Captain Levi… Nicolas grit his teeth at the sight of him, leaning over her as he did every night. A breeze rustled through his suit jacket, his black hair shifted in the chill but her breathing—her wheezing, stayed loud, the only sound in his entire world. It cut to the bone and that's where he truly felt the cold. The air shifted behind him and a familiar hand landed on his back but he didn't turn, he didn't dare. Worick walked around his side after a moment and stayed silent, leaving Nic to read as he watched the scene unfold across the rooftops.
"—the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?" Nicolas grunted at the remark, gaining Worick's attention.
"What's the deal?" His big white hands moved with each word.
"You're not going to like it." Nicolas signed right back.
"We shouldn't be doing this Erwin." Mike spoke ominously as he leaned on the edge of his leather seat. "That girl isn't a girl…she's a monster and that's how you need to view her." He brought his blonde lochs up to meet his Commander's but failed as he was still turned to the window, his build casting a large shadow across the room as the sun began to fall. There the determined Commander of the Scouts stood, contemplating the drastic path Hange and Levi convinced him of. The severity of her crimes matched the severity of his punishment if this already shaky plan didn't come to fruition. "Erwin." Mike repeated.
"They sent them back." Smith answered, remembering his own reasoning for this mood. "Every life they saved, she saved, and they chose to send them back… Do you think anyone of the underground has ever had a steady food source? Mike there was no real discussion over rationing."
"I understand Erwin but—"
"I spent days with Hange planning, Mike. Days coming up with a system to ration the food and…" he trailed off, shaking his head in disbelief. "This system is fucked and with our current situation… it's only a matter of time." His head fell low at the thought. "I need a backup."
"She can't be that plan?!" Mike erupted in shock. "Erwin she isn't good, she doesn't care. She's a fucking Renegade, the craziest of the crazy. Levi's blind to it from his own guilt and her relationship with Noah. Hange has always been crazy about him and they're both in your ears. They're too close to her and she's not—"
"You're scared." Erwin twisted to face Mike and the rest of his office. "Because of your history with her." Mike fell silent and eased back in the chair.
"There is no relationship, I made a mistake. Years ago." Mike stressed. "I created this issue and…I'm so sorry." He whispered to his old friend.
"If you hadn't, there'd just be another tag to take her place right? Plus…" Erwin walked to him, placing a soft hand on his back. "We wouldn't have been there. She wouldn't have been there. But I accept your apology anyway."
"Do you think that tag would have been as worse as her?" Mike stared off into the shadows of the office.
"Honestly?" Mike craned his neck back to see his piercing blue eyes. "Not a chance in hell, you really screwed me with this one." Mike mirrored Erwin's smile and laugh as he reached up and placed his hand over Erwin's. They stayed together in the silent failing light.
"Just…remember what she is." Mike lowered his eyes, his head turned sideways to Erwin. "She's not salvageable Erwin… I'm not even convinced she's alive…we looked for weeks—"
"I remember." Erwin interrupted, pulling his hand slowly back from his touch. "I was there." The memory made his face and stomach sour, it was a memory the three had buried long ago but here it was, crawling out of that deep grave in its new form, a skeleton with storming eyes and a crazy cackle that cut you to the core.
"How did you know about Noah?" The question had been pestering Mike for some time, was it the mystery he couldn't figure out or his Commander's silence on the matter? He always told him the plan and that day… "You scared the shit out of me." He whispered to the darkness that surrounded the two.
"He scared all of us." Hange's voice broke their silence as the two whipped their heads to the open doorway. "Sorry to interrupt but we have a problem. Arthur and Demetrius have broken out of containment, assisted by two unknowns, at 5:30 this morning. Currently still at large."
"Fuck." Mike answered.
"My thoughts exactly." Erwin replied, formal as always. "What's Fury's status?"
"She's somewhat stable, alert but basically pissed off since the meeting and her imprisonment in your special cage. It seems her drive is slowing. Still a long way from being mobile and without King I'm not sure how we're going to get her to cooperate. I'd say primary concern is keeping her alive, in our custody, and clean from whatever drugs they've pumped into her."
