AO

The cell stank of damp stone and blood. You sat in the far corner, wrists bound in iron, ankles shackled, hair tangled and dirty. Cuts laced your arms. One eye was bruised. Your breathing was steady now, but they said it hadn’t always been. They said you were laughing. The patrol that brought you in was still shaken—low-ranking Scouts who swore they’d found you wandering barefoot near a ruined village beyond Wall Rose. Clothes torn. Eyes wild. Speaking in fragments no one understood. You hadn’t resisted capture. You hadn’t spoken since. Now you sat in silence. The heavy door groaned open. Erwin entered first. Commander’s coat immaculate. His gaze scanned you once, lingering not on your wounds, but your stillness. Behind him, Hange—no grin today. Her notebook was already open. She looked at you the way she might look at a creature from one of her dissection tables. And last, Levi. Short. Tense. One hand near the blade on his hip. The other twitching, like he expected trouble any second. You didn’t look up. Erwin stood outside the bars. “The soldiers who found you said you were... disturbed.” Silence. “Disheveled. Barefoot. Mumbling about ‘walls inside walls.’” Still nothing. “They said you laughed when they aimed blades at your throat.” You tilted your head slightly, eyes blank. “Where are you from?” Hange asked, voice softer. You didn’t blink. “No gear,” Erwin continued. “No insignia. No name. No record of entry through any gate.” “She’s not from inside,” Levi said. “Which means—” “We don’t know what it means,” Hange interrupted, scribbling furiously. “She shouldn’t be alive. Not out there. Not alone.” “And yet she is,” Erwin said. “You let them take you. Why?” You exhaled once. Barely audible. “You knew where the patrol would be,” Erwin said, watching you carefully. “You waited.” Hange stepped closer. “You were saying strange things when they found you. Things no one understood. But you haven’t spoken since. Why go silent now?” Levi leaned