The same night

Hanji

A finger poked my shoulder. Groggily, my eyes opened, and I saw that my bedroom was still dark. Across the bed, Levi's back was towards me with the covers pulled over his head, tufts of his hair poking out. The finger poked me again, and, groaning, I rolled onto my back as I rubbed my face. Standing above me, I blinked Moblit's silhouette into clarity. My brows furrowed, and he pressed a finger to his lips to keep me quiet, his gaze flicking from Levi to me again. He jerked his chin towards the front room, and, nodding, I carefully threw my legs over the edge of the bed. Moblit left the room with me right on his tail.

"How the hell did you get in here," I whispered, my arms crossed over my chest. With a scowl darkening my face, I surveyed the disarray of the room and the exposed entrance of my lab. How could I be so careless as to leave my greatest secret vulnerable like that?

"The Commander gave me a spare key. He didn't want to chance Levi waking up from me knocking on the door."

I nodded, and Moblit pressed on.

"The Commander is requesting you attend a meeting immediately."

"Oh." My arms fell to my sides. "Right now, in the middle of the night?"

"Yeah." Moblit scratched the back of his head. "It has to do with the last expedition."

My brows shot up, giddiness bubbling in my stomach.

"OK. Let me get some clothes on, and we can go. In the meantime," I grinned sheepishly, gesturing about the couch, "could you help me put this all back?"

"Uh sure," Moblit looked around the room and tapped the destroyed bedroom door with his shoe, "but what even happened in here?"

I stifled a laugh.

"No need to worry, my friend. Everything's fine."

After quietly throwing on a pair of military-issued white pants and my yellow button down, I returned to the front room while shoving my arms into my Scouts trench coat. Moblit set the bookshelf back in front of my lab entrance, and he put my reports and books back on the shelves as I laced up my boots. My research journal and Mr. Smith's diary were safely hidden away in my lab. Still, as Moblit and I left my living quarters, unease crept up my spine to leave them behind.

But moreso, guilt twinged my heart for not staying with Levi through the night like he asked me to while pulling me into his arms. Undeniably, something had changed between us while we held each other between my sheets. Unspoken words were whispered between our hushed breaths, and, more than anything else, I unabashedly wanted to taste the secrets on his lips.

Moblit and I traveled through the halls by the few still lit torches and moonlight. The echo of our footsteps were the only sounds in HQ at the late hour. We came upon Erwin's office and entered without knocking. The Commander sat at his desk, his chin resting on his clasped hands. Lining the wall were Eren and two of his friends. Candlelight cast everyone's faces in shadows. Moblit closed the door behind us.

"Thank you for joining us, Section Commander," Erwin's hands moved to his desk as he nodded.

Moblit and I moved against the wall opposite of the kids.

"Tonight, we shall discuss the identity of the Female Titan, and tomorrow, we will launch a mission to capture her."

Levi

"Captain," Moblit shouted, racing into Hanji's bedroom.

A crack of lightning flashed through the room, bright enough to render the drawn drapes useless. The walls shook with its power, and I shot up in bed, suddenly very awake as I threw the covers off of myself. Moblit clung to the ruined doorframe, face pale. Sweat traced down his temple. My brows furrowed.

"What the fuck is going on?" I got to my feet, a deep ache in my muscles already setting in from jolting forward. "Why the hell are you here?"

"Section Commander Hanji was called by the Commander to lead the capture of the Female Titan -"

"- Holy shit -"

"- Section Commander placed me in charge of you in the meantime, but we've got a problem, Captain." Moblit's knuckles were white. "Wall Rose has been breached, and HQ is about to be overrun by titans."

"You've gotta be shitting me." My eyes widened, jaw slack.

"I have ODM gear for you, sir." Moblit went into the front room. "There's a spare uniform for you as well."

"Fuck." I sprinted after him, careful to avoid the ruined bedroom door and wood chips all over the floor as I wiped the sleep from my eyes. "If HQ is overrun, then there's no time to change."

While I threw on a pair of shoes and secured my harness over my pajamas, we heard screams down the hallway.

"Give me a run down of what's going on again." Moblit drew his blades, and I followed suit, one sword readied in my reverse grip.

We stood in front of the door. I gripped the knob, ready to throw it open. I felt the adrenaline in my fingertips. Approaching titan steps shook the room.

"While Section Commander Hanji and the Commander were launching their attack against the Female Titan in a town in Wall Sina, Wall Rose was attacked by the Colossal and Armored Titans. It's been summarily flooded with titans, and I don't know if their plan was even successful at this point."

Grunting, I nodded.

"If there are titans this far inside of Wall Rose already, then it's only a matter of time before it's declared a lost cause. I'm going to investigate the breach, offer my services to the front line there. You," I gestured with my sword at Moblit, "find Hanji, and keep her out of trouble. Got it?"

"Yes sir." Moblit worried his lip. "Are you sure you can fight, though? It's been a long time since you trained with gear, and - and this is exactly what Section Commander wanted me to keep you from doing in the first place!"

"I'll be fine." I scowled and faced the door, lying. My body was not the same as it was before I had tried to kill myself, but I had to trust in what little strength I had left; there was nothing else I could do.

"You ready Moblit?"