"We need to up our security for King's impending attempt. What drugs?" Mike questioned.
"Now that she's stable I've been able to do a detailed assessment when she slept." Hange moved to the main desk Erwin drifted behind. "She's covered in these horribly deep scars, from what Levi told me I assume all of those are from her fall… but there's more. Underneath the bruising, there are multiple small puncture scars, located in each joint and going down her spine as well."
"What does it mean?" Erwin kept his eyes on her papers.
"She had a doctor, a skilled one at that. Her bones were cracked in multiple places, which I didn't think would make sense because under the pressure of that Titan hand, the bone would crack in one place instead of—" Hange noticed Erwin's glazed over look he always had when she went too far "well I outlined the stick experiments in the report; basically, nearly all of her major supporting bones had been broken before, they re-cracked under the pressure. For her to be able to move the way she does and live the way she has after that, there had to be a doctor setting her bones and these puncture marks are in a specific order. Considering her past I assume it's some liquid form of celebrer, the tag drug because she's ranked an S/3, but no normal has ever been able to handle that drug, especially for this long. Her tag is practically blank, with only her rank, nickname and affiliation. And she must take large doses, to have that endurance and get out of that Titan's mouth after that serious injury? Essentially, we need to find that doctor. Without that knowledge I don't know what I'm dealing with. All of this could be a complete bullshit assessment, because I'm going off of Levi's account of who she is but that's shaky too." She took a deep breath from her lengthy elaboration. "If it's celebrer…she's nowhere near stable because her withdrawal, whenever it hits, it's going to be bad, really bad. And with the amounts she's had to have as a norm—if she's a norm…" Hange paused, trying to form the rest professionally but it came out as her simple truth "I don't know how I'll keep her alive."
"Dirty fucking soldiers." King muttered as he rubbed the raw skin around his wrists. "I told you it was stupid."
"Fuck off, she's alive right? We've lost enough." Maddox quickly replied as he finished wiping the blood from his hands with his rag of a shirt.
"Gentlemen can we please get down to business?" Worick pulled at the skintight mask off, letting his long blonde hair fall back down over his shoulders. "I believe we have some similar desires." He smirked as the recognition splashed across Maddox's thin face.
"Worick Arcangelo!" He came up to him arms open to hug his old childhood friend. "Never would've thought you'd be in a sewer somewhere. Where the hell have you been the past two decades?" They quickly embraced, Maddox's spiky, light purple hair contrasting against his blonde. "I haven't seen you since…" His voice wavered as he recognized the special clinks of Nicolas's tags. He took a step back, remembering the deaf soldier clearly as the infamously short killer slid through the sewer grate to meet them.
King came up behind Maddox, his coal-black eyes silencing Maddox's worried green ones. "Who the fuck are you two and what do you want?" After a tense and brief glare down between the 6' 5" linebacker and the 5' 8" statue, Worick jumped in, eagerly shaking King's hand with both of his.
"Worick Arcangelo. Huge fan of your work sir, this is my brother, Nicolas Brown. He's deaf so—"
"I 'eard 'im." Nicolas threateningly grunted in his raspy voice, causing King's thick face to sour, twisting his two scars across his right cheekbone.
"Yes well!" Maddox chimed in, in an attempt to diffuse the bomb that was King. "We do owe you, we're in no state to refuse help." He glared back at King, emphasizing his message.
"Yes!" Worick stepped in front of Nico to cut off his side of the tension. "We are Benriya, guns for hire. Please, it's concerning Fury." Her name softened King's expression immediately; widened Maddox's eyes, and he felt Nico's exhale. Boots clinked against the road above them and they all reflexed up at the soldiers' passing shouts. King nudged Maddox with his arm who responded with a long, blank stare at Worick.
"We can trust Worick. He convinced his family to hire me when I was still Demetrius, today's the day I finally pay that debt back." Maddox finally responded with a glinting smirk to match his light green eyes.
