Arika's head felt ready to split clean open, and when she reached her hand to the source of her discomfort she quickly yanked back. A dull, thumping pain echoed from where Arika touched her head, exactly where the handle of Levi's blade had hit. Groaning, Arika sat up slowly and the sound of crinkling bedsheets made her aware that she had been laying down in an uncomfortable bed. Opening her hazel green eyes and then repetitively rubbing them, Arika was confused when it didn't become brighter. Whatever place she had ended up in was pitch black, so much so that she would've thought she was still asleep if she didn't know better.
Clumsily fumbling around her, Arika found a small box on a bedside table to her left. With a flick of her wrist, a match hissed to life and surrounded her with a small circle of light. A lantern became visible, and Arika quickly lit that, too, flooding the rest of the room with light. If it could be called a room, that is. So dark and claustrophobically small, Arika felt trapped, and it didn't help when she realized there wasn't a single window to let in a bit of light from outside. There were two doors though. Not wanting to stay in place for a minute longer, Arika sprung out of the bed in a heartbeat. The floor was ice cold, and she briefly determined that it was stone as she rushed to the closest door.
The unlocked door gave way easily, and for a second Arika thought she was in the clear, but she was met with yet another dark, small room. A puff of disappointment escaped her. Of course escape wouldn't be that easy. Returning to the bedside table, Arika picked up the lantern and passed through the doorway. Nope. Just a bathroom. No escape route. With the lantern illuminating the walls, Arika realized that this room didn't have windows either. Her toes curled up against the freezing stone floor when she pieced it together.
She was underground, in a bunker most likely.
Nonetheless, she walked over and tried out the other door. Locked. She was locked in an underground bunker. Lovely.
About to turn around and punch a wall, Arika froze up when she heard the mumble of voices. Instantaneously, she had her ear pressed up against the door.
"Now, Eren, Levi thinks that this girl might be a shifter like you, so be on your guard but try to make it seem like you understand her and are on her side. He said that she seems really prejudice around humans and that you'd probably be our best bet on reaching her. Levi said I wasn't allowed to go in and 'weird her out,' so it'll be only you. You'll be fine, I'm sure, just use your best judgement…"
Arika didn't recognize the approaching female voice, but it didn't matter. She was already in motion, escape plan at the forefront of her mind. Her time was limited; those voices would be here in less than a minute. Sprinting back into the bathroom like every second mattered, Arika frantically paced back and forth, looking for some way, any way, to get out of here.
Then she locked onto the shower.
It would be a bit of a long shot, but for what she had at hand this was the best plan she would be able to make off the top of her head. It had to work. It just had to.
Arika hurriedly dropped the lantern onto the floor and rushed over to the shower, sweeping the shower curtains aside with more force than necessary. Crap. Arika cursed herself when she realized she didn't know how to operate these controls.
The voices were getting closer.
No longer caring, Arika slammed the dial as far right as it would go, the reddest setting it would allow. There was a slight pause where Arika wondered if she hadn't done it right, but the thought was quickly silenced when scorching water rained down, catching her hands as she ducked away. Her hands turned a brilliant shade of red and protested when Arika didn't even pause before ripping down the shower curtain.
Clattering to the ground, the curtain rod segments being torn apart by Arika was drowned out by the sound of water. When she was satisfied, Arika took a sizeable segment of the metal pole and gripped it like her life depended on it. If all else goes wrong, I need a weapon. It's only one boy, I can take him.
Armed and ready, Arika retreated from the bathroom and as a finishing touch locked the door from the inside before closing it. She had purposely left the lamp in there, meaning she was now thrown into darkness, but light was shining out of the crack under the bathroom door. Perfect. Bolting over to what must be the exit, Arika crouched off to the hinged side of the door and screwed her eyes shut. Please, please, please work, she chanted as she tensed up when the voices stopped right outside of the door. Her eyes snapped open and her burnt hands tightened around the metal rod just as the door handle clicked.
