"Back off, kid," Levi growled at the girl who was crowding him in his hiding place behind the beer barrels. She smelled like she hadn't bathed in weeks and frequently rolled in the gutter for fun.
"I need to learn from you if I want to become kingpin," she elbowed him in the side in her attempt to get even closer.
"For fuck's sake!" Levi pushed her away, not having a wish to contract head lice. "Stay over there!"
"You're nasty," she pouted, rubbing her arm.
"That's my trademark," he agreed and made sure to concentrate on the guards in front of the Military Police headquarters again. There were two, leaning against the wall. They looked to be discussing something.
"Will you charge?" The girl had snuck closer again.
"Shhh, quiet," Levi snapped.
"They're not paying attention at all. They're all lazy and useless, y'know."
That had once been his opinion too. But after spending time listening to Erwin talk about the organization of the military branches, he now feared that not everyone was rotten in the Military Police. Indeed, the raid he had witnessed the night before had not only been an unpleasant surprise, but had also been pulled off with great efficiency. Better to be careful - it seemed that whoever had command down here was not a complete dolt.
"We wait until shift change," Levi told the girl, silently chiding himself for making it a 'we'. But she was a tenacious little creature and he had only so much energy to spare to keep her away.
"Why?" Esmelda edged closer again. "They look weak. Overpower them!"
"A shift is three hours long. We don't know how long these two have been standing here. After we witness the shift change, we wait for two hours and fifty minutes before we do anything."
"You mean to wait for another three hours?!" her mouth flew open. "How dumb are you?"
"I never told you to glue yourself to my side," Levi shrugged. "Go find something else to do if you're impatient."
The current MP headquarters were situated in a large house with thick stone walls. The roof looked newly patched, the windows were whole and marvelously clean. Levi knew it had once belonged to a half-criminal merchant family with ties to the above-ground economy. Apparently, they now rented it to the MP. Prisoners would be held in the basement, in the former storage rooms. That meant narrow staircases that were easy to guard and defend and a space damn hard to get in and out of unseen.
Unless… Levi tilted his head back and studied the roof. That could work.
"Guard change, guard change!" the girl fidgeted excitedly, nudging him with her pointy elbow.
Levi looked towards the door. And swore.
"Oh," Esmelda sounded impressed, "I've never heard that word before. What is it?"
Levi couldn't believe his bad luck. Treibel. Fucking Theodor Treibel had just stepped out of the house. Brown hair, hard eyes and a pinched mouth. Also attentive and dutiful. Had he followed Hanji down the stairs? Why?!
"Did you just growl like a dog?" Esmelda asked intrigued.
"I know that one," Levi pressed out. He knew that his hate towards the guy was slightly irrational but it also gave him a welcome boost of energy. "Waiting for two hours and fifty minutes is off the table, that one won't slack."
"Yay, we're charging!" The girl already launched herself forward eagerly. Luckily, Levi managed to catch one of her braids just before she could break cover.
"Hold it," he snapped.
"Let go, you brute!" She swatted at his hand on her hair.
"Sit down and shut up," he commanded. "I have a job for you."
"Two shillings," she immediately said.
"There's four shillings in this," he liked how she tried to contain her apparent glee, but failed spectacularly, "but only, only if we're successful. Most importantly, you need to be stealthy."
"I can be stealthy!" she nodded, the grin still spreading.
"Okay, see the chimney up there? There's no smoke - so there's no fire. I want you to climb on the roof, get in and climb down until you reach a room that is empty. The further down the better. There, you open a window and signal to me - I will join you."
"I will do that!" She wanted to bolt, but he held her back once more.
"I'm not done explaining."
"Sounds like a five shilling job. So many different parts to this plan. Complicated."
"Five it is. When I tell you, I want you to create a commotion. First in the house, without getting caught. Then, you will run out with something valuable so that they'll charge after you."
"That's dangerous," Esmelda frowned. "If they catch me…"
"Make sure they don't," Levi said, meaning it.
"You are using me, aren't you?" The girl said knowingly though seemed happy enough about her conclusion.
"I am," Levi agreed. "I'm small, but I doubt I'll fit into that chimney. I'll find another way if you don't want to do this though."
