yay for chapter 7!
enjoy. review. thank you.
Chapter Seven: Capture
Levi snapped the belt buckle of his ODM gear closed and shoved his blades into their sheaths with a schhick noise.
"Is this your first mission?" Rush asked Petra, who shook her head.
"Second." She whispered. Her freckles stood out against the whiteness of her face.
"Well I guess you're pretty good." Rush assured her, "Otherwise they wouldn't have put you on this mission."
Petra nodded as though convincing herself.
"Let's go." Levi swung his right leg over Wynona's back, careful not to let his fuel tanks sit in a position where they would chafe her flanks.
Wearing a determined expression that may or may not have been genuine, Petra clambered onto her horse.
"Straighten your collar." Levi told her, "It's sticking up."
"Oh – sorry." Petra straightened her collar and the group set off at a gallop towards the southeast, Nate leading the way.
It wasn't long before Levi spotted the Titan. The old flicker of fear made a grab for his heart, but adrenalin quenched it, even as Wynona's reins grew slick with sweat from his palms.
Stop being a wimpy-ass motherfucker, Levi. Levi snapped at himself, glancing at Hange as her glasses flashed in the sun. Hange's not afraid, and you can't let her be better than you.
"Remember Nate's plan of attack!" Hange yelled over the noise of the Titan's running, "Rush, you have the Zoebond?"
"Got it!" Rush held up a coil of the material.
Hange nodded. "If we stick to the plan, we should be alright! And whatever you do, don't kill it!"
The Titan was almost upon them, and with every step the earth trembled, rattling Levi's teeth. He looked to his right at the stony Kathleen, and to his left at Petra, who was trying to hide the trembling of her hands. "Ready?"
Both women nodded. Levi stood up in his saddle, and waited till the Titan was within ODM range. "Now!"
Hange and Rush shot to the sides, lugging their coils of Zoebond. Kathleen and Nate went towards the feet; their job was to cut the inside knees or Achilles tendons of the beast and bring him to the ground. Levi and Petra debatably had the most dangerous job. They were to go right for the face as distractions while the others did their work.
Nate had designed the plan for speed and efficiency, and Levi told himself it would be over quickly. But he still had to swallow down his panic as he launched his cables into the thing's neck and flew straight towards its face.
Two years you've been doing this Levi. And you're still fucking afraid every time you see a Titan. Get over yourself and do the job. Move around as much as you can. Make yourself a target.
Petra whizzed for the Titan's eyeball with a war cry, dodging his clumsy fingers. Waving his swords extravagantly, Levi swung back and forth around shoulder height. The Titan swiped for him and missed.
At that point the Titan suddenly dropped to one knee with a roar – either Kathleen or Nate had succeeded in taking out a leg. On the way down, it snatched Petra right out of the air, hand moving like lightning. With a cry, she was tossed towards the gaping black mouth.
SHIT!
With no time to think, Levi made a risky move, dashing from the Titan's shoulder to cross to its opposite shoulder. Midway he managed to catch Petra, but their combined weight strained the ODM cables that were meant for Levi's weight group. Together they plummeted, clinging tightly to one another in a quite undignified manner. One of Petra's fuel tanks had been crushed in the Titan's grip and petrol stained her right side – her uniform would be ruined for good, and new ones were expensive. It rubbed off on Levi's pants, but he'd no time to think about stained clothing as he saw the Titan's hand coming straight for them.
Memories of Levi's first mission rose to the surface of his mind as the fingers closed around them. A moment later, they were dropped with an accompanying howl of pain, one of Petra's blades sticking straight out of the Titan's palm.
At the same time there was a shriek and a dark-haired figure went flying through the air, having been kicked by a thrashing foot. Nate landed in the branches of a tree, which somewhat broke his fall as he tumbled to the ground and was still.
"Nate!" someone exclaimed anxiously. Levi could feel his cables unhooking from the Titan's skin. They were going to fall.
"My cables are going to give if we're both on here." He said through gritted teeth, "Petra, I'm gonna drop you, do you think you can slice the back of his knee on your way down?"
Without waiting for a reply, Levi dropped her, completely slicing off three of the Titan's fingers that followed Petra in her descent.
At its knee, there was a flash of blade and a spray of red. The Titan fell again, teetering as it was about to topple forward.
"Levi! Look out!" Hange warned. Levi leaped out of the way just as the monster crashed to the ground. Petra's horse wasn't so lucky.
"Patrick!" Petra wailed, rushing towards the spot where her horse had been. Levi yanked her back by the hood fiercely.
"Idiot!" he snarled. Petra twisted in his grip, but to no avail.
"What the hell – let me go!"
"You were heading straight for his teeth!" Levi hissed, glancing towards the monster's gnashing teeth. With a shove, he let go of Petra's hood.
"But . . . Patrick . . ." she whimpered, though she stayed where she was. ". . . Patrick . . .?
"There's one rule you must live by if you're a Scout." Levi watched Hange and Rush finish tying the knots of the Titan's bonds, and then over to the tree where Kathleen was helping Nate up from the ground. Nate's arm was bent unnaturally at the elbow, and his glasses hung from one ear, a single lens still intact. "You mustn't ever get attached to anyone or anything. Not your mission, not your horse . . . and especially not your comrades."
Levi bites himself in the butt with that line -.-
oldsoul