As the darkness of your descending eyelids sinks before you, the last and tiniest glimmer of light explodes into a brilliant white haze consuming your vision. Your ears began to ring with a strange yet familiar soothing sound that reverberated through you like a collection of hundreds of voices talking in some harmonious chorus. They spoke of the simplest things, insignificant everyday things. Some were laughing, others were singing. The sound filled your weightless heart with a sense of…fulfillment and completeness. It was as if it was drawing you towards something, like an irresistible gravity.
"…My body feels…so warm …I can't…remember what I was doing. This warm white light…it feels so nice. I feel as if…I could just…fall asleep right here…just for…a few moments…I'm so tired."
Then out of the white veil emerged familiar silhouettes of light.
"Father?...Mother?..."
"Hey Petal…we missed you." Came a deep soothing nostalgic smiling voice.
"It…really is you. I-I've missed you so much." Your voice trembled.
"Hey girl." Came a familiar sisterly voice.
"Tia?...Is Luke here too?"
"Of course…The place downstairs wouldn't take me." Luke laughed.
Everyone…everyone you'd ever loved from your past was right here before you as if the passage of time had meant nothing to them. You felt a great swelling from within. A warmth like no other that you could only describe it was the most exquisite happiness you'd ever felt.
"Does this mean…I can come home to you?"
"Sorry, Sweety. But your place here isn't ready for you yet. Not for a while." Your mother said.
"What do you mean?" you asked.
"Petal, there's still so much for you to do…That poor lad. He's been through so much in his life already. Are you prepared to put him through so much more pain and loneliness?"
"Do you mean Levi, Father?"
"That kid was a true diamond in the rough. And because of your involvement in his life, that stony shell has begun to erode away. So naturally talented, that boy…but your silent influence over him throughout the years has polished up his performance. He is now "Humanity's Strongest Soldier". Every person in his life, especially you, played a role in bringing him up to this point. Your part in Life's Play is more important than you think. Humanity's war with the Titans will reach a conclusion someday. Maybe not tomorrow…but one day, in the far distant future, his legacy will see the fall of the Titans."
Upon hearing your father's words, the white silhouettes turned from you and vanished one by one.
"…The destinies of so many rely on you. Just keep going and you'll be fine, Petal…" the last lingering voice grows faint as the final light turns away from you.
"…Father…could it be?...Was it your intention to tie my fate to Levi's?..."
Your weightlessness faded as you felt your feet touch down onto an invisible floor. The white light enveloping you began to creak and crack like glass under pressure. The sounds of a muffled roaring noise could be heard as if it were trying to chip away at it from the outside. With every word growing louder and clearer the walls of white cracked and crumbled, falling down exposing a pitch black sky beyond that quickly consumed and dragged your body down onto the cold hard earth. You slowly opened your eyes. They stung from the salt of your sweat. Every inch of muscle ached as you pushed your palms into the dirt to raise your head up. You struggled to make sense of the buzzing of noises around you as the ringing slowly subsided like a curtain being drawn to let the light in. As focus returned to your senses, your head was throbbing with the unhallowed screaming of Adler writhing on the ground, clasping a bloody stump to his chest. Your shoulder throbbed painfully with every slight movement as you gazed up from the pool of blood and found your eyes drawn to a glimmer of light amidst the shadows of the trees. A shining ray of hope, upon a razor sharp Titan blade splashed with rubies. Gazing upward into the circle of tree tops surrounding you; a collection of hooded shadows eclipsed the pale white clouds above. The sun pierced through from high above, casting their shadows down upon the clearing. Shrouded in halos of warm white sunlight, your eyes were dazzled by such brilliance adorned with the Wings of Liberty like angels of mercy. The figure brandishing the dripping sword turns and looks upon you over their shoulder.
"Anyone in their right mind would know…you don't fuck with soldiers of the Scouting Legion." A familiar voice resounded. Focusing harder you discovered that your Captain, with that sweet low tone of his voice laced with an ocean's calm, but haunted by a foreboding of a hidden tempest had arrived just in time.
"…C-Captai-…." you mouthed weak, your eyes gleaming with tears.
Levi's gaze was as sacred as shadow and in the darkest grey of his irises, a glint of menacing fury burned hotter than ice. With a flick of his blade, he rid its razor's edge of blood and hurriedly stepped towards you and knelt down to examine your wounds more closely. His hands, gloved in white leather frantically cupped your chin as his eyes scanned your face and head for signs of trauma. You winced as his thumb grazed the split in your lip. You felt his eyes extracting information from your body and witnessed the turning of cogs in his eyes as he calculated his next course of action based on his analysis. He peeled the sticky blood-soaked fabric of your jacket away from your shoulder like a bandage. You could tell by Levi's reaction you needed immediate attention. He began applying pressure to the wound by resting his entire body weight into the palms of his hands. You raised a feeble hand and held it to Levi's as they were pressing down to stop the bleeding.
