Okay so I was watching episode 21 for this chapter and I found it hilarious that when Levi heard that Eren transformed, he stopped and turned around because apparently he was going in the wrong direction. Where the heck was he going anyways if not to where Eren and the others were? Somebody got lost in the woods. Heheh. So here's the next chapter that many if not all of you have been grudgingly awaiting.
Chapter 25 :Repressed
(Track 6, Call your name: Dark Instrumental*)
"You knew... didn't you? When his voice echoed throughout the forest. You realized why he might be crying. It didn't happen when the lightning had first struck the ground which means that something occurred in between that time until Eren finally decided to transform. You knew right? It was the same fucking sound she made when you guys had her cornered. A cry of pain and horror. And then you let her escape. And this...is the conclusion," I whispered.
The last body we came upon was Petra's. The first one had been Gunther's, strung up on display. The marks of his death were from the sword, showing us that the traitor had performed the first kill while under their guise.
Eld's body wasn't even whole or in the same place. He had been bitten through, but not eaten.
Oluo and Petra had been smashed , same as the soldiers who had tried to stop that monstrosity when we had her on our tails.
Eren told us in his Titan's call that they had fallen. I remember the tears falling on tree branches, sometimes hitting the forest ground below. Levi went silent and neither of us spoke knowing full well we would be heading towards a graveyard. It wasn't until we found the last member of the squad, bloodied at the stem of a tree that we yielded. I screamed then. Louder than Eren and the Female titan combined. My anguish was released. A wounded wolf, separated from her pack and then returned only to find that they had been brutally murdered.
"I should have never left," I choked. I turned to face Levi, who said nothing with his face covered by his obsidian locks of hair.
"Tell her after the expedition," I echoed Eld's voice. "Petra, I'm sorry." I brushed her ginger locks with a bent finger then got up to look for Oluo.
You just wait Oluo, I'll beat that Titan record of yours and you'll switch from talking down to bowing down.
"Looks like I finally have the chance to surpass you, but what's the point in that if you're not even around," I commented bitterly with a tinge of madness stuck in my throat. There would be no more remarks from him about being superior, not now...not ever. I retraced back to Eld.
"I couldn't tell her...you were wrong about me having the time to say it. I just hope that you guys are keeping each other good company where ever you are." I left the blonde to speak to Gunther next. Some blood splashed my nose as I stopped underneath him. I didn't dare move to wipe it away, not yet.
"Gunther. That girl, the mousy girl. You had so much more to say to her didn't you? I wonder if she even survived this expedition... If she's still around, I'll give her my regards from you," I said looking up as he dangled above me, vacantly taking in my words.
"...Caria."
"Don't you dare call my name! Not when I'm paying my respects like this," I shouted over him without looking back, like a mother appalled by her child's audacity. I inhaled and exhaled sharply after that little outburst.
"I'll be just like them one day, probably sooner rather than later. When you and Erwin have used up all your resources, made all the sacrifices you could make; I'll be that body in the lower left-hand side of the picture you frame around all off your failure," I spat. "I only have one thing left to do. I'm going to find that Female Titan and scrape her to death with every single sword I'm carrying and if she swallows me I'll be the knife stabbing her stomach, and if she crushes me, I'll be the annoying splinter in her hand. I will not die without making my mark. I can promise you that."
My grappling hooks launched me forward. I inhaled slowly, taking each of their fighting spirits with me as I passed their lifeless bodies towards the enemy. I wondered about this person sheltered up in the body of a Titan. How could they look any of these soldiers in the eye before they decided to stab them in the back. Cunning, truly cunning. My muscles ached, teeth bared and my face resembled the creature that shared my last name.
"Ergh! Let go of me!" I growled. Levi once again had my back against the tree.
"We're not moving until you calm down," Levi said.
"Fuck that, we have to get Eren!" I shouted with heavy breaths.
"You go like this and you-"
"I go like this and I'm ready to tear her apart! Or let me guess, we're still trying to catch the bitch who already outsmarted you once before, so I can't kill her. Is that it? And for what reasons? So she can come back and kill more people later!?" I cut him off, shoving past him so that I could do what needed to be done.
I flew away from Levi towards the distant sound of heavy footsteps.
"Mikasa?!" I exclaimed, seeing the young woman in the distance with swords out at her sides poised against the tree. I couldn't see very well through the trees but I caught a brief glimpse of blonde hair. I saw the Titan's arm crush the tree, missing the raven haired girl completely. It retreated and Mikasa hastily called after it. Levi moved past me and caught the younger woman to keep her from getting further.
