A/N: Someone requested Zeke/Levi/Ackerman interaction post-105 :)
It's been so long since she's been in the dungeon. Wasn't it only five years ago that she was held in one of these cells herself? She never thought she'd return, especially not of her own will, but here she is again.
The sound of her steps echoes down the hall as she walks. She's determined to walk straight to her destination without straying, but one particular cell holds her back. There's a man inside, a man she would have once turned back to look at, but she knows that even if she stopped to speak with him, he would look at her with that unfamiliar expression that she hates. Her knuckles have turned white from gripping onto the cell bars and she lets go, remembering that she has somewhere to be and that that man wouldn't miss her anyway.
When she arrives, she sees that Captain Levi is still inside questioning the prisoner. She doesn't even glance at the captive who sits chained on the floor across from them. She knows if she does, she won't be able to restrain herself. Instead, she keeps her eyes steady on her captain who stands there with an unsatisfied expression.
"You've been questioning him for a while," Mikasa says to the Captain.
"It's less of an interrogation and more like torture," the prisoner answers. Despite being holed up in the dark for days, he speaks as though he hasn't been locked away, as if he's not partially responsible that the whole entire world is after them.
She glances at Zeke for a brief second before returning her gaze to Captain Levi, who looks at the other man in absolute disgust. "But he doesn't have a scratch on him," Mikasa observes.
"I'm saving him for later," Levi replies.
It seems so uncharacteristic of him to not lay even a finger on Zeke, but Zeke reminds her, "I heal. Don't think he restrained himself."
They both ignore him.
"Did you get anything out of him?" Mikasa asks.
"Just the usual," Levi says.
All they had was the letter that Eren had written and the words of the children that had managed to board the airship. Getting words out of Eren is useless now. He's distant and quiet like he wasn't before. He's just like his brother, who sits silently in this cell now with an amused expression on his face. Even though they're the ones who have chained Zeke up, he acts like he's the one with the upper hand.
"We should just get rid of him then," Mikasa mutters. How she wishes that they could do that. Just being in the same place as him makes her skin crawl.
"I've tried that," Levi says, scoffing. "Hanji says we need him though. As much as they hate to admit it. If it were only up to me, I would have ended him a long time ago." He narrows his eyes at Zeke, but the man doesn't even flinch under the Captain's piercing glare.
"It's rude to speak about me as if I'm not in the room," Zeke says simply. Mikasa hates the conversational tone he takes; he acts like they're casual acquaintances even though the entire island would have been fine if they had never seen him again. When he took off that day in Shiganshina, he should have left for good.
"You never say anything useful anyway, so it's not as if it matters," Levi says to him.
"Levi, you're rude as always. I thought you would have warmed up to me by now after spending so much time together down here," Zeke says, but he's not looking at Levi. His attention is turned towards Mikasa. She dislikes his intense stare; it dares her to look at him, to approach him, to unleash all her unsaid feelings towards him. "But what about you, Mikasa? Did you not come here to speak with me? If you wanted to speak with your captain, you could have waited outside instead of coming down here."
"I've changed my mind…your words are useless anyway, aren't they?" She turns away from him, knowing that he's trying to get a reaction from her.
Hasn't he always been like this? Strategic, smart, manipulative. He has the ability to read people and situations, assessing them and determining what to do next. She doesn't want to be one of the people he observes because she knows he'll end up using her in the end. That's how he got to Eren. That's how they've ended up in this mess.
"Go back upstairs, Ackerman," Levi says, giving her a backward glance before returning his attention to Zeke. "If you want any more updates about the prisoner, I'll include it in the report for this week's meeting with Commander Zoe."
She's eager to leave, but she hopes that her expression doesn't show it. Somehow revealing anything to Zeke feels dangerous. She keeps her expression neutral and salutes to the Captain, trying to leave as soon as possible, but Zeke's voice calls her back.
"Tell me, Mikasa," Zeke asks before she has a chance to even open the cell. "Do you dislike me for what I did to your brother?"
"You, shut up," Levi growls at Zeke. He looks carefully at Mikasa though, gauging her reaction. His look is a gentle warning: Don't interact. Just ignore him.
She doesn't leave though. Her hand stays on the iron bars of the cell, unsure whether to leave or stay. Zeke takes this as an opportunity to continue their conversation.
"You can blame me, but just know that I never made him do anything he didn't want to do," Zeke tells her. When she turns around, he's smiling at her as if she's a child that doesn't know anything. "There were times that he would insist that this was the right thing to do. And you know how persistent he is."
She whirls around, ready to break him in every way she can. He could heal himself over again, so she needn't feel guilty about destroying him. He'll be the same after a few hours. It would take only a minute and feel so satisfying, she thinks, but when she swings her fist, someone holds her back.
She's livid when she discovers it's her own captain. He wants this as much as she does, wants to see this bastard broken and bleeding on the floor, so why would he restrain her?
"Let go of me," she hisses at him, eyes blazing.
"He's not worth it," Levi warns her. He doesn't let go until her arm falls slack at her side.
Zeke acts as if she doesn't want to beat the shit out of him. He continues talking like nothing's happening. "Ah, but maybe it's not that you hate me for using him? Rather, it's that I took your most precious person away from you?" Zeke suggests. There's a smirk on his face. "Or maybe it's not me that you're mad at after all? Isn't it Eren you're mad at? He used you. And I'm just the poor man you've redirected your anger at."
All she sees is red, the blood of innocent people that she never dreamed that they would be responsible for. The people that Eren had so carelessly thought of as collateral damage, the bodies of those that she couldn't help. She never wanted to be a part of this. She never wanted to be dragged into this. And she hates that Zeke knows this.
"You're the one who manipulated him into doing this!" Mikasa growls. She lunges at him, but the Captain holds her back once more, his grip on her even tighter than the last time. She attempts to break free from him, but he holds her back firmly. He barks orders at her, telling her to calm down, but she can't hear him at all.
He leans back against the wall. "Do you know what he told me at the end? He told me to trust him because he knew that you would come to save him," Zeke says. "He said that you would come for him. That if it came down to it, you would die for him."
There's a deafening silence after her fist hits his face. Blood drips from her hand and Zeke slumps over, his blood dripping onto the stone floor. He raises his head to watch her lift her fist once more, but the smirk on his face makes her stop mid-swing. Instead, she lets her hand fall and turns away, leaving the way she should have done before. She could beat him all she wants. She could kill him even, but it wouldn't satisfy her. She should have listened to Levi.
"I thought you were holding her back," she hears Zeke say.
"My hand slipped," Levi answers, his reply so quiet that she almost doesn't hear.
She doesn't leave immediately though. She stops at the cell she had hesitated at before, laying her bloody hand on the iron bars. She looks at the empty shell of the man she used to know, hiding in the shadows of his cell, and thinks that Zeke was right and everything Eren had told him was true. In the end, she had come for him, had come to save him, and after everything, she'd still die for him.
A/N: I think I have just a MikaSasha and AruMika to write after this as well as a Jaegerbros drabble. Please let me know if you guys would like anything ^^ Also when the next chapter comes out next month, feel free to drop a request :)
I was thinking of posting my other drabbles from Tumblr onto ffnet although I wanted to avoid putting them into this collection because I didn't want to mix up my shipping drabbles with my general ones. It would probably be a collection for EreAni and Jeankasa (separately) as well as a separate collection full of rarepairs. Thoughts?
Word Count: 1555