LENA-
I couldn't tell if I was dreaming or waking. I'd open my eyes, then fall back into unconsciousness before having the chance to really see anything. I vaguely remembered the minutes before, hearing voices and doors opening. Then, I'd drift back into a trance once more. It took all my willpower to force myself to wake up.
I shifted my arms, trying to break free from sleep paralysis; my hands were tied. They were numb, like I'd been in this position for a long time and it took several moments of confusion to realise they were behind my back. I pushed my chest out to strain against the bonds, before feeling all my strength being sapped out of me. I collapsed back into what I realised what a chair, moaning in pain.
"She's waking." A hazy voice muttered across the room. "You're up. Get her talking."
"Yessir." The sound of a door closing caused me to jolt. I blinked open my eyes which ached with the urge to shut them. I wanted to sleep, but before I could let this notion wash over me, something grabbed my arm and hoisted it into the air, cracking my back as it forced my shoulder blades into an awkward position. I gasped and tried to kick my legs to escape, finding that they were also tied. I couldn't feel much from my waist down. Just how long had I been here?
...Where was 'here'?
"Wake up, young lady." Someone whispered. It was a friendly voice. I stirred and finally managed to force my eyes awake again. I straightened my head and took in the figure crouched before me. The man smiled. He was young, with cropped brown hair in a militaristic fashion... but he wasn't scary. "What's your name?" He gently rested my arm back down and moved the object in his hand back out of sight.
"Lena... Hertz." My voice was croaky. I stretched as much as I could within the bonds and blinked myself awake. "Where am I?"
"You were kidnapped, but you're safe now." The man smiled again. I decided the man wasn't a threat- after all, I was getting such a warm sensation from him.
"Safe..." I repeated. "Is Levi here?"
"Who's Levi?" The man quickly responded. I frowned.
"Everyone knows Levi." I gradually realised that the sensation I felt now felt similar to being drunk. My words were slow and slurred, but my body felt even slower. It was like my blood had been turned into mercury, clogging up my arms and making them feel like dead weights.
"Tell me about Levi." The man said, pulling up a chair before me so that he could sit on it. "Is he important?"
"Very." I smiled. "Important to me."
"What is his job?"
"Humanity's strongest... something. Strongest..."
"Soldier?" The man finished for me, eager to talk.
"Yeah!... Levi is strong."
"Is he high ranked? Does he have an important job?"
"He does all sorts..." I mumbled, feeling content. I wanted to drift back into sleep and ignore all the confusion I felt, but the man hit my face lightly. "He has secret missions and stuff."
"Oh cool!" He said. I suddenly realised I didn't know who he was.
"Who are you?"
"And what type of missions does he have?" I pouted to myself that he had ignored me, but felt compelled to keep talking.
"I don't know. Stuff." I shrugged.
"Do you know anything about Commander Erwin?" My eyes shot open. "Tell me about your family. Your father was a farmer, wasn't he?" I was no longer comfortable with this. I finally looked around and saw the cold, stone room I was sat in. The man before me was staring forcefully. He wasn't kind at all.
"Where am I?" I asked, coming out of my drunken state.
"Answer the question. What do you know about Levi and Erwin?"
"Get off!" I yelled. "HELP!" The man stood up and laughed.
"Where the hell do you think you are?! No one is on your side here." The door opened and another uniformed man entered.
"Did it work?" he asked.
"No sir. I think it's going to take more than drugs to get her to spill what she knows."
"But she's definitely that girl? The one that's close to Levi?"
"Yeah, it's her. She was practically drooling whilst talking about him."
I fought against the ropes and felt them burn into my wrists. It felt like my bones would break before the rope. My fingers bent as far as they could towards the rope, but could barely scratch the knot. My legs were in a similar predicament.
"Move onto plan B then." The man who had just entered said. He walked out again adding, "have fun." The man before me span around my chair to face the opposite wall of the room... and I saw the arrangement of tools and weapons before me.
"That was the nice method." He grinned. "Now tell us everything you know, or this is going to get much, much harder for you."
"I don't know anything." I said, trying to look as confident as possible. "It was a waste of time kidnapping me. You won't find anything out from me."
"It's not a waste of time." He bared his teeth in a sadistic grin, rifling through a drawer of knifes and selecting one that looked more like a scalpel. "We get you, who's close to Levi and an easy target. I doubt we'd be able to kidnap Levi if we tried! You've broken your arm, so you can't exactly fight back." I had forgotten that my arm was even broken. The trance-like sensation was wearing off and as soon as he mentioned my arm, it was like he'd broken the pain barrier and allowed everything to start flooding back to me again. "Levi will come running after you too. When he does..." The man raised his hands and snapped them shut like jaws...