"Okay, Eren, go make me a new titan shifter friend! Good luck!" the female voice chirped out encouragingly.
The door opened smoothly, carving a path of light into the dark room, but leaving Arika in darkness where she had hidden. The door had opened just as the hinges had suggested, leaving Arika tucked away in its shadow.
There was a throaty, masculine chuckle. "I'll try my best, Hanji. Thanks," the boy that must have been Eren said as he stepped into the room. Arika heard the woman that had been addressed as Hanji walk away, footsteps softly retreating.
He had a lantern in his hand, and Arika freaked out for a second, thinking he would see her when he closed the door. She let out a silent breath of relief when he didn't even turn in her direction as he lightly pushed the door to close. His attention was directed toward the bathroom, so much so that he didn't notice Arika's arm dart out to stop the closing door right before it closed and locked again. Eren's back was toward her when he approached the bathroom door.
Steam and light were pouring out of the crack underneath the door and the sound of running water made it appear like she was in there taking a shower. Eren gave a couple knocks on the door, believing her to be on the other side.
"Hello? So sorry to interrupt. My name's Eren Jaeger, and I was sent here to see if you wanted to talk." He paused, waiting for some sort of response, only to be answered by rushing water. Ever so slowly, Arika stared slinking around the door. It was still open enough for her to slip out.
"Maybe she can't hear me," Eren mumbled to himself. Louder, he asked, "Your name is Arika, right? I was hoping that we could talk. I'm a good guy, I promise, I won't hurt you." Still no response. Arika squeezed the rest of the way into the hall and had ducked out of the way just as Eren turned around to sit on the bed. "Fine, I'll just wait then."
Arika allowed herself a small victorious smile when she heard the creak of Eren sitting down on the crappy mattress. He actually thought she was in there. He wasn't coming after her. It worked. I'm out! Standing back up, she took a look around the hallway that she now stood in. It was lit with torches, but there wasn't a single hint as to which way was her ticket out. Arika stealthily moved to peak around one of the closest corners. A trail of torches continued in every direction, forming a grid network. A maze. A freaking maze. Guess I'm not out yet, Arika thought bitterly.
"Oi! Eren! I forgot one last thing!" Arika jumped a clear foot in the air when the female voice from before spontaneously appeared right around the corner she had looked down not five seconds before. How did she do that?! Shaking with a mixture of adrenaline and nerves, Arika braced herself.
"Levi just wanted me to remind you that the girl shouldn't be underestima—" Hanji didn't know what hit her when she rounded the corner. Arika had the drop on her, swinging the metal shower rod into the side of her head before another sound could leave her lips. Inwardly flinching at her own actions, Arika could have sworn her head started pounding even more painfully as punishment. She forced out the distraction as Hanji crumpled into her arms. Stepping around the corner, Arika gave it a few seconds before checking if Eren had come out into the hall. He hadn't. Yet again, Arika found herself thanking the lovely, loud shower.
But she was still stuck with the same problem. She didn't know how to get out of here any more than she did before. Looking down at the woman in her arms, Arika only became more frustrated. She probably knew the way out. I could have asked her for directions. No, that's stupid, she wouldn't give me directions. She would recognize who I was the second she saw I wasn't wearing the uniform.
Arika's head snapped up. The uniform!
The idea hit her like a ton of bricks, causing her to accidentally drop Hanji not so gently on the ground. Arika gave a silent apology before she was stripping the woman of the Scouting Legion cloak. Putting it on herself, Arika smoothed out the fabric and attempted to calm herself down... Not the easiest of things to do when dragging an unconscious stranger into an open doorway, out of sight.
Clearing her throat and rubbing her clammy hands nervously, Arika retraced her steps back to the room she had just escaped from. Relax. Make this believable. You've come too far to give up halfway. Even while talking herself up, Arika tucked the shower rod piece under the cloak. A Plan B never hurt anybody.