The door flung open. Scouts, the ones who must have been unable to participate in Erwin's plans, ran down the hallway, bloodied blades drawn. Steam billowed after them. Lumbering up the spiral staircase, a titan grinned at us with putrid teeth. Another stumbled from out of someone's living quarters. Entrails clung to its lips, dribbled down its gullet and chest.

Moblit entered the hallway just behind me as the titan lunged towards us.

"Captain," he yelled after me.

I spun, slashing its outstretched arms as I closed in on it. Its severed limbs thumped as they hit the floor. My foot smashed into its chest, and it tumbled backwards into the spiral stairwell. Turning around, I grabbed Moblit's shoulder and shoved him forward.

"We need to get to the roof with the others."

From the Officers' Hall, where my and Hanji's rooms were located, there was only one way to get to the roof without going ground level: a staircase that led to a massive room where expedition supplies were kept. Since the stairwell was too narrow for ODM use, Moblit and I raced up the stairs four at once. There was no time to peer out of the cell windows to evaluate our situation, but the moving shadows that followed our every movement told us it was dire. At the top of the stairs, the double doors were shut. Behind us, a titan growled low as it slowly made its way up to us. I pushed at the door, but it didn't budge. There were screams behind its old wood.

"This is Captain Levi. Open the fucking door." I slammed my fist against it. "I know you shitheads are in there."

"C-captain," Moblit whimpered. As I turned to face him, I heard his blades rattling in his grip.

The titan was only a few meters away from us. It crouched low, owlishly observing its prey. Reaching forward, I yanked Moblit back and took a step closer to the titan.

"Get those brats to open the door. I'll take care of this guy."

Teeth barred and hissing, the titan pounced. My blade sliced through its arm and stuck in its shoulder while the other hacked its opposite arm off at the elbow. Steaming blood drenched me, burning. Behind me, one of the doors groaned open on old hinges. From within, people sobbed. I heard gas canisters clicking into place.

"You need to let us Commanding Officers into this room immediately," Moblit said calmly.

Screeching, the titan's jaws snapped close to my chest right before I spun to its side. It fell and smashed its face against the stairs, marble crumbling beneath its weight as I cut through one of its knees before turning on its nape.

"Yes sir. Of course, sir," a voice wavered from the doorway.

In a flurry of embers and smoke, the titan began to dissipate. My forearm swiped across my brow, clearing titan blood and sweat away. Moblit and I hurried inside of the room. Everything was in disarray. Overturned tables barricaded windows. Scouts pressed their backs and shoulders into them to hold up against curious titan fingers. Papers, office supplies, and ODM equipment were thrown about the room. Other kids tried to put on their ODM gear with shaking hands, eyes bloodshot and faces damp. Some Scouts silently stood around the room, frozen while they watched titans try to pry HQ open like a can of fish.

"Hey," I barked. "Listen up, kiddos."

One by one, heads turned to look at me. Moblit stood awkwardly at my side, face surprisingly stoic.

"We need to get to the roof -"

"- We can't. Titans are crawling all over the building. There's too many of them!"

"Shut the hell up," I snarled at the hysterical little girl who yelled at me from across the room. "This is what we're going to do. If we all go at once, we'll die, so we're going to split off into three teams of around seven people. I will go out first to thin their numbers. On my signal, team one will come out from the window I leave from. Team two and three will also come out on my signal after a period of time. Assistant Section Commander, Moblit," I jerked my thumb at him, "will be in charge of all three teams and will come out with team two. Any questions?"

A few furrowed brows turned towards me.

"What makes you think you can even get out of this room alive, let alone take on more than eleven titans on your own?"

"I'm Captain Levi," I shrugged.

Kids gawked as I, without a second of hesitation, strode towards the window closest to me.

"Drop the table, and get out of the way."

The Scouts were quick to follow my command. As soon as the door fell, I rushed to the window, and fingers shattered the glass. The titan caught sight of me, and I let out enough gas to blind its view as I dodged its hand. It crashed its head into the side of the building, its cheek scraping against the splintering floor. Wood and marble exploded all over the room. Shooting off my grappling hooks, I leapt over its head and flew through the opening it created. My hooks sunk into its shoulder as I spun up before slicing through its nape. Then all of the titans attacked.

My scars and stiff muscles shrieked in protest while I flew, hacking and cutting through wave after wave of titan limbs. But there was no time to worry about the pain as I gave the signal for team one and later team two and three to join the battle. All around me, kids were torn to pieces, blood and viscera painting the building sides and the cobblestone street below us sickly crimson.

In a matter of minutes, HQ was secured. Five Scouts landed on the roof tiles beside Moblit and myself. Panting, I held every set of eyes and nodded once.

"Now is not the time to mourn." I stood, surveying the town around us. Titans lumbered through the streets, scaled buildings, crawled over roofs in search of the innocent. It made my empty stomach churn.

"Your first priority is to aid in the civilian evacuation from Wall Rose into Wall Sina. Assistant Section Commander Moblit will lead your squad there before breaking off to complete a different task we've already discussed." I turned on my heel to face them again. "Is that understood?"

A few nodded.

"Where will you go, sir?"

"I'm going to help out at the breach."

As I shot my grappling hooks into the building across from HQ, all I could do was hope Hanji was still alive.