A knock sounded on Corporal Levi Ackerman's office door.
Levi sighed. "Enter."
The door opened and Commander Erwin walked in. He had a file in his hand and walked over to Levi's desk, dropping the file in front of Levi.
Levi stared at it a moment before picking it up. He opened it and quickly scanned the contents. He looked up at Erwin, who was standing in front of Levi's desk with his hands behind his back. "What is this?"
"You know what it is," Erwin replied.
Levi slammed the file down onto his desk in a rare show of anger. "All I know is that you've assigned a blind scout to my squad," he told Erwin coldly. "What the hell am I supposed to use her for, Titan bait?!"
Erwin smirked at him, crossing his arms in front of him. "I think you'll find a better use for her than that."
Levi rolled his eyes. "I doubt it."
Erwin shrugged at Levi. "Well, you won't know until you meet her. She's down at the training yard."
"So?" Levi asked.
"So you and I are going to go down and greet her," Erwin told him.
"And what interest do you have in her?" Levi asked.
Erwin grinned at Levi. "She's an old friend of mine."
Levi groaned. "Fine. I'll come down."
"You never really had a choice, Levi," Erwin told him.
Levi glared at him. "Trust me, I know."
Levi got up from his chair and followed Erwin out of the office. They walked down to the training yard with Levi grumbling the whole way.
As he and Erwin approached the training yard, Levi noticed a large group of Survey Corps members gathered around. People were offering encouragement and cheering at something. The group parted to allow Erwin and Levi through.
At the center of the yard, a girl with long, wild blonde hair was sparring with Jean Kirstein. The girl blocked an overhand strike from Jean and countered it with a punch to his abdomen. Jean doubled over in pain and the girl twisted to the side of him, hooking her ankle around the back of his and sweeping his legs out from under him. Jean landed on his face in the dirt with a mix of cheers and grumbles from the crowd.
The girl bent down and helped Jean to his feet. Then she stepped away and brushed her hair out of her eyes. Then she turned her head toward Erwin and Levi, fixing her clouded eyes on both of them. She walked over toward Erwin and Levi and stopped about a foot from them.
"It's nice to see you again, Eliza," Erwin greeting.
"I wish I could say the same to you, Erwin," Eliza replied with a grin.
"How did you know we were over here?" Levi asked curiously.
Eliza turned toward him. "Erwin smells like lavender, like always, and you smell like lemons, if you were curious."
"Eliza, this is Corporal Levi Ackerman," Erwin told her. "I've assigned you to his squad."
Eliza held out her hand to Levi. "It's nice to meet you, Corporal."
Levi shook her hand stiffly. "The same to you."
Eliza looked at Levi curiously. "I doubt that. You don't want me here because you don't know what to do with me. You're trying to figure out what having a blind member of your squad could do, how many of your comrade's lives I could endanger." She gave Levi a half-smile. "Don't worry, I don't really want to be here either. Erwin called in a favor I owed him, so here I am."
"Yet still I almost had to drag you here kicking and screaming," Erwin said, amused.
Eliza turned toward him. "Old habits die hard, Erwin. Especially the ones that have been ingrained in you since childhood." Then she walked away from them toward Headquarters.
"Where are you going?" Erwin called after her.
Eliza stopped and turned around to face him. "To my room," she told him, holding up a slip of paper. Eliza grinned at Erwin before turning back around and disappearing into the dispersing crowd.
Levi glanced at Erwin. "She can't read that," he stated.
Erwin sighed. "I know. She just likes to prove her skills to me. Don't worry, she'll ask someone to read it for her."
"And she's going to find her room how?" Levi asked, amused.
Erwin looked at Levi. "One thing you'll learn very quickly about Eliza is to not question her way of doing things. More often than not, things turn out much better if you keep your mouth shut." Then Erwin began walking back up the hill toward Headquarters.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
The next time Eliza encountered Levi, it was in the dining hall at dinner that evening.
Eliza carried a bottle of water and what she was pretty sure was a sandwich or maybe a roll; it was soft and smelled like bread. She threaded her way through the throng of Survey Corps members, trying to find a semi-empty table.