"Wh-what are you...?" Mikasa asked in confusion. She scowled at the man holding her hostage, but her face softened upon seeing my face. "Caria...you're here," I nodded to her and glared at Levi who released her so that he could explain the situation.
"Fall back for now," He ordered. Mikasa made a sound of annoyance but reluctantly gave in. I took note of the feral look in her eyes; bloodlust.
"Maintain this distance. It looks like it's getting tired now; it's pace has slowed considerably," Levi analyzed.
"It has Eren," Mikasa said turning to glance at me. "She took him out of the neck." My brows creased. So that's why she looked so positively livid.
"Is he dead?" Levi questioned.
"He's alive." Mikasa assured us, eyes focused on the Female Titan. "It's intelligent isn't it? It seems that her goal is to capture Eren alive, otherwise she would have crushed him."
"She may have eaten Eren. It's far more reasonable to assume he's dead," Levi said.
"He's alive." Mikasa insisted.
"I hope you're right," Levi retorted.
"I believe her. What's the point in the enemy killing all those soldiers just to eat Eren and then run away. If she had already eaten him then why not try to kill us? It's obvious that she's protecting him," I said.
"Caria, you were with Eren before he transformed and started fighting weren't you? What happened?" Mikasa asked.
"I wasn't there the whole time, I left to find out what the howling was and then I came back and ...everyone was dead, and as I've just learned, Eren's been taken hostage." I recounted.
"Oh," Mikasa frowned sensing my anger and pain. She turned to Levi.
"If only you'd protected Eren, this wouldn't have happened," Mikasa snapped. She echoed my current feelings. Levi flew around to face her.
"I see now. You're the one from back then. Eren's close friend," Levi commented. He stared at her for a moment before returning to his original position. It was admirable actually. Mikasa had made her way to Eren before we did.
"We'll limit ourselves to a single goal. First off, forget about killing the Female Titan," He said.
"What?!" I cried.
"It killed a lot of our comrades," Mikasa said reflecting my disbelief.
"As long as it can harden it's skin, we can't kill it," Levi explained.
"Harden it's skin?" I repeated.
"When I attacked it at its neck, My swords broke," Mikasa mentioned
"You're kidding me right?" I scoffed. "We'll have to think of something then. There's no way we can let someone that dangerous get away and then sneak right back into our ranks."
"We don't have time to figure out how to kill it," Levi said.
"Fine, leave me behind. You guys save Eren and I'll have a one on one with the murderer. They can't hold that form forever," I determined.
"No Caria," Levi instructed. This time I flew in front to face him.
"And why not? You had no problem leaving the others behind, what makes me so special?!" I hissed. Levi flinched, and broke eye contact with me.
"Caria. The others in your group died, right? They'll have to be taken back to their families then. I'm sure they wouldn't want you to stay behind on your own," Mikasa said looking between me and Levi. I returned to my position at Mikasa's left. She had a point. I'd have to give my regards to the families of the fallen, and see their smiling faces thinking that their sons and daughters were returning home.
"Do as I say. We'll bet our hopes on the idea that Eren's still alive and rescue him before it leaves the forest," Levi said unsheathing his blades. "I will tear away at it, you guys draw its attention."
(Female Titan Battle Theme*)
Bringing my swords out, I flew to the lower left and Mikasa went lower right. We hovered just above the ground while Levi flew above it like a hawk in the sky. The Female Titan, perceiving Levi as the actual threat, spun on it's heel and aimed a punch in his direction. Right before my eyes, Levi ceased to be human. Like a rotary blade, he spun himself up the Titans arm, pausing on the tricep to bend and pounce at the Titan's eyes. I watched in awe as both blades sunk into the Titan pupils, covering Levi's face with blood. He flipped backwards, expertly discarding his current set of swords in exchange for his second set. He wound down around the Titan making multiple cuts into her body and then spun up again, slashing at her spine. Mikasa and I looked onward. Draw it's attention, ha! It hadn't even considered us lesser soldiers for a minute. Levi made more incisions along both of the Titans arm, allowing it no time to heal itself. He continued about cutting away as a one man army and as I watched him, I became infuriated. Trust in your comrades or trust in yourself? Was that this super human's excuse for not acting. Seriously?! He could have gotten off his damn horse and done this at any time and yet he went on and on about choices. I watched as the arm guarding the Titan's neck finally fell. It's weak spot now exposed. I looked to Mikasa, whose grappling hook launched straight for the Titans neck. I wanted to do the same, but paused seeing the smallest flicker in the Titan's eyelid. A trap?!
