Death Of A Flower

3rd Person POV

Lily watched the young scout members gently place their fallen Commander Erwin Smith on his final resting place. The bed was large and the soft mattress underneath the ridged Commander sunk as he was planted down, no words were spoken amongst the solders, but it was obvious that they were broken, their once tough and dedicated Commander had met a tragic end.

They had cleaned him well; no blood could be seen. His uniform had been changed, his hair washed and combed back neatly, his wounds covered discreetly by bandages and make up, the only thing that gave away that the man was dead was his skin, which was now a grey and clammy colour and his eyes were sunken.

From what Lily could gather, arguments had been made on who's call it was to save a young cadet rather than the seasoned Commander, who was, in so many words, less expendable than a cadet such as the boy known as Armin Arlert. She couldn't disagree with such opinions, but it was somewhat odd on what they were suggesting.

Many Soldiers both new and old wished to say their final goodbye the Commander, all turned away by the guards by his door, and a small man by stature who, in Lily's opinion was far from kind to any that dared to approach the quarters in question. Many feared the man whom others called Capitan Levi, though Lily was surprised this was the man she had heard many stories about, she continued to watch from on high as she was ordered by her leader. The Commander's room was on the second floor, nearby to the training grounds but in the centre of the HQ so if any unwanted or unsavoury individuals were to try to attack he was well protected.

When the moon began to rise so elegantly in the sky, Lily began to put back on her 3DM Gear she had taken off as she had sat on her watch point for hours, clicking it back into place, placing her plain white mask on her face, the only thing that could be seen was her dull brown eyes, she watched patiently.

Making sure all the cadets not on watch were in bed.

Making sure even humanity's strongest was in his room, away and asleep.

She then moved.

Like a coiled spring, she leapt from her spot and used her gear to swing herself to the Commander's window, quietly picking thought the lock and opening it fully, without so much as a sound being made in the process, after all, why would she? She didn't have a death wish.

Sliding though the now opened window, she grabbed the small compact mirror and used the rays of the moonlight to reflect a flash of light towards the training forest, just one, and stood away from the window. Not a few seconds later one by one, three individuals gracefully slipped through the window, all with masks.

One of the individuals also wore a simple white mask that covered his entire face, but the other two both each wore different masks.

The tallest male of the group had dyed black hair and his mask had a symbol of three black stars within and black circle on the left of his all white mask. His eyes were a muddy blood red, but they shined in acknowledgement towards Lily, silent thanks for getting them inside.

The female, however was the shortest of the group, took her hand and shook, unlike the others she only had half of the face covered by a black and white mask, that instead of a white mask had a black one, with five stars up near her forehead and eyes, her hair was also dyed black, but had red streaks that bounced alongside her natural curls, she smiled, her eyes were like the colour turquoise as she held Lily's gaze. Lily bowed deeply, this woman was her leader, her boss, her Commander.

Commander Jude let go of Lily's hand and nodded in acknowledgement and turned to the dead Commander and walked towards him. Kneeling next to his bedside, she pulled out a small wooden box that was just bigger than her hand and opened it.

Inside the box was a needle with a blue liquid inside, that almost glowed when the light of the moon touched it. Moving Erwin's arm slightly, Commander Jude pushed the needle gently into the dead man's arm and injected the liquid into his no longer working veins. Pulling out the needle quickly she stood back from the bed, and placed the box down that now had the needle back inside, on the counter with her gloved hands, and then next to it, a black book and watched Erwin silently, no one else spoke or moved.

Then, just slightly Erwin's hand began to twitch and his eyes, once sunken seemed to rise and flutter. Commander Jude made the signal to retreat just as the Commander now moving groaned loudly.

The four didn't hesitate they began to rush to the window, the door the quarters opened and two Scouts began to shout such foolish questions like 'who are you?' And 'how did you get in here?' Like the four would answer them.

The two guards became three then four and many more just as Commander Jude jumped down from the window, she was not wearing any 3DM Gear Lily noticed, how had she managed to get thought the window without any?

"Formation 3!" She shouted, pulling Lily out of her mind, she knew what that meant, the others did too as the all split from one another, going in different directions creating a zig-zag pattern in the air to confuse the now awake scout regiment as the where they were headed. Lily noticed that she was followed too quickly for her liking, but knew engaging them in combat would be pointless, she was no good at such a thing. She made a hard right and then did a somersault in the air to get behind them and change direction, which seemed to have worked, they were further away now, and would not be able to catch up quickly.

And then, she felt immense pain on her right side, and fell from the sky with a heavy thud.

She'd been shot, and was bleeding heavily.

Lily made no noise as she laid on the grass, her breathing became shallow and her vision was going dark, someone was calling her, and she opened her eyes to see her Commander.

She came to save me. Lily thought, but there was no saving her, she knew that, the mission was to give the untested blue liquid to Erwin, there wasn't any left.

And they both knew it.

"Cadet Holmes, look at me." The Commander ordered, to which Lily obeyed

"Lily is fine ma'am." She stuttered and huffed, words were becoming difficult.

"Lily then, keep your eyes open for me alright." The Commander spoke softly, her voice was like liquid honey and it hummed in the air.

"I'm sorry ma'am, I-I've failed you." Her tongue felt thick, the Commander's outline seemed to shine so brightly, her eyes began the flutter shut.

"No Lily, you haven't failed me, you were so brave, I'm so proud of you, thank you Lily, without you Commander Erwin would still be dead." The Commander smiled again and Lily reached up toward her, touching her face, leaving a bloodied mark there. "Thank you, Comm... ander." She whispered, and her eyes never closed, as the small child in the Commanders arms died with a light smile on her face.

"Goodnight, Cadet Lily Holmes." Gently stroking her cheek and then closing her eyes with her hand.