Clearing her head, Arika shoved aside all her doubts and gave a confident knock on the door to the room she had been held in. Pushing it open, she fought the urge to slam it shut again when Eren stood to face her. The mental image of the Outside was the only thing that made it possible for her to completely convert her persona.
"Eren, correct?" Arika asked with more confidence than she had.
"Yeah, did something happen?" he asked, unsure as to why someone was coming to find him at now of all times. It would have to be pretty damn important for Levi to send someone when he was supposed to be in the middle of important questioning.
Arika picked up on Eren's uneasiness. "Nothing big, not an emergency or anything. Just a bit of miscommunication. Levi forgot to let you know that the girl had been moved to a different holding cell." Arika tried her hardest not to let any malice slip when saying Levi's name. It was also so strange to talk about herself in the third person. She continued anyway, "They needed a cell that would be easier to transport her from."
Eren looked puzzled for a second but nodded slowly. Levi wasn't the type to easily forget, but then again he wasn't the super talkative type of person like Hanji. Then Eren's eyebrows knitted together in a frown and he turned to point at the bathroom door which he had been waiting outside of. "Who's in the shower then?"
Shit, I didn't think this far, Arika thought as she fumbled to think up a reason why the shower would be going with nobody in it. "Oh, that! Well, the girl woke up and made a bit of a scene. She roughed one guy up pretty bad—blood everywhere, not pretty, trust me. And you know how the Corporal is; he made the poor guy hang back and clean the whole place up. If he's in the shower he must've finished up," Arika finished explaining, acting as if it was the simplest thing in the world. She felt tempted to even give herself a pat on the back for throwing out the bit about Levi being a clean freak. He might have only been around her for a brief period of time, but Arika had already spotted out his compulsive cleaning habits and the fact that he radiated the smell of cleaning products was a dead giveaway.
Apparently it was enough to sell Eren, who gave a sorry shake of his head in the direction of the bathroom. "May God have mercy on his soul, he's probably going to have to clean this room forty times over again. Levi won't be satisfied until the fucking shadows are scrubbed off the walls." Eren gave a hearty laugh and sauntered his way over to Arika. "So where's this new cell?"
Arika gave a smile when Eren fell right in step with her plan. "I can take you there if you'd like," she said happily.
Eren gave a nod at the suggestion. "That'd be great. I'm probably already on Levi's bad side since I wasted all this time. Any later and I'll just be asking for my teeth to get knocked out one by one," Eren said, suppressing a shudder.
Arika broke out into nervous laughter, "We can't have anything bad like that happening, now can we?"
Then something over Eren's shoulder caught her eye. To some degree, Arika was aware that Eren was speaking to her, but all she could see was the water quickly seeping out from under the bathroom door. Speaking of bad things… Guess I'm not as good at figuring out how to work a shower as I thought. Arika's mouth floundered around and then quickly snapped shut. Grabbing onto Eren's arm, she urgently pulled him out of the room before he could notice the flooding.
"We had best not keep him waiting then!" Arika blurted as she yanked the door shut before Eren could catch sight of her blatant lies falling to pieces. Taking him by the hand, Arika led him down the hallway, quickening her pace when she passed the room where she knew Hanji's unconscious body lay hidden.
"O-Okay then," Eren stumbled as he was dragged along by the girl. He shot a sideways glance at Arika and then tried to strike up a conversation. "I really appreciate all your help by the way. I'm kind of new to this whole Scouting Legion thing, but you probably could already tell that, huh?"
Arika was taking random left and right turns, and let out a distracted "Uh-huh." Eren stumbled again as Arika took yet another sharp turn but didn't let up.
"I don't think I caught your name before. I'm Eren Jaeger," Eren prompted her eagerly.
"I'm A—" Arika almost let her name slip out, but at the last second remembered Eren knew that the girl he was supposed to question was named Arika. "A-Ah, it's Amanda," Arika quickly recovered.
