These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.
A/N:
Thanks so much for all the reviews, favorites and follows. I truly appreciate them, and as those of you who have reviewed know, I always respond to your questions and comments via private message.
If you like this story, you might also like my new D. Gray-Man/Karneval Crossover story, It's Not What You Think, which is posted in the D. Gray-Man section – not as a crossover – because comparatively few people have seen Karneval (a fantastic series, which I highly recommend!). I'll be posting a new chapter of that story every Thursday as well, so please take a look and let me know what you think!
It's Not What You Think:
D. Gray-Man/Karneval Crossover. The Black Order is devastated when Kanda, Allen, Lavi and Lenalee vanish days apart. Circus is left reeling when Gareki's search for Yogi and Nai ends in disaster. When Mana Walker's and Marian Cross's pasts collide with the children of Ship Two's futures, Chief Komui, and Captains Hirato and Tsukitachi stand to lose everything they hold dear.
Chapter 11 – A Hunting I Will Go
Armin ate his breakfast without really tasting anything, though he was sure it was as delicious as it smelled. Someone had wanted to kill Mikasa, and nearly killed Sasha and Connie instead. It was the poisoning on base all over again: they'd thought they were safe, in no danger, and some stranger had attacked them. At least this time the immediate motive was clear: greed. But who wanted Mikasa dead that badly, and why? Was it because she was such a good Scout? Was there a poster out there with Levi's face on it, too? Or Eren's or Erwin's?
Everyone was eating with grim attention, rather than gusto, their wary eyes seeking danger in every stranger's face. After breakfast, Armin saw that Douglas tried to return Erwin's payment for their stay, but Erwin wouldn't accept it. He assured Douglas he didn't blame him for the attack against them, and that he shouldn't blame himself.
Douglas presented them with a half dozen bags, lunch for all of them for the road, that he and his wife had prepared for them, and insisted Erwin accept the gift. Erwin did so, shaking the man's hand, and hugging his wife, who was fluttering about agitatedly. Armin felt bad, that they'd somehow brought trouble to such nice people. He was glad they were leaving, so they wouldn't be in any danger.
They were all wearing their cloaks, and everyone but Levi and Connie donned their hoods before emerging outside, since Levi was using his cane and Connie his crutches, he, Eren, Mikasa and Sasha shuffling around in a pattern, as the Commander had instructed, since they were all nearly the same height, in case there were bowmen lying in wait, or snipers, in spite of the guards Erwin had posted in the yard. They'd be traveling hard and fast this morning, getting as far away from the inn as quickly as possible, cutting cross country, instead of sticking to the road. The pace would be hard on both Levi and Connie, but they'd reach Stohess before nightfall. Not that they'd be safe there, even inside the Garrison base: 5,000 silver was a fortune some soldiers would betray their oaths for.
The greatest danger lay closest to the inn, and once they reached Stohess. They didn't expect trouble in between, but Armin knew better than to be optimistic. Optimism got you killed.
0 0 0
Levi scanned every centimeter of the stable for danger as they entered. "Eren, I want you and Mikasa to switch horses, just in case they found out which one's hers. Chances are, if they shoot you, no matter where they hit you, you'll survive it."
"That's brilliant," Eren agreed wholeheartedly, without a hint of sarcasm, as desperate to protect Mikasa as he was.
They packed their supplies on their packhorses, after Levi paranoidly checked the packed lunches and was convinced they were harmless, unless they were poisoned. To be certain they weren't, he ate a few bites out of one of the sandwiches. That way, he'd be the only one at risk. Then they mounted up and rode out.
"We need to get off this fucking road," Levi snarled, as soon as they left the deceptively scenic and idyllic looking inn behind, and hit the road. "Armin, Eren and Sasha, I want you to keep your hoods over your heads, concealing your faces, like Mikasa. The rest of you, doff your hoods. This way, an assassin has four potential targets, while the rest of us don't lose our peripheral vision."
"No way! You're not endangering Sasha specifically just to protect Mikasa!" Connie snapped furiously.
"Don't be an idiot, Connie. Of course I will, Levi. I'd never let Mikasa get hurt, when I could help you protect her," Sasha assured him, as she pulled her hood further forwards.
"Fuck. I hate this. I hate that I'm the one endangering you, this time," Levi growled helplessly.
