Author's Note
Rated T for swearing.
Levi climbs onto his horse, then turns and bends down a little, stretching his arms out. His subordinate carefully lifts Eren, who Levi grabs and lifts onto the horse. Leaving both of Eren's legs on the left side of the horse, Levi lets him lean against his right arm and chest, while resting Eren's head against his shoulder. After adjusting Eren's position to make sure his weight is properly spread out, Levi holds his hand out to get the harness from his subordinate. He efficiently wraps the harness around Eren's waist, chest and under his arms, before looping it over his own shoulder and back. Checking that Eren is properly secured, Levi thanks his subordinate and finally picks up his horse's reins.
It wasn't a coincidence that Levi and his subordinate were able to handle Eren with such practised ease. After all, it felt like long ago that Eren became unable to ride horses. At first he would ride behind someone else while holding on, but as he got even weaker, they tried using a cart to carry him, which turned out to be too slow and hindered progress, so in the end they went with this system. Initially Levi was against the idea, but there was no room to cater to his clean freak needs.
As Levi leads his horse towards the assembly point, he can't help but notice each and every one of Eren's shallow, irregular breaths as the boy's chest rises and falls. Every once in a while he also hears a moan. Levi notices that Eren's eyes, which are usually half open and unfocused, are shut tight today.
"If you cry on me I'll throw you off."
This single remark seems to bring comfort to Eren, and he laughs weakly under his breath. Soon Levi notices that Eren's breathing has become more regular, albeit still shallow.
.
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"…Corporal…Levi…here…I go…"
"Yeah, go get 'em."
.
.
"Haah…haah…haaah…."
All the soldiers stand still, warily listening for even the slightest sound aside from their own heavy breathing, and the sizzling sound of evaporating Titan blood and corpses. When it appears that there are no Titans nearby, Erwin clears his throat to give orders.
"Team 5! Take your horses and spread out in the Centre Protection Formation! As soon as a Titan is detected, fire your smoke signal and return! If any are injured then get somebody to swap now. All those remaining, treat the wounded!"
As soon as he is finished, Erwin turns on his heel and heads towards Eren's direction. Eren's Titan form had been lying on the ground for the past twenty minutes or so. His wounds, where Titans had ruthlessly bitten into, are not healing. His huge body simply lay there, motionless, not healing, not steaming, not collapsing.
Just, motionless.
What horrible sight. To think…that a dying person laying motionless without steam arising from their wounds was so normal, but they had never realised how painful it would be to see Eren like that.
"Levi! Do it carefully!"
"I know!"
Levi had already finished slicing the flesh open, careful not to cut Eren in the process. Tearing the flesh of the nape off, he reaches in to pull Eren out.
"Oi Hanji! Give me a hand!"
The both of them carefully, but hastily, separate all of the red nerve-like strands from Eren's limp body and drag him out. Only after then, does the gigantic body begin sizzling to evaporate.
One of the injured soldiers comes over and looks nervously at Eren's body as Hanji slowly lowers it to Levi, who catches it from below and kneels on the ground, holding onto Eren's head and shoulders.
"Coporal…is…is Yeager….…?" Tears start running down the soldier's bloody cheeks, as a few more also gather around.
One can only be so hopeful, when they look at the state of Eren's body.
"Eren."
His feet have grown back, because he used his Titan power, but the dried blood smothering his face was no consolation.
"Oi Eren!"
His eyes, although open, were half rolled into the back of his head…definitely not the eyes of a living human.
"Oi wake up you shitty brat! Eren!"
Suddenly, Eren's body jerks upwards, as he coughs up more blood, the sticky red liquid splattering all over his own face. He keeps coughing for a while, weakly, painfully, as his eyes struggle to find focus.
"Eren! Can you hear me, Eren?!"
"Commander Erwin, since Yeager is conscious we should leave at once! We must treat his woun-"
"No…"
"Commander?"
"No, let him be."
"Eren!"
"…sq…d…lea…der…hanji…how man…y…cough…did…i…"
"You killed 59 Titans today, Eren. All lured over by your shitty Titan body."
