Author's Note" Aaaaaaaand here's the next chapter, not 24 hours ahead of the last one. I'm on a roll here. And WOO! Just a little over 700 views for this story! Haza! (Do people even still say that? Well f*** it, 'cuz I do!)
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-Please review! Enjoy the story ~Dreamers, as well as my shortest Author's Note EVER!
Once the others had all showered and eaten, everyone finished packing for the night, so that they would all be ready to set out first thing in the morning. They turned in early, hoping to get a good night's rest before returning to the city.
Unfortunately for Petra, sleep would not come so easily, her mind too full of thoughts of what tomorrow might bring her way. She was usually a tosser, sleeping every which way and flipping about fitfully. However, now that she was too sore to really move around, Petra struggled to find a comfortable resting position.
After another hour of sleeplessness, Petra threw the covers off of her, and rose from where she lay on the floor. Being sure not to wake the others, she crept over to the fire pit, and placed a thick log atop the coals to bring the flames back to life, and warm the room once again.
When she was still unable to calm her nerves, Petra sought out her jacket, pulling it over her, a task difficult with the full use of only one arm, her hurt shoulder making the other hard to lift without wincing in pain. Stepping into a leathery pair of boots, not bothering to lace them up, Petra crossed the length of the gym, and trudged up the stairs until she reached the door to the roof.
Preparing to abandon the warmth the fire pit and the indoors provided against the wind and weather, Petra pushed through the heavy metal doors, and stepped into the world outside, completely unaware that a pair of eyes had followed her every movement.
She had been looking up at the stars when Levi had joined her on the roof, jumping a little when she heard the creaking doors whine behind her.
"Can't sleep?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"…No," she admitted. "Sorry. You know, if I woke you up," Petra offered, then kicked herself for apologizing yet again.
"Nervous about tomorrow?" he asked her, brushing off her last comment.
Petra nodded, not really knowing what to say.
"The last time I was in Stohess, it was on a job," she began, noticing for the first time that her breath was visible in the cold air. "I was smuggling food into the city from my greenhouse to trade for supplies in town. When the people I was working with found out, they beat me half to death, demanding I tell them where I got the fresh food. I told them I would take them to it, a lie, of course, and lead them to an area of the city I could free run as soon as I got away from them. There were two men, and a woman in their group…"
Levi noted Petra was finding it difficult to speak, and she turned away from him.
"The woman…had been pregnant. I may tell myself that if I had known beforehand…that I wouldn't have…killed them."
Petra was crying now, try as she may to hide it from him, and Levi took a moment to process everything she had just said. Taking a few steps forward before speaking, he came up behind her, mere inches away from her back, and chose his next words carefully.
"It was either you or them, Petra," he told her slowly, being sure to say her name to better get her attention. "No one ever said surviving was the righteous thing to do. The fact that you feel the way you do now means you're not heartless. You're not just some bitch who took their lives because they were there, or because they had something you wanted. You're human, and alive today because of the choice you made months ago. Never regret that."
Petra turned back around to look up at him, again rendered speechless, but this time for different reasons. Wiping her tears away, she met his steely gaze with renewed determination.
"I won't regret living. Ever," Petra stated, more to herself than to him. "Thank you."
Levi regarded her for a moment, before speaking again.
"It's freezing, so don't stay out too long, kid," he told her, calling her by nickname again.
She promised not to be long, and watched his figure retreat back into the building, descending the stairs one level to where they occupied the gym. Once he was out of sight, Petra took a few moments to calm herself, before she too decided it was time to go back inside.
Shrugging off her jacket, Petra returned to the warmth of the blankets, and this time, she was finally able to get some sleep.
In the morning, everyone ate quickly, changing from their comfier night clothes into attire more suitable for the weather. They donned thick boots and either jeans or leggings, depending on their gender, with long sleeved shirts and thick coats to protect them from the cold.
Petra was finally able to remove her bandages, as her wound had almost fully closed. In their place was a thick, folded sheet of white gauze, taped to her shoulder, on the off chance she did end up straining herself on their trek back to the city, and reopened her wound.
Being sure they had everything they needed, everyone tucked their weapons inside their belts and jackets, heavily arming themselves with everything they could carry. Farlan had put out the fire, while Petra busied herself taking one final look around the apartment, saying goodbye to the safety it had provided her while she tried to remember if there was anything she may have been forgetting.
When she had thought of something, she excused herself, and re-entered the supply room. She opened a small drawer underneath the wooden table, a table that had only moments ago displayed deadly weapons, and retrieved two small items. A small flash drive attached to a lanyard, and her cell, wrapped in a wire of black headphones, the kind with fluffy earbuds. She also grabbed the charger to her cell.
While the items may seem useless in the world of today, where increasingly fewer and fewer had access to luxuries such as electricity, Petra couldn't bring herself to leave them behind. Before going dead, with no hope of reviving it anytime in the near future, Petra had listened to her favorite songs until she fell asleep.
It helped her drown out the gurgling, raspy sound of Titans growling outside her window, gunfire booming in the night, as well as the roar of even the loudest thunder.
Ignoring the music, Petra also had pictures of her friends and family on both devices. She promised herself to print such pictures out at her earliest convenience, should the opportunity ever arise. Even a little piece of the life that once was would be of great comfort to her, to remind her that she was not always alone, or that she had become a killer. She had been part of a family, a small one, but a family all the same.
