Monsterous Victims and Innocent Demons
The forest was serenely quiet, picturesque in image. Beauty in a true form, innocence in a word. Perhaps this was why the thunder of hooves overran the natural sounds of the leafy woodlands.
Horses. Curious. What would they be doing out here this early on? Am I loosing count, or has it only been a month since they changed from trainees to troops?
A head of black hair swivelled to the side, picking up the direction of the horses in the still air. White eyes with an almost indistingushable ring of blue around the outside flickered around. Pale skin glinted in the light that managed to evade the trees. The blue in the black shone all the brighter in the green interior, glowing etherially on her head.
She stood, the leather of her worn boots creaking in protest. The scraps of material that passed as shorts and a breast band threatened to fall off again, but she ignored them all. The tan material of her 'clothes' blent in well with the bark-coloured background and her boots were made of the hardiest material she had come across, even in the ugly dark brown that they were.
"Better get going." She said to herself. She hopped up into the closest tree, the birds doing nothing more than watching her as she launched herself across the woodlands, following the thunder on the plains.
"What are you looking at?"
The disinterested man turned his gaze to the boy beside him, blinking passively at his curious, if tired, face. "Pardon?"
He seemed to shrink back a bit, still leery of Levi after the courtroom beating. "You seem . . . more distant than usual. Is something wrong? So you see something?"
"Nothing more than a sense." He replied boredly. "You, too, will find that you develop them the more you travel beyond the walls."
"Oh . . . okay." With that, Jaeger shut up. Petra patted him on the back and smiled.
"Don't worry about it. It's just Levi. You get used to him. Think of him like . . . " She paused thoughtfully. "ugly furniture. He's hard to accept in the beginning, but once you start sitting with him, you find out he's actually quite comfortable. Maybe not personable, but comfortable."
Eren just raised an eyebrow. "Thank you?"
"You're welcome." She smiled again and looked away, engaged by another company member. Eren looked back to Levi, who was staring at the bordering forest again.
I wonder what he's thinking.
What is she doing beyond the walls? This may be problematic. His brow creased a fraction of a fraction and he blinked. I suppose I should concern myself with her when the time comes.
She knew they were there. She didn't think about it. Survey Corps came this way all the time. Maybe she just forgot that they didn't know about her the same way she knew about them.
When the black flare went up, she knew something was bad. Maybe the others were hopelessly stupid, but she was not. It didn't take a genius to figure out which flares meant what. If nothing else, they were soldiers, and soldiers were the most predictable things she'd ever come across. She rolled her eyes, but didn't stop. She let out a sigh between the pants.
Tabula will not be impressed with this. She cursed internally a bit. She really won't.
Mikasa stopped mid-swing and lodged herself in a tree.
"What is it?" Her companion called. "Mikasa?"
"Eren . . . " She breathed. She didn't know how she knew it, she just did. So, that's where she went.
"Hey, wait!"
She knew the moment that a Titan had attacked them. However, she also knew that they would handle the monster or die trying. These were the Survey Corps, however, and their death rate only really spiked when there was three or more Titans at a time.
She made mental maps of their locations as she propelled herself forwards. Commander Erwin was up front, his men fanned out around the perimeter. The one with the strange scent must be in the middle, guarded beyond measure. If there was another . . .
She didn't have a lot of time. She didn't see Levi, so that meant that he was with the Leviathan. This was going to take either a lot of skill and planning, or a hell of a lot of well-timed improvisation. She hoped it wasn't the second one, because that would take too much explanation later if they caught her. No matter what, this had to be done the right way.
"Should be fun." She muttered, launching into smaller trees closer to the border of the forest. "Come on, you bastards. Show me Levi and your Leviathan."
Eren hung in his maneuver gear. There was no way . . . it just wasn't . . .
And yet, there it stood. Tall, blonde, skinless, and victorious. It didn't bother to stay and look at its massacre. It didn't eat any of the broken flesh. It didn't even look his way. It simply turned and went to stalk away.
Rage boiled his blood and his vision started to turn into the familiar filmy green. I WILL KILL YOU!
As if in response to the mental breakdown, the Titan turned. It blinked blue eyes at him and parted its lips in what should have been a human expression of surpressed fear.
