Chapter 8: Heroes
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War in this world is a little different from war in Sakura's world.
When humans are incapable of jutsu and need to survive in a world where Titans exist, they become far more cunning. They become sneaky. They become underhanded. It's a different approach, but the roots of it feel familiar; although shinobi do not fight their wars this way, they certainly perform their jobs this way. Traveling under the cover of night feels natural. Silently killing a few Marley soldiers to steal some boats is easy. Sakura is brought back to her days of A- and B-rank missions, before she decided to work full time at the hospital, before Levi.
The air is tense as they travel across the sea. The sun is beginning to rise, peeking above the horizon where the water meets the sky, lighting up the world in beautiful pinks, golds, and purples. With how still and picturesque this morning is, it almost feels wrong to launch an all-out assault on another nation. When she glances at Levi, he is staring beyond, seemingly not noticing the beauty that this world has to offer. She lets him be; he has enough on his mind without her bothering him.
When she sees Marley's skyline rise over the horizon, she blinks the sleep from her eyes and readies herself. Like at the Paradis docks, her job is to kill any Marley soldiers that might be awaiting the return of these boats.
It's easy. They react so slowly. In the time it takes for her to slit their throats, they can't even scream.
Once the immediate threat has been neutralized, they quickly unload the boats. The city is still quiet; most people are probably only just waking up and getting ready for the day. Sakura remembers the short amount of time she spent here—those were easier and lazier days.
When Hange first asked her about Katsuyu, Sakura was a little concerned. Would animal summons work across worlds? Would Katsuyu be able to hear Sakura call to her? Would she be able to find her way across the stars?
She did, though. When Sakura first summoned her gentle companion back at headquarters, everyone was in various shades of awe. When she does it now, no one bats an eyelash—and as smaller slugs grow and detach from the main body, each keeping a different soldier company for the battle ahead, there are no shouts of surprise or disgust. What remains of Katsuyu's main body, perhaps half the size that she was initially, stays by Sakura's side.
The goal of today's attack is to send a message in response to Marley's two attacks on Paradis: that they don't want to make this bigger than they have to, but they will not back down. Up until now, Marley has acted arrogantly, soaking in their hubris because Eren wouldn't wake the Titans at the bottom of the ocean. They think that their technology, numbers, and all the Eldians they have at their disposal will be enough to take on Paradis—and in a way, they're right. Except there is one thing they don't know about: Sakura.
She is Hange's trump card. She stands close to Hange, Levi on her other side. Eren and Mikasa stand nearby as well, waiting for their turn to come. The five of them are atop the lighthouse, where they have a good view on their surroundings. The remainder of the Survey Corps is on the docks below.
Hange turns to the little Katsuyu sitting on her shoulder; gently strokes her head with a finger and says, "Tell Armin that it's time."
The morning is still. Sakura counts the seconds. When she hits seven, the air spits and crackles, light and heat flooding the area as Armin transforms. The sheer size of him makes her heart jump to her throat—he is as big as the ones she saw during the Rumbling, towering larger than any Titan she's ever fought before. She can only barely make out the vivid red of his musculature through the steam he's emitting. Watching him begin to move, however slowly, makes her think that she's glad he's on their side.
It is a horrible thing that Hange had asked him to do. With an even expression, as she was debriefing everyone, she had said that Armin's sole purpose was to destroy. Not to fight or to kill soldiers—only to demolish anything in his path. The collateral damage is expected—in fact, it's the goal.
Armin's eyes were wide, the horror clear as day, but he didn't protest. Afterwards, when Sakura went to check up on him, he had said, "Conflict always makes us discard a part of ourselves. It's just a matter of which part."
He drags his feet as he walks, the noise deafening as he kicks into houses and other buildings. People begin to emerge from their homes to see what the commotion is, and it is not long before chaos erupts, the sound of screaming blending in with the noise of falling stone and tumbling infrastructure. Sakura closes her eyes and forces herself to inhale slowly and deeply, trying not to think about all the people being crushed under the rubble.
Levi had told her what it was like when Wall Maria was first breached, all those years ago. It must have been something like this.
Sakura is always high-strung during battle. Every second can feel like minutes—and right now, when her only job is to wait, it feels like an eternity passing her by. Levi and Hange are calm on either side of her, watching with careful eyes. Sakura is sure they've been in this situation several times before she ever met them, standing by while the world is falling apart around them.