By the patterns of footsteps on the wood floor, Eliza had determined that the tables were arranged in columns and rows with about three and a half feet of space between them. There was a lack of a scraping noise when people got up, so Eliza decided that there must be benches instead of chairs lining the edges of the tables.
"Eliza?" a hesitant voice asked from Eliza's left.
Eliza turned her head toward the voice, wishing once again that she could still see. Then suddenly another body crashed into hers and she felt arms wrapping around her shoulders. Eliza tensed, instinctively expecting an attack, but she relaxed again when she recognized Mikasa's juniper-like smell.
Mikasa let go of Eliza and stepped back. Eliza smiled at her old friend.
"I can't believe you're back," Mikasa told her quietly.
Eliza grinned. "You're not the only one. I never thought I'd step foot back in this place."
"Then why are you here?" Mikasa asked curiously. "It has be dangerous for you to be in the city."
"It is," Eliza agreed. "But Erwin called in a favor."
"Hey, do you want to come sit down?" Mikasa asked. "Eren and Armin would love to see you again."
Eliza hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Alright. Wait, what should I say if anyone recognizes me? As far as they're concerned, I dropped out of training."
"I wouldn't worry about it, you were only there for a few weeks. I seriously doubt anyone will remember you," Mikasa told her.
Eliza nodded. "You're probably right. I kicked Jean's ass earlier and he didn't even recognize me."
"To be fair, you have changed a lot in the last four years," Mikasa pointed out. "Come on, the others are waiting." Mikasa grabbed Eliza's wrist and dragged her through the crowd to a table.
Eliza felt Mikasa let go of her wrist, so she assumed they were near a bench or table. Eliza felt around for the exact placement of the bench before she sat down; it wouldn't leave a good impression if she fell on her butt on her first day.
Eliza carefully sat down and set her bottle of water and possible sandwich on the table. She knew Mikasa was on her right and she could tell Eren was across from her; he smelled like freshly cut wood. Eliza could sense Armin by his smell of old books, but she didn't know exactly where he was.
"Look who I found a few minutes ago," Mikasa told Eren and Armin.
"Eliza?!" exclaimed Armin. "What are you doing back here?"
Eliza turned toward Armin's voice; he was apparently sitting to Eren's right. "Erwin called in that favor I owed him."
"What happened to your –" Eren began to ask. Eliza heard a thump of flesh meeting flesh and a small grunt of pain. That meant that Mikasa had probably just kicked Eren to get him to shut up.
Eliza snorted and smiled. She unwrapped her sandwich and took a bite. Fortunately, it was actually a sandwich.
"Wait, the last time I saw you, you could see," Armin said slowly. "What happened?"
There was another smack and a muffled cry of pain came from Armin.
Eliza laid her hand gently on Mikasa's shoulder. "You can stop bodily harming them. I was going to tell you all anyway." Eliza leaned in closer to the middle of the table; you never knew who was listening. "When I went back, this was my punishment for letting, and I quote, the "Titan-murdering scum" fill my head with lies," she told them. It wasn't exactly the whole truth, but it was good enough for now. The whole truth would put them in danger and Eliza wasn't going to have any more of her friends die on her watch.
"Really?" Armin asked, astonished.
Eliza nodded her head. "They're freaks, all of them."
Suddenly, the scent of lemons drifted into Eliza's nose and a hand was set on her shoulder. Eliza turned to Levi. "Corporal."
Levi removed his hand. "I need to talk to you for a moment," he said.
Eliza got up from the table and followed him as the scent of lemons receded. They walked out of the dining hall and into the hallway; there was only one door in and out of the room.
"I'm leaving for a few days," Levi told her. "Squad Leader Hange will be testing your abilities instead of me."
"Why are you telling me this?" Eliza asked. It was rare that anyone ever told her anything, especially if it was important.
Levi sighed. "So you behave yourself," he told her. Then Eliza heard his footsteps receding down the hallway. She couldn't help but wonder exactly how much Erwin had told Levi about her.