"It's a start for all the favors you owe me, including this one." Worick chimed back trying to keep the mood light.
"Why do you care?" King interrupted the duo's exchanges, his eyes lingered on Nicolas. "How do you know her?" Maddox stiffened at this remark, earning him a glare from King. Within a second his bear paw was around Maddox's lean throat and the 6 foot man was pressed up to the wall behind him, Worick laid in the stream of shit next to Nicolas, eyes on the impressively agile giant. "I told you!" The veins in his throat popped from stress. "That fucking kid was enough of a distraction. How do they know her?!" He began shouting, his bellows echoing down the sewers. Nicolas jumped up, ready to grab his sword but Maddox saw and raised his hand to him. Worick placed a hand over Nicolas chest trust him, he mouthed.
"Old friends." Maddox choked out with a calm look in his eyes. "Before you." His paw released its grip and Maddox gripped his throat but continued, bowing slightly before the man. "It was before you found her that night. Fury used to work with these two, she has no memory of it."
"You're sure of it?" King relaxed at this, reaffirmed of his last friend's loyalty.
"Positive sir. Fury only slightly remembers her old family, and that's because of Noah's prevalence and her hatred for that Captain. Noah is therefore her only living weakness to you sir. Outside of us, she cares only for him."
"So what is it you're hoping to accomplish twilight?" The word fell sickly out of his mouth as he twisted back to him. "Stay the fuck away from my Fury."
"Nothing of the sort sir!" Worick called. "We'd like to strike a deal. We're mercenaries, we have no interest in that." His words directly juxtaposed with Nicolas's face. "You want her back right? We have a way to make that happen. We get her back, you put us on the ticket for the new world." King smiled at this and turned to Maddox.
Maddox smiled back. "Well… we are hiring."
7 Months Earlier.
Fury strolled down the Main Street of the lightest area of the underground, Chlorba, where the surface ground was the weakest where only mere strips of the cavern ceiling, supported by the old mine shaft scaffolding, remained. Her new nightmare tags clinked with sinister cheers against her chest, now outlined with a matching nightmare hood, which hid her scarred eyes perfectly behind the intricate pattern of thin metal and strong thread. The crowds parted before her easily and with no complaint, as she was unmistakable in the bright daylight: the black knight of King's creation none dared defy. Citizens looked on in an odd mix of fear and confidence of their King's soldier, but what could bring her presence? Typically, the only Renegade to enter this city was Axel, as it was his hometown.
Fury stopped short, and took their breathes with her. She cocked her head down an alleyway and subsequently waved two fingers hidden by her new, bulky forearm armor to a child, paralyzed in front of her. The child quickly slid to the side, along with the rest of the bystanders. Fury's torso slowly straightened to the angle of her head as her nose slightly twitched and the crowds of Main Street shifted behind her in anxiety.
Beams of light danced across her body as she crept to the mouth of the alley. The new hood glinted beautifully, the razor thin metal shining throughout the supple cloth that held her thin curves tightly. The same metal was crafted around her hips, creating a miniature version of 3DMG the military used but hers had no blades so the bulkiness was eliminated along with the off-putting triggers, which were fastened through special hand-made sheaths that usually adorned her arms and led the wires to her palms, functioning for her gear and as thin armor but today it was different. She wore a black plate on her back that wrapped around her front, shielding her torso while also hiding various blades and the small, thin gas containers underneath, but there were thick metal chunks underneath her forearms now. She was typically seen barefoot with long, loose pants. This was replaced with a tighter pair of black jeans suited to her long legs with a matching metallic sheen to go with her nightmare hood. Wraps of silver covered her feet and palms, each finger of her right hand remained free of cover with heavy silver rings at their core-the only known controls for her gear. The left hand was now covered in a shining, black metal that reached all the way to her fingertips, creating sharp claws at the end that completed her uniform as the finished piece. The only recognizable aspect of this tag was the short, black hairs that escaped the shadow of her hood. When the sunlight hit them they beamed a golden brown for a mere second revealing the only known characteristic of this girl.
