had only just noticed it, and by then, his only reaction to it was to wipe at his lips to get rid of the irritating sensation of blood flowing down from it. Bertholdt found it disturbing, how nonchalant he was about himself bleeding.

For his part, the pilot thought it to be normal.

Regardless, by the time the Female Titan had resigned itself to its fate, Mikazuki found himself losing his previous rush of adrenaline, and likewise, as he felt his heartbeat calming itself down to a reasonable pace, the pilot took note of just how intense his breathing was as he stared down at the arm controllers of his Gundam. As he released them, Bertholdt found himself flinching when he saw that Mika had grasped onto the controllers with such force that he ended up leaving some permanent imprints of his fingers on them…

'I've never seen him get this worked up before…' thought Bertholdt, beyond shocked at all that he had witnessed prior to now as he did so. 'It's not like him to be this pumped up… it makes me wonder, though… does he know…?'

Whilst Bertholdt pondered the possibility of the young man knowing about a secret of his, however, Mikazuki found himself staring down at his hands in confusion. At first, he thought it to be nothing more than him imagining things, though moments later, he realized that it wasn't a trick of the eye that made him see it, nor was it the adrenaline, slowly but surely leaving his body, that made him feel it. No… it was all there…

His hand was shaking… and with a raised brow, Mikazuki grabbed onto one of his wrists before clenching his hand up into a fist, with him wondering just what could've caused this odd sensation all the while. The shaking eventually subsided, if only by a little, as the pilot slouched his shoulders briefly and exhaled a tad bit, and moments later, he turned his attention back towards the motionless form of the Female Titan.

Though it appeared mostly lifeless, Mikazuki, and by extension Bertholdt, would've been a fool to think it to be dead. Its body had not dissolved just yet, indicating to the pilot that it was still very much alive and, more importantly, its host was still residing within it. Upon acknowledging this, Mika silently pondered on if it was more reasonable to kill them right here, right now, or to simply rip them out of their Titan form and haul them back to Karanses.

A small part of Mikazuki wished to do the latter. In his mind, killing the Female Titan was the best course of action, but even so, that would've invalidated the efforts of the fallen soldiers that sacrificed themselves to make this outcome a reality, and although he could be described as heartless on more occasions than one, he didn't wish to waste the efforts of his fellow soldiers more than he already had.

With that being said, however, Mikazuki did still want to end this Titan's life by his own hands. Call it shortsightedness, but he felt as though, should he do it now, things would be much more gratifying. Nevermind the torture that the Female Titan's host would be put through by Hanji, nevermind the pain that would be inflicted on them in more ways than one…

… so long as Mikazuki was capable of ending their life, right here, right now… with his own two hands, he would be happy…

And at the moment, he wanted nothing more than to feel some form of positivity, and as such, he grabbed onto one of his unit's arm controllers and began lowering it down towards the Female Titan. The Alaya-Vijnana system assisted him with his aim as he pointed one of the unit's Autocannons down towards his enemy, but amidst the assistance it granted, Mikazuki did take note of how there seemed to be an underlying sense of… uncertainty buried beneath all that data, almost as though his Gundam was also a bit unsure on if this was the correct course of action.

Ultimately, however, the system's input didn't do much to sway Mikazuki's opinion on the matter, with him taking aim with the Autocannon regardless. Grabbing onto the arm controller tightly, Mika narrowed his eyes dangerously as he lined the shot up, and from there on… ending the host's life would've been as easy as pressing down on one of the triggers.

It would've been easy… it should've been easy… it was always so easy in the past… so there was no reason for it to be difficult… right…?

All he needed to do was to pull the trigger. He'd done this so many times, to the point where it was practically clockwork for him. He needn't hesitate… he could do this. He could kill the Female Titan right here, right now at any given second.

But if that were the case… then…

'Why am I hesitating…?'

Biting his lower lip uncertainly, the pilot grimaced mildly as he stared down at the trigger for the Autocannon blast, with him wondering if his arm was acting off, similar to how it was during the Edmonton battle, though he was quick to realize that this was not the case, as he could still move his fingers with very little issue… but at the same time, he was still unable to push the trigger down.

His body just… couldn't respond to his attempts at pushing down on the trigger. It… simply refused to do so, something that had never happened to him before, and as such, it left Mikazuki in a state of confusion, confusion that lasted for quite some time as he stared down at his arm in apprehensive silence… though before long, his confusion was quickly replaced with caution when he took note of how the motion sensors of his unit abruptly blared to life, allowing the pilot to turn his attention towards the visual feed of his unit.

Through the optics of his Gundam, Mikazuki raised a brow when he saw the Female Titan raise its head up to look his unit dead in the eyes. By all means, this wouldn't have been that big a deal to Mika, but even so… the pilot found himself pausing briefly when he took note of the… tears that were streaming down the Titan Shifter's face.

'It's… crying?' thought Mikazuki as he eyed the Female Titan closely, with his mouth slightly agape all the while. The unexpected sight was more than enough to make Mika recoil slightly in surprise as he observed the Titan closely, with his once unflappable expression falling away in favour of one of utter confusion, though as the seconds ticked by, the pilot found himself… pondering something.