"Help is on the way. I need you to remain calm and conscious for as long as you can hold out." He ordered with a tremor of reassurance in his voice.
"…am I…still…alive?..." your voice cracked and trembled as happy tears poured down your face.
"Are you kidding? You dummy, you're as tough as old boots. Don't ask such stupid questions." He scolded.
"*COUGH*…I…I got dirty…again." You whispered.
"You're hopeless. You're lying here bleeding to death and THAT'S what you're worried about?" He sighed with worried frustration.
"Maybe…but…if I wasn't hopeless…there'd be no need…for you to…keep saving me." You smiled weakly.
Your Captain gazed down deeply into your eyes like he knew that your very words echoed a vulnerable truth about himself. His brow furrowed almost fretfully as he registered the pain in your eyes. Beyond that black glacier gaze, beat the heart of a man. A frantically pounding heart he kept hidden away that belonged to you and only you. You could only gaze up into his eyes helplessly as his own silently pleaded with you to stay awake as he tended your injury the best he could. Then suddenly the sounds aid coming thundering down. It was Petra and Uluo.
"The medical team is here, Sir." Announced Petra.
"Good work you two. I need you to take my place in slowing the bleeding until they can secure her safely and transport her to the hospital. They'll be prepared for any further unexpected casualties from now one. Once she's there, come and report back to me here. We'll need as much support as the legion can give us to take these bastards down. " Levi commanded sternly.
"Yes, Sir." They responded in unison. The two soldiers maneuvered around your body and immediately began the procedure of dressing your shoulder injury.
Over Levi's shoulder you saw what remained of Adler as he knelt in the dirt, clasping a bleeding stump, panting and grunting in agony. In the corner of your eye you saw Petra filling a syringe with morphine and slipped the needle into your forearm with a sharp pinch, making you flinch.
"Sorry. I know it hurts. But it'll help with the pain." She whispered reassuringly as two soldiers picked you up by yours shoulders and knees as gently as possible and laid you out on a stretcher, much to your discomfort.
"Petra…Uluo…I'm counting on you two." Levi said.
"(Your First Name), I have to leave you. Once this is over, you're the first place I'm heading."
"I know…it' what we do." You uttered quietly.
You gaze up helplessly at Levi knowing he was about to embark upon a dangerous mission to save HQ from the Titan Revolutionists. You gesture him to come closer so you could tell him something.
"This man…his name is…Adler Gotric…He mentioned something…about working for some organisation…I think they're the ones behind all this…" you wheezed.
"Don't talk anymore. You need to save your strength." Levi removed his bloodied glove and swept the hair from your face with the clean untainted tips of his fingers.
"Please…Captain…Take this…for luck…every time you've had it…you've come back to me." You weakly raised a hand to your breast pocket. Levi sees you troubling to clasp at something and clasps your fingers in his to find the chain of that familiar pocket watch tangled round both your fingers. He leans down over you and whispers in your ear…
"Old habits die hard, Sweetheart."
"Give them hell, Love." You whispered back as the last ounces of strength left you and your fingertips slip from your Captain's.
As he stood up, he clutched the watch in his hand and walked away. As you were carried off on the stretcher, the last you saw of Levi, was the back of his cloak as he drew his both of his blades towering over the mortally wounded Adler. The combination of physical and mental trauma finally took their toll. You felt the effects of the morphine slipping through your veins and into your system like a strange numbing sensation as your mind finally succumbs. The crushing pressure of your bruised ribs and your penetrated shoulder muscles eased away. The world and the people around you dissolved into lucid shapes and indescribable new colours. All of the day's fears and anxieties melted away as if by magic, leaving your mind and body feeling as light as a feather, while your heart felt abnormally peacefully and giddy.
Levi's POV
As the stretcher was being carried away with its precious cargo, Levi gave the command to the hooded soldiers surrounding him to advance.
"Alright you lot! Advance the entire area and flush out every last one of these masked freaks. Offer the enemy a chance of surrender. If they resist to comply, use force. Every head collected is crucial information to find out more about this organisation of theirs. Commander Smith is still missing and needs to be found. If you discover his whereabouts fire A SINGLE PURPLE FLARE. Approach him with caution as he will most likely be booby trapped with explosives. Bomb Disposal Team, you wait here at the Forest Facility's centre until that signal has been given. Consider this enemy to be armed and extremely dangerous. They will kill first and ask questions later. DON'T GIVE THEM THAT CHANCE!"