"Nice visual metaphor." I rolled my eyes, attempting to be cocky.
"It is, isn't it? And anyway... there's one more thing we want from you." He leant forward so that I could see the stains on his teeth as he grinned. "Your father has caused us a hell of a lot of trouble. We've been looking for him for a while now..."
"My father?!" I gasped.
"Be a good girl and tell us where he is." The man squatted by my right hand side, grasping my hand. He was just out of sight, but I could still see his body vaguely when I turned my head. He twisted my right wrist so that my palm faced the ceiling. "Now, start talking when you feel ready." He commented like a doctor. "What do you want? A dragon? A unicorn?"
"W-what the hell you b-bastard!" I squirmed, heart racing. I felt a bead of sweat drip from my chin.
"What would Levi want you to have?..." He put a finger on his lips as though in deep thought. He was mad. This guy was dangerous. I couldn't stop staring at the scalpel in his hands that he casually waved about. "I know!" He laughed. "I'll write my name. Supposing you do escape... he'll see my name every time he touches you. You'll belong to me forever."
"I'm not even close to Levi!" The words raced out of my mouth in a panic. "It's totally one sided!"
"Ahh, it's a shame I don't believe you."
"Let go! Please let me go!" I pleaded.
"You know what you need to do to get released." He shrugged. "It's not my fault what happens if you don't."
I felt the blade go into my arm, thankfully missing the main arteries. I yelped but didn't dare move in case the blade slipped in further. Warm blood trickled quickly out in the wake of the blade as he doodled up my arm. I began to shake, biting my lip and whimpering.
"You're a brave girl." The man commented. "Most people would be begging me for mercy by now."
"You sadistic, vile bastard!" I shouted as loud as I could, tears starting to fall from my eyes. Levi! Levi! Levi!
"Stop." Behind me, I heard a familiar voice call.
"Sir!" The man stood up quickly.
"I need to talk to her in private before you continue." Luca walked closer and I flinched as I felt his hand on my shoulder. "She might talk to me."
"I understand, sir."
As soon as we were alone, I fired questions at him.
"Oniisan. What's going on?" He remained behind me with one hand on my shoulder. "Where's dad? Why are you doing this?!"
"I'm guessing you don't know." Luca said, softly. Don't speak softly to me. Don't pretend you're the same brother that I used to know.
"I need answers, Luca!" My voice was trembling and my arm throbbed in pain. I kept consoling myself with the fact that I'd been through worse. I'd felt worse pain. I could survive this.
"First, we'll stop the bleeding." Luca began untying my wrists gently. He made sure to retie my left wrist to the chair arm, tearing off the sleeve of his white shirt to halt the bleeding on my right wrist. I didn't look at it: I was too scared. From the corner of my eye, I saw the white material quickly stain red.
"Our sister and mother are being held in prison. The military police are looking for our father."
"M-Mother?!" I gasped, feeling suddenly sick.
"They told me if I didn't help them, then they'd kill them."
"But Luca-!" A wave of sickness flooded over me and the blood drained from my face. Shit... I was losing a lot of blood. My racing heart rate wasn't helping that either.
"I'm sorry, Lena. The only way I could save my family was by sacrificing you." I still couldn't see Luca's eyes.
"BUT THEY'RE DEAD!" I screamed. "THEY'RE GONE! I WATCHED THEM BEING EATEN!" Panting furiously, in fear and frustration, I noticed that Luca had gone silent.
"You're lying..." Luca muttered. He jumped in front of me and clasped my cheeks in his hands. "You're lying!" He shouted again.
"I'm not! They're gone, they-!" I felt myself wretch. I was going to be sick.
"I SACRIFICED EVERYTHING TO SAVE THEM!" He screamed at me; I'd never seen Luca lose his composure. "I SACRIFICED YOU!"
"THEY USED YOU, LUCA! AND YOU LET THEM!" I squeezed my wrist against the chair arm in an attempt to stop the flood of blood I could feel.
"What about dad?" His voice was small now- like a child's.
"I don't know." I said. He held my gaze, as though searching for the truth.
"I thought I was doing the right thing..." He whispered. "Even despite how much I loved you, if I could get back mum and our sister and dad..."
"Luca... let me out of here. We'll get back dad together." I thought I had convinced him. I listened to his silence and felt a spark of hope.
