Chapter 1- Responsibility

When Levi had extended his hand, Katna didn't want to take it, but she wondered if it could it make that much of a difference in her life. Isn't this what she had been waiting for? There were two options that Katna saw. She could run away to stay out in the open, fearing death from the titans, and living just to die alone with only the slight possibility she finds another chance like this again. Or she could go with this man, which would possibility lead her to safety and a society, or he might just kill her. But if he were to kill her he wouldn't have already made his move.

Katna lowered the arrow she had pulled when he began to walk closer, and took hold of his hand to get off of the ground. She returned her arrow to the quiver on her back, "I am going to grab my other arrows first,"

"You wont need those," Levi grabbed her elbow and pulled her towards his horse, "we're already far out of my formation, we can't waste more time. We were heading back, but they won't wait for us."

She tried to pull away, but Levi just dragged her along. When she saw the clean, light brown horse that he was taking her to, so she insisted, "I have my own horse,"

He threw her arm down and pulled himself onto the horse, "I'm not waiting for you to find it. If you go off on your own, you stay on your own; I'm already sticking my neck out for you." He held out his hand once again to help her up, but she only pulled herself up of her own.

They had been riding in silence for several minutes until she asked, "Where did you come from? And i don't know what to call you,"

He sighed, "Honestly, you're trying to make small talk or something?"

"I just want to know where you're taking me. Can you give me that much? I am trusting you very much afterall."

It took a moment for Levi to respond. He didn't want to talk to her, he wanted to drop her with the commander and leave her to be his problem. He couldn't bother getting close to anyone again. "My name's Levi. I'm part of the Survey Corps. I lived within wall Sina for-"

He felt her arms tighten around him, "So you are from the walls! You can take me there- To safety! You can-"

The ground suddenly shook and the horse moved off balance for a second. To the right was a titan, at least 8 meters tall, charging at them, trampling trees in the process.

"If you hadn't been taking so fucking long we wouldn't have run into this!" Levi yelled at her, "I'm dealing with this, stay on the horse, don't even think of going far."

Before Katna could react, he had used his 3D maneuvering device to fly off of the horse. The hook shot into the leg of the monster, considering there were no trees or building around for him to use. But Levi didn't know that this was a deviant. It stopped suddenly, causing Levi fly past it and swing around. The thing stared at Levi for a second and then moved to step on the line. He sent another one up to its shoulder to gain the upper hand, but it only swung at it. Levi was having more of a problem than he expected.

Katna knew this couldn't end well. She didn't understand why he was attacking; her tribe had always avoided and hid from the titans. It was only too dangerous to go head to head with such power.. The most they had ever attacked was with arrows and knives to slow them down, and she adopted that when she ended up on her own. She wanted to help. After all he was her only chance to get behind the walls. She pulled the horse closer to the titan and pulled herself up to her feet. She drew another arrow and aimed it at the titan's right eye.

Levi kept trying to get at its neck, but its defensive movements was making it difficult for even him to get close, and the lack of trees didn't help. Levi's movements were making it difficult to aim an arrow well enough to get the thing's eye. Katna knew she only had two arrows left, and she couldn't risk hitting Levi.

She finally fired an arrow and took out the right eye, then automatically shot another in order to not lose the shot. The second one also succeeded. With the sense of sight lost, the titan wasn't able fight back at all. Levi finished it within seconds. He dropped to the ground and walked towards Katna. Without a word he took his spot in front of Katna on the horse.

"You could thank me," Katna offered when Levi sent the horse back on course.

He only scoffed at her, "It was your fault we were even in that mess. If i hadn't picked you up, i would have been back in my formation already. Like i said, sticking my neck out for you. Didn't i just say that before? Why don't you shut your mouth so we can get back in silence."

"-But-"

"You're going to make my ears bleed, brat, shut it."

When Levi got back into the formation he avoided questions as to the girl. It got harder to avoid the questions as he moved towards the position of the commander, people were getting more nosey. It became even harder to get her to be quiet.

She was obviously uncomfortable, it was even starting to put Levi off a bit. Katna hadn't been around this many people ever in her life. Even when she lived with her tribe, the population was smaller. They all look similar to levi; same uniform and weapons. She didn't understand how these could be mass produced for so many people. She also couldn't trust that they wouldn't hurt her. Katna's arms tightened and she pressed her forehead and nose too his back, only looking down.