"You. Your kind isn't welcome here." A smooth voice came from the metallic knight, addressed to the night of the alleyway. After a moment of tension, two familiar ticks of tags echoed out from the alley. With that challenge, the citizens began shifting quickly and quietly for cover but with a view. Footfalls the sound of an 8 meter began, coming closer and closer until the fine light of sunlight cut over Brock "the rock's" rotten yellow teeth.
"Little girlie..." a deep yet childish groaning emerged from his wet lips. "Let's see the rest of that pretty face." His voice quivered with inflection as the rest of his tree trunk body was shown, with a B/2 rusted tag glinting on his greasy yellow tank top that was suffocating his folds of fat.
"Is that our special guest?" The dwarf appeared, standing tall on his hump of a shoulder. "The young blood herself!" His words fell heavy with fake astonishment.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing out here anchovy?" He stiffened with anger at the name, it practically dug itself under his skin.
"Business the four fathers support, so watch your damn mouth child!"
"You stand 7 feet tall on a 6 foot stack of lard and call me the child?" Fury teased again, this time the lard himself chuckled which was met with a swift smack to the back of the large lump that sat between his shoulders. "This is King's land. The fathers have no influence here." She took another step forward, shifting the light across the tip of her nose to cover half of her lips.
"Now you wouldn't want the guild involved. I'm a contractor remember?" Anchovy had a slight tweak in his voice.
"Yes but that was never my choice." She took another step. "It was yours when you came here. I can smell your fish odor for miles and I don't like it. It bothers me..." She took another step as she unsheathed a carving knife from under her hood sleeve "and I'm a very busy girl. With a lot of work to do for these good people you're feeding off of..." The knife was horizontal between the tips of each pointer finger now, she rotated it freely "so..." She stopped with the knife now.
"You know Brock's got too much fat for you to actually hit anything vital and his strength is far worse than any Titan. So I guess we'll take our leave. Give the King my regards..."
"Fishy!" Brock repeated with a smile before Anchovy pulled backwards on his hair to bring him back to the sewers. "I want to play girlie!" He called with angst as he fought the pull.
"Shut your mouth! Stop pulling out your tags! We need to tell Sams-" but Anchovy was cut off as he flew backwards, a hook pierced through his meaty thigh. He slammed back down into the lit street and grabbed at the open wound as he screamed. He raised his head for Brock but there was nothing left to call for, Furiosa overshadowed the sprawled out dwarf, cleaning a switch-blade dagger that erupted from her right forearm.
"I- I'm a norm! You can't-" but her metal heel answered, cracking the dwarf's sternum. He tumbled to his belly coughing with blood spilling from his mouth. He turned his head to see her ankles as she walked toward him, but found something far more interesting: Brock's parts dangling around the Main Street as if he had imploded. "I—wait! I can take a—message back to—" A sickening crunch signaled the end of his plea.
"You didn't need to send that message. We could've had more fun!" Slade called from the rooftop above Fury, a slight pant to her voice. Blood red hair dangled down from her tanned skin with manic red eyes to match, she smiled with her full set of sharp white teeth—her most prized possession. She wore a basic outfit next to Fury, a simple tight black t-shirt with tight brown cargo jeans and a pair of silver A/4 tags. Straps of various explosive material crossed around her torso, each holding 12 utility pouches, her cargo jeans held many more surprises. Big utility boots clanked down next to her and Axel himself leaned out to the scene.
"You should've gotten here sooner then." Fury called up with a smile. She raised her left claw and pulled a new trigger, firing a hook to the chimney next to them, and flew up to the duo. The young blood walked between the two older tags, her head falling a few inches below Slade and a foot under Axel.
