Hi this is my first Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin fic (and it is a LevixOC, I do have some Ereri ideas in the works) I accept all constructive criticism, but nothing rude please :) So please, do enjoy this Prologue chapter, and I will endeavour to update again ASAP, as well as try and update my other on-going stories XD
Disclaimer - I do not own any of the original AoT/SnK characters, they all belong to the great Hijame Isayama. I only own my characters and this storyline.
(To see what Gwen would look like visit my DevianArt profile: Missus-Llama98)
.Prologue.
"The Short-Stack Medic"
Stohess District, Wall Sina
Year 834
The Bardeaux Household
For being only 11 years of age, Gwendolyn Bardeaux already knew what she wanted to do with her life the minute she saw her younger brother clutching his broken arm. She had called him an idiot for thinking he could climb the height of their house, to be fair it was a truly idiotic idea, but Claude was only 9 and he didn't know any better. The fawn-haired girl had been sat reading a book on herbs, and their uses, when she had heard the crash and the sound of screaming: a truly distraught Claude running inside not milliseconds later.
Their father, Phillip, barely scolded his dim-witted son, but proceeded in abandoning his work and whisking both his children to the doctors. It was there, that Gwendolyn saw the wonders of medicine and knew that this was what she wanted…nay needed to do with her life. She had to help heal the sick, and mend the broken…even those with extreme idiotic tendencies, like her brother.
Trost District, Wall Rose
Year 839
93rd Training Corps Bootcamp
"ALRIGHT YOU WORTHLESS PIECES OF HORSE-SHIT! THE BOOTCAMP FOR THE 93RD TRAINING CADET CORPS BEGINS TODAY, SO ALL YOU PISS-ASS-FRADEY-CATS BETTER MOVE YOUR ASSES NOW BEFORE I KICK THEM OUT!"
Gwen's eyes darted briefly as a few of the other "soldiers" shuffled from foot-to-foot. Her green gaze rolled as she contained a scoff. Honestly, she thought, why even sign up if you begin doubting your decision the very moment training begins?
Next to her, Claude stood tall – a full half torso taller than his older sibling – his matching eyes held the same determination as hers. Their trainer – a bearded gentleman by the name of Oban Crirsten – started walking along the lines of recruits and began verbally attacking people, testing their metal. He stopped by a dark-haired boy who looked only about 13.
"Alright, what do you call yourself, Maggot?"
The boy, with all eyes on him, stared straight ahead as he saluted and squeaked out his name, "Sairam Penroy, Sir!"
"Sairam?!" Questioned Crirsten.
"Yes, Sir!" Replied Sairam, voice breaking a little. This attracted the trainer's full attention. "Was that a voice-break soldier?! Are you telling me that your balls haven't dropped?! A dewy-eyed green-boy is going out to face the Titans?!"
"Yes, Sir! I want to help humanity and slay the Titans, Sir!"
"Well, you'll make excellent fodder for them while the real soldiers take them on! Left face, Cadet Penroy, I'm sick of looking at that ugly mug of yours."
If tensions weren't high before, they were as Sairan Penroy turned away. No one dared move as Commander Crirsten looked for another victim. His eyes landed on the tall blonde boy that stood on Gwen's other side – he looked a little over 20 and had an impressive set of well-combed eyebrows.
"And you, you caterpillar-browed newbie, what do they call you?"
The boy spoke without the slightest hint of hesitation, his voice so calm and collected that it made Gwen's eyes drift a little to look at him. "Erwin Smith, Sir!"
"And why are you here, Cadet Smith?"
"To help humanity against the war with the Titans, Sir!"
Oban found himself smirking at this kid's sheer honesty. "Good answer." His gaze then, however, landed on the remarkably short female next to him: green eyes firmly looking ahead of her, a powerful salute, and the stance of a true soldier. His voice was low and a tad menacing as he began to address her.
"Your name, Cadet?"
"Gwendolyn Bardeaux, Sir."
Like Cadet Smith, she hadn't yelled, nor had she looked away from the horizon in front of her.
"Why are you here, Cadet Bardeaux? To save humanity? To fight the Titans?"
"No, Sir! I am here to help the wounded and study the Titans!"
This attracted Erwin's attention, while Claude contained a small groan of embarrassment. The one thing – THE. ONE. THING. – he had asked her not to do was mention "study the Titans." It wasn't a sane reason for joining the military, heck it wasn't even a sane idea and he was usually the rasher one of the two siblings. However, Crirsten's smirk only broadened as he looked at the short-stack girl, "Each to their own, I suppose," and with that he moved on.
