The table was scattered with topographical maps and pinned reports. Red circles. Blue markers. Too many Xs.
"Confirmed abnormal movement," Erwin said, voice low and even. "A group of titans converging near the Maysen lowlands. They've breached the trap perimeter."
Keith Shadis grunted. "It's not a pattern. It's a trap. Someone's testing our response time."
Erwin's gaze shifted.
To Levi.
To Beatrice.
Their new squad roster was simple:
Levi Ackerman.
Beatrice Dalca.
And no one else.
"You'll infiltrate from the east," Erwin continued. "Gauge their behavior. Extract data if you can. Don't engage unless necessary."
Everyone in the room knew that was bullshit.
They'd be forced to engage.
Fog again. Always fog.
They moved like knives in it. Beatrice's goggles cut through the haze, her lines perfect, boots whispering against bark as they landed in near silence.
Levi was just ahead. Always just ahead.
She didn't have to call out. Didn't have to warn him. Their formation was wordless now—pulse-driven.
A flick of his wrist was all she needed to veer right. A shift in his stance told her when to go low. But this time—this time something felt off.
The air shifted.
A sound cracked through the forest like snapping bones.
Then—BOOM.
Titans. Not two. Not three.
Six.
Their shapes erupted through the trees—abnormals, fast, uncoordinated, wild.
"Ambush," Levi said instantly, slicing left.
"Flank!" Beatrice called back, already reversing direction midair.
The world erupted into chaos. And they didn't break formation. Not once.
She dove beneath the swing of a grotesque four-meter abnormal, using it as momentum to launch toward a second, its mouth wide, teeth yellowed and cracked.
Her goggles caught the glint of another one charging Levi from behind.
"Above you!" she called.
He didn't need more. He turned, blades flashing, and the titan's neck severed mid-lunge.
Steam. Blood. Screams.
But not theirs.
Their timing was inhuman.
He leapt where she landed. She covered where he turned. Like twin threads in a perfect weave—one light, one dark, but cut from the same cloth.
"Behind the ridge!" Levi snapped.
She launched. He followed. By the time reinforcements arrived, the trees were littered with titan corpses—and the two of them stood back to back, steam curling around them like smoke from blades still hot.
Silence fell. No cheers. No awe. Just silence.
Because no one knew what to say.
Back at headquarters, word moved fast.
Too fast.
Their names echoed in debriefing chambers.
"The two-man squad."
"The ones who walked through six titans and didn't bleed."
"I saw it," one soldier said. "She moved before the titan even did. Like she felt it."
"And Ackerman? He didn't even look tired."
"You think they're like the First? Like the old bloodlines?"
"Maybe they're not human at all."
"Maybe they're what comes after."
Darius Zackly sat in his office, hands folded beneath his chin, the debrief scrolls untouched before him.
The reports were clear.
His daughter and Levi Ackerman had become something more than soldiers. Something other.
He stared at the parchment.
Squad: Dalca Ackerman (2-man unit)
Mission: High-risk perimeter breach
Outcome: Full neutralization, zero casualties, high intel recovery.
Observed synergy: Exceptional.
His hand hovered over her name.
"Beatrice…"
His daughter... a ghost in the field now.
And the boy beside her? The one whose past was written in shadows and knives?
Zackly frowned.
"Those two…" he murmured. "They're going to change everything."
He rose from his chair.
And issued a new command:
Observe them. Closely.