"Fury." Axel called her attention. "Never show your face in my town again." He spoke clearly as he brought his burned face back to Fury, his smooth, long brown hair covering the flaking, irritated skin, a solo green eye piercing back. His look was stern as he pulled his tattered, grey hood up over his head. He jumped down, his loose white t-shirt shifted exposing his burned stomach for a moment until he landed, his blue jeans stretched as his bare feet touched down, his A/3 tags clinked together. This was the first moment Fury recognized the scene— the citizens were frantic, some had passed out others had vomited, it was truly disgusting. They were terrified and frantic…no wonder the normally sweet kid had become so cold.
"Ignore it, he worries too much. I'll take care of this. Noah's been looking for you." Slade advised as she jumped down to meet her boyfriend. Fury didn't say a word as she turned her back on the same scene she caused many times before. Ignore it. She repeated as she shot her hooks out and kept moving.
It was night by the time she made it back home. She landed softly at the tip of the chimney and took the simple step down, rushing through the familiar chasm and rolled out at just the right time to Noah's feet. He shoved his joker coin, which he was balancing between each finger as he always did, into his pocket.
"I thought I heard footsteps." Noah chuckled as he held out his hand, which Fury playfully pushed aside.
"What are you doing here so late again? What's going on?" Fury replied in a slight rush.
"Relax. I just wanted to see how the new uniform worked out." Noah squatted down to her and began investigating the forearm daggers and personalized claw he crafted for her.
"It's tighter than what I'm used to…" Fury trailed off causing Noah to smile.
"What? Embarrassed to show you're actually a girl?" Fury smirked at his taunt. "You looked like a mess in that other outfit." He reached for a loch of her blackened hair that fell sweetly to her chin. "I still can't believe you chopped it all off, you should at least stop putting that grease on it, it's such a pretty color."
"Not happening." She gently brushed his hand away. "King likes it dark so it's harder to see." Fury felt Noah tense at his name.
"How would you want it?" Noah whispered after a moment, Fury's head turned to him, her smudged nose and chin, the only shown aspect of her face, twisted showing she was slightly confused at the remark.
"What do you mean?" Noah sighed.
"Nevermind." He quickly turned his attention back to the devices. He gently took off the claw he fashioned, next came the forearms. He carried them to the back of the large wooden shop, decorated with countless devices of every size and a special forgery, and laid them across a small clearing of a wooden table. Fury followed him and posted herself up on a wooden post next to him, tracing the scars of her right forearm. "These are disgusting Fury…" Noah's voice was heavy with disappointment, reminding Fury of Axel; she shrugged her shoulders up and crossed her arms.
"It's comes with the job." She muttered.
"You seem to enjoy it." Noah responded as he pulled god knows what from the dislodged grappling hook.
"I—" Fury started but didn't know how to finish. "I don't." She chose the answer she knew was right. Noah placed the claw device back down.
"You're a shitty liar." He spoke calmly.
"Only to you. Look your doing so well with the blood this time!" Fury tried to tease and lighten the mood but it fell flat, she sighed at Noah's indifference. "There were tags in Axel's district. I had to send a message."
"So this is your message?" Noah held up a goopy strand of pink and red and dry heaved as he threw it away.
"Yes. That's King's land, they knew that."
"Stop saying that freak's name." Noah snapped. "Don't you see how—"
"He's not a freak." Fury quickly responded. "Show some fucking respect."
"Respect?!" Noah exasperated. "Look at what your doing Kai—"
"Don't." Fury warned. "Don't start with that shit again. He saved my life."
"Some savior."
"Like yours is a fucking saint." Fury pushed off the post and quickly grabbed the right
brace.
"He's not—ugh." Noah started the same old argument. "He's trying. If you could just
see..." Fury's lip quivered with anger, quickly showing a glimpse of her beauty mark
among her black smudged face.
"Fuck you." She managed, keeping her impulses in check. "He's the reason I can't—
Let's go. Now." She quickly gave up the same old argument as well.
The night was unusually cold, a kind of cold that cut through your flesh and bones right
to the core no matter how much clothing you could muster. Noah's joints were
unbearably stiff by the time he entered Trost. The guards at this hour were passed out
drunk, Noah rolled his eyes Garrison troops. He pushed his needless fake papers back
into his deep black trench coat and shrugged his shoulders up so his long lochs would
cover his neck as a scarf, all to brace for the cold that would meet him on the other side.