"But I do," she said. "For s… six shillings."
"You drive a hard bargain," Levi felt the corners of his mouth twitch.
"I will need about ten minutes to organize help for phase two," she held out her hand demandingly. "Why don't you give me a down payment now and the rest later?"
###
The girl was quick and efficient. Not fifteen minutes after she had climbed the roof and disappeared down the chimney, she opened a window on the first floor facing a small alley and waved a dirty piece of cloth that looked suspiciously like a part of her tattered skirt. Keeping to the shadows, Levi raced to the spot and scaled the walls, joining her in the room mere minutes later.
Taking in the furnishing, a large table and several chairs around it, Levi surmised the room was used for commander's meetings - it looked very similar to the one the Survey Corps used. There were three stacks of papers on the table drawing his eyes, neatly arranged. He spotted the MP symbol in the left corner and another emblem at the bottom. A… what was that? A cat? Frowning, Levi decided to have a closer look. Likely foolish, seeing how time was of the essence but Levi hadn't become a topclass thief in his earlier life for being cautious.
Levi leafed through the first stack. Logistics. Ugh, so boring.
"What does it say?" Esmelda wanted to know, poking her nose over his arm. Levi ignored her.
The second stack was more interesting. Deployment plans. Quickly, Levi memorized what seemed important. Stairs, rosters, downtime. Locations. And… he took a sharp breath. Payments? Damn.
"What's that?" Esmelda tried to touch the emblem with the strange animal in it, but Levi pushed her dirty fingers aside. His heart had picked up its pace. That one. That one. And… that one. He folded the sheets in the middle and pushed them between his shirt and his bare skin.
"Oh," the girl looked thoughtful. "You're stealing them. Can you teach me to read?" She was visibly disappointed that she had not realized the value of the documents before him.
"No," Levi said curtly, already hurrying to the door to open it a crack.
"Does it take long?" Esmelda pestered him. "Learning to read?"
"Depends on how smart you are," he told her distractedly as he pulled out a mirror to check for guards outside in the corridor. Once he was sure there were none, he stepped out. The staircase was to the right.
"I want you to go up the stairs, making a lot of noise," Levi told his eager accomplice. "And yes, that's covered by the six shillings. I hope guards from downstairs will follow you - just hide in the chimney again if you must. Count to one thousand. Slowly. Then grab something and leave the house through the front door. Make sure they see you."
"One … thousand...?"
Levi sighed.
"Is that a very large number?"
"Yes," Levi nodded, "yes, and if you leave the house too early, you won't get the rest of the money because they'll most likely catch me."
"Don't worry, Nii-chan. I never mess up," Esmelda thumped her chest with her fist.
"Don't call me that," he snapped, but the damage was already done. And he had walked into it with his eyes wide open: Yet another excitable girl too eager to die while following him.
Not in the least discouraged, Esmelda moved, making a lot of noise. Soon afterwards, heavy steps thumped up the stairs. Three, maybe four men, exchanging hurried words. As soon as Levi heard them move overhead, he went forward at high speed. The staircase was open and winding - he swung his feet over the balustrade and let himself fall. It took him mere seconds to get to the bottom. The door to the basement was unguarded, but locked.
As an ex-thief, Levi knew how to pick locks at the highest speed and he had come prepared. The stairs leading down into the darkness were very narrow and steep. Another jump and he was in.
"Annika?" he asked. "Are you here?"
"I am," her voice sounded from somewhere in the back, "question is: why are you?"
###
"Hi," Zoë smiled and lifted her hand, "it's me."
"Goddamit," Renzo sprung to his feet, his blue eyes blazing viciously. "You little cunt, I should have known you'd betray me."
Hm?
"Did you just call me a cunt?" Zoë asked, a little perplexed.
"I think he means me," Maria glowered.
"Yes, I mean her," Renzo confirmed. "Coming to me crying and pleading for help, playing the damsel in distress? Two-timing bitch!"
"And here I was thinking you were a refined, sensitive type," Zoë shook her head and sat down on the same chair she had used before, stretching her legs out, crossing her ankles. Her legs in trousers. Hallelujah, she could move like a human again. "How disappointing."
