Anyone see that "Erwin and Levi's backstory" side manga that came out the day before Thanksgiving? I did! And I used that to help a bit the this chapter. I won't lie, SnK is one of those stories where you leaner something new every time you go back and look at it. You can't get enough information!


Her eyes fluttered open as they were the first parts of her to regain feeling. She wished it stayed that way, as aches and pains began to form in parts of her body she didn't even know could feel pain. Some where from the physical exertion and being wrestled down. Others were from the new restraints binding her body.

"Blair."

As her sight came into focus, she was now able to see the blond man from before. What was his name again? Erwin?

A soft breath passed her lips in exhaustion. It turned into a moan when she leaned a little too far forward and tugged on her restraints. She was now able to see she was on her knees in a large empty courtroom. Her hands were cuffed behind her back and strapped to a strong metal pole and thin wires held her legs together.

"Blair," repeated the blonde "Do you know what happened?"

The vampire looked directly at him, having gained more composition of herself, though still swaying some "I…I tried to escape…" no use in lying, she figured.

"And then?" asked Erwin.

Blair answered bluntly "And then nothing," she said "Someone stuck a needle in me and that was the end of the show."

Erwin nodded carefully "Correct and incorrect," he said "We did sedate you, but then we contained you here to the courtroom to discuss what to do with you."

Blair's yellow eyes took a second scope around her surroundings "So I was right. This is a courtroom," she thought "They held an entire trial while I was strapped to this pole, unconscious?"

"Funny it was, since we had just had a similar trial that ended the same way," said Erwin, his shoulders bouncing some in a subtle chuckle "Seeing as you only seemed to attempt escape and didn't harm any of our soldiers, we denied the death penalty."

The last bit of cloud in Blair's mind cleared upon hearing those last two words. "While I was unconscious, they had seriously considered killing me," she thought "And I would've never seen it coming."

"But," Erwin's voice broke her out of her thoughts "Since you've seen our land, we can't allow you to return to the vampire's land."

A small whimper unintentionally escaped Blair's throat.

"However, because your vampire strength is a great advantage, we see it fit to have you fighting for our side. Along with being experimented by Hanji Zoe like we had originally planned, you will also be drafted into…"

Blair could have all the time in the world to prepare herself for the next words to come and that still wouldn't have prevented the faint shudder she uttered and the expression of both insult and fear that twisted onto her face.

"…Squad Levi."


(one week later)

Nobody had really spoken throughout the entire ride. I guess it only made sense since the sound of our horses' hooves pounding on the dirt trail would made it hard to hear each other. I personally didn't care to talk too much. The knots in my stomach made it hard to even think straight let alone form words.

"The former HQ of the Scouting Legion's nothing more than a remodeled old castle," I heard "It's only fitting to call it the headquarters because of its appearance."

I glanced past my green hood to see it was Auruo speaking beside me.

"But the fact that the HQ is miles away from the rivers and walls shows how useless they see the Scouting Legion," he said "At first, they only paid us lip service, but who would've thought this overgrown castle of an HQ would actually come in handy someday as a suitable prison to hold you in! Life's funny that way."

I didn't have a response. What response was there to have? It was a pretty dark joke if you ask me.

At some point in the ride, I couldn't help but glance back with curiosity, as I felt a weirdly heavy presence behind me. Unfortunately, my suspicions were correct as I made direct, unmistakeable eye contact with Levi. I turned my head straight back forward, probably too fast because I nearly felt the whiplash in my neck. What was he staring for?

"Don't get cocky, Eren," Aururo's voice made me jump some as he had leaned from his horse to make sure only I heard his words "Vampire power or not, just because Corporal Rivaille was put in charge of a piss poor brat like yo-"

I gasped and jumped as a brief mist of red filled the air between Aururo's lips and my face.

I looked around to see if anyone else caught on to what had happened, especially Levi, since he had been watching me. But everyone kept to their own affairs whilst Aururo held a hand to his mouth the remaining few minutes it took to get to the castle.

He was the first of us to depart from his horse and use his free hand to lead his horse to the stable. I guess he didn't want anyone to know his predicament.