He kept on his brisk walk, his footsteps echoed sharply against the stone street, traveling
through the dark, emptied streets. "Fury…" Noah whispered to the night. A small black
head popped out above the rooftops, only distinguishable against the starry night sky.
Noah smirked at his beautifully hidden sister. "I didn't mean to hurt you." A slight scoff
responded, the same one she had always called out in her tough defense. "I only want the
best for you, for us." He emphasized. "You know how I worry…"
"I know." Noah would've jumped at the sudden whisper that came loud in his ear if he
didn't know her tricks. He glanced over his right shoulder for a moment, seeing nothing
but the normal shadows. He smirked and turned back to the road ahead of him. "I have a
debt to him, a debt I will gladly pay. The risk is minimal Noah; this is me we're talking
about. Stop worrying about that and think about the reward." Her voice came whispering
from the far left now, Noah kept his course, speaking easily with the voice that might
have well been in his head.
"It's hard to think about this reward when the risk is constantly present and continuing to
grow. Plus, the risk is you." Noah threw the word right back at her.
"You're so pessimistic. Especially for someone in your place."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"You know exactly what that means. You are the benefactor in every possible outcome. You have me, Levi, the Scouts, your business… if anything ever went wrong, it wouldn't go wrong for you. There's always a positive outcome for you."
"I've put myself in this position for us Fury. You keep doing your part of the promise and I'll do mine. We stay our course, and there's truly—"
"Nothing to be afraid of." Fury finished with a clear smile against the dark of the night. Noah wrapped his arms around the small figure that appeared from thin air next to him, catching her in a sweet embrace. The easy laughs of the two cascaded down the alleyways, attracting all the wrong attention. Fury's head twitched away from Noah's chest, pounding steps came from afar that slowly softened. Before Noah could tell, the figure seemed to evaporate; he was left staring at the palms of his gloves.
"What do we have here?" A dark voice he didn't recognize started from afar. He whipped his head down the road to three large men, one with moonlit tags dangling from his chest. Fuck. Rogues. This wasn't Noah's first encounter, Trost was home to most of the wanted tags, those who refused or broke the rules of the Guild. Noah immediately tossed his hands even with his head.
"Please, let's keep this civil." Noah warned. "I'd rather not fight tonight."
"Good." A voice grumbled, the one to the right of the tag. "Let's make it quick." The meaty hand of the center tag slapped across his face, silencing him immediately.
"Who the fuck does this guy think he is? Telling us how it's going to be?" In a flash he was a few feet from Noah, blocking out the light of the moon.
"Don't. Please—" Noah begged in a whisper to the shadows as a hand whipped him up by his feet, all of his trinkets and belongings fell from his pockets, memories from his school days popped into his mind. A grumbling came from behind the tag; he craned his neck around and immediately dropped Noah at what he saw. The blood sparkled in the moonlight as it drained furiously down each crack and crevice of the stones before him. The intestines sparkled with a clearly moist texture as they spilled out, now freed from their imprisonment in his abdomen. A sickening rip replaced the remaining main's gurgling throat and the body fell limp from her hand, with an equally sickening thud. Her claw sparkled a nightmare of black and red in the moonlight as she craned her hood to the remaining tag.
"Furi—" The man began to declare in surprise but was cut off by a kick to his abdomen, that sent him flying to the right.
"Stop! Don't!" Noah called up to his sister but it wasn't her anymore, this was Fury. He closed his eyes and covered his ears at the site he knew was coming. The next thing he knew he was being carried, slung over her shoulders as she began to fly to the rooftops above. He opened his eyes to the scene below, lamps had been lit and more slowly started to burn at the commotion.
"Ignore it." Fury's whisper invaded his head but it was too late. There was a pond in the middle of the street, a thick, viscous pond that was growing bigger from three steady streams. The black liquid became ever more red with the increasing lights and Noah's body fell limp at the realization of what it truly was.