"Stop!" Levi called realizing that the Titan wasn't completely down for the count yet. It's hand moved up, but Levi pushed Mikasa away landing on the back of the Titan's hand in an awkward angle. He launched himself towards the Titans' mouth and sliced it open. Sure enough, Eren was still alive.
"Eren!" Mikasa called. Levi quickly did an about face and snatched Eren out of the Titan's mouth.
"Hey We're getting out of here!" Levi called
Eren!" Mikasa called out again in relieve. I smirked inwardly. Her love for him sure caused her do reckless things.
"I think he's okay. He's alive but filthy," Levi said, commenting on the Titan's saliva covering the unconscious boy. I glared at the Female Titan, swords at the ready. Now would be the perfect time.
The others in your group died, right?
I made a sound of frustration. Move dammit! She was right there, still vulnerable.
...But I couldn't...Mikasa had convinced me. I wanted to see my friends taken home.
"Forget about it, we'll retreat. Don't lose sight of the core objective. Is satisfying your own desires more important than rescuing him? He's your precious friend isn't he? Am I wrong?" Levi said in response to Mikasa's carelessness around the Titan although I'm sure some of the message was intended for me as well. The younger raven headed girl grimaced, uttering an apologetic 'no'.
I looked back again at the Titan and my lips parted. The giant had tears streaming from it's left eye as it sat back to the tree. Crying? I shook my head. No, surely that was a trick of the light. I wasn't convinced that this murderer suddenly regretted their killing spree, or maybe it was just in an immense amount of pain. Yes, probably the latter.
"Hey Caria. I think he hurt himself trying to save me. Would you carry Eren?" Mikasa suggested nodding to the one man army flying about in front of us.
"Give Eren to me," I said to Levi, coming up alongside him.
"It's fine. I can carry him," Levi insisted keeping his eyes ahead. I felt disgusted looking at him. He saved my life, he saved my mother's life and yet for some reason, he chose not to save the others.
"All of this could have been avoided if you had simply unsheathed your swords when they were begging for you to make the call," I hissed. "I saw you back there. You were invincible! So why all the bullshit about not knowing whether or not to make the right choice?" He ignored me, but I kept my eyes trained on him. "Fine, don't say anything as usual, but you'll answer for this one way or another."
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**end chapter**
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**miniseries*
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She Who Seeks his Age
It was time. Time to find what he truly was. I tiptoed along the castle walls, watching my back and listening for incoming footsteps. I dived past the kitchen where some Survey Corps soldiers were making lunch for the squad. Dodging training with Levi required a lot of stealth. The Captain would kill me, but it would be worth it if I got the answer I was searching for. Hanji was somewhere in the castle right now, probably in the basement with Eren.
"Hey Eren, how do think a Titan would respond if we were to knit them a large shirt and cover them with it?" Hani's voice sounded.
"Huh? Wouldn't that be a waste of resources. They'd probably tear it while we tried to get it on them...wait what am I saying, there's just no sane reason to even try that," Eren's doubtful voice echoed to the top of the stairs.
"Hmm, but maybe it might make them feel a bit more comfortable around us. Maybe they're just really self-conscious that they're not dressed so that's why they get angry and attack us," Hanji proposed.
"Is this actually a theory, or are you just throwing around some nonsense to keep me entertained?" Eren deadpanned.
"I'm afraid I have to agree with Eren there Hanji." I chirped revealing my presence.
"Oh Caria, did sparring end already?" Hanji greeted. "Hey what do you think about-"
"Uh actually I have to return to Levi soon, but I have a question?" I said cutting her off lest I be down here till well past midnight.
"Shoot!" Hanji encouraged.
"How old is Levi?" I inquired.
"Hmm good question," Hanji paused in thought.
"So you don't know then?" I frowned at her hesitation.
"Well I have a few guesses. He's either around Erwins age but a bit younger or he's 25," Hanji determined
"How do you figure?" I asked.
"Wild guess," She grinned happily.
"I think I'd go with her first answer although we'd have to find out how old Commander Erwin is," Eren noted.
"Usually men get gray hairs close to forty and I can't say I've seen any so he's probably somewhere below 40," Hanji guessed.
"Like 36 or something? I guess that would mean Levi would be in his 30s," I said uncertainly.