"You heard me!" He screamed, his heart breaking. The image of Petra's corpse would follow in his mind, and remain a haunting reminder of who and what this monster, this demon, this terror, this LEVIATHAN was.
Mikasa watched in horror was Eren's swaying body was swallowed for the second time. She raved and screamed and yelled her obscenities, stopped only by Levi's firm, unrelenting hand on her arm.
"Not here. Not now. We follow it." He said calmly, as was his wont. From him, she regained some of her sense and swallowed, breathing deeply with her eyes closed. "Come. We haven't much time."
"Sir." She nodded, taking off after him. "Where do you think it's headed?"
"Looks to be headed towards HQ." He frowned as much as his stoic face allowed.
Suddenly, a woman propelled out of the trees, hooking herself onto the overlapping wires of Mikasa and Levi. Her midnight hair floated for an angelic moment before she swung around, falling back to hook onto their tanks.
"Do you ever want to see him again?" She asked.
"Yes!" Mikasa answered without thinking. Levi watched dispassionately, but with hidden intrigue. "Why?"
"I'm about to do something crazy and I'll need your assistance to get him back." She said.
"How do you plan to do anything without maneuver gear?"
"I got here, didn't I? And faster than you two did, I might add." Her white eyes glimmered brilliantly.
"Will you got for it, Corporal?" Mikasa asked, hope ever so clear in her voice. He blinked slowly at her.
"Of course." He said.
"Good. Keep following it." The strange, underdressed woman commanded before, of all things, letting go.
"What are you doing?!" However, she was gone before Mikasa had the chance to utter a single syllable. "What is she doing?!"
"What she has to, I suppose." Levi answered flatly. Damn it.
The sound of a heavy footstep slamming into the ground made Mikasa yelp. "Fifteen meter class! Right behind us!"
Levi looked back. "So there is." Fucking hell.
The white-eyed, long-haired, female Titan hit the ground running, stumbled for an instant, then was righted and speeding along faster than any of the horses. Mikasa and Levi readied their bladed, but it was futile, as it grabbed them both, on in each hand.
Levi, now no longer needing to look where he was going, studied the Titan who had him in its possession:
This Titan looked remarkably similar to a human female, save for the genitalia issue. She had the slim physique of a human gymnast, with long, thin limbs, but powerful and controlled muscles. Looking to her face, she had a slim nose with full, pale lips a shade lighter than the rest of her skin, which was two shades darker than white. Her eyes were a hypnotizing white with a only a spectral icy blue halo to indicate the end of her iris. He also noticed that her teeth didn't show. Even as she panted hot steam with her exhertion, her teeth did not make an appearance. It was only when she let out a frightening snarl as her pace increased to an almost insane speed that they deigned their audience worthy enough to take the stage: they were sharp, like she'd specifically spent time sharpening them. Even then, she wouldn't have been able to reach this level of razor-acuteness in the edge. They gleamed with the embodiment of death and dismemberment.
Strangely, he felt a pang of fear at the image of those glimmering knives she passed for teeth. Maybe it was because she looked remarkably human. Jaeger didn't. He had the angular face of a mythical elf and vicious, obvious teeth. Even the female Titan ahead of them didn't intimidate him as much as the one holding him did. That Titan was skinless, unable to be human. It looked unnatural, whereas this one didn't.
Perhaps humanity is the thing we fear.
Levi blinked as the Titan looked down upon him. She blinked back, then spun around, launching him at the Titan ahead of them. He knew Mikasa was not far behind, especially when she landed beside him. She looked to him for instruction.
"Rend the flesh until she comes back with whatever psychotic plan she has." Levi called. Mikasa nodded in reponse, getting to work.
The female Titan from earlier grabbed the other by the leg and spun her into a tree. There was a distinctly human snarl of fury as their Titan smashed the skinless one's head into the tree a good three times. She picked it up again and smashed its back into the ground. She clamped her foot over its neck and looked back to them. She pointed to the stomach. Levi nodded.
"Hack open its stomach." Levi relayed at Mikasa's strange look. She just nodded and swung over, slamming her blades down into the creature's stomach. He joined her shortly thereafter, noticing the giant female Titan's head move from her focus on the other to their work. When the other started to struggle, she stomped on its head, breaking the spine off.
She knelt down next to them and pointed to the gash they'd created.