"…f…ty…nine….…for my…las…ti…me…"
"Yeah, you did good Eren. So just take a shit and go to sleep."
Eren stares towards the sky blankly and lifelessly for a while, before tilting his head back to look at Levi. His expression tenses and warm tears start building up in his eyes.
"…i…i… st…ill…wanted…to f…fight…"
His overflowing tears run down his face and onto Levi's hands, but won't even wash away the blood staining his face.
"…i st…ill..wan…ed…to…fi…"
He struggles to lift his hand, to reach out, and grab Levi's shirt, as tears continue to overflow endlessly. As if acknowledging this childish gesture, Levi pulls Eren in closer.
"…for..them…"
His body trembles and convulses with each breath and each cry.
"…for mik…sa…armin…and ev…yone…else…as well…i…still…wanted t…f…f….…i…wan…t…d…to keep…fi…"
As his voice thins out, his grip becomes stronger. But soon, both disappear as his tears also dry up. Levi softly lays Eren's down. He stands up, turns on his heel, and announces to the troops.
"Let's go back."
.
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.
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.
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.
.
And thus, the pitiful child breathed his last, in his final battle.
He came into the Recon Corps shouldering the hope of humanity. He survived by bearing the wills of his fallen comrades. But he died while lamenting that he had not lived up to either.
The boy's wish was simple. Unlike most soldiers, he did not wish to evade death. He wished to continue fighting. Such a simple wish, and yet…
In that case, what can I do for him? Left behind in this messed up world, what can I do for the pitiful child, who breathed his last in his final battle?
.
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-owari-
Author's Note
Thank you so very very much from the bottom of my heart for reading! ;_; Thank you!
This whole story just started with an idea of "Eren crying bitterly in his final moments on the battlefield, while repeating that he wanted to keep fighting". And therefore, yes, this is the end of the story. I'm sorry that there is no continuation, no reincarnation/afterlife chapter, none of that (I'm sorry, I think I'm too affected by pixiv, so I'm worried about this). I wonder if it is a depressing ending? Because whether it is depressing or not depends entirely on how well I've written it, lol. I wanted it to be...bitter when I set out to write it.
Please let me remind readers that I have not read any SnK manga. Also, I'm sorry that this chapter was so long. I really didn't want to omit anything, and didn't want to cut it into two either, so I just left it.
About Levi riding his horse with Eren, I have no idea how realistic or doable this is, but I'll just let fiction take care of it.
When Eren speaks to Levi for the last time before turning Titan, I had a mental image of him saying "ittekimasu" and Levi saying "ou, ittekoi", but that seemed hard to translate well, so I changed to "here I go" and "go get 'em". Just wanted you to know even though it's probably not important at all ;3
Regarding the Centre Protection Formation that Erwin mentions, it is a hopelessly optimistic plan that I came up with for the convenience of this story. Basically, despite the declining condition of Eren's human body, when he assumes his Titan form he is still very strong. Therefore, thanks to his overwhelming power, Recon Corps have been achieving ridiculous kill counts. Not only that, because all Titans within a certain radius will be lured in by Eren's Titan form (to eat him), once they manage to defeat all of those, there will be no Titans nearby for a while. Therefore Erwin/I devised this genius plan to have a number of soldiers spread out in a circle around them, the 'centre', and keep an eye out for any approaching Titans. If any are detected, they shoot a smoke signal to warn everyone. If not, Recon Corps can use the time and assured safety to secure Eren (especially important since he started weakening), treat wounded, regroup, and do some (namesake) Recon. (Actually, I made all this up just so I could have Eren cry on the battlefield with everyone around, without Titans attacking and ruining the moment.)
In the end, I think war is just so terrible, because in the end most people die not knowing what they suffered so much for...is what I imagine (because I have no experience). Of course, main characters get the privilege of not dying such a death (in most cases), but Eren wanted to fight more than anyone else, and he arguably had more power to fight than everyone else, but in death he is just another human, with regrets. So in the end, what can one do for someone who died, full of bitter emotions, crying in regret?
Once again, thank you so SOOO much for reading! It just makes me so happy~ I hope that this was an interesting fanfiction, and that you were able to enjoy it even a little.