"That's right!" Hanji exclaimed.
"Why'd you wanna know. Is the Captain's birthday soon?" Eren questioned.
"No," I sighed. "I'm not even sure when his birthday is."
I left feeling a bit disgruntled by the answers, Levi just didn't look that old.
"Hey it's Ms. Skip Out on Sparring. We had an odd number of people so Levi kicked mine and Oluo's asses today. Where were you? The Captain seemed pretty pissed. I think he's headed for your room or something to look for you," Eld said.
"Has he now? Great let's go in the opposite direction," I laughed nervously.
"What were you doing exactly?" Gunther said.
"I didn't want to miss Hanji so I skipped out to ask her how old Levi was?"
"Wait that's it?" Eld stopped in his tracks.
"Petra's been trying to find that one out for while," Gunther pointed out.
"What?! N-no I haven't! I just asked you guys once and that was it!" she blushed.
"And then you asked again, and again a week later," Oluo teased.
"Stop making things up!" Petra rebutted.
"Well none of us know. I'd say he's north of us and south of 40," Eld guessed.
"Yeah. Does he call you a brat?" Gunther asked.
"No?" I answered wondering what it had to do with anything.
"Then that means your not a kid to him but that newbie we're protecting probably would be,"Oluo explained
"He's probably in his late 20s or something," Gunther said thoughtfully
"Ha, I know how old the Capt-"
"Late 20s, why?" I cut Oluo off.
"Well Petra's the youngest of us after you and I can't imagine him being that much older than her so, 29 maybe." he explained.
"Wait, why are you using me as an age marker?" Petra asked flustered.
"No reason," Gunther said slyly.
"You girls are really curious about the Captains age aren't you? I wonder why? Could it be there's a shared interest?" Oluo smirked
"No!" Petra and I denied in unison.
"Oy you guys have you seen...Caria." The Captain hollered though he stopped realizing I was amongst the group. I gulped.
"Well, at least you can say you managed to survive one expedition," Gunther said walking past me.
"Yea it's been nice knowing you," Eld followed.
"I'm sure he won't be too hard on you, but then again, he can be pretty harsh," Petra smiled apologetically.
"Hmph, next time don't skip out on training. You're still a newbie in some areas so I guess it can't be helped," Oluo shrugged, retreating with the rest of them.
I stood my ground, preparing myself as the Captain came closer and closer.
"Tell me. You've seem to have found something more interesting to do with your time. What exactly?" He said sharply, circling around me.
"I wanted to see Hanji, I... I had some questions to ask her," I began.
"Emphasize," He commanded.
"Girl questions. I was in the bathroom and I noticed tha-"
"Tch. All right, you can stop there," he interrupted making a face. "I suppose if it was a womanly matter then I can't punish you. But you should have at least told me.
"It was really embarrassing and I was afraid that you'd want details," I lied.
"Hmm, I see. I can let you off the hook, but we're still going practice," he said. I felt guilty for lying, but I hadn't completely got out of sparring, so i was doing my time for the crime in a sense.
"Hey, Levi?" I said as we walked to the sparring area.
"Hmm?"
"Are you in your 30s?" I asked
"This again?" he commented lazily.
"I know... it's just...I only ask because I'd feel better about, er, stuff, if I knew," I admitted.
"Better about what?" he said
"About...how informal I am with you," I said coming up with an excuse.
"Oh, is that all?" He stopped beside me.
"Y-yes," I answered, hoping that the excuse would be enough.
"Don't worry about it. No matter the age difference between us, if your lack of manners bothered me, you'd know it by now," he frankly stated. I blinked at him unable to say anything.
"Come. I have something new to show you this time," he turned and walked away.
"Yea..." I hesitated. Once again, I still didn't have a direct answer, but if he truly was in his 30s, I needed to know instead how he maintained such a youthful appearance. The more I found out about Levi, the less I understood of him.
end
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author commentary
So the first song I put up, track 6: call your name dark instrumental is just called track 6 if you search the snk soundtrack. Some of the songs are named some aren't. But it's a great song(anything Hiroyuki Sawano does is impressive). It is call your name though and i call it a dark instrumental because it has some pretty serious tones. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and minichapter. There's only one more minichapter after this by the way since it was supposed to span the Female Titan Arc and since that's coming to a close...yea. I read the manga yesterday. There seemed to be more meat this time as opposed to the last chapters which have their share of good content but they always seem to end so abruptly. You guys should read it! Have a nice rest of your night or morning. Ciao!