"You're not. Whoever distributed those posters is. I only wish Connie and I hadn't killed him, so you could have questioned him," Sasha apologized.
"Tch. Someone tries to knife you, you take them out. Don't ever apologize for protecting yourself. Don't ever hesitate, either. Someone else attacks us, we stop them, fucking kill them to do it, if that's what's safest. We'll find out who's behind this either way, without endangering anyone more than they have to be. So no hesitating, understand?" Levi challenged, looking her dead in the eye, to make sure she got it.
"I won't hesitate, Levi. I won't let them hurt me, or Mikasa, or Hange. I'm not just a thief, I'm a hunter, remember? I've killed men before last night: poachers and bandits. You don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself," she assured him, meeting his gaze unflinchingly, though he knew her eyes were far warmer than his own.
"Good. Because I'm not losing anyone from my Squad. Or Erwin and Hange," he said, as they began cutting across the open terrain. They could double back to the road later. For now, they needed to be unpredictable.
He'd been glad before that they hadn't taken the main road to the Stohess and the Capital, so Armin, Eren and Mikasa would be spared from seeing that copse of trees they'd camped in again, where they were attacked, and those now dead Olympian medics had tended to them, but now he wished they'd gone that way.
What the fuck was wrong with people? First the brats were attacked on their way to the Capital, then the Corps was poisoned, and now someone was targeting Mikasa? Didn't those fucking idiots realize the Corps was the only thing standing between them and the Titans? Well, the Garrison, too, but they could only do so much, from behind the safety of the Walls. Still, he had a hell of a lot more respect for them, since Pixis had given them the Olympians and Nachtwolven, even if it did mean he'd been immersed in fucking Greek ever since.
He'd never thought revealing that little sliver of his past to Pixis the night he broke into his office all those years ago would come back to bite him in the ass so painfully. Of course, Pixis didn't know the full truth. He had no idea why he'd been rifling through his office, what he'd hoped to find. Levi would have felt guilty about keeping the fact that they were related from the old man, except the fucker had hidden the fact he had another cousin he'd never known about: Hypatia.
Of course, if Levi had known about Hypatia, Kenny would have too, and then she likely would have been dead, or maybe just wished she was, if she had the misfortune of looking anything like his mother. Levi hadn't gotten a good look at her face under the cloak, when he'd fought her men in the Underground. Kenny had been obsessed with Melena, right up to and beyond the day he killed her. It didn't matter that just that once it hadn't been Kenny's own knife that had ended her: Kenny was still the reason his real father had kicked him and his mother out, the reason his mother had sought refuge in the Underground and been attacked and died there, and the reason Levi had been relentlessly tortured by that sadistic bastard, turning the idyllic first seven years of his life into a nightmarish hell for the next eleven.
"I did it for you, Levi, because you're my son. The world is a hard, cruel place, and the Walls won't last forever. Now, when they come crashing down, you'll be one of the few who survive."
"Shut the fuck up!" Levi snarled, trying to get that lying asshole's voice out of his head.
"Levi?" Erwin asked over the pounding hoofbeats.
Levi realized to his humiliation that he'd actually yelled the futile command aloud this time. "Nothing. Forget it," Levi yelled back, forcefully burying the impotent fury he always felt when thinking about the psychotic, sociopathic monster who'd raised him.
0 0 0
Armin was concerned when in the middle of the afternoon, as they were debating stopping for lunch, Sasha pointed out circling vultures ahead and to the right, apparently above the road they'd abandoned.
Erwin frowned, staring off into the distance, as if he might be able to see what lay through the trees just by willing it hard enough. "We won't risk Ackerman, but as Scouts, we can't just ignore circling carrion birds. It could be people or animals in distress, wounded but alive, or a trap to lure us or someone else, or possibly a trap for us that someone else sprang. Yeager, Arlert, Blouse, Kirstein, take a look. Kirstein, you're in charge. Use your judgment before you act, and report back," Erwin ordered.
"Yes sir!" they cried in unison. Armin could see Jean was surprised and pleased to be put in command. Armin darted a quick glance at Levi and saw his jaw clench in frustration and concern, knowing he was being left out of the scouting mission because of his injury.
"Sir! Request permission to join them!" Connie cried.
"No, Springer. I selected the Scouts I did and the number I did for a reason," Erwin replied coolly.