Eren shot her a brilliant grin that lit up his whole face. "Nice to meet you, Amanda. I'm glad I ran into you. I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't shown up."
It stung. His grateful smile was stinging her like a slap across the face. So open, so sincere, so trusting. Arika felt disgusted with herself. Returning that smile with lies and false fronts was just about the last thing she wanted to do, but her need to return to the Outside beat out her morals. She almost couldn't force herself to continue the charade.
Almost.
"Well, you probably wouldn't be lost, I can tell you that much," Arika said with a bitter taste in her mouth, "I think I'm lost, I don't know where I'm going."
I'm sorry I have to play you like this…
Turning to look around, Eren saw that Arika was right. They were going in circles. He gave a chuckle, "Looks like you're right! What cell number was it? I can probably find it."
...But I have no other choice.
Arika gave a sheepish smile while she felt her heart sink. He had trustingly played right into her hands. "I don't remember the room number actually, but it's the one right by the exit. Do you know which one I'm talking about?"
"The one right across from the entrance staircase?"
Snapping her fingers, Arika acted like a lightbulb had suddenly lit up in her head. "That's the one!"
Even with such a vague description, Eren nodded and took the lead, Arika in tow. "No problem, I know exactly where that is!" Eren shot her another grin, and Arika sunk even further into a pit of guilt.
Here she was, being kindly guided to freedom by a boy that had unknowingly become her accomplice. Escape was in sight and she would never return here, but Eren would be left to deal with the problems she had created for him. Levi, no doubt would never let the boy live to see another day if he heard that Eren had assisted in her escape.
"Oi, shitty brat, where do you think you're going? I told you to question the girl. Is your skull so thick that you can't hear a simple order?" A cold, menacing voice drawled out, not far behind Arika and Eren.
Shit. And so the devil himself appears.
Gripping Eren's hand tighter, Arika stepped up the pace. The Corporal hadn't seen her face yet. If she made it out of this bunker, she might have a decent chance at outrunning them. As long as Eren doesn't say anything to tip him off, I should be safe.
"I'm on my way there now, Levi. I know I'm late, but it's not my fault that you can't be bothered to tell me where this girl I'm supposed to be interrogating is!" Eren said over his shoulder.
"Tch. I told you exactly where she would be. I even had Hanji escort you there, brat, so don't go blaming me when it's you not having your shitty directions in order. You're going the wrong way, moron." For a such a short guy, he could sure move fast, Arika could give him that. His voice was catching up with them fast.
"No, I'm not. Amanda here was just helping find the right cell, and I know exactly where I'm going."
Don't bring me into this! Arika mentally screamed at Eren, but it was already too late. The Corporal's eyes locked onto the girl tugging Eren along. Levi smelled something fishy and was practically breathing down her neck in the blink of an eye.
"Amanda, huh? Did you find what you were looking for, Amanda?" Arika jumped and gave a startled yelp. Before she could make a break for it, Levi grabbed her arm and whipped her around to face him. At the last second, Arika yanked on the hood of the Scouting Legion cloak in a last ditch effort to hide her face, but the Corporal ripped it back off instantly.
"Or should I say Miss Arika Welsch?" Levi smirked when her face became visible, proving him right. "Nice try, but you're not fooling me. Back to your cell. Now."
Eren's eyes hardened when Levi started dragging Arika back the way they'd come. Automatically, he was pulling Arika in the opposite direction, trying to free her from Levi's hold.
"What're you doing? That's some sick sense of humor you've got there. Amanda has been nothing but helpful and kind, so you'd be doing all of us a favor if you'd get your hands off her!" Eren's voice was full of conviction, as were his eyes that didn't back down from Levi's glare. At this point, Arika was little more than a rope in a tug-of-war between the two soldiers. Levi eventually won out, tightening his grip and tearing Arika away from Eren.