Karanes District, Wall Rose
Year 843
Survey Corps Residence
"Erwin, if you're here to give me some big speech about how I should just go on for him, I don't want to hear it. I just want to be alone." Her voice quivered at the end, as she stared at the body of her brother.
It had been 4 days. 4 days since Claude… the New Year had come the night before, but all Gwen could do was sit and hold his cold, lifeless hand, and watch as the rigor mortis had settled in, veins, capillaries and arteries all turning blue, and his eyelids never moving. It had been 4 days since she'd cried out her heart and watched her baby brother – the idiot who thought he could take on the world, the minute he could walk; the one who tried to smith at 5; who broke his arm at 9 because he tried to climb onto the roof – died.
In the grand scheme of things, he wasn't a huge loss to humanity – Gwen knew that, but he, in no way, deserved to die in the mud, half his body missing in the jaws of a Titan, while the Head Medic could do nothing, while she – herself a medic – did nothing.
"I'm not Smith, Bardeaux, although he does wish to speak to you."
She jumped at the voice of her leader, Commander Shadis, standing up and saluting. The slightly balding man waved away her salute with a grimace and shoved a badge into her hand. Gwen merely looked down at it, confused as to what it was.
"You're our new Head Medic, don't screw up," Shadis growled out, before turning and walking out of the room.
Gwen didn't know how long she stood there, staring down at the pin in her hand – a red and green set of wings. Her thumb brushed against the cool metal, as she sat back down next to Claude.
Seconds later she was hunched over his chest, screaming and crying as she had been 4 days prior. She punched his frozen chest and yelled at him.
"You absolute bastard! Why did you leave me?! You promised me you'd take care of yourself! This piece of shit," she gestured at the pin, "is all because of you, Claude! Why did you do this to me?! Dad, if you're there, punch him! Punch his smug face!"
The yelling continued, but the tears had stopped, as she released everything at him. Once there was nothing left to say, nothing more to cry about, she picked up the pin and attached it to her jacket, before kissing the corpse's forehead and leaving the morgue.
Karanes District, Wall Rose
Year 844
Survey Corps Residence
"Please, Gwendolyn, it will only take you half an hour."
"Erwin," she said, not looking up from the inside of Moblit Berner's mouth as she didn't want her superior distracting her while she extracted wisdom teeth, "I have nothing against people from the Underground, nor any other district, but can you not see that I am actually in the middle of something here?"
The short medic waved a set of pliers in the air as an example. Erwin shook his head, supressing a smile, as the fawn-haired woman continued, "Besides, I have plenty of other medical professionals lurking around this base, ask one of them."
"It has to be you."
Dark green eyes pierced into icy blue. "Why? Why does it have to be me?"
"Because you are the only person I'd trust in handling these three criminals."
His answer was so honest and direct, that it made Gwen want to punch his face. When Erwin spoke like that, he bent everyone to his will – even people like Flagon, and he was not easy to get along with. The annoying side of this, and the reason Gwen wanted to punch him in that second, was because Erwin knew of his gift, and liked to use it to manipulate people.
Instead of acting out on her dark wishes, for fear of Moblit being a witness, she growled and ceased what she was doing, handing the pliers to her new-found friend: Hanji Zoe – a science lover and studier of Titans.
"Hanji, don't pull out his teeth, just keep him comfortable." She said firmly, ignoring the manic pleading look that was coming from Berner's face. Gwen then turned back to Erwin.
"Right, shall I then?"
"Thank you for this, Gwendolyn."
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered as she shoved past him, grabbing her leather-bound book of soldiers' medical histories, "You owe me big time, Smith!"
…
"Wait here for the medic to come and give you your check-ups." Flagon grumped as he trudged out of the barracks, leaving the three, scheming thieves alone.
"Don't pull anymore stunts like that, Levi. We've got enough eyes on us already." Farlan said, his voice filled with concern at the brashness (and slight overreaction) of his friend.
Levi, on the other hand, merely let out a "tch" and set about wiping his hand clean of the dirt he'd been forced to touch. He felt grimy just thinking about it, skin crawling as he knew of its presence under his nails as he thoroughly rubbed the cloth against his hand. His voice was filled with a cold venom as he spoke, "Did you not hear what that piece of shit was spouting out of his piece of shit mouth?"