Petra was not always the person she is now, whoever that person may be.
Satisfied, Petra exited the supply room, rejoining the others while she announced that she was ready to leave. It was as she was taking one final glance at her pictures that she felt a hand clamp down on her back, startling her.
"Take off your bag for a minute," Levi demanded.
"Uh…alright," Petra complied, shrugging it off. "Why?" she asked him, praying that he wouldn't search her bag, and discard any items he deemed unessential.
Items such as her flash drive, or her cell phone.
Luckily for her, that wasn't part of his agenda.
"I'll carry your pack for you," he told her, feeling that the weight of it, though not extreme, would surely slow her down. He unstrapped her bow and arrow holster from her bag, and handed them too her, after deciding they were light enough for her to bear, though he doubted she would be able to draw back the bow anytime soon.
"I can carry it myself," Petra protested, reaching for her backpack, which Levi had slung lazily over one shoulder, as if the thing weighed little to him, but her effort was halted by his deadly glare.
"I wouldn't bother," Farlan suggested knowingly.
"Yeah, no one ever outwits him, or can beat him in a fight," Hanji agreed.
"Hey! I almost did once!" Isabel complained.
"Sorry kiddo, but you weren't even close," Farlan told her, patting her on the head and ruffling her hair, much to her dismay.
Smiling at their antics, Petra dropped the matter, telling Levi she would take it from him if ever he was feeling tired or needed a break, though he denied such a thing would ever happen. Ignoring his arrogance, Petra strode up the door to the stairs, and stomped up them, locking it behind them, and leading everyone to the roof, so that they could free run, and hopefully avoid an encounter with the Titans littering the streets.
Petra had chosen one of her more frequent routes out of the city, with simple leaps and jumps the others could easily manage. They used the variety of planks and boards she had left out to help them across the wider gaps in buildings, ones not so easy to jump, where they had to file across, one by one.
Though still fairly tired from the little amount of sleep she had gotten the night before, Petra felt invigorated, now that she was more in her element. She did not show off in the least, but could clearly tell the others in her group were impressed with how she gracefully handled each maneuver, leaping from building to building, even Levi.
It was when they had reached the edge of the city, where the jumps had started to become full on sprints to make the leap, everyone had decided to take to the streets, leaving the safety of the rooftops. Apart from Levi, everyone was exhausted, not use to the extra physical labor, and the weather was not helping things, the cold burning everyone's lungs.
Petra, who did not protest with them after feeling a brief wave of dizziness from all the exertion, was suddenly very grateful to Levi for carrying her pack from her, struggling with her own weight, not that she weighed much.
Once they had reached the wall, Levi took the lead, as Petra was not as familiar with the area, as she typically used a different hole in the wall to enter the city.
Levi pulled back a few boards, and led everyone through the hole, as each of them filed in. Petra held up the rear, fighting to keep pace with the others. A few times Levi had offered her his hand to help pull her over an obstacle or make a jump, but each she had refused, not wanting to rely on anyone's strength but her own, which was fading fast.
When they had come in to contact with the first of what would be many citizens, Petra grew wary, biting the inner of her cheek until she tasted blood, hoping the pain would make her more alert should one of them make a move at her. Thankfully none of them did, though they eyed her just as she did them, some of the men looking at her lustfully, causing her to subconsciously shy towards Levi.
Levi noticed her tenseness, but said nothing, knowing she needed to break through her natural antisocial tendencies on her own if she was ever going to feel comfortable in this city.
After a while of watching her kill herself, Levi pulled her aside, telling the others not to wait up on them. None of them were really phased, chalking his actions up as typical Levi behavior, though Hanji did throw him a wink, smiling like an idiot, earning the brunette a glare, before he turned it on Petra, yanking her behind the others.
Petra let out a little squeak in protest, surprised by the sudden contact.
"We still have another two miles to go," Levi told her, before whispering a warning only she could hear. "If you don't let me help you, I'll have no choice but to have Farlan carry you."
She glared at him, but agreed to the condition, not wanting to waste energy she didn't have arguing with him.
After a short eternity of walking, the group had finally reached the headquarters of the Corps gang, which was a dark, four story building. At first glance, it looked less than inviting, but looked like a hotel in comparison to the streets outside.
Levi banged once on the door, hard, and loud enough for anyone inside to hear him.
"That you, Farlan?" a muffled voice asked through the door. It sounded like a boy, probably in his teens, Petra guessed.
"Hurry and let us in, Yeager," Levi demanded.
"J-Just a second!" the boy stammered quickly, before the sound of fumbling locks and what sounded like a metal chain. Within seconds, the door was open, revealing a boy about five foot seven, with tan skin, and blue eyes. He wore a loose brown shirt, revealing the familiar winged tattoo on the left side of his collarbone.
When he noticed Petra, he looked to Levi, who nodded in approval. Complying, the boy let everyone in, nodding at Petra in acknowledgment, locking the door behind them. She gave him a nod in return, trying her best to appear friendly, sensing that the boy was not hostile.
The first anything Petra saw upon entering was a staircase to her right, and a hallway to the left, which the others took. Seeing how all of them kicked off their shoes, she did as well, grateful for the warmth the building provided.
Following the crowd, Petra was led into a fairly large living room, where a fire roared in a large stone fireplace. However, it was not the fire that captured her attention, but the people sitting on the couches.
Some of them, she knew.