Anastasya
Levi's face was twisted with despair as he stared off in the direction that the quadrupedal Titan had escaped in with the blonde-haired pilot of the Beast Titan. Anya couldn't tell if the shaking breaths he was taking were due to disappointment or the fact that they'd just slaughtered all of the Titans that had been sent to stop them. She waited a moment to get her own breathing back under control, and then she grabbed him and held him close. She needed him to refocus.
"I let him get away," he said quietly.
"You haven't broken the promise. You'll kill him, believe me," she said fiercely. "Should we... I want to find Erwin."
She knew it was wrong. She knew it was selfish and that their squad, the last hope for humanity, was still behind the wall fighting for their lives. She shook her head and continued before Levi could answer her. She had her own promise to keep.
"No... No, we have to get to the kids. They need us... I..."
She was unable to stop the tears burning her eyes as she whistled for Nightmare. The coal-black horse cantered over, and she got into the saddle straight away before offering her hand to Levi. He took it and together they raced back to the town in silence. Once they were close enough, Anya leapt from the saddle and straight up the wall, Levi in hot pursuit. When they reached the top they froze. The Colossal Titan's carcass now lay cooling by the inner gate. Not too far from it were Eren and the limbless body of Bertholdt. Lying next to Eren was some sort of black, burnt thing, but what attracted their attention the most was the quadrupedal Titan, and the owner of the Beast Titan attached to its saddle.
"I'm almost out of gas... Shit," Levi hissed, desperate to finish what he'd started.
The blonde, bearded man raised his head and noticed them. Levi's eyes seemed to flash pure white with insatiable rage and vengeance. Before Anya could stop him he threw himself from the wall, waiting until the very last second to deploy his ODM gear in order to reach the roof he and Eren were on. Anya rushed after him but by the time they reached the roof, the enemy was already bounding away through the wreckage to the other side of Shiganshina.
"Captains!" Eren yelled, still gripping Bertholdt.
"That was the last of my gas!" said Levi. "Hand over your gas and blades! I'll chase him!"
"Right!" said Eren, scrambling to take off his equipment.
"Hurry!"
"No," said Anya, unable to keep the tremor from her voice. "You... You're needed here."
"What?!"
She'd finally realised what the burnt figure lying on the ground next to Eren was. She took a few, horrified steps closer and it coughed. Eren froze and turned to look.
"Yeah!" he shouted, dropping to his knees. "Keep it up! Armin's breathing again! Come on! Just keep on breathing!"
Mikasa landed on the roof. Anya was surprised the girl could still see properly, considering the tears in her wide, grey eyes.
"Armin...?"
"Captain! Get the syringe!" Eren yelled. "Make Armin into a Titan and we'll have him eat Bertholdt!"
Anya looked at Levi, their eyes wordlessly reflecting each other's thoughts. He was just as conflicted as she was, tormented by the same question; what if Erwin is still alive out there? Levi looked down and slowly began to retrieve the box containing the syringe from within his cloak. Once he'd produced it, he stared at Armin's body. Anya watched as his lips parted while he struggled with what to do.
"Hurry up and inject him!" Eren screamed.
"Yeah..." he said, though his voice was full of doubt.
He went to give Eren the box when two pale hands appeared at the edge of the roof. Floch, the ginger recruit formerly of the Garrison regiment, had found them. Strapped to his back...was Erwin. Anya's legs lost their strength and she collapsed in a heap, unable to look away.
"Erwin!"
"Captain Anastasya...I finally found you," panted Floch, struggling to pull himself up. "Commander Erwin is badly wounded! His stomach is gouged...and his organs are demolished! The blood just won't stop! I thought that injection might be able to help, but... What do you think?"
No-one knew what to say. Anya searched their faces and saw only shock and horror. She lunged forward from where she knelt to help Floch bring Erwin to her. Carefully, she untied him from the recruit's back and laid him on the roof tiles. He was in a terrible state. He was unconscious, but his lips were drawn back in agony and blood saturated his clothes as it bubbled out of the huge hole in his side. The crimson-streaked gold of his hair shone brightly in comparison to the sickly, grey pallor of his skin. Anya glanced helplessly behind her and Levi pulled the box away from Eren, his expression utterly distraught. He joined her and Erwin and held his hand centimetres from his best friend's mouth.
"He's... still breathing. He's...alive." He straightened up. "I'm using the injection...on Erwin."
Anya took Erwin's hand in hers and flinched when Eren shot up and marched over to Levi, tears shining on his cheeks.
"You said...you'd use it on Armin!"
"I'm...reviving the one who can save humanity."
Anya tensed as Mikasa withdrew one of her blades and took a step closer.
"You guys..." said Levi, his voice low. Dangerous. "Do you have the faintest damn clue...what you're doing? It's Erwin... The Commander of the Scouts. And you're saying to watch him die. There's no time for this. Stay out of my way."
He made as if to move back towards Erwin, but Eren stopped him, trying to take the box.
"Keep your emotions out of this!"
"Keep my...emotions out?" Eren whispered. "Tell me, how come you didn't hand over the syringe right away?!"
"Because we had to consider the possibility that Erwin might still be alive," Anya said, her tone as sharp as glass.
There wasn't time to waste. It was tragic that Armin would die, but Erwin... She needed Erwin. They all did.
"You couldn't have known Floch would drag the commander here!" Eren argued. "There's just no way you knew!"
"You're right," said Levi. "But the fact that Erwin is now here means that I use it on him."
Eren tried to take the box again, but Levi smacked him so hard in the face that half of his teeth clattered out onto the roof tiles. Mikasa leapt at Levi, flattening him on his back and pressing her blade to his throat.