Before either Farlan or Isabel could open their mouths, another, unfamiliar voice filtered through the room. "If you're talking about Flagon, then that is just offensive to shit."
The flawless pronunciation, and feminine lilt to the voice, had all three of them turning towards the door where someone, unknown to them, was standing – her brow furrowed and arms folded. Levi found his hard, steely-blue eyes connecting with a pair of dark green ones.
Short. Surprisingly, that was the only word Levi could think of when he took in the young woman at the door - and it wasn't a word he often used to describe other people. His brain initially thought it had been a kid at the door, but he knew what it was like to have a deceitfully misleading appearance. She was shorter than him, her hair a confusing shade of…blonde? Brunette? Red? ...whatever colour it was, the bob-cut was extensively dishevelled and as the stranger straightened and pushed her large fringe out of her face.
Isabel's green eyes narrowed on the short stranger, and she spoke at her with a rude, loud voice, "Who are you?!"
The stranger turned her own piercing gaze onto Isabel, with a raised brow, and caused the younger girl to shrink a little as she began to speak again, tucking the leather-bound book she was carrying under her arm. "Well, kid, I happen to be the Head Medic of this division of the army. Name's Gwendolyn Bardeaux, and I don't need any of your names – one, because I don't care, and two, because Erwin told me before I came here."
Levi bristled at the mention of that name, but still caught what Bardeaux muttered under her breath – "Bastard takes me away from a minor surgery and expects me to do unprecedented medical checks before finishing to sterilise my equipment."
"You trying to say we're just some filth that will tarnish your precious equipment?"
Bardeaux's eyes met his again and hardened. "No, I do not see you as anything more than another group of patients, and if you know anything about medicine and surgery, then you will know that a surgeon needs to have clean and sterile tools for every examination. Now, I want no arguments from the three of you so we can get this done and I can get back to removing some poor guys wisdom teeth, ok?"
Farlan, who'd been silent for majority of this new exchange, nodded before his two other companions could speak. "Of course, ma'am," which caused the first different emotion on Bardeaux face as she cringed and then chuckled.
"I suggest you drop the ma'am now, Church. I may be your elder, but "ma'am" ages me by at least 10 years – so just call me Gwen," she said with a smile.
This polarised change in character caused Levi to really examine her. Had he been a man with the interest to pursue a woman, he would've said that her smile was remarkably charming, as it caused her eyes to sparkle…but he wasn't that sort, nor would he ever be. Once again, "Gwen's" attitude changed and her smile fell – replaced by the scowl from earlier – and she snapped her fingers at the two gentlemen.
"Right, boys, shirts off so I can do your medical examinations."
"Yes ma-Gwen." Smiled Farlan, whilst Levi just "tched" and began untucking his shirt. Whilst they disrobed, Gwen rummaged in her jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of thin, rectangular glasses and put them on. She pushed them up her nose and lifted her head, only to be taken aback by the sight before her.
As a medical professional (especially one in the Survey Corps), she had seen her fair share of good-looking chests, but the exposed muscularly-sculpted chest before her was truly jaw-dropping. For growing up in such a grim place as the Underground, Levi had an exquisite form that showed no signs of malnourishment – although the strained veins in the biceps and faint scarring along his collarbone kept it firm in her head that these people had a difficult life until their moment of capture. Despite that, they looked in the prime of health.
"Is it your job to stare at your patients?" Levi's deep, coarse voice dragged her from the whirring of her thoughts. The medic nodded and placed her book onto a bunk with her jacket, before rolling up her sleeves and pushing her annoying fringe off her face again.
"Isabel sit on the bed, I'll do you separately." There was a hesitant pause from the redhead. "I'm not going to hurt them, just basic checks. Besides, Mr Ackerman here is one of the most handsomest specimen I've had the pleasure of examining."
This generated a laugh from two of the three, whilst the third merely raised an unamused eyebrow. He wasn't sure he liked this medic, but he knew that he wouldn't have to put up with her long.
Gwen was impressed by this Adonis-like figure, despite his extreme rudeness and disdain for her presence. He was in the prime of health, old wounds cleanly healed, and not a tad of grime about him. The same followed for his two companions – although Isabel proved to be a little grubby around the edges. The medic wrote up her notes, her green eyes scanning the individuals, before she snapped the book close to draw their attention.
"Right, that's me done with you lot. I bid you, adieu." She said, waving a nonchalant hand behind her as she tried to figure out Erwin's reasoning for recruiting these three criminals.
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