"Levi where are we?" She whispered to him, not even sure that he could hear.

"Just be quiet, we're going to talk with my commander, I'm dropping you off with him," Levi felt her fingers dig into his abdomen.

` "You're leaving me?"

He pried at her fingers and scoffed, "You're not mine, I don't need to look after you. I'm giving you to the commander and you'll get to the walls. Isn't that what you wanted? What's your problem now?"

They slowed down as they got closer to the commander, "hange! Get Erwin for me."

"But Levi, I don't know if i should trust them," she reached behind to see if there were any arrows left, but they were all used earlier. Katna felt for the knife on her waist.

"Why do you trust me?" Levi wondered, "I met you today, pulled my blades on you even," For a moment she asked herself the same thing, "Well, you didn't try to kill me, you bothered to take me this far, you saved me earlier." He didn't respond, "You said it before: you're sticking your neck out to get me to a home."

"You can trust him, probably more than me. Erwin!"

A large blonde man went up to them, "Levi, what's going on here?"

He was a large man; even on a horse Katna could tell that he was much bigger than Levi, more threatening. He turned his attention to Katna, "Who is this?"

Levi looked back at her, "Well, can you not talk now? I don't know your life story. I can't talk for you, brat."

Katna eyed the weapons on Erwin, "I'm Katna, i just want to go to the walls." She spoke quietly and tentatively.

Erwin smiled to put her at ease and patted her shoulder lightly, "Well, Katna, we can take you there, no problem. When we get to the wall we're just going to ask you a few questions before we let you go to make sure you're safe. Is that okay with you, Katna?" She nodded her head. "Okay, good. We can get you your own horse to ride for the rest of the way so that you're more comfortable, just give me a few minutes."

Erwin moved to say something to someone on his left, and they rode off. He and Levi exchanged looks but then just continued to ride forward.

"I never asked you for your name. Sorry, Katna." Levi said. An apology wasn't what she expected, but it was true. He didn't ask her anything. "Why are you out here alone any way?"

"Well, I lived with my tribe my whole life, we had always be out here. A few years ago we got ambushed my titans; we took shelter in a cave one day that we thought was safe. Our camp fire light woke them up and they drove us out of the cave. There were more titans outside. My father put me on a horse and sent me away without another word. I waited in the area for a bit, but i didn't see anyone that survived, eventually i just had to leave. I lost everything all those years ago."

He was silent for a moment, "I'm sorry, once you're in the walls you don't have to worry. You can just find somewhere to live and never be nea titans again."

Another scout approached them with a second horse and Katna climbed on. Before Katna was completely settled Erwin called Levi over to him, out of Katna's earshot.

"She'll be your responsibility, Levi-"

"Erwin, i don't have the time for that."

The commander sighed, "We're spending time in the walls to figure out our next move and figure things out, it should give you enough time to get her settled and find her a place to stay. She's clearly shaken."

Levi looked over to her. It would be quite a project; get her clothed, fed, and working before he goes out on an expedition again. Where could she live? She surely wouldn't have enough money to find somewhere to live quickly.

"But why is she my problem?"

"She obviously trusts you the most, if you were the one to find her. And I'm sure you could get her on track and out of your sights quickly." Erwin laughed a little bit, "Hospitality isn't your finest quality."

Levi shot him a look, "She should be thankful if I'm letting her live with me. She should be thankful I let her live earlier period."

"Just look after her, she's yours for now. We're going to question her first to make sure she doesn't have any usefull information and isn't a threat. After, you can use your squad to help if you wish. Go back by her and keep her out of trouble, and get some clothes from the supply wagon for her; we can't walk through the town with her looking like that, there will be questions."

"Got it, commander."

Levi took off towards the supply waggon to get an extra uniform for her and ripped off the supply corps badge before handing it over.

"Put it on over your clothes as quickly as you can," He ripped off a part of her sleeve and started to wiped the marks off of her face.

"Why are you doing that?"

"You can't look like that in the walls, people will ask questions, you want to blend in." He threw it on the ground when he was done.

Katna look up and saw the wall, still far away, but looming and frightening none the less. She never saw a titan tall enough that would be able to affect that wall. The idea of being trapped inside was frightening, but it was all she had been wishing for her whole life. Protection against the titans was all she needed, all her tribe had needed all those years ago. She was told stories of the society within, how it would protect her and allow her to live out a life of happiness.

Safety was finally at her fingertips. Then why was she sad?