Once I eased myself off of my own horse, I noticed a girl sitting on the bench right beside the stables. Her head was shrouded by a green hood like myself, but she wore hers more concealingly. I could only see the bottom of her nose, her pale lips, and her brown waves of hair pooling onto her collar bone and shining in the sun.

"Who is she?" I thought as I grabbed the reins of my horse to lead him into the stable "She doesn't seem to care too much to introduce herself."

I noticed Aururo walked to the well to wash his mouth without being seen. However, Petra was too smart for that.

"A bitten tongue is precisely what you get for chatting away while riding a horse," she said.

I didn't pay attention to the rest of their conversation because I saw the green-hooded girl suddenly jolt. I could hear her sniff in a way that was very familiar to me. It was the same sniff I would make when I smelled the bakery's fresh baked cinnamon bread.

As she looked up, her hood lifted some and I could see her bright yellow eyes beneath the shadow of her hood. She licked her trembling lips.

"Why is she looking at Aururo like that?"

Suddenly, a disappointed look crossed her face as Aururo washed away all of the blood from his hand and face. She looked absolutely starved.

"What was that all about?"

I snapped out of my thoughts when Levi brushed past me and made a beeline for the girl, Gunter and Erd following.

"Alright," he said, making us all turn our heads "You were all informed about Eren, but Erwin decided it'd be fun to add a sixth member at the last minute." The distaste in that last statement was strong.

He flipped the hood off of the girl's face, who was clearly caught off guard by the action.

Something about her looked…wrong. It sparked a small fire in my chest. It wasn't just her aura, but it was her physical appearance. Something about the way she looked was untrustworthy.

"Hanji Zoe took this vampire in to conduct experiments on it so we could improve our battle techniques," Levi explained "After it tried to escape, the court agreed that we couldn't let it go back to the vampires' land and tell them what it's seen. So we decided to make it useful and make it work as a soldier." This was the only fraction of a second where I could finally let his words sink in. "The court decided to let a vampire help us?! Our enemy?! Why would they allow that?!" I gritted my teeth.

"It's part of Squad Levi now," said the man.

"Also," the girl's voice caught us all off guard "One thing Corporal Levi forgot to mention is that I prefer to be referred to as a "she" not an "it", but please, call me Blair."

The forced professional expression on her face showed she had been waiting for an opening to correct the man on the offensive term for quite sometime now.

His eyes narrowed at her "Corporal Rivaille," he growled.

Blair nodded "Corporal Rivaille, then."

Her obedience looked like it irritated Levi even more. Even so, he turned on his heel and advanced towards the castle "The building's a bit desolated, since it hasn't been used for a long time," he then muttered "This is gonna be a problem…" he raised his voice back up to a speaking tone "Get to work, then, on the double."

Work?


Levi wrapped the second cloth over his head, unsuccessfully trying to avoid pulling his ink black hair into the knot he made behind the nape of his neck. Just as he finished this, he heard a wooden broom stick make contact with the stone floors.

The man turned to see Blair on her knees with her tongue hanging like a dog and sweat beads dripping down her face. He jolted slightly "What the hell…?"

"Levi!" Hanji, who had just paused at the doorway in time, jumped to Blair's aid. She pulled out a canteen containing a red liquid "Levi when was the last time she was given any blood?!" she scolded as Blair accepted the beverage in desperation.

"Ah, hell if I know?" he said, never experiencing a situation like this.

Hanji breathed an aggravated sigh "Don't you understand blood is like water to them? She'll get dehydrated!" she then led her over to the couch on the other side of the room "Especially since they're nocturnal and they're not used to being out in the sun's heat and you're making her clean this humid castle?!"

Levi honestly didn't know how to react to the woman's rambling beyond raising his brow.

Hanji eased Blair onto her back and unbuttoned her shirt "That should cool her off some," she said to herself; the first quiet thing she said.

"If she needed blood, she should've said something," said Levi.

"She probably didn't see it coming!" defended Hanji "Don't you know what it's like to be overheated?"

In all honesty, Levi had never experienced such a problem. The worst scenarios he ever encountered with temperature often involved extreme cold.

