Chapter 4: Skyfall

If there was one thing Captain Erwin had learned in his career as a Scout, it was to be ready for anything. So when a ten-meter Abnormal came dashing at full speed towards the center of the formation, a single undersized soldier left on its back, he was prepared.

Levi's teeth chattered together and he bit his tongue more than once, such was the force of the Titan's running. It felt as though his eyeballs were being shaken from his head and the goddamn thing was trying to knock his brain against the inside of his skull.

Managing to wrap his fingers around the trigger of his ODM gear, Levi was able to swing freely, which lessened the bumping somewhat.

He could focus on the weak spot now, if he could only . . . yes! He shot his grappling hooks into the monster's bicep, at a perfect angle to slice out the nape.

And the Titan stopped, whipped around faster than it should have been able to, and snatched Levi right out of the air.

It had not forgotten about him nor dismissed him as a threat, it had only been unconcerned with him until its life was in danger.

Darkness pressed in on Levi as the Titan's fist closed around him. And then there was nothing but pressure. Dark, sweaty pressure from the palm of the beast on all sides. His arms were pinned to his sides; he could not swing his swords. He could not do anything. This was the end.

The ODM gear went first with the sound of a crushing metal. His remaining smoke cartridges popped, smothering him and contaminating whatever free air there was left. A sharp bit of ODM poked him through the side.

Then his shoulders, and he could hear the snap as both of them dislocated. His cry of pain came out as nothing but a grunt.

His chest would be next, he knew. He'd be crushed to pulp in a Titan's hand, and he'd come out looking exactly like Boris had with his bones sticking out and his eyeballs to the sky.

On the verge of blacking out, Levi couldn't make sense of what happened next. The pressure stopped suddenly, there was bright sunlight against his eyelids. And then a jarring thump against the ground as he bounced out of the now limp hand.

The pain the jolt brought to his shoulders was enough to clear Levi's head. The rest of the Abnormal hit the ground with an almighty crash. A horse's corpse was to Levi's right, and then from his left a tall figure came into view, blond and heavy-browed. He slung Levi over his shoulder seemingly without effort at all. The pain in his shoulders was dulling now, the green of Erwin's cloak blending with the blood-soaked grass before everything went black.

…

Again, Levi was awoken by pain in his right shoulder. He nearly cried out but the noise stuck in his throat as the pain suddenly began to die.

The smell hit him first. There was that scent of old boot leather mixed with ODM grease and laundry detergent.

He was in the Cadet school. In the laundry room.

"Hey kid." A middle aged woman entered Levi's field of vision, hair pulled back and wearing a white apron that was stained with red streaks. "You awake now?"

"Yes." Levi replied shortly as she placed both her hands on his left shoulder.

"It's gonna hurt." She added helpfully, "You shoulda just stayed asleep a little while longer."

She began to put pressure on it, trying to roll his shoulder back into its socket. It felt like a white-hot knife was slicing into the joint. Levi bit his tongue hard to keep from yelling and tasted blood. Then there was a popping sound and the shoulder gave, pain fading at once and relief washing over him.

"There now." The nurse stepped back, her work finished, "They'll be sore for a while but you're a wimp if you complain." And with that, she turned her back on him and moved to the next patient.

After a moment, Levi sat up and looked around. Injured soldiers covered the floor, some sleeping, some awake, and some looking dangerously pale. Slowly, he got to his feet and made his way to the whitewashed wall, leaning against it for support. Several nurses dotted the room and more than a few young people who might have been volunteer Cadets. And there was another smell he hadn't recognized before; antiseptic.

Suddenly, the scent of sanitizer and rubbing alcohol was more than he could take. Stumbling away, Levi found himself in the hallway where the air was clearer. He reached for the first person who walked past, and when she turned he recognized her.

Only a month had passed since he'd been a Cadet alongside Petra, but so much had happed since then and it felt more like a year.

"Levi?" she was carrying a bucketful of soaked bandages, he saw.

"What's going on?" he asked hoarsely, "Why are we at the Academy?"

Petra gave him a strange look, exactly like the one she'd given him at their induction. "You haven't heard?" she asked quietly.

"Heard what? I was out all the way back." Levi explained irritably, feeling that he was exposing weakness to admit that he'd blacked out.

"Wall. . ." Petra seemed to stumble over the word, then found herself again. "Wall Maria has fallen."

"Don't joke about shit like that!" Levi snapped after a moment of comprehension, angered that a twerpy little Cadet could make light of such a grim topic, "You haven't seen a Titan! You don't know what they look like or what they can do! You haven't watched how they can pick someone up and –"

"Levi, I'm not kidding!" it was only when she balled the bandages in her white-knuckled fist and her voice broke that Levi began to believe her. "They came through Shiganshina." She bit her lip and water pooled in her eyes. "Wall Maria. . .everything between Wall Rose and Wall Maria has been abandoned. The refugees have been coming in nonstop, we've been working since last night. So many. . ." Petra squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, "So many are dead."

With a last glance in his direction, she continued into the laundry room while Levi sagged against the wall. His mind still refused to process it. Thousands dead, Shiganshina in ruins – he had been in Shiganshina twenty-four hours ago waiting for the gate to open.

Wall Maria . . . is gone?

And then Boris's face came back to him again. They had known each other for three hours, but in a world where boys with little sisters could be flattened like pancakes at any moment, three hours was a lot to speak of.

What sort of hell do we live in?

And then,

The Titans will die. All of them will be conquered.

…

After twelve hours, the Scouts departed for Headquarters. Whoever was not fit to leave was left behind to return at a later date.

An air of solemnity hung over the entire interior. The Survey Corps travelled in somber silence, and it was broken only by the cries of civilians whose loved ones had been lost.

At one point in a small district known as Hoshira a gray-haired woman made her way down the line, a pair of twins and a blue-eyed girl trailing behind her. When she got to Levi the woman did the same as she had done to everyone else before him.

"Please," she took one of his hands in both of hers, "Have you seen my son? Boris? Boris Fuller? He's tall, black hair . . . freckles?"

It was a moment before Levi could bring himself to look at her, and then onto the identically apprehensive twins, and then into the clear blue eyes. His face said it all, he knew.

And the woman cried.

more Petra action next chapter, I promise! hope you enjoyed, don't forget to review!

for this is the end

I've drowned and dreamt this moment

so overdue I owe them

swept away i'm stolen

- Adele, Skyfall