"Sacrifice… is it?"
Pieck fell silent.
Was it worth dying for a country like this—for Marley?
The answer was obvious: no.
But she had no choice.
Her father was very, very ill. When she went to the hospital back then, she saw him chatting happily with Roger's grandmother. It looked like the happiest moment of his life.
Even though she already held his diagnosis in her hands—grim—and Roger's grandmother's outlook wasn't good either.
If she didn't get her father to a Marleyan hospital with better facilities, he likely wouldn't survive.
Pieck refused to accept that, so she entered the Warrior Candidate program, and in the end inherited the Cart Titan, buying her father more time.
But it was also then that, as her father was wheeled away, she saw the desolate look in Roger's grandmother's eyes.
The ward was empty but for Roger's grandmother.
Even though Roger visited often, her condition didn't improve.
Pieck couldn't stand it, so she went as well—often. She learned the time Roger left each day and came earlier to talk with his grandmother.
The old woman was prickly, quick to flare up, but she was gentler with Pieck.
Hiding her identity, Pieck always told Roger's grandmother she was the daughter from the next ward.
Until…
The day before she was killed.
That day Pieck went, like always, to chat with Roger's grandmother, to hear her stories, to feel her smiling grip and hear her call Pieck the "perfect granddaughter-in-law" for her precious grandson.
Pieck blushed back then and made the old woman promise not to tell Roger she'd come.
But in the small hours of that same night—
She went back.
And saw two soldiers interrogating and beating Roger's grandmother.
Even as an "Honorary Marleyan," Pieck still couldn't stop them—until the senior Jaw Titan, Anderson, intervened.
But Roger's grandmother was already dead.
Beaten to death by Marleyan soldiers.
Pieck understood Roger's feelings. She understood why he burned with this fury. But she couldn't make a scene.
Letting Reiner carry Roger to the Titan inheritance site to fulfill the boy's wish—that was the furthest her mercy could go.
She never expected Roger to devour the Jaw Titan through layered blockades and then escape Marley alive.
Back then, Pieck had been glad for him.
Only…
Because of Roger's rebellion, the military grew suspicious of the Warriors-in-training, and her father was put under surveillance.
Pieck knew if she failed to secure the Founding coordinate on this trip, her father was as good as done.
Now she couldn't remain hidden inside the Walls any longer.
If she abandoned the Colossal and fled, she could make it to Marley's Paradis docks—but by then, Marley would strip her of the Cart Titan, and her father would certainly die, maybe even under collective punishment.
She would not drag her father down.
So—
Sacrifice?
No.
But—
She could only sacrifice.
In quiet despair, Pieck drew a small knife, slit her palm, leapt from the Female Titan's shoulder, and summoned the Cart Titan.
Unlike combat Titans, the Cart appeared especially docile, sprawled on the ground, ready to carry whatever it was given.
"Pieck, you—"
"Annie, you were right. We can only fight—and die."
Pieck spoke through the Cart Titan's rasping voice, and tears glinted at the corners of its eyes.
At that, the Female Titan dipped her head. Her hands hardened into crystal, and she climbed the Wall again.
Far off, Erwin and the others hurled aside the daze and finally clawed themselves up from the ground.
Many had been flung from the Wall to their deaths; the survivors had only lived by slamming into jutting structures on the way down.
"Commander… Commander Erwin!"
One man dangled, fingers clawing at the Wall's lip, screaming Erwin's name.
Erwin's eyes were filled with blood; he could barely see.
Still, he caught the soldier's hand and hauled him up.
Panting, Erwin wiped his eyes clear and glanced over—Oluo.
"Commander, what now?"
"Rally the troops. Find cover. Treat the wounded."
"Understood!"
Oluo struck fist to heart and sprinted.
Erwin noticed the man's ODM had been wrecked; only a shattered shell hung from his harness. He sighed.
Sitting on the Wall's edge, Erwin stared across roofs and horizon, letting the hot wind scour his face as if the Colossal Titan beside him weren't even there.
He took up a steel blade, stretched out his hand, and angled it to cut his own palm.
Below, devout members of the Wall Cult had already begun to "console" the people.
"The war of Titans is the affair of the gods!"
"How dare mortals meddle?!"
"The regiments defy the heavens!"
"To slaughter the gods' messengers is a great sin!!"
"To slay a Titan, the gods' envoy, is to be a demon—the root of hellish evil!"
Men and women in black-and-white clerical robes held up holy books and preached among the refugees.
Some broke down sobbing as if enlightened, bowing and begging the God of the Walls to spare them.
Others sat laughing on the trash bins, hurling a half-rotten apple they'd just scavenged at the preachers.
"Spit. Drop dead, you cowards!"
Everyone looked. A pack of street thugs.
"Bastards! How dare you insult the Church?!"
Tradesmen and farmers—honest types—moved to teach the punks a lesson.
The punks only sneered, drawing knives from their coats.
"If you've got that much anger, why not go hack a Titan? Truth is, you're just a pack of crybabies. Wouldn't surprise me if I run into your moms at the brothel someday—maybe they'll spare me a little Cloyin."
"What did you say?!!"
Fists clenched. The two sides were about to brawl—
The Garrison arrived.
A man more neatly dressed than the rest—bookish even—but a Garrison squad leader, zipped in on ODM and looked down at the troublemakers.
Silence fell for a beat.
"Captain Nelly Quick, those are the ones. They're stirring up trouble."
At that, Nelly smiled faintly, swept his gaze across the punks, then flicked a look at the Colossal Titan looming behind.
"Take them all," he said.
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