"Open the window," requested Hanji "Thank god Erwin let me come with you. You would've killed her on the first day."

With an irritated twitch of his brow, Levi opened the window and let in the fresh air. Just then, a third voice broke the heated debate "I'm finished with cleaning the upper floor, sir."

He turned to see it was Eren at the door frame.

"May I ask where my place to sleep is?" Eren asked.

Levi, tired of speaking through the cloth over his mouth, pulled it down and said "Your room is in the dungeon with Blair."

Eren, ironically mimicked his action with his own cloth "Huh? Another dungeon?"

"Of course, you've got no control over yourself, after all," blandly said Levi "If you turn into a vampire in your sleep, you'll be easily restrained in the dungeon. That's one of the conditions we accepted when you were released to us; the rules we must hold up."

The casualty of Levi's words forced Eren to stare at him for a moment, an uneasy feeling forming in his chest. He hardly even noticed Levi advancing in his direction, saying "I'll go check the rooms you cleaned. You start cleaning here."

"Yes, sir."

Eren solemnly looked over at Blair, whom Hanji was so caught up tending to, she didn't even care to acknowledge the dialogue or Eren's presence.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, much better. Thanks."

Eren's eyebrows fringed "Why do I have to share a cell with that monster? I mean, it's not like I'm a full-blown vampire like her," he thought sourly "She's not even cleaning with us…"

"You look upset," Petra's soft presence didn't startle Eren as she entered the room, broom in hand "It's not rare for people to get upset after talking to him. He's not what people expect to see, you know. He doesn't look like the flawless hero they imagine. He's short, unexpectedly tense, rude, unapproachable, neat-freak-"

"Actually…" Eren felt like if he didn't say something now, the girl would go on forever "What I didn't expect out of him is that he obeys his superiors' orders without objection."

"You thought because he was strong and influential, he wouldn't care about things like ranking and the chain of command?" questioned Petra.

"Yeah," said Eren "He doesn't seem like the type of person the submit to orders."

"Well, I'll let you in on a little rumor," said the girl, softening her voice "I heard that before he joined the Scouting Legion, he was a widely renowned thug in the underground circles of the capital. From what I hear, Erwin gave him the option of either arrest or joining the military…" she leaned close to Eren's ear "…the same way he did with Blair."

"Hey Eren."

Petra jumped and quickly found a spot in the room to start sweeping as Levi entered the room.

"Y-Yes sir!" replied Eren, just as surprised.

"That won't do," said Levi "Go and redo the room."


At the dinner table that night, everyone felt different levels of discomfort having Blair sit with them. Petra was nearly shivering sitting right beside the girl who peacefully sipped from the tea cup.

Of course, each member tensed up upon passing Blair in the hallways of the castle throughout the day, but now that they were all forced to sit at one place, the tension only amplified.

Eren could've used the transferred tension to feel glad that no one was paying as much attention to him anymore, but alas, his own wariness of Blair clouded his mind.

"Though we're under orders to stand by for a few more days, I heard that a large-scale expedition to the outer lands is being planned," said Erd, in an attempt to focus on something other than the vampire "And in addition, freshly graduated recruits will join us in it."

"It's too soon," said Gunter "Not to mention that they just survived the vampires' attack the other day."

"I bet their blood ran cold, right Blair?" said Aururo.

Blair simply moved the cup a centimeter away from her lips and said "Haha, I'm choking," dryly.

"Is that true, Corporal?" asked Petra "About the expedition?"

"Strategizing isn't my job. It's Erwin's," his eyes gazed into his tea as if he could see the reflection of the very man in its contents.

"True, the dynamics have changed," said Erd "The plan for Wall Maria's recovery we sacrificed so much for is gone, but at the same time, the new plan is unlike anything we've ever been given."

Blair and Eren knew Erd was looking at them as he said this. It was only a matter of what he wanted to ask them next.

"I still can't believe it, but…how does it feel to "become a vampire"?"

Blair was tempted to say "Why don't you ask me?" but how could she supply an answer never knowing what it was like not to be a vampire?

She looked to Eren along with the rest of the table.