He found himself wondering why that expression looked so familiar to him…

And then, it hit him…

"I'm sorry, Mikazuki…"

No response, but the shorter trainee's body warmth was growing ever lower, and the blonde soldier couldn't help but blame herself for this…

"I should've been more persuasive when telling them that this was stupid… Christa and Daz could've made it out on their own…"

He was conscious, albeit just barely as he felt his friend drag him through the snow.

"I know you're listening, Mika. So stay with me. Mina, Nac… Hell, mum as well, they won't be happy to learn that you died in such a pathetic way…"

Cracking his eyes open, Mikazuki glanced up at the person hauling him to safety. A thick layer of frost was covering her face as she pulled him across the tundra that now covered their training district… but even so, she didn't let it deter her as steam began pouring from her body, serving to slow their inevitable death beneath the snow as they trudged on.

"So please, stay with me… if only for a little while longer… please…"

The tears glistening in the girl's eyes were impossible to ignore, and although Mikazuki knew her for so long, he could never really remember when the last time she cried was. It felt weird, to see her tear up in any way, shape or form, but even so, he supposed that it was a good thing.

After all, crying meant that you were sad, and being sad meant that you were still human…

"I won't die… I promise."

His assurance did little to put her heart at ease, but even so, she still smiled bitterly at her fellow trainee as she nodded in acknowledgement to his words, and shortly thereafter, he lost consciousness altogether…

… and with a grimace, Mikazuki found himself lowering Barbatos' outstretched arm unit in defeat as he felt that sudden surge of emotion pass through him.

To his side, Bertholdt felt rather… overwhelmed by what was going on. Not only was the Titan crying before his very eyes, but Mikazuki… he had spared its life as well, right when it was clear to him that he would try to kill it. However, above those previous two statements, the thing that surprised Hoover the most was in no way related to either the Titan of Mika decision to not kill it… no…

The thing that caught Bertholdt off guard, more so than anything thus far… was when he took note of the small handful of tears that had fallen from Mikazuki's eyes as well. Trailing down his cheek and splattering onto his pants, the sight of Mika weeping, however mildly, was more than enough to catch the man off guard, and when he saw this, he found himself recoiling heavily as he stared down at the pilot in shock.

'It's… it's her…' thought Mikazuki bitterly as some of his worst fears began to materialize into reality, with him ignoring Bertholdt's gaze as he stared down at the battered form of the Female Titan in apprehension. Though there was a lot to think about at the moment, the identity of the Titan's host was essentially set in stone at this point, at least to him, and though he did his best to convince himself otherwise… he simply couldn't.

The way the Female Titan had fought, with its exceptional planning and tactics, the way it struck the weakest point of the Expedition formation at the exact spot where Mikazuki had thought she would… and that look it had given him when it knew that it had lost… that pitiful, teary eyed gaze… it all matched up with a single individual that Mika was incredibly familiar with, and for as heavily as this weighed down on his heart, the pilot couldn't bring himself to even pretend that this was a different person as he clenched his fists tighter than he ever had before.

'How did you even get this power… and why… why did you…?'

No… that was a question best saved for after they got the Titan's host out of their… out of her larger body, he reckoned. With a deep exhale, Mikazuki, with somewhat shaky hands, directed Barbatos to crouch down and reach forward and grab onto the Female Titan's body, albeit with a tiny bit more care than he would've, as he didn't wish to jostle its host all that much.

Sure, while he still had no pity or love remaining for its host, Mikazuki still felt some obligation to be gentle with her…

Despite this, however, when the Female Titan took note of Barbatos' manipulator resting itself atop its shoulder, it jolted upright and glanced up to look the unit in the optics once more, with it seeming rather incredulous as its pupils dilated to a somewhat manic degree. Mikazuki took little note of this at first as he narrowed his eyes in acknowledgement, with him wondering if the act of him placing the manipulator on its shoulder had gotten its attention… or perhaps it was the gentle way that he had done so, but either way, as he got ready to reach his unit's manipulator into the Titan's nape and pull its host out from inside…

Mere seconds before he could do that, however, the Female Titan's eyes suddenly burst open to their fullest extent, and in an instant, despite them not having a mouth, they leaned their head back andscreamed once more into the heavens.

Unlike its first shriek, however, this one was filled with much more desperation and, as a result, power than the initial one. Despite its missing jaw, the Female Titan's vocal cords were still powerful enough to send a powerful scream that rippled through the entirety of the forest of giant trees, and likewise, though the cockpit did muffle out quite a bit of the noise, with the unit's audio receptors shutting themselves off when they acknowledged how the high pitched cry would most certainly leave its pilot and his guest deaf should they hear it in full, both Bertholdt and Mikazuki were forced to hold their hands up to their ears in shock as they had not been expecting a scream like this beforehand.

Barbatos itself remained mostly unaffected by the cry, though it had inadvertently released the body of the Female Titan as its pilot brought his hands up to shield his ears.