"Yes sir," Connie said tersely. He looked like he was barely containing his anger and frustration at watching his best friend and girlfriend leave without him.
Armin empathized with him, as he turned his horse to head out. He knew Mikasa was feeling just as powerless. But Connie was wounded and Mikasa a target. They would both be more liability than asset to them.
"Wait!" Hange called, rifling through the packs on one of her packhorses.
"No fucking dynamite," Levi snapped.
"No, but I thought it might be a good idea for them to have a silent long range weapon, since if it's people and not animals, they may have rifles, and although you do too, depending upon the situation, you might need a stealthier way of taking out some snipers," Hange said, as she produced one of the bows she'd brought, and two quivers of arrows, and handed them to Sasha.
"Thanks, Hange," Sasha said sincerely, caressing the bow. "It's beautiful. Excellent workmanship."
Hange grinned. "At least someone appreciates me."
"Quit dawdling and move out. Just don't get yourselves killed, shitty brats," Levi cautioned, his unique, signature version of wishing them luck.
"We'll be careful," Armin promised, and then they were off, heading for the vultures.
"Let me take point, when we get nearer. I can dismount and scout ahead. If there are tracks, I can maybe see how many men there might be, or what kind of animals," Sasha said confidently.
"Alright. But no heroics and no risks," Jean ordered.
"I'll be careful," she promised.
They kept heading cross country, instead of going onto the road from either above or below the trouble and moving down or up the road, hoping to surprise any potential attackers. When they were half a kilometer away, Sasha signaled to them and dismounted. She strapped on both quivers, one over each shoulder, carefully checking to make sure neither blocked the gas nozzles or would impede her maneuver gear in any other way, and then strung the bow and slung it onto her back, so she could either access it or ditch it quickly. Then she was off, slipping into the sparse trees on foot with remarkable skill and speed, vanishing in front of their eyes, in spite of the glaring white pants which should have betrayed her position.
"Please go with her. Keep her safe," Jean whispered to Armin's surprise, a quiet prayer to whichever God he worshipped. Armin thought Jean's parents were Christian, from the few things he'd mentioned about them, but he wasn't sure, and he knew at one point there had been numerous different sects of that single religion. He should ask Jean to teach him about his religion. He didn't have one of his own, and he was fascinated by the concept that there might be some powerful being, possibly even stronger than Eren, on their side. Also, he wanted to know everything about Jean, to be the best lover he could be.
0 0 0
Jean was surprised and relieved when his whispered urging to Marco appeared to work, as he felt Marco's chill presence leave. Marco had been notably absent while he was on guard duty last night in the hall with Commander Erwin, but he'd made his presence known again in the morning, to both his dismay and relief. Marco had been a quiet, bashful man in life, and he was even more shy as a spirit. Jean didn't know if Marco's ghost could actually do anything to protect Sasha, except maybe at least come back to him and warn him if Sasha was in trouble. If his ghost was real. Which he couldn't be, right?
Jean felt like an idiot, until unexpectedly, Acorn tossed his head and snorted, his withers shivering, as he watched Sasha's departing back vanish into the trees. Jean eyed his horse in speculation. Acorn was acting like someone who had the heebie jeebies, expressing his relief that the source of his apprehension had unexpectedly vanished. Children and animals were supposed to be more sensitive to ghosts than adults. Did that mean that Acorn actually sensed Marco too? The thought both reassured and alarmed him, because it could mean he wasn't actually crazy, and Marco's spirit was truly present. But that would conversely mean Marco's spirit really wasn't in heaven, where he belonged. But he needed to stop thinking about it and pay attention to his surroundings. "Keep an eye out for trouble. We can't assume we're safe back here," Jean voiced his concern aloud.
"Got it," Armin said.
Armin's steadfast support of his every action was comforting. It was like having Marco back, in a way, and the thought made him feel guilty. No one could replace Marco, not even Armin. But Marco had liked Armin too, while they were alive. Shit, would Marco and Armin have eventually gotten together, because I was too stupid? The thought made his chest hurt. He wasn't sure if he was more jealous of Marco or of Armin, or just because he would have been alone, while they were happy.
"She'll be careful, Jean," Armin said, apparently seeing his mood and misinterpreting it.
"Yeah. She almost never gets caught," he agreed, the "almost" making him shiver. What if whoever might be under those vultures is as good as Levi?