It feels much longer than what it actually is before retaliation strikes. Marley soldiers, dressed in their navy blue uniforms and rifles in their arms. Armin continues on his rampage, undisturbed, while their enemies charge at the Survey Corps. Sakura thinks they are disorganized, hasty, brutish—lacking all of the finesse that she is used to seeing on the battle field, whether it be from a shinobi's cunning foresight or the deadly grace of 3DMG. Despite the fact that this country has utilized Titans as a form of weaponry for years, it's clear that these people have never actually been on the receiving end of that horror.
Following the strategy that was discussed with the Survey Corps, Sakura begins to form seals with her fingers. There are a lot of Marley soldiers—she hopes she can get them all, or else their comrades down below will have to catch the stragglers.
As the genjutsu falls into place, the movement down below slows to a halt. In their attackers' minds, they're still charging, but in reality their bodies slowly drop to the ground. Once the illusion is set, it feels like Sakura has the wind knocked from her lungs; even though it was a simple genjutsu, the sheer number of people she had to place it on took a chunk of her chakra. She still has more stored away, but she wants to use it sparingly as she's also in charge of healing.
For what is supposed to be a battle, it is unnervingly quiet below. Sakura counts the seconds, the breaths, the heartbeats.
An agonizing minute passes and Hange speaks to Mikasa. "Go. Be quiet, be quick." Mikasa nods and shoots out her cables, flying through the buildings with her 3DMG, a small Katsuyu clinging to her shoulder. Sakura watches her quickly retreating figure; depending on what happens with Mikasa, things could be over very quickly, or they could drag out for much longer.
Armin is much further away now but still completely visible. He leaves destruction in his wake as he walks with slowly swinging legs. He's purposely dragging his feet on the ground to kick up as much as he can—Sakura thinks about him, his sweet smile and golden hair, and hurts on his behalf.
Several blocks to their left, beyond some untouched buildings, lightning cracks in the air. It's in the direction that Mikasa went in.
"Mikasa says it's the Armored Titan," Katsuyu reports shortly afterwards.
Hange only thinks for a second. "Eren," she says. "Go. Mikasa needs to get past him."
The young man nods and leaves on his 3DMG, and then three are left.
Beside Sakura, Levi says, "It's not Reiner, is it?"
Hange shakes her head. "It shouldn't be. Thirteen years have passed for him."
The conversation means less to Sakura than it does to them; she understands the curse, but can't put a face to Reiner's name. Levi has only said a little about him in the past—just that he's a bastard, a traitor, and that Levi couldn't manage to kill him when he had the chance.
Her jaw is sore but she can't stop grinding her teeth. She continues to wait.
—
Katsuyu gives constant updates as Eren fights the Armored Titan.
"He's strong, but Eren is fast. Eren is holding his own, but Mikasa seems unwilling to leave him to fight on his own."
Hange chews on her thumbnail as she thinks. Levi places his hands on the triggers of his gear. "I'll go and provide backup." Although Mikasa is skilled and Eren has held his ground against Reiner before, there's no telling what the human inside the Armored Titan is capable of. Levi stands, waiting for Hange's permission.
But it's Sakura who speaks up next. "I should be the one to go." She looks determined and unswayable. "Katsuyu's acid will easily burn through his armor. I can win—I know I can."
Hange levels a hard look at Sakura. "You do know that just because you go now, it doesn't absolve Levi of fighting, right?"
Sakura swallows. "I know."
"You can't always protect him."
"I know."
Although there is noise all around them, Levi hears none of it. He sees Hange nod, sees her lips form some words, and he sees Sakura turn to look at him.
She yanks him into a fierce hug, the action so ardent that he doesn't pull away even though he wants to. While her arms are tight around him, his hang limply by his side. "Don't be a hero," she says into his hair, her voice caught somewhere between an order and a plea.
"I'm not a hero," he tells her. His words are partially muffled by her shoulder.
"That's not what I mean." She squeezes tighter and it actually hurts a little. "Choose survival. Choose to live."
He's said those exact words to her, once before. It feels like an entire lifetime ago.
When she pulls away to look at him, her eyes are glassy, but she doesn't cry. "Yeah," he says, even though he doesn't know if he can keep that promise. After one last nod, she takes off with Katsuyu.
Levi watches her until he can't anymore. He thinks of the house.
"Look." Hange points beyond in Armin's direction. He looks, and his frown deepens. There are airships.
"Probably to counterattack Armin."
"You think he'll be okay?"
He thinks for a moment. "I don't know. They know where a Titan's weak spot is, and I don't doubt that they have explosives." Not to mention how Armin's size is a double-edged sword; what he makes up for in sheer power, he lacks in speed.