"I've devoted my life to the military police." He said. "We'll stop the legion. We'll stop Erwin and his rebellion." Luca turned away from me, finally beginning to calm himself. "I'd throw away my sister's life in order to save humanity... I have already prepared myself for these past five years. I'll take this to the very end."
"Then so be it." I said quietly. "From now on, you're not the brother I knew."
"I've not been that Luca for a long time, Lena." He smiled sadly. "See you again some day, little sis'." As he passed, he patted my head gently... like it was for the last time. I waited until I heard the door close, before howling out in pain.
The wound on my wrist would heal, but the scar he'd left on my heart would stab me again and again, forever.
Luca...
LEVI-
"Hanji!" One of Hanji's soldiers burst into the room whilst we planned our next move. "We've found something!"
"Speak quickly!" I demanded, leaping out of my seat.
"There's a trail of material all the way from the end of a field outside into town."
"Material?" Hanji asked.
"We think it's part of a bandage of some sort. Then there's buttons... I didn't follow it to the end but it looks like she's left us a trail."
"Clever girl!" Hanji applauded. "Find out where it leads, but be careful!"
"The rest of my team have continued along the trail. It's difficult to follow, since there's only a few shreds every 20 or so metres."
"Come back as soon as you know more." Hanji said, turning to smile at me. "We'll get her back, Levi. Look, we've already caught onto a trail."
"Then let's start the next part of the plan." I was hasty to get going, but knew this operation required patience and careful planning. We didn't know where a trap could lie in wait for us.
"My guess is that there won't be many people who know about this operation. It's too secretive for them to have the building guarded properly. There won't be anyone on the outside in case suspicion is raised. Just a few people looking out of windows and such. The majority of the building will be empty, with a strong and dense guard around where Lena is held captive."
"Sounds about right." I nodded. Her argument was logical.
"The problem is we can't spread out our team. These guys won't be push overs." Hanji began tracing the desk with one figure, working out things in her head. "We'd have to concentrate our force and make an educated guess as to where Lena is, break in quickly using the confusion against them, take Lena then draw back."
"But if we get it wrong, we've lost the element of surprise and the odds are in their favour." Armin piped up. I had noticed that he was a sharp kid with tactical thinking skills that rivalled Erwin or Hanji. With just a bit more experience, he'd be a great asset to the corps.
"Exactly. So we need a way to get around that."
"How about an attack on two fronts?" Armin suggested. "We have two teams. One team bursts in first and checks out any room at random. The enemy will concentrate their attack power on that team and all we need to do is buy time as the other team break in at the opposite end and search from there."
"I see!" Hanji nodded. "That way, if the first team find Lena then we can send the second team straight in to help. If not, then they hold off the enemy's main force whilst acting as a distraction."
"But how do we know they won't guess it's a distraction?" I asked, feeling sceptical.
"We use you." Armin said, clearly ready for this question. "They're expecting you to go after Lena. If you're part of the distraction, they won't guess that another team will be infiltrating elsewhere. Plus, if they truly are using this to trap you, then they'll definitely send their main force over, making it easier for the second team."
"Not bad." I nodded.
"The problem is, that leaves our strongest member playing back up." Hanji said.
"It does, but he'll be at the front of the action. We have the advantage of Mikasa here; she's strong but still relatively unknown. They wouldn't guess we'd use her. Jean too. If they form the second group, they can rival Levi's strength whilst he defeats as many of the enemy as possible. Levi acts as a honey pot to bees- there's no one else we can put in that position that can stand their ground with that many bees attacking."
"Plus Mikasa's quick thinking is perfect for the second team. If we had Armin in there too, they should be able to deal with any trouble they come across." Hanji said.
"Then let's quickly form the teams." I decided. "I have some recommendations to make."
…
LENA-
How long had I been here?
There were no windows in the room and so I was left with no way of recognising how much time had passed. No one had come in. I'd heard nothing but the sound of my own breathing for what felt like at least 6 hours. Was this another form of torture? Were they going to leave me on my own, without any food or water? My mouth felt dry. No matter how many times I swallowed, I couldn't get rid of the scratching sensation in my throat. I was completely drained of energy- I had never made it to dinner that night. It was probably the next day...
Would Levi have realised I was gone yet?
My stomach grumbled at me, so tight now that it was more of a pain than a feeling. The damp smell in the room was giving me a headache and I'd been sat for so long in the same position it was driving me mad. I wanted to stretch and crack my joints, take a deep breath in and allow the blood in my veins to flow naturally again.