After a few seconds of sustained screaming, Barbatos' optic lenses shattered from the high pitched outcry, exposing the four sub-optics within as the on screen alert chimed once more. The sudden alert on screen caught Mikazuki off guard as he accidentally stepped down on the foot steppers, in turn causing his unit to stumble backwards briefly all the while. At that point however, neither Mikazuki nor Bertholdt could be asked to acknowledge it as they attempted to combat the pain in their ears.

Whilst this happened, however, the Gundam's built in radar pinged Mikazuki to several inbound threats, eliciting a wince from the pilot as he grimaced and leaned forwards to investigate it whilst keeping his hands over his ears. At first, the radar displayed only five inbound threats, no doubt Titans in an amount that was easily manageable, but several milliseconds later, several more pings appeared on screen, with it going from five to ten to sixteen to twenty and beyond within a matter of moments. Thereafter, the ground beneath the unit's feet began to rumble as the Titans drew closer, and not a moment later, the Gundam's optics picked up on an inbound figure or two approaching their position from the western side of the abandoned training site.

'Titans… and so many of them as well…!?' thought Mikazuki with a grimace, with him glaring at the inbound threats as he clenched his unit's manipulators into fists. As he did so, he glanced down at the Female Titan, which was still screaming loudly in desperation, and was quick to connect the dots between the inbound Titans and the scream it was emitting. He was still very curious about this whole ordeal, but even so, he was unable to think too much into it as the first wave of Titans was already upon them.

The first Titan to get into melee range was a Five metre Titan, one that was swiftly dealt with when the Gundam kicked at it, sending it flying towards its fellow Titans in several pieces. Seconds later, several more Titans entered the unit's melee range, and Barbatos went to work on thinning their numbers before they got to his quarry.

Punching downwards, Mikazuki destroyed the skull of a Fourteen metre Titan before he punched it once more, this time aiming directly for its neck. The strike destroyed its nape, killing it, before the Gundam turned towards its next target, a Twelve metre, and stomped down onto its foot before it could get past it. On impact, the Titan's foot found itself obliterated and stuck under the unit's heeled foot unit, and when it turned to investigate the obstruction, the unit's balled up manipulator struck it straight in the neck, killing it in an instant.

Another Titan was quickly taken out when the Gundam boosted towards it and sunk its clawed digits into its stomach. The beast writhed around in pain as the unit's manipulator remained buried inside its stomach, though within an instant, it ripped its arm unit out and along with it came the Titan's spine and skull. Before the aforementioned spinal column could dissipate completely, however, Barbatos made use of it as a bludgeoning weapon and began swinging it at as many Titans as he could, with him only stopping once the neck joint of the dissolving Titan's spine snapped clean off, prompting it to stab what was left of the spine into the eye socket of a Seven metre Titan before kicking it towards a Ten metre, which fell flat onto its back on impact.

In spite of his best efforts, however, Mikazuki grimly acknowledged how, even with Barbatos' power, he would not be able to fend off against these many Titans, especially when they were all rushing towards one unified goal; the Female Titan's body. For every one Titan that Mikazuki had fallen, three more would arrive to take their place, and before long, they began swarming the still screaming Female Titan en masse.

"Tsk!" in annoyance, Mikazuki pried his eyes off the inbound Titans and moved to retrieve Barbatos' Longsword. With relative ease, the unit snatched the handle of the weapon off the ground and, within seconds, it returned to where the Titans were all gathered at and swung its weapon at full force. The swing had placed some strain on Barbatos' left arm thanks to its intensity, but even so, the unit still held strong as several Titans were sliced apart by that strike alone.

Thereafter, the Gundam began to bash and hack the Titans away with a small side of caution, with him grimacing as he did his best to avoid hitting the Female Titan directly. His change of priorities from kill to capture was certainly coming back to bite him in the ass, he realized, but regardless, even if he wished for this Titan to die, he would have rathered for the killing blow to be dealt by himself and himself only, not a bunch of nameless cannon fodder Titans.

However, things never did turn out the way Mikazuki wanted them to, and now was no exception as, upon clearing up a sizable amount of the Titan horde with his unit's Longsword, Mika was greeted with the dissolving remains of the Female Titan at the heart of it all.

The sight was certainly gruesome, with the innards of the Shifter spilling out across the ground as it began to dissolve into nothing, with a massive pool of steaming blood gathering beneath it all the while. It seemed as though the Titan's vocal cords had been ripped out at some point, which had forced it to stop screaming, as evident by the fact that multiple bite marks could be seen on its throat, and its once blue eyes had grown dark as its now lifeless gaze stared off into space.

There was no doubt about it… the Female Titan was dead…

"..."

No words were uttered by either Bertholdt or Mikazuki as they watched the Titan's corpse dissolve into nothing, with the former watching with a look of abject horror etched into his face whilst the latter remained solemnly quiet as they observed with silent remorse. The Gundam didn't move from its position until the Female Titan's body had disappeared fully, and even then, it's pilot was reluctant to budge for even a second as he stared at where the Female Titan… no…

…he stared at where his former friend had died as he bowed his head down in a mixture of anger and regret…

… and at the same time, a single, cloaked figure dressed in a ragged Survey Corp uniform could only remain pensively silent as she observed the Gundam's kneeling position down below, with her doing her best to ignore the massive sensation of guilt welling up within her chest.