"I'm disappointed too," Renzo grumbled, sitting back down behind his desk, his back ram-straight, his body tense. "I thought we got along well."
"Marvelously," Zoë agreed, "but then you left me alone in a room full of strangers and things went to hell."
Renzo exhaled slowly, his eyes thoughtful. "Here we are, at an impasse. I lost hours of sleep trying to deal with this mess. I was damn worried when your name didn't turn up in the MP's prisoner list. Xandra got her hands on you?"
"In a way," Zoë nodded. "And I kinda have to do what she tells me or else…," she made a throat slitting gesture with her hand.
Renzo titled his head to the side, waiting for the explanatory shoe to drop.
"Poison," Zoë dropped it theatrically in a sad, sad voice. "This charming girl here was the one to put it in my drinks, I was informed. And I need more antidotes as demonstrated to me earlier today."
"Fuck," Renzo cursed and slammed his fist onto his desk, shooting more daggers at Maria with his eyes.
Yeah, that summed it up well. But Zoë was way beyond the 'I'm fucking annoyed or is this panic?' state by now. Better to work towards her own salvation. She had made sure to get trousers out of the conversation with Xandra, but she had also made sure the piece of cloth on which she had spat the antidote was tucked away safely in her pocket. Something told her that the man with the great hair in front of her could be convinced to help her identify what kind of poison she had been given.
"And Levi?" Renzo asked. His voice was neutral. It was kinda hard to read him, which was warning enough for Zoë not to let herself be fooled by good looks.
"Not here," she shrugged. "Maybe he left for good. He kinda likes to do the opposite of what people tell him, you know."
"Then please tell me why you're here," Renzo said, folding his hands in his lap. He had long, elegant fingers that looked like they only touched brushes, not knives.
"I'd love to kill you," Maria hissed.
Renzo laughed at her. "I'm not talking to you, you pox-infested whore."
"Has nobody told you not to call women names like this?" Zoë asked.
"I do as I please," Renzo snapped at her. "No woman tells me what to do if she values her life."
Zoë's mood turned several degrees more sour. Definitely better not to get distracted by his good looks. She had considered being nice to this man because he had not tried to coerce her with poison - but maybe he didn't deserve it.
"Well," she said slowly. "In that case I will tell you what to do in very clear terms. If you apprehend Levi and attempt to hand him over to 'them', Xandra will release documents to the authorities that contain all kinds of interesting details about your dealings. Money going here and there, that kind of thing. Given the nature of those dealings and the names on this list, the MP and all the other people in your pocket will have no choice but to move against you if they don't want to go down with you."
Silence.
"I see," Renzo said slowly after a brief while, a far-away look entering his eyes. Maybe he was trying to fathom whether these documents really existed. Zoë couldn't say, but the threat sounded convincing to her.
She was dying to find out more about who 'they' were, but asked "Where's Annika?" instead. Because Xandra had implied Levi was where Annika was and she wouldn't mind a word with the Mister who was at the center of this great mess and had forgotten to tell her why.
"I'm still trying to negotiate her release," Renzo frowned. "But Xandra let the authorities know how much she is worth to me. The terms aren't favorable and..."
A commotion outside and one of Renzo's men burst in.
"Big trouble at the MP headquarters," he panted. "All hell broke loose."
Ah. Zoë smiled. She'd bet all her money on this having a lot to do with Levi.
"Levi busting Annika out?" Renzo asked, turning her head to look at Zoë. As if she knew what that little pain in the ass was up to all day long. "Interesting."
Renzo got up and signalled something to his men who had started to crowd the hallway outside.
"Let's get ready," he said, "for whatever trouble decides to come this way. You," he pointed at Zoë, "will take shelter here. That one," he pointed at Maria, "will be locked up with you. I assume she carries at least one dose of the antidote with her? I'll take that, thank you."
Maria struggled valiantly, but five men held her down as Renzo searched for the vial. The smart girl carried three different ones and shouted that Zoë would certainly die if she took the wrong one. But Zoë wasn't paying much attention. If Levi was coming here, then 'here' was fine with her. She leaned back to relax a little. Would Renzo have a microscope?