"If you want." Levi said. Mikasa looked over to him like he was crazy, but the long-haired demon simply squeezed her fingers through the split flesh and ripped it open. Gingerly, she lifted out Eren. He was covered in a sicky pinkish-red ooze, but looked otherwise unharmed. However, she didn't set Eren down, or even look to him then to them, as if in question. She just set her other hand down on the ground, like it was some kind of lift.
"What are you doing?" Mikasa wondered aloud in a soft voice.
"She's offering us a ride, I believe." Levi said evenly in response. He stepped on the firm and unyielding muscle that was her hand. "Are you coming, Ackerman?"
She jolted, taken aback by Corporal Rivaille's audacity and daring. She sprung forwards, landing beside him. The she-giant set them down on her left shoulder and pat her thigh. Mikasa looked to her down.
"What about the maneuver gear?" She asked. The Titan made a shooting motion, then tapped her own shoulder. "Grapple ourselves to your shoulder?"
The giantess nodded, cradling Eren to her chest. They did as they were told and the Titan took off at a blinding speed.
At the edge of the forest, Levi and Mikasa's Titan express came to a halt. She looked around herself, then slowly started to walk over to the vey much visible encampment.
Levi looked up at her, debating her cunning.
She knows what this is and what they will do to her. So, she approaches with caution and thought. Perhaps . . . she is another Jaeger. Perhaps . . . but they are by no means the same. If Ackerman was not by my side, I would guess it would be her. However, I have never seen a Titan with hair so long as this. Her weakness is completely hidden in the denseness of her locks. She looks much like her human self. I wonder who she is.
As predicted, horsemen deployed with the whole encampment on high alert. Surprisingly, the giantess halted, raising her hand, as if to say 'stop'. When it was apparent that this was not going to be an option, she slowly sunk to her knees, raising her hand to the Corporal and the warrioress. She was looking at the horsemen as she set them gently on the ground.
Then she looked down to Eren, resting in her palm. She stroked his face, worry coming to her face. She gently placed him on the ground, then resting both of her hands on the ground.
I mean you no harm.
She knows us. Levi realized. She knows how we operate. She is not from within the walls. She may never have seen civilization.
"What is it, Corporal?" Mikasa whispered, her composure regained. She had both Eren and solid ground back.
"I'm considering how much leeway I have with Commander Erwin and how much space I have left in my squad." He replied, looking back up at the monster hovering above them.
The riders came to a wary halt. "Corporal, are you unhurt? Ackerman?"
"We're fine. Thanks to this lady here." He flippantly indicated the looming Titan. "What we could use is a horse and cart, if you wouldn't mind. I don't intend to drag Jaeger back to HQ, and I doubt Ackerman wishes to, either. After all, he is covered in Titan stomach bile."
Both men looked to each other before looking back to Levi. They nodded hesitiantly. "Should one of us stay?"
"No." He replied. "There are more useful things you can do. Like clean him when we get back. Who knows if this stuff stains."
Again, they nodded, then were gone.
"Can . . . you become human?" Mikasa asked hesistantly.
She nodded, a small smile coming to massive lips.
"Do you have a name?"
She nodded again, but slower this time. She looked around herself, and shrugged helplessly. Mikasa smiled.
"Okay. Bad question. Why didn't you kill that other Titan?"
At this, she tensed. Her eyes pleaded with the young woman not to continue down this path. Brudgingly, though in silence and stoic, Mikasa accepted that she would not receive an answer.
The eyes are always the same. Levi pondered. Always. Is this how to tell who is who? Is this how we derive friend or foe?
The Titan stood, running beyond sight without even a backwards glance.
Levi turned around to the sound of soft footsteps. It was her.
"Hello, again." She smiled sheepishly, as if she was a child who he caught in the sweets again. Her hair hung off of her in wet, wavy lengths, in accordance to the ocean that was their current rainstorm.
He nodded, his hood pulled up and dutifully doing its job. "What have you returned for?"
"You asked no questions. If you have none still, I will seek out the other."
"A name?"
"Tabula Rasa, Corporal."
Internally, he scowled. Externally, nothing changed. "How come you to live outside the walls?"
Her smile fell completely. "I'm a Leviathan. There is no way I could live among others. Not that I had in the first place . . . "
"A Leviathan?" He raised an eyebrow.
