Choices and Consequences

Erwin watches Titans strip the Female Titan's carcass and nearly orders a withdrawal to Karanes District, but the rising vapor reminds him of Hange's theory that a human operator could slip away under cover of the steam. He commands Levi to top off his gas supply and stay combat ready. When Hange doubts anyone could function after leaving a Titan body, Erwin counters that their enemy is no novice like Eren and has repeatedly outperformed every assumption made about her.

Deeper in the forest, Squad Levi rides for the horses in high spirits, teasing one another over who panicked on their first mission while Petra credits Eren's trust for the operation's apparent success. The mood dies when a figure races toward them through the canopy. Gunther realizes too late that it is not Levi; a single slash to the neck kills him, mimicking a strike on a Titan's nape. Eld takes command, sending Eren ahead to the commander while the three veterans engage. Behind them, light flashes as the stranger becomes the Female Titan once more.

The squad fights brilliantly at first. Petra and Oluo carve out both her eyes, and coordinated cuts to her shoulders leave her arms hanging useless. Watching their wordless teamwork, Eren wrestles with Levi's warning that no one can ever know a choice's outcome in advance. Then everything collapses: the Titan has poured her healing into a single eye, and as Eld dives for the exposed nape she snaps him in half between her teeth. Petra freezes in terror and is stomped flat against a tree. Oluo lands a clean strike on her neck, but hardened skin shatters his blades, and a spinning kick breaks his body in midair. Screaming that he should have fought from the beginning, Eren bites his hand, transforms, and hurls himself at the Female Titan.

Erwin deduces the Female Titan's operator escaped inside the steam and keeps Levi combat ready rather than retreating.

An unidentified soldier murders Gunther with a Titan-style cut to the neck.

The attacker retransforms into the Female Titan and pursues the fleeing squad.

Eld, Petra, and Oluo blind and disarm her before her one-eye regeneration trick kills all three.

Eren transforms in grief and rage to face the Female Titan himself.

Choices and Consequences is chapter 28, second in volume 7, released December 9, 2011 in Japan during The Female Titan arc. It follows Erwin Smith, leads into Crushing Blow, and its events unfold across two anime episodes covering the collapse of the 57th expedition.