She got no sleep as Erwin had advised. She was afraid of what the other soldiers in Levi's squad would think of her. She didn't know how the squad leaders would respond to her proposal. She knew that even if they accepted and implemented her ideas, she would be painting a target on her back for her peers. She paced her cramped quarters thinking about what to present to the captains tomorrow morning after what was certain to be a gruesome four hour training.
Long before dawn, as she made her way to the training grounds, Rachel forced herself to remember how important it was that she had faith in her comrades. She was confident in her abilities she learned both outside the walls and in the underground city. She could befriend anyone as easily as she could kill them. The titans were nothing but a nuisance for a person as tactically trained as her.
Since she had been rescued, though, she had been told that any mission attempted singlehandedly was doomed to fail. It was the type of pride and narcissism that she was suppressing that made her insufficient, and it caused her to blame herself for that man's death. She was reminded of how she didn't deserve to live in this cruel, beautiful world. She loved everything so deeply and hated herself twice as much.
She was pulled from her thoughts by the loud shrieking of an owl concealed in the silhouette of dusk. She thought she had been the first to arrive at the grounds and decided to take the time to follow a set of paw prints left by a pair of raccoons. She wandered deeper and deeper into the undergrowth of the forest surrounding the training grounds until her attention was arrested by the yelling of her comrades.
"Rachel!" Gunther, such a considerate man. He called in order to prevent her from making an even larger fool of herself. Levi had instructed Gunther, Eld, and Aururo to hide a good distance away from where they were scheduled to meet in order to "observe" the peculiar woman.
"G-good morning!" She nervously smiled as she erected herself, spinning around and placing her hand on the back of her head to prevent fidgeting. She spoke in a light, airy tone.
"What the hell are you doing?" Levi grumbled as he stepped to the edge of the path, being careful to avoid the bushes.
"Um, do you mind, Heichou?" She whispered and pulled a finger to her lips as she pointed to the base of a massive sequoia directly behind her. The men looked at each other perplexedly. Eld took the bait. He walked awkwardly through the thorny shrubs to get to Rachel.
"Watch out. There's poison ivy less than a half meter to your right." She reached out her hand as he approached in order to guide him through the thicket.
"Th-thanks." His eyes strained to adjust to the area Rachel had been pointing and his mouth made a wide gaping motion as the little objects came into focus. His gasp from the darkness of night received Aururo's crude remark.
"What is it? D'she take off her shirt?" No one laughed at his joke; he simply received a cross glance from Levi.
"It had babies!" Eld's voice was childlike and he beckoned the other men with his arms.
He was furious. They were supposed to be out here coordinating and practicing, integrating a new member into the most esteemed squad of the Survey Corps, and they were playing boy scout. He stormed through the thicket without even looking at his feet, eyes glazed over trying to conceal the rage that wanted to escape them. He walked past both Rachel and Eld and stopped only feet before the crook of the tree's roots. He lowered his gaze disgustedly.
"These would make great practice for dissecting titans… especially since none of you seem to realize just how important this training is..." His sadistic aura frightened the four fuzzy raccoons huddled under their mother's girth and the two soldiers retreated quickly to form a line with Aururo and Gunther in the clearing.
They first explained the basic formations to Rachel verbally, and then painstakingly ran them over and over and over again. There was no chance of these formations succeeding unless every member gave 110 percent. Every run of the formations was pitiful the first few times because Rachel, with all her strength, couldn't perfect the balance of timing and maneuvers. She had forgotten what it was to be weak. Her head that normally held itself with pride was now groveling in its insufficiencies. Every time the formation failed, Levi would either throw her or kick her onto the forest floor, whichever was more convenient for him.
She had severely underestimated the Corps and the power of teamwork, and was so intent on keeping up, she failed to notice the transfiguration of dusk into mid-morning and only listened to the birds once the training had been called to a close and she lay exhausted on the dew-soaked grass.
"Take a break. You have tomorrow off. Wednesday we meet here again, same time." Levi huffed before he walked off towards the castle.
…
She could hardly hold her head straight enough to speak, let alone present a reformation plan to all of her senior officers. She hovered over the waste basket in the bathroom, emitting any nerves and breakfast she had possessed. As she stood and tried to straighten herself, the door opened confidently.
"Heyy! I wasn't expecting to see you in here!" The woman galloped in and placed both of her hands on Rachel's face, which was covered in deep purple bruises and cuts. "You don't look so good. Are you well enough to present your proposal?"
"How do you know about my presentation?" Rachel brushed the hands away and leaned over the sink, running the water as cold as she could. She looked in the mirror and cringed at just how bad she looked.
"I guess you're okay then. Better that way. You really don't have a choice whether you're feeling up to it or not! You're presenting to me—I'm a squad leader, remember?" Hanji let out a wink and gave Rachel a nudge, making her nauseated all over again.
Her proposition consisted of a redistribution of focus and an intricate network of specializations within the Corps. The basic training would be no different and still apply to all members, but those troops would be divided into factions that were highly specialized. There would be focused training and additional team training where members from different factions would work together to form one unit. Squads would have a balance of elite group members in order to increase flexibility, preparedness, and ultimately, survival.
Three specialized groups she suggested would be tactical, aversion, and recovery. The Tactical Faction would be a much larger version of Levi's specialized killing squad, focusing their attention to the offensive. The second faction would focus on strategizing and coordinating efficiently during missions in order to relay intel and redirect the companies to avoid titan interaction. The Recovery Faction would stabilize and respond to crisis situations during the expeditions. They would collect and organize survivors and give elite medical attention to the wounded.
There were concerns about lack of communication or dissonance between factions, but Rachel assured that with the proper training and time devoted to interconnecting them, the only problems they would encounter were laziness and a lack of time. The cadets currently had a lot of down time, everyone agreed. But this would create more work than anyone was willing to take on, especially the Squad Leaders.
"I find myself becoming enamored with your proposal, Rachel." Commander Erwin spoke to her in an aside after the meeting had been adjourned. The room was clearing of the grumbling officers who trudged back to their desks. "How you can assure me that there won't be coordination issues?"
"I certainly can't promise you anything, Commander. But I would imagine having a mandatory general briefing of advancements and operations of all of the individual systems that are in place would increase soldier affluence and involvement in the other regions… This is requiring a lot of work and respect from the other soldiers, and is requiring everyone to get along, which is a lot to ask of so many people…" Her eyes fell in her ailing confidence.
"Would you quit being so polite?" Levi used his foot to propel himself off of the back wall he had been leaning against for the duration of the meeting. "Do you think we all enjoy sitting around here waiting to die? You act like you're doing us a disservice by trying to increase our success." He slowed to a stop once he approached Erwin's side and crossed his arms over his chest. Upon a close examination, Rachel noticed Levi had his fair share of minor injuries as well. "Quit staring at me." Levi turned on his ankle and made his way out the narrow doorway.
"Levi's point is valid, Rachel." Erwin's azure eyes followed Levi out as he spoke. "We need to make progress and stop wasting our precious resources. The others will come around… To be honest, I think a lot of them are quite excited. I will give it some thought and we will begin implementing as soon as I formulate a concrete strategy. Thank you, Rachel." He left her alone in the long room. She slowly walked over to a window and sat down on the wide, brick sill. She caught the gaze of a small bird and all of her composure dissolved. She couldn't stop the tears from falling, the eyes of the sparrow piercing through her weary spirit.
AN Sincerest apologies for the delay. Travelling with unreliable internet access. Please let me know what you think! Thanks!