"That is the name to which I have given the shape-shifters. I believe you are housing one right now. Eren, I believe I heard him called.
"Indeed. Eren Jaeger."
"Jaeger?" She looked down at her hands. "I was right . . . "
"In what?"
"It's . . . complicated."
"And yet, here you have my full attention."
She smirked humourlessly and looked back at him. "Living outside the walls is not as hard as you'd think. You live high enough in a tree without a massive population, and the Titans don't care if you rot there. Thus was the case with my family. Within two days, I was as normal as they came, according to my parents. Needless to say, however, that living in the wilderness surrounded by wandering Titans will eventually lead to some sort of meeting." She shrugged, as if to say that it was only natural that she discover them that way. "What else do you want to know?"
"How do you know so much about us?"
"Soldiers are predictable creatures, Corporal. To say that watching you from a distance was easy would be a lie. However, enough of you reappeared often enough in my sections of the forest for me to learn your names and ranks. To be honest, it's through the Survey Corps that I've learned what I have about life inside the walls."
"I see. And how did you learn about Jaeger?"
"I wandered close to the walls as a Titan and smelt him. He is very distinct. He smells like . . . power." She struggled with an appropriate answer. "Like when electricity streaks across the sky. It's powerful, charged and willful. It's unstoppable and dangerous. Power."
"I see. It is something I must experience to fully understand." He paused, thinking it over. "Why didn't you kill that other Titan?"
"She's another Leviathan." She explained. Her face darkened. "And I've dealt with her."
"You seem to be the leader." It was a question hidden in the guise of a statement.
"Most of the others grew up in the niceness of the Walls. I know the most about our enemy and the most about this world. It seemed only natural that I be the one to guide us through it."
Levi nodded. "If I were to give you Eren, what would you do with him?"
"I would teach him. Just like any other Leviathan." She quirked an eyebrow at him. "A strange question, seeing as you wouldn't give him to me even if the whole of the Military Police were after him."
"Smart girl."
"Woman. And I like to think so."
"Are you correcting me?"
"Considering that I am the same age as your predecessor, I would say so."
"I would agree." He muttered.
"Is there anything else?"
"Yes. They are in Ackerman's tent. Jaeger checked out fine. Be wary. There is a sharp watch posted around them. More than usual."
"I'll be stealthy." She promised. "Farewell, Corporal Rivialle."
"Farewell." He breathed, looking up into the sky.
Tabula Rasa. "Blank Slate." I'll keep your secret. He chuckled. Leviathan. Cute. (LEVI-athan. Lol. Just realized that.)
Mikasa drew sword as soon as someone stepped in the room. What she wasn't expecting was the girl from earlier to smile at her.
"Hello." She said simply. "Can I come in?"
"I suppose . . . " The girl replied warily, keeping eyes trained on the outland creature.
"He didn't drown. This is good. Doesn't look like he suffered any breathing issues either. This could have been a lot worse that what it is."
"I'm pleased to hear it."
She sat down on the foot of Eren's bed and faced his sister. "So. In accordance to your earlier question, my name is Tabula Rasa."
"Thank you for saving my brother."
"Don't mention it."
"So . . . you're like him?"
"Yes. I call people like us Leviathans."
"Well, I suppopse a proper term would suit it." She looked down at the young man sleeping peacefully in her bed. "Was the Titan that swallowed him a Leviathan as well? Is that why you spared it?"
"Yes. I handled her." Tabula sighed. "Before you say anything else, I know that nothing I say will change your opinion. You will always believe that she has to die for what she's done. And if I were in your position, and you had killed her, I would probably feel much the same. But I can't change it. I'll never be able to change it. I did save Eren, though, and isn't he what matters most to you in this world? Isn't he your be-all-end-all?"
"Of course he is."
"I can't make up for those who died today." She sighed again, looking down. "And I'm not even gonna try."
"It is because you are a coward." Mikasa said coldly, her gaze fixed on Eren's quiet face.
"A coward would never have ripped open the stomach of a close friend to save a stranger who attacked said friend for no other reason that she was there."
Mikasa spun around, her eyes narrowed. "Did you miss the bodies of Levi's squad littering the ground?!"
