The girl stumbled into the room wearing a blue medical gown with white flowers on it. She was holding a half eaten sandwich in one hand, and an apple in the other. Levi didn't miss the shake in those hands or the quiver in her shoulders. Was that fear, or the weakened body?
He looked down at the medical report, clicking his pen before raising his eyes again. His steel grey met with her cobalt blue as she took a seat in front of him, and he knew that it was fear. Why did that bother him so much?
Levi shook off the rising fire that threatened to return and began his questions, readying the pen over a yellow note pad beside Hanji's report.
"State your name," he began coldly.
"River Arhynn."
Her voice was still strong, despite her fragile state. Interesting.
"Age?"
"Twenty."
This raised his head, as well as an eyebrow. With her long, dark brown curls tumbling about her shoulders, and the vibrant eyes, large with permanent curiosity behind them, she appeared no older than Eren. Although her cheekbones were high and well defined, she had a rounded jaw that brought in a childish pout to her pink lips.
In his hesitation and analysis, though, her face changed with a flash of irritation. She narrowed her eyes in a defiant glare and locked her jaw, squaring it as it tensed. Then he saw it. Her anger aged her. It was the girl's fear and weakness that brought his doubt.
He moved on with nothing more than a 'tch'.
"Can I safely assume that you're female?"
"You saw me pretty much naked, sir. If that wasn't obvious, I would sure hope your role here doesn't require a lot of attention to detail."
So, she had the intellect for full sentences and sarcasm. All while being as frail as a leaf. Interesting.
"I was slightly distracted," he muttered.
Silence fell for almost a full minute as her wounds screamed at him in his mind. The only sound breaking it was her teeth crunching into the apple. She seemed unaffected by his statement, no emotion given to the acknowledgement of her wounds. He opened his mouth for the next question, but was interrupted.
There was a hard knock on the door, and Levi did not miss the way her hand tightened on her fruit and those huge eyes widened a fraction. Suddenly she appeared to be a scared child again. Interesting.
"Enter!"
Commander Erwin entered, immediately intimidating the now fragile girl who watched him with a darkened expression. He was twice Levi's size, and though he had a much more inviting, gentle face, his collected baby blues were constantly running about thirty different plans behind them regarding any possible outcome to every situation he entered, which made a lot of people who noticed this rather uncomfortable. Behind him, Hanji followed as they came to stand beside Levi on either side of his chair. Erwin picked up the medical report in silence. It seemed Levi was the only one to catch the girl's growing discomfort, and he recognised the careful suspicion as a look he saw many times in the Underground. Again, he felt that fire in the pit of his stomach. What the hell did she go through out there?
"Eh, shorty, you weren't supposed to start without us," the woman reprimanded him.
"It is not my fault if you can't open that annoying mouth to give useful information like that. I'm not psychic."
To his right, Erwin cleared his throat to stop the oncoming bickering.
"She was supposed to let you know that I was going to participate in the initial questioning. At the same time, you should know that you must have someone with a medical degree present when questioning someone from outside of the wall," he stated smoothly.
Levi frowned, knowing that he was in the wrong. He resigned with another 'tch', and handed the notepad up to his commander.
River watched the whole exchange with that curious gaze, soaking up the personalities and information before her. Levi recognized the analyzing look on her face. She was observant too, he mused, noting that she was growing more calm through their banter. Interesting.
"Now," Erwin drew her attention. "Tell us about your wounds. Who did this to you? You were alone when my team found you."
She chewed her plump lower lip, avoiding the blonde's gaze. Silence hung in the room again, this time it was pure. She'd suddenly lost her appetite for the now bruised, soft apple in her hand.
"Oi," Levi leaned towards her with bored eyes. "We can't let you stay until you tell us everything that happened out there. If you aren't going to talk, you may as well climb back over that wall."
A loud thud hit his desk, causing the girl to jump slightly, dropping her apple to the floor. Beside him, Zoe stared incredulously between the two.
"I always knew you were a cold bastard, but even for you; that was uncalled for," her tone was lethal.
She looked up to the girl and her whole demeanour softened. "We will not let anyone else hurt you if we can stop it, but you have to help us keep that promise. We are not the ones that make the final decisions. Tell us what happened to you out there, and then we have a better chance to protect you."
River closed her eyes, hanging her head. Levi was beginning to get impatient with all these silences. This one was but a pause before she relented and began her story.
"When wall Maria fell, the titans slaughtered the majority of my village. There was no warning, just one moment my mother was laughing and then next there was only blood. But there was this man, our neighbour, and he knew something about me that would protect us from the titans. The commotion was perfect for him to take me captive. At first, all I cared about was survival. During the initial excitement, it didn't matter that I had to help him too; I just didn't want to die. But once things grew quiet, the titans seemed to move on, and it was just him and I... everything changed."
A new kind of hush fell over the room. One made up of understanding and respect. Titans were easy. Kill them and don't get killed in the process. Clear cut, simple, and distinct. But humans were complicated and dangerous. Levi found himself clenching his fists against his knees. Beside him, Erwin's pen scratched out her words before furrowing his large brows and finally glancing up.
"Rewind a moment for me. What protected you from the titans? This secret that the man knew about. Does it have anything to do with the abnormal hardness we found around your ribs?"
She pulled in a long, quivering breath. Then another, and then she stood up. Her legs shook, but she levelled her eyes on the window behind the trio. Levi was impressed with the resolve in the girl. Her body could barely hold her up, and her nerves were so fried that she could hardly breathe being in a strange place with three people that she probably only heard of in stories. Yet her eyes were as strong as steel.
"I have to show you. It isn't something that I can simply tell you. You'll think I'm crazy."
Clearly she hadn't heard about Eren just yet.
"I do not mean any harm," she assured slowly as she began to back up, raising her hands just as slow.
Anguish washed across her face while beneath the gown, there was movement. It was a very slight rustle of the material that the untrained eye never would have caught. Her lip slipped between her teeth to stop the yelp waiting in her throat as they heard the gown rip behind her. A song of metal sighing and shifting together filled the room as if many blades were moving against one another.