"I'm back~" The door opened behind me with a creak. I froze. "Did you have fun on your own?"
"What's the point of this if I know nothing?" I croaked at him.
"Give me the location of your father's documents and I'll let you have a drink." The man from earlier who had left the throbbing in my wrist stepped in front of me, offering out a bottle of water with the full knowledge that I couldn't move to grasp it. After Luca had gone, someone had come back in without a word to tie up my right arm, before leaving again. "Oh~" he looked in surprise at my wrist. "Someone's patched up your wound. Let me handle that for you." He slid his fingers under my wrist and ripped Luca's shirt sleeve from where I had staunched the blood flow with it. I yelled out as the material was ripped from my skin. The scab that had attempted to form reopened violently, letting blood begin to leak out again. "My bad." He shrugged.
I clenched my teeth and glared at him. Clearly, he didn't like the look in my eyes because he unscrewed the lid of the bottle and dripped some water across my forehead, holding my cheeks tightly so that I couldn't move. "You thirsty?" He asked, knowing the answer from how I squeezed shut my eyes to block out that glorious sensation of fluid flowing across my cold skin. He was teasing me, making my mouth fill with saliva in anticipation of water, but not allowing a single drop to enter my mouth. "I don't think you're thirsty enough." He sighed, replacing the lid. "People usually have a better reaction. I'll have to use this later when you're gagging for it."
"I have nothing to tell you." I said, letting my head drop forward as he released me.
"Aww~ come on. When your father came back from his little 'trips', where did he put his work?" The man struck my face with his hand so that my head snapped across. How did he know about dad's trips? Dad used to leave town a lot to meet friends. He'd never tell me where he was going or who he was meeting... At the time I never considered it suspicious. Not even when I had encountered my parents arguing over it.
"I don't know."
"Tell me." He hit me again, harder this time. I felt my neck crack and my cheek burned. I wasn't going to cry though.
"No." THWACK.
"Tell. Me." He repeated, preparing his fist to hit me again.
"No." I said again, bracing myself for the next hit. When it didn't come, I opened my eyes a crack.
The man towered over me with a knife, sending my heart plummeting into my feet. He slashed four times as I forced my eyes shut... but I felt no pain. When I looked up, I realised he had slashed the ropes on my hands, feet and stomach. I stumbled out of the chair and grasped the wooden back in my hands, using it both as support and a barrier between me and him. My legs shook with the sudden movement and I felt dizzy, stars blinking into my vision. Ropes clung to me as they untangled themselves slowly. He stepped forward.
"It's more fun when they run." He smiled.
…
LEVI-
Kurt just stared at me blankly, his hands dropping to his side. The morning after Lena's kidnapping, I had withdrawn Guthrie and Kurt from their usual training and told them the news. I allowed my eyes to drift over to Guthrie's face, watching his face twist into a chiselled, hardened expression of anger.
"Lena's... brother?" Kurt muttered, still in shock. "She's been kidnapped?"
"Where have they taken her?!" Guthrie demanded.
"Calm down." I ordered, severely irritated. "I recommended you two to be part of the rescue operation, since you scored well on your intake."
"What are they going to do to her?" Guthrie ignored the authority in my voice. Kurt quickly pulled himself together and nudged Guthrie.
"Let's listen to the plan, Guth. He said this happened last night, so I'm sure he's come to us with a plan."
"He's a smart one," I noted sarcastically. "Armin and Hanji are formulating the details, but we've pretty much figured out what we're going to do. We move out tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow morning?!" Guthrie clenched his fist. Exasperated, Kurt ran a hand through his hair.
"I could just as easily have you pulled out of this plan." I spat viciously. His eyes hardened and he attempted to stare me out. "Put those puppy eyes away." I glowered back, stepping closer to him. "I don't like this as much as you don't, but we have to do this properly."
"So what do we have to do?" Kurt asked. I liked the look in his eyes; a look of determination; a look that said failure was not an option. Guthrie on the other hand was agitated and thinking less practically than I had expected him to.
"You'll be part of team two. There are two squads in this mission- Light Squad and Dark Squad. The Light will draw the attention and put squad two into the shadows."
"A distraction?"
"Exactly." I nodded. "Shadow will consist of yourselves, Jean, Mikasa and Armin. Light is myself, Connie, Sasha, Hanji and Stein."
"Three squad leaders? Isn't that risky?"
"We're going all out." I smirked, suddenly feeling a pang of determination that had deserted me for a long time. "There's a second aim to this mission which Erwin proposed."