"Eren, this is Arika, the girl I sent you to question. I'd ask you why the hell she's out here with you when she should be locked up, but I have a feeling you don't even know the answer to that. Somehow she got you to lead her straight to the exit. There is no Amanda. She played you for a fool. Tricked you. Used you. Do you get the picture now?" Levi was merciless as he gave stab after verbal stab.
It was effective enough to get Eren to stop reaching out to pull Arika away, but he still shook his head. "You're lying. I won't believe it," he said.
Levi gave an uncaring shrug. "I don't give a damn what you choose to believe, but I'm right when I'm right. If you want your proof, you can question Miss Welsch in her cell," Levi gave a pointedly threatening glare at Arika, "Where she will stay."
That was when Arika couldn't hold back any longer. She couldn't afford to stay here. She had to go back Outside.
With lightning speed, Arika whipped out the metal rod she had hidden under the cloak and swung at Levi's head for all she was worth. The hard smack of metal against flesh sounded throughout the corridor, the sound alone enough to make Arika wince and want to squeeze her eyes shut. But the sound of a collapsing body didn't follow. Arika looked down to where the bar had connected.
The metal rod noisily clattered to the stone floor as Arika stumbled back. She didn't stumble very far though, however, before Levi's hand had a killer grip on her wrist. The very same hand that moments before had caught the metal bar mid-swing only inches away from his face.
Nudging the metal rod with the tip of his boot, Levi gave a surprised grunt. "Part of a shower curtain rod? Creative, I'll give it that much. Guess it'll be a new cell without a bathroom then." Finished mumbling to himself, Levi gave a victorious sneer.
"Well, well, Eren, would you look at that. There's your proof as clear as day." Levi forcefully slammed a pair of handcuffs on Arika's wrists then looked back at Eren. "Now who was it that was lying?" the Corporal asked mockingly.
Glancing over to Arika who had started thrashing violently to get away from him, Levi gave a harsh push and commanded, "Walk." When she didn't follow the order and continued to resist, Levi started dragging her back in the direction of her new cell.
He didn't receive any help from Eren who walked next to them as if he was lost in a daze. He looked down at Amanda—no, Arika—who continued to try to escape even though her attempts were futile.
"You lied to me. Why did you lie to me?" Eren asked, at a loss to ask anything else. The girl didn't pause in her struggles to answer him.
"Because I need to go back! I need to get back to him, he needs me!" Arika sent Eren a look longing for sympathy. "You understand me, right? You belong in here because this is where you're needed, and I belong out there because that's where I'm needed!"
"This isn't chit chat time. You'll have your chance to explain, so until then I expect your mouth to remain shut," Levi cut into Arika's desperate plea. Reaching a door, Levi pulled a set of keys from his back pocket and started flipping through them carefully as if he was choosing the weapon to silence somebody with.
"You don't have to be an Outsider though," Eren said hurriedly as Levi found the correct key, "There's always the option to stay here."
Arika gave him a look that quite obviously suggested her questioning his sanity. "You say that like I actually had a choice in the matter. I didn't make the decision to be an Outsider, Humanity went and decided that for me all on its own."
The door finally opened and Levi unceremoniously pushed Arika inside. "Sweet nightmares, brat. Hope you're deathly afraid of the dark." Like the cover of a tomb, the door slammed shut on Arika, sealing the Outsider's fate permanently.
A/N (TheHeart'sCompass): AHHHH! So many words! Longest chapter yet! You people are worth it though :) That, and I'm putting off doing two essays XD
A/N: (Butterfly Chibi): Sorry about the wait on chapter 3. We hope you in enjoy this chapter as much as we did. Heart and myself came up with ideas in this chapter, but I am currently just writing down ideas for the next one. So hopefully we get some more feedback. I am so glad everyone likes the story. :D Well for the romance portion it will not be rushed yesh that are! XD I am glad everyone loves my Oc Arika. We will probably take some time to plan out the next chapter my brain is reeling right now.
P.S. : R&R Have sweet dreams of Levi~!