"No. If she were normal, you would not have the luxury of a body to mourn over. I've seen enough Survey Corps die in my lifetime, and it won't stop today." She looked up at the young woman. "You need to know your enemy, Miss Ackerman, and I am not it."
Mikasa sheathed her blades. "Then what do you want? You could get killed for being here."
"I know. I came to see how he faired and if we could exchange answers to each other's questions."
"Okay." Mikasa sat stiffly across from her.
"I'll start, I suppose. What are both of your full names?"
"I'm Mikasa Ackerman and he is Eren Jaeger."
She nodded. "Okay. Your turn."
"If I gave you Eren to protect, what would you do with him?"
This again. "I would treat him like I do any other Leviathan. I'd teach him how to survive out of his bubble. He'd become less of a Titan while he's a Titan, if that makes sense."
Mikasa nodded her accent. "Your question?"
"Do you know your enemy?"
"What?"
Tabula smiled and stood. "You should learn. The Titans may be a physical threat, one you can tear away and dissolve from his world. Your enemy is ignorance, Mikasa. Those who've never faced a Titan make the decisions that govern your life. They speak and your masses listen. I know they have nothing to do with the struggle you face, but they are the force of dissent. They are as human as you are and stare in the face of that staggering fear. Will retaking Wall Maria change that?"
"Of course it will. It will spread people back out, give them more space and food."
"What of the greed and the politics of your world?"
That merchant. You remember what you did. "I can't say. I don't have the answers for everything. It'll have to work itself out as it goes, I suppose."
"If you say so. Just don't forget that everyone has the perchant to make faulty calls. Have you ever wondered whether or not it was a good thing that you put up these walls? Whether or not humanity would have done better evolving as we have? I don't spend even a quarter of my time as a Titan. Which is worse?"
"Even an aged philosopher couldn't answer you."
"Good. You already know."
"Know what?" She looked up into the ghostly eyes of the elder woman.
"This world is a beautiful place filled with disgusting things. It's up to us to find the beacons in the darkness." Tabula opened the tent flap.
"Wait! I have one more question."
The Leviathan looked back at her. "What?"
"Can we count on you?"
"That depends on what you decide. If it is an affirmitave, then we will come when we can. There aren't many of us." She admitted. But she still smiled. "Goodbye, Mikasa."
"Goodbye, Tabula."
"Send up the flare!"
"But, sir-"
"Do it!" Levi commanded. "This isn't a request!"
The Titans were closing in, their lines congregating in such a way that there was no hope for escape. The bleakness of the situation was not lost on Levi, nor on Mikasa, who sat on her horse next to him, blades drawn. Eren was behind them, fighting off the largest class Titan.
Without warning, a returning flare went up and a thick Titan was sent hurtling over the horses into the opposite side of the circle. Another, smaller Titan was picked up by the temples and flung onto a Titan intent on devouring a soldier.
Several Titans gave sickening cracks as their necks were snapped. Most didn't make a sound as their unseen enemy killed all eight of them.
"What is that?" Armin cried out in alarm.
"Our emergency assistance." Mikasa replied, smiling as the last Titan had their neck impaled along a slender, pale arm. The Leviathan behind the Titan tossed the limp body to the side.
I told you so, was written in the white orbs. Her hair lay draped over her shoulders and it brushed the ground as she knelt next to them.
"You did." Mikasa admitted.
"Can you see Jaeger? Is he okay?" Levi asked.
She looked up and nodded.
"Are you staying?" Mikasa asked. The Leviathan looked to the Corporal.
"She's already here, isn't she?" Levi replied, as if it was obvious.
"Ready?" Mikasa asked.
"Damn straight."
"You speak?!" Armin squeaked.
"I think he needs a ride, don't you, Tabula?" Levi interjected.
"Wait, what?!" Armin cried out as the Leviathan lifted him from his horse and set him on her shoulder.
"Help Jaeger and bond a bit. Should do you good."
"Let's dance." Tabula's voice had taken on a deeper, more gravelly quality, but it was still distingishable as hers.
"Please." Armin gulped. "Ladies first."
Tabula pouted. "That's no fun."
"Just go, for God's sake!" Jean yelled.
Levi watched Tabula's body jettison off into the distance.
The King would shit a brick if he knew half the crazy shit we do.