"AYE, SIR!" The party saluted and fled the area in search of the missing Commander.
As the last soldier vanished from sight into the density of the trees, Levi drew his twin blades and approached Adler's straining form as he lay quivering like a wreck in the dirt, nursing over his severed limb.
"You and your party greatly underestimated us Gotric. Both the Commander and the soldier you assaulted so horrifically are in safe hands now…I can't say the same for you however. And just in case you were wondering why I chose to take your right arm? It was purely because you were aiming to take hers. A talented soldier like her would go to waste in an office job."
"Heh. You called THAT talented? I was shocked by how easy it was to take her down after all the stories I'd heard about her annihilating that Freak Titan all by herself." Adler mocked.
Levi casually scans his eyes down to his old friend that he held clutched in his fist.
"Do you believe everything you hear? Rumors are facts that snowball into over-exaggerated bullshit. With every person it's passed to, more shit just sticks to it. Besides… she's used to killing Titans…not people."
"Ha! Soldiers are just obedient attack-dogs…It'll happen eventually you know. The military will be forced to attack its own people when the peasants have decided they've had enough of the tax increases and living in poverty, while His Majesty grows fat on the profits and ignores the cries of starving children. It's truly a rat race for many. Climbing the ladder, to earn a place in society just as a means of survival."
"What's it like dragging all that bitterness and regret around? Sounds like it's a lot of pointless hassle. " Levi remarked as he rubbed his thumb against the lid of the watch to rid it of an unwanted smudge of dirt.
"What would you know? I bet you never had anything to call your own in your entire life…like the rest of these orphan-soldiers. Meaninglessly born, into a meaningless life to die a meaningless death. No bloodline, no legacy, no future. It's better to be born into nothing, than to have something only to lose it."
"I disagree. If you're born into nothing…you get to experience the discovery of something that's worth making your own. And suddenly, it's like you've found your reason for being alive in the first place. I was able to find the path that I chose, because I was free. You on the other hand, you were shackled to your father's destiny when you were still swingin' around between his legs."
"My father was a descendant of nobility…which makes me of noble blood."
"THEN TELL ME…Who the hell cares? Your so-called "Revolutionary" friends?...Blood counts for shit unless someone else shares that notion with you…But I digress. I have a bone to pick with you concerning one of my men." Levi replaced the watch into his jacket pocket in order to slip his bare hand back into the bloodied white glove he removed earlier.
"Men? Oh…you mean your little bitch? I bet she does EVERYTHING you tell her to do."
Levi swings the ball of his fist into Gotric's jaw, sending him flat on his back with a hard thud.
"She is a keen worker and gets the job done... Respect is earned…not paid for." Levi responded nonchalantly.
"Hmph! She said exactly the same thing before I beat the crap outta her."
Levi grabbed Gotric by the collar of his shirt and punched him so hard; he was spitting blood and teeth afterwards.
"We ARE a glutton for punishment aren't we?" Levi sighed as he rotated his wrist with a crackling sound to limber it up.
"Y-you might ash well kill meh here. Whe-When word getsh back to the one's I work for…I'm a d-dead man shtanding anyway. They don't chake to failure lightly." Adler's speech was barely definable before he spat out a great globule of blood.
"In that case you have nothing to lose by spilling your guts about these scumbags you work for. But of course! Wha they have planned for you can't be nearly as much fun as what our Interrogation Squad has lined up for you and any other prisoners we just happen to take in…and I'm certain my "little bitch" will have a few things to say to you once she's out of hospital. Let's see…fractured ribs, blood loss through stabbing…mental trauma…I'd say for her, that'll take about…say…six maybe eight weeks. She's a tenacious woman. You're going to have a veeery long wait for THAT appointment. You can take it like man when she gets out…but right now I think you're about due for some…extraction."
Levi's expression remained cold, empty and merciless as he took a few steps back over to the pool of blood where he discovered his lover. The ground was so saturated it squelched beneath his feet. The distant sounds of thunder rumbling in the sky rolled its way towards the clearing like an executioner's drumroll. He gazed down disgustedly as he kicked the bloody severed hand away from him like a lump of butchered bony meat and grasped the handle of the sledgehammer with both hands, testing and feeling its weight. Adler's strained breathing quickened and looked onward as he lay there in the sludge of his own blood and the dirt beneath him. His pale brown eyes filled with unspeakable terror as he stares back into the frozen black abyss of Levi's pupils.
"Don't look so worried. Your legs will be as good as new by the time she gets out of hospital."