"A second objective?"
"Find Lena and ensure her safety... And capture the military police spies."
"You mean, Lena's brother?"
"The Military Police thought that they could get away with spying on and kidnapping members of our legion. So we're going to make that plan backfire and use the spies for information."
"Ten people can't possibly get away with capturing five MPs though. They might not even be there."
"We're basing this on opportunity. If Luca is in sight, capture him. If not, leave ASAP."
"Our main objective should just be to make sure Lena is safe!" Guthrie broke into our conversation, clearly disgusted. He obviously thought we were using Lena's capture to get our own back on the MPs.
"What you need to understand is that there's no way that Erwin would let us go after Lena with the strongest members of the legion if there wasn't anything he could gain. Erwin won't throw away his knights for a pawn."
"This is ridiculous!" Guthrie slammed his fist into the wall.
"Erwin works for the sake of humanity." I raised my voice, knowing full well that Guthrie was reacting just like I had. I was such a hypocrite. "No matter what your personal feelings are, this is what we're doing. If you have any problems then you're out of the plan."
"...No." Guthrie exhaled deeply. "No problems, sir."
"Good."
…
LENA-
I lay on the floor, feeling his heavy boot crunch into my side over and over. With each kick, I felt winded and I could feel the area of tissue he'd hit screaming in protest. I tried to scamper to my feet between his kicks, but he left no time for recovery. I rolled onto my back and swung my arms for his foot. He was caught off guard and retreated a step to get out of my range. I took this chance to push myself quickly onto my feet, crouched low and panting hard. Each breath stung my side and I wondered if he had in fact broken anything. My ribs were in severe pain but I still had the strength to stand...
It was probably fear that fuelled my muscles.
"Even if you fight back, it's futile!" He bellowed at me. I staggered side ways as a wave of nausea erupted within me. When my vision was cleared, I took a deep breath. Calm. Be calm. I looked around surreptitiously, searching for a weapon or shield I could improvise. All the drawers containing some of his equipment were locked, and the rest were pretty much useless. The only drawer that was open was the one where he had selected the knife earlier. It was then that I noticed the line of blood across the floor, following me. I glanced down and saw that my arm was trickling blood still.
There's nothing I can do about that. I can't exactly call for a time out while I patch it up.
He lunged towards me again, throwing his fist towards my stomach. I deftly side stepped away and ran across the room. He shifted his balance into his heel and charged after me as I flew over to my only hope. My fingers contacted the wooden drawer and I quickly tried to grasp one of the blades lined out within it. Huge hands wrapped around my stomach and dragged me backwards. My fingers trailed across the blade, frantically trying to grasp it. He threw me across the room with immense strength and the whole room span as I rolled across the floor, feeling my limbs lose their strength and fall limply into place when the momentum had stopped pushing me along the stones.
I laid there, feeling the world slip away. The booming of my heart; the ragged gasps for air I took; the footsteps striding closer: they all faded into nothing. Silence floated around me as I was taken away from the pain.
AN:
I finished my writing spree and went on word count to find this chapter was 6,000 words and counting haha, so I cut it down. The next chapter is half done already because of how much I wrote!
I'm not good at writing about strategies and logic, so planning their counter-attack has been just as hard as it was for Hanji and Levi :L Oh and I had a go at drawing Lena and Levi, but I can't show you guys because it's the last few scenes in what I have planned for my sequel. That's just one MASSIVE spoiler haha. I might draw something else and put a link to my deviantart so you can see if you're curious as to how Lena appears in my head. Or, you can send me a link to your own art! Ah, I'll reply to a few reviews since I haven't done so in a while!
Nixie The Blood Pixie- yay for Denmark from me too! Thanks for teaching me that word; I really love learning new languages. Fantastisk! I wouldn't know how to say it aloud though :D Thanks for reading!
ArrowsIronJr- I like writing things that get your heart beating and I love being an unpredictable author, so I think of what the reader thinks like 'this is the main character so they won't die', or 'this won't happen' etc and then make it happen bwhahah! But if someone did that to me like Hajime Isayama (mangaka for snk) then I'd be a nervous wreck reading it haha.
MidMorningSong- One of your favourite characters? Mine?! (blushes) Thank you! I'm glad you like Lena!
IKhandoZatman- Yes I love the word whilst and other old English words that have been lost on our current generations! But if you met me in real life I have a vocabulary that rival's that of a ten year old's.
Don't forget to review if you like my story! ;D
I leave you with this inspirational quote-
"Look around Eren, at all these big-ass trees."