Hange is quiet for a minute. The airships are still a ways off from Armin; it would take them some time before they're within range. By Levi's count, there's a handful of them—twenty, at least. The more he thinks about Marley's technology and how unequipped they are to handle it, the less confident he feels.
"I need you and Philip's team to go," Hange decides. "Use Armin for the height. Get onto those ships. If you destroy their engines, the people on board won't be able to do anything."
Levi has no idea how to destroy the engine of an airship, but he nods anyway. "Got it."
"I trust you."
These are words that he's been told before, many times by Erwin. Although he and Levi were close, the previous commander always had a way of keeping things professional—Levi was his weapon, his trump card, his blade that would carve their path to victory. When Erwin told Levi he trusted him, it was always as a leader to his loyal soldier.
When Hange says it now, it feels different. Levi's heart twists at her words, at the way she looks at him, at how she's so brutally honest.
"Whatever," he says, brushing past her. "You better not die." He jumps off the ledge of the lighthouse to find Philip and relay their next orders.
As tempted as he is to look back at her one last time, he does not.
—
With an angry shout, Sakura grabs one of the Armored Titan's legs and pulls hard enough for him to lose his balance and fall over. He goes crashing into a large pile of rubble that was, up until a few minutes ago, a restaurant.
He's smart. After Katsuyu's initial acid attack melted the majority of his armor but missed his nape, he crystalized his weak spots and managed to avoid Sakura and Eren's attacks until most of his armor has regenerated. The steam is mostly gone now that the majority of his body has healed, but Sakura's move has him lying on his back. He lifts his head sluggishly.
"Mikasa, go!" Sakura shouts. "We can handle this!"
Mikasa, who she's so used to seeing either very composed or some level of angry at Levi, now appears worried as she looks at Eren. He can't speak in his Titan form, but his eyes are determined and unafraid. He roars once at Mikasa, and even though there are no discernable words, she seems to understand; her brow relaxes and she nods, before swinging away on whatever buildings remain standing. The Armored Titan is still recovering from his fall and she easily moves past him.
Sakura glances at him before glancing up at Eren. They've never fought together before and it shows—they take turns attacking, never utilizing teamwork. It doesn't help that he can't actually communicate with her right now.
She flash-steps up to his shoulder and gets close to his ear. "Okay, here's my plan."
She speaks quickly, eyes never leaving the Armored Titan once. He's beginning to stand, picking himself up from the rubble, looking a little dizzy but otherwise unhurt. When she finishes, she feels Eren nod. Her hands tighten into fists. This is an exercise of trust—trust in him that he will commit to the fight, trust in her that she won't bulldoze her way through with her strength and kill him along with the Armored Titan. It's not the best situation to have to work with someone for the first time, but then again, life is rarely ideal.
Sakura flash-steps to a nearby building to give Eren space and hopes that this plan is good enough.
"Sakura-sama." Katsuyu slithers close, voice gentle. "Airships are attacking Armin. Levi and some others are going to back him up."
Sakura turns to look behind her. Sure enough, like Katsuya had said, there is a group of airships flying in Armin's direction. Her vision of his huge Titan form is skewed by both smoke and steam, but it's still easy to see that he's still a large target. The airships will have no trouble finding him and zeroing in on his nape. She can't see Levi or anyone else—she wants to be worried about him, is worried about him, but she doesn't have the time to think about it.
She knows he's strong. He was strong before she met him, and he's even stronger now. But her heart has always been the louder voice, drowning out logic and reason, so even though she knows Levi is humanity's strongest, she can't keep her stomach from doing nauseous flips.
Her thoughts are brought back to the present at the sound of Eren falling to the ground. The Armored Titan caught him in a hard uppercut and sent him flying.
Get up, she urges quietly, though Eren doesn't need telling. It's like he's done this before: he instinctively knows that the Armored Titan's joints are its weak points and fights more with strategy than with brute force. Both of them have taken hits, but Eren is slowly gaining the upper hand. His green eyes are intent, watching, calculating.
"More Marley soldiers have arrived at the docks," Katsuyu tells her. "Hange-sama wants you to stay here."
"But my genjutsu," Sakura says. "I can render them all useless."
"Hange-sama says that one Titan shifter is more dangerous than a group of regular humans. She wants you and Eren to keep him alive if you can, and bring him back once you've neutralized him."
Sakura purses her lips. "Okay." Eren now has the Armored Titan in a crushing chokehold. "Be ready, Katsuyu."