"Xandra is a little off the mark though," Renzo suddenly added almost like an afterthought, standing very near Zoë. "I have no clue who 'they' are and why 'they' are after Levi. But seeing all the trouble she's going through, I will make sure to find out."
###
A little winded, Levi looked over his shoulders to check for pursuers. There were none. Apparently, the guards were still chasing the band of kids down the main streets and they had escaped unseen. He heaved a small sigh of relief. It could all have gone very, very wrong.
"Crazy bastard," Annika laughed, rubbing her chafed wrists after Levi had pried open the shackles with his lockpick tools. "I thought I'd rot down there. They let everybody go but me!"
A little bewildered, he noticed that her hands were shaking violently. Her appearance was also quite dreadful: Straw was sticking out of her tangled hair, her glorious red dress was wrinkled and ripped - and there were pronounced dark circles underneath her eyes, like soot smudges on a face that was much too pale.
"Did they mistreat you?" Levi frowned, feeling a brief echo of the old protective impulse towards her in his chest.
"They'll regret it," she grimaced, rolling her shoulders. "All they did will be given back a hundred times. And they took all my knives, fuck!"
He squinted at her. There was a familiar sheen in her eyes that he did not like at all. It signalled that Anni was about to snap. And if she did...
"I'm taking you to Renzo," Levi decided. "Now's not the time for revenge."
"It's always time for revenge," she contradicted him, abruptly sitting down in the middle of the filthy street in the small, dark alley. "Xandra is behind this, right?"
Levi nodded.
Annika cursed. "That nob Renzo told us to shake down at the cards table… he was in on the whole scheme. There must be a spy at Renzo's who told Xandra everything! Fuck, we were too careless!"
"You weren't poisoned though, were you?" Levi asked, looking her over once more. No signs of that as far as he could see.
"Some kind of nasty knock out drug got me, I guess," Annika shuddered. "Vicious headache for hours. Actually, it still plagues me."
"Do you know whom Xandra would get her poisons from?"
"Fuck, Levi," Annika groaned, briefly closing her eyes as if in pain. "Give me a break. I am winded and feel like shit. You could at least have pretended for five more minutes that you got me out of there for old times' sake and not because you need information."
"But I need information. Fast."
"Who is it you're asking for?" Annika examined his face with a deepening pout. "Please don't tell me it's that ugly woman from Mitras."
"Yes, it's her," Levi frowned. "She's an important person in the military."
"And we care about the military since…?"
"Since I'm part of it," Levi snapped.
"Then you're a traitor," Annika shrugged, "go rot in hell. Preferably with her." She pulled a face at her next thought. "Then again, if Xandra poisoned her, she means to use her to get you to obey. Hm, I see the problem. Okay, I'll tell you. Xandra and everybody else gets poison from Oliver."
"Oliver."
"Yes, Oliver."
"You can't mean the nice old grandpa we used to get liquorice from?"
"That's exactly whom I mean," Annika grinned. "He got sick of being a nice old grandpa running a make-believe apothecary - now he's a crafty, rich dealer of poisons."
"Well. Can't blame people for wanting to change their careers," Levi shrugged and held out his hand to help Annika up.
She grabbed it and he pulled.
"But I'm not going back to Renzo just yet," she snarled, stepping so close he felt her warm breath hit his cheek.
"Oh yes, you will c..."
Hasty footsteps and shouts made him whirl around, his hip bumping Annika's. Esmelda came running in their direction, skidding to a sudden stop when she saw them standing there. She turned to run back, but it was too late: Two MPs were at her heels, turning into the alley too. She looked a little desperate as she sped forward again, right for him and Annika. She probably thought she wouldn't get the rest of her money now.
"Stop right there!" one of the soldiers shouted. Theodor fucking Treibel. Luckily, neither was wearing 3D-maneuvering gear. They had a good chance to escape them.
"Down," Levi snapped at Esmelda, grabbing her by the neck and throwing her to the side. "Hide and don't come out." If she was smart enough, she'd crawl into a basement and get away.