"You should know as well as I do!" Levi exclaimed, too exhausted to overpower her. "Without Erwin's talent, humanity can't beat the Titans!"
"That's right! So stop with this madness, Mikasa!" Floch urged.
Anya got to her feet and withdrew both of her blades, prowling towards Mikasa. The girl would not take the serum by force. She would not take Erwin from her.
"It's...no different...if we lose Armin," gasped Eren, from where he lay sprawled.
"Eren!" Mikasa cried.
"Hasn't it always been like that?" he continued, trying to push himself up. "He's the reason why we saved Trost by plugging it with a rock. He revealed Annie's identity. It was Armin who came up with the idea of moving at night! The only reason we uncovered Reiner's hiding spot...and the only reason we defeated Bertholdt...was all because of Armin. The one who's going to save humanity isn't me or the commander...it's Armin. Isn't that right, Mikasa?!"
"Tch," growled Anastasya. "You really think so little of everyone else? You think Armin is the only one with a brain? He's intelligent, and he's kind, but you want to save him because he is your friend. He is who you grew up with. With whom you've been through so much. It's exactly the same for me and Levi in regard to Erwin. I've known him since I was seven years old, since he found me crying in the street after the murder of my father. He... He saved me, and he's the one who raised the profile of the Scouts and made more progress for humanity than anyone before him, and maybe more than anyone else ever will. The point is, he has experience, and leadership, and he...he is what we need."
Mikasa regarded her coolly, then tried to grab the box from Levi again.
"Please give it to me!"
Floch approached, horrified by what he was witnessing.
"The one who will save humanity...is Commander Erwin!"
"Shut up!" she shouted.
"I will not shut up!" he snapped. "Don't think you're the only one who's had it tough! You might not know, but...on the other side of that wall, there's not a single living soldier. Everyone died when the Beast Titan threw crushed-up boulders at us. I didn't think anyone could be saved...but Commander Erwin was the only exception. He thought of a plan for us to bite back at the Beast Titan...and we did. We were smashed to bits just as planned," he said, tears forming. "And I'm sure the last thing they felt...was fear. When I found the Commander alive, I was about to finish him off. But...that's going too easy on him. I thought to myself that he ought to taste more of this hell. And then...I understood. The only one who can lay waste to the Titans...is a devil! And if I can bring back the devil, that must be my mission in life! That has to be why I survived like a coward when everyone else died!"
Floch's words had sown the first seeds of doubt. He made as if to attack Mikasa, but Anya held him back and prowled over.
"Get off him!"
She was spitting fury. How dare the girl try to harm both Erwin and Levi? She kicked her in the face, snapping Mikasa's nose and causing her to stumble backwards off of Levi. She quickly recovered and was about to retaliate when Hange zipped onto the roof and restrained the young recruit.
Levi sat up.
"Hange..."
Anya felt a wave of relief upon seeing that she was alive, though it looked as though one of her eyes had been severely damaged. Jean and Conny arrived just behind her, carrying an unconscious Sasha. Anya glared at Mikasa before slipping down the roof to be with Erwin again. She carefully lifted his head and placed it in her lap, stroking his hair.
"Hey... You've got to be...kidding me..." said Jean, aghast.
"No way..." said Conny. "You can't...be serious..."
Levi opened the box, and Mikasa struggled against Hange as she tried again to snatch the serum.
"Mikasa!" Hange cried. "You have to know how much we need Erwin! We can't let the flames of hope be extinguished inside the walls!"
"But...Armin could...do that...too!" she sobbed.
"It's true, Armin is exceptional, but he doesn't have the years of planning and leadership that Erwin has!"
Mikasa struggled again, but Hange held on tight.
"There are people I want to bring back, too. Hundreds of them. I've had to say farewell since the day I joined the Scouts. But...you know, don't you? No matter who it is, there comes a day to say farewell. I know it's impossible, but you have to accept this. There will be times you can't keep your sanity. It's tough. Very tough. I know." Hange closed her remaining eye, trying to hold back her grief. "Even so, we have to keep moving forward."
The speech was meant for Mikasa, and Eren, and the other recruits, yet Anya felt it stir something within her. She just didn't want to accept it. Not yet. Levi got up to go over to her and Erwin, but Eren grasped at his ankle.
"Captain... Do you...know about...the sea? No matter how far you look, it stretches past the horizon. It's a gigantic lake. Armin said-"
Floch grabbed him and shook him.
"Hey, cut it out!"
"There's a sea beyond the walls...and he said we'd go there together," Eren continued. "But that was our dream when we were little and...I forgot it long ago. Avenging my mum, killing the Titans... The only thoughts in my head are full of hate! But...he's not like that! Armin cares about more than just fighting! He has dreams!"
Anya closed her eyes. She knew that Levi had overheard the trio talking about the sea on the night of the feast. How excited they all were. Their dream was so simple, so...free. What they didn't know was that when she and Erwin had been children, they had agreed to go, one day. She remembered that he'd dreamt of it, recently, though it had morphed into a twisted nightmare. Perhaps it was a sign that all that they'd been through had destroyed any chances of happiness they might find beyond the walls. Perhaps Erwin would no longer capable of enjoying life after discovering the truth. Not after the trail of corpses he had left in his wake to reach it. Levi had asked him what he would do next, and he hadn't been able to answer. Did that mean he would suffer once he stopped moving forward?
Levi raised the syringe in the air.
"Everyone; get out of here!" he cried. "I'm going to have Erwin eat Bertholdt!"
أنت تقرأ
The Path Back to You | Levi x OC
قصص الهواة"Reveal yourself," Erwin ordered, though Mikasa detected uncertainty in the commander's voice. It was almost as though he were afraid of who lay beneath the cloak. The entire regiment held its breath as the rider reached up with pale hands and lowe...