"Yes, Sakura-sama."
The two Titans are still in their battle of strength. Eren has his weight on the Armored Titan and his arm around his neck. After a few moments, the Armored Titan pushes one of his feet back for leverage and grabs onto Eren's arm around his neck; using gravity to his advantage, he crouches and throws Eren over his shoulder. Eren lands with a mighty crash, stone and earth crumbling underneath him.
Before Sakura has time to panic, Eren's legs shoot up, catches the Armored Titan by the neck and pulls him down too. The two Titans scuffle in a mess of limbs and strained roars, until finally Eren has him pinned down on his front. Eren turns to Sakura, and even though he doesn't use words, she knows from the look in his eyes that it's time.
But he's still in the way. There's no way for Katsuyu's attack to avoid him as long as he's holding the Armored Titan down like that. Sakura's eyes are wide as she thinks, weighing the options. Each second that passes feels so much longer than it actually is, and as time continues on, Eren struggles more to keep him pinned down. He roars at Sakura, urging her on, eyes hard with determination—and Sakura remembers the young man that Levi used to describe, unafraid of the journey he must take to reach his goal. He's not unlike a man she used to love.
"Now, Katsuyu," she says.
The slug hesitates. "But…"
"Eren will be fine. Avoid his nape and he'll be fine. C'mon, hurry!"
Her summons does as she's told. Sakura is already in the air as Katsuyu spits her acid at the Titans.
The toxic yellow fluid burns through both Eren and the Armored Titan, and Sakura wastes no time to slice off the Armored Titan's limbs now that her blades can cut through him. Eren rolls off of him, half of his torso and one of his legs completed corroded through and steaming, but she pays him no need.
With chakra in her feet, she flash-steps to the Armored Titan's nape where some acid is burning through the tough armor, and slices.
—
Levi has always felt strong when he uses 3DMG. Even in the shitty hellhole where he grew up, flying through the buildings gave him a sense of power as he soared high above everyone else despite the fact that he was still underground. He felt the same even when fighting Titans because they're slow and stupid.
When he looks high above at the airships now, that feeling doesn't come.
He's seen these airships before and has fought the people who are on them, but he has never actually taken down the vessels. Marley technology is something beyond his understanding, with buttons and contraptions that send signals and messages that he can't hear or see. Levi doesn't like things that he can't tangibly comprehend.
Armin lets them be as they use him to gain height, shooting hook after hook into his flesh. Levi only stops when he reaches the top of his head, staring at the airships flying ever closer. If he looks closely, he can see soldiers preparing cannons through the open hatches.
"They're surrounding Armin from all directions," Philip shouts over the whirring noise of the engines from Armin's shoulder. "There's no way to avoid getting his nape blasted open."
Levi turns to the airship directly behind Armin. "Tell Armin to emit steam from his body!" he shouts back. The airships are just out of reach even with their 3DMG—Marleyan soldiers seem to know the limits of their gear. If the ship that has a direct line of sight on Armin's nape manages to blast their cannons, they're as good as dead.
He looks around at the comrades around him. They're all staring at the airships, helpless because they're too far away, afraid because the cannons aren't far away enough. Armin could feasibly hit a lot of them with a swipe of his arm, but he probably wouldn't hit them all, and definitely not fast enough either. And once he begins emitting steam, he'll be rendered immobile as well. They haven't even begun yet and the situation has already gone to shit.
His jaw tightens. "You better hold on tight," he tells Katsuyu who's on his shoulder. The little slug makes a nod of affirmation.
Levi gathers his chakra in his feet and flash-steps as far as he can. His jaw tightens—not far enough. He flash-steps again and he's a little bit closer, but he still hasn't closed the distance enough to use his 3DMG. Three steps is his limit—he better make it.
His cloak whips around him in the wind and there is nothing below to catch him; he flash-steps a third time, and before gravity takes hold, he shoots his hooks out towards the airship that is aiming cannons at Armin's nape. Every muscle in his body screams with exertion and all he can hear is the white noise of the blood in his ears.
The first hook hits metal and deflects off. The second one almost doesn't make it. But just as he begins to fall, the second cable wraps tightly around one of the ropes of the ship, and he swings instead.
Levi expels gas from his tanks, retracts the cable, and flies.
Notes: I'm apprehensive about this chapter because it's action and I'm not good at action, but I can only stew over it for so long before I'm just walking myself in circles. Hopefully it wasn't half bad!
You heard Sakura, Levi. Don't go being a hero.