"My memories of the times I transformed aren't very reliable," he said apprehensively "But I can say it's something similar to being in a feverish state," he raised his hand up to chest level "To transform, I need to drink blood. So I bite my hand and…"

He stopped halfway, staring at his hand "Huh?" he thought "How come I know for sure that I need to drink blood to transform?"

"You should all know this already," said Levi, scooting back in his chair "You won't get anything new outta him unless Hanji wrote it in the reports. Her monkeying around with it may be the death of it."

Blair finally put down her cup "May I remind you I have a name?"

Levi leaned back in his chair "May I remind you you're under my custody." No question in his voice.

Tension rose in the air again.

Personally, Eren didn't really like Blair disrespecting Levi. "She's too cocky," he thought.

"Hey Blair," said Aururo shamelessly "Who's neck did you have to bite to get that?" his eyes darted at the cup of red liquid remaining left.

"First of all, I bite no one's neck," said Blair, folding her hands on the table "We harvest our blood from animals and market it. Hanji went out today to gather rabbit blood for me."

That answer only seemed to frightened the rest of the table even more.

"Oh please," she said, not satisfied with the tension "You can harvest milk from cows and goats and it's fine, but we harvest blood from rabbits and it's suddenly a crime?"

"Yeah, way too cocky for her own good," thought Eren.

Levi abruptly sighed and said "I don't see how Erwin expects me to shove three years of training in the shortest amount of time we can muster."

"That's right," said Erd, turning to Blair "You never did get any training."

Aururo clicked his tongue "How is she supposed to fight with us, then?" he asked "We don't have three years."

Petra raised a finger as a signal to put in her two cents "Actually, from what Hanji told me, vampires have twice the speed, strength, stamina and endurance humans have," she said shyly "And since most of the training is to build our physical states, she's already prepared for that. As for vampire facts, well, I think she would know about her own body, right Blair?"

Blair nodded.

Petra turned to Levi "I can teach her combat and how to use 3D maneuver gear, sir, if you permit it."

Blair blinked in surprise. She could've sworn this girl was terrified of her. She had sure been shivering a lot, but now, the shivering seemed to cease.

Eren, on the other hand, was shocked to see Levi's usually expressionless eyes actually showed he was digesting the information presented. Was he actually considering this option?

"Alright Petra, I don't see anything wrong with this," he said.

The ginger smiled.


I couldn't sleep with her rustling about in bed. "Good god, just go to sleep already! Isn't she tired from the cleaning?" then I remembered "Oh yeah, she got "over heated" and had to lay down all day."

Finally, I heard a final creak and footsteps.

I sat up in bed to see she was walking out of the room.

"Where are you going?" I whispered.

She turned around, startled by my voice.

Good.

"I can't sleep," she said "If anyone asks, I'll be on the rooftop checking out the stars."

She didn't stop walking as I uttered "Checking out the- no wait!" I leaped from the bed and grabbed her arm "You shouldn't do that."

"Why not?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"Look, everyone is already scared of us. So just obey orders," I said "Especially from the corporal."

Blair slid out of my grip and faced me directly "Calm down, Eren. Levi said he wanted you to sleep in the dungeon in case you transform in your sleep," she said "They already know I'm nocturnal, so I get a free pass not to sleep."

"That doesn't mean they don't want you to stay down here while they're sleeping!" I protested "What if you go rogue?"

Blair frowned "Don't go around acting like I'm an animal," she said "Especially since you're the one who goes under some crazy transformation."

"Would you two shut up."

Both teenagers jumped at the sight of Levi's feet at the top of the stairs with an oil lamp bringing in more light "My room is the closest and I can hear everything you're saying," he griped "Hey Blair, if you're so bored, why don't you let Hanji put you under the knife? She's awake, y'know and she told me to bring her to you if she's still up at night."

The vampire sighed "Now he decides to call me Blair."


This chapter may have been a bore to some of you since this mirrors that of Chapter 20, but that was kinda the point. Blair was inserted at certain moments to trigger scenes. For example, we all remember the scene where Levi opens the window. Well, because of Blair's role, I actually gave him a reason to open the window. Bye~!