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THEIR ARMS WERE HARSHLY DRAGGED BY THE GUARDS, LEADING THEM TO THE INSIDE OF THE CASTLE BUILDING. They'd seen it, it was large and majestic and those who knew hoped that F/n would be the one they would meet.

But she was not.

"Sire!" the man, who they assumed was the leader, greeted the man in royal clothing, "We've caught some intruders roaming around the inner wall! What shall we do with them?"

The man hummed, eyes scanning through the group. His peculiar pair of golden eyes caught with the Commander's icy blue ones that screamed leadership and a mischievous smirk grew on his lips.

"Who are they?" he asked, eyes never leaving Erwin's as he stared back.

"We have no information about them, sire," another man stated and the wealthy-looking man hummed.

"I see," he said, "Throw them in a cell."

"Yes, sir!"

Eren gritted his teeth as the guard pulled on his arms again but Armin, on the other hand, just stayed silent, head lowered and mind thinking. Levi resisted the urge to just slam the guards down on the ground after the look given by the Commander himself to follow along.

Mikasa was silent as well, everyone was with the sounds of footsteps being the only thing that filled their ears. Well, that was until the door slammed and the royal guards left.

It was just dead silent before it broke loose by one query.

"What happened?"

Questions of all kinds filled the area and even managed to echo through the long hallway of the dungeon. But Erwin, Hange and Levi stayed silent, waiting for them to calm down or for someone to do something.

Levi glanced at Erwin from the corner of his eyes, observing him while Hange spoke verbally of it.

"What are we going to do, Erwin?" she asked, "We're stuck here. I thought you said you had a plan."

"I do," the Commander responded, "It's just not working as well as I thought it would."

"Well, what do we do now?"

"We wait."

"For what?" Levi finally spoke, gaining the two's attention.

"For her," his tall friend answered.

Then it turned silent again between the three as they watched the scene of the other young soldiers discussing unfold. Levi was thinking, Hange was worried and Erwin was remembering.

"I never thought this day would come," he admitted quietly and the two other silently waited for him to continue, "There were people outside of the walls. It's been proven."

"It's insane," Hange sighed, "Everything's just happening so quickly at the same time, I can't catch up sometimes."

Relatable. That was what she was, relatable. It all happened so quickly, too quickly, at that. Too quickly for them to process everything in their minds. Too quickly for the good things to end and for the bad things to start.

It was relatable and unfair.

"Do you..." the scientist trailed off before speaking up again, "Do you think that we'll ever find her?"

Levi was just silent, hoping that the latter wouldn't happen and that they would find her quickly. But Erwin gave her a quick glance before releasing a heavy breath.

"We will. I know we will."

𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁

Another slap and another crash reached their ears, forcing them to wake up to see what was going on. Historia rubbed the top of her head as she sleepily lifted up her eyelids open.

"You worthless piece of trash!" a voice shouted, followed by another crash.

Then there was a fit of coughs heard from a human, sounding weak and defeated. At first, they thought it was just some random fight that had been formed between two prisoners but they were wrong.

They were so wrong.

"I don't... know," a weaker voice coughed out, "what you want."

Connie peeked through the iron bars, noticing a fairly large cell that had a man, blood dripping from the corner of his lip, looking weak as ever. He nearly gasped at the sight of the same man he met earlier in the day when the guards were asking for approval.

It was him.

"You know very well what I want!" the first demanded and the clinging of bars was heard next, "I will get that information out of your stupid mouth one day! Mark my words."

Then there was a slam, followed by footsteps that caused them to shut their eyes and pretend that they were sleeping. Then there was just another long moment of utter silence.

No one spoke a word. No one dared to do so. No one dared to move or even sneeze; some didn't even breathe properly.

"It's him..." Sasha muttered.

"It was," Connie murmured back.

"Why was he there?" Jean asked quietly.

"I don't know but he was hurting that man," Historia whispered, worried that it would soon be their turn to be beaten up.

"You can speak normally, I can still hear you from here," the man suddenly spoke and they gasped in fear, "I'm not here to hurt you. That was my brother and unlike me, he wouldn't hurt you either."

They didn't respond.

"She's here," he said, causing them all to perk up, "She's here and safe. I'm waiting for her now. She'll be here soon."

The old man scanned the faces of the soldiers when they revealed themselves in the cell, facing him with high hopes. Levi was just sitting on his survey corps jacket when he caught eyes with the man whose eyes were glowing in purple.

And at that, he knew. And he did too.

"So you're the Levi she's been talking about."

The Captain said nothing and continuously stared at the man with his usual expressionless expression although he was glad to hear that she had been talking about him too and that he wasn't the only one that did so.

"Your eyes are different," the man explained and then chuckled humorously, "It's like you dragged her in with it – like how her mother did to me."

Unhappy marriage? Divorce? Death?

He did not know. But what he did know was that she had done something to her for him to be the way the man described him to be.

But that didn't matter. What mattered more was their job to find her and retrieve her back. Chapter one wasn't even ready yet, how could she start on chapter two?

It was odd but it was something.

The stoic captain heaved out a long, heavy breath, shutting his eyes as he knew that that was something impossible for her to do but how he hoped that she would come back soon if they couldn't retrieve her.

She shall have to do it herself.

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