"Run!" he tried to grab Annika's hand to pull her along but she evaded him by twisting to the side.
Everything happened very fast after that. He felt her hand go down his trousers. He spun around but she was already racing towards the military officers. With his knife in her hand!
They didn't know what hit them. She was incredibly fast.
Annika slit the first guy's throat with a graceful sweep of her arm, drawing an arc of blood into the air. Part of Levi's brain was impressed by the precision and the ruthlessness. Another part was horrified: He had seen just one person kill like this before. Kenny. Kenny the Ripper. It was his signature move.
With a triumphant howl, Annika launched herself at Theodor.
A defensive move of his made her miss his throat. She ripped open the length of his arm instead. Theodor screamed and went down, clutching the wound. Levi threw himself at Annika just when she lifted her arm to go in for the kill. They rolled across the filthy street in a tangle of limbs. Screeching and spitting, she bit him, hard, in the hand. He tried to grab her knife hand, she slashed whatever part of his body she could reach. The knife pierced his side but did not go too deep because the angle was wrong, it got stuck against a rib. She pulled it out and struck again, before Levi managed to ram his head against her throat. Gurgling, she fell away. Only, that brought her closer to Theodor who was scrambling out of the way on his belly. Levi slipped on the blood on the street when he tried to get up. All the time Annika needed to jump on Theodor's back and grab his hair to rip back his head.
"Bloody vermin!" her high pitched scream echoed from the walls to both sides of them as she brought the knife down.
A sizable stone hit her between the eyes just when she began to slice. With a grunt of pain, she blinked and shook her head dazedly. Enough of a diversion for Levi to rip Annika away from Theodor by her hair, throwing her on her back and kicking the knife out of her hand. But she slammed her straight leg up into the parts that really hurt. Levi doubled over with a howl of pain. Her hands were around his throat the next second and she pressed, hard, trying to crush his windpipe. He saw stars. His hands were blindly trying to grab onto something, getting a hold of her arms. Finding a pressure point at the elbows. The grip around his throat loosened momentarily and he gulped in the putrid air like a drowning person. Annika grabbed his right hand and twisted. Levi heard the bones break but he did not feel any pain. Yet.
"I am going to kill you," he promised her, her face so close to his, "I should have done it years ago."
Annika laughed maniacally, scrambling to her feet, still holding his broken hand, now almost tenderly. "Goddammit, I love you!" she screamed. Her mouth was on his before he could jerk back. She bit his lips. He pushed her away, tasting blood, tears and sweat. He swung his good hand, her head was thrown back from his uppercut and she fell down on her rump. Levi went for his knife.
"I better go, I guess," Annika grinned up at him, blood painting her face the same color as her dress.
He launched himself forward to make good on his promise but Annika threw herself to the side, kicked at his kneecap and almost broke his leg too.
"Leave him alone, you nasty woman!" Levi heard Esmelda shout.
"No…," he managed to press out. But the fierce girl had already come out of her hiding place and was going for Annika.
"Who the fuck are you?" Annika asked and struck. The sound when Esmelda's head hit the wall was sickening.
"Esmelda…," Levi's leg was damaged after all, he realized, as he hobbled unsteadily towards the little, unmoving body. "You stupid girl, didn't I tell you to hide?"
She was alive. Levi gently lifted her bleeding head into his lap. The skull wasn't broken as far as he could see.
"Gotta get you to a hospital," he told her, brushing hair away from her pale face.
"Who… are you?" someone gargled.
It was Treibel, eyeing him with a mixture of shock and awe from the ground. Blood was pouring out of him at an alarming rate but he was alive.
"Hold still," Levi ordered him. After laying Esmelda down again, he ripped the dead comrade's clothes to shreds and went about to stop Treibel's bleeding. Levi applied pressure before fashioning a tourniquet with the belt of the dead MP. The guy was lucky. No artery hit.
"Thank you," Theodor said. He was about to black out, it seemed. Levi realized he was shaking himself. Pain registered somewhere in the back of his head. He pushed it away.
"Take the girl to a hospital," Levi said, "you owe me that. And her."
Theodor's eyes were glazing over but he managed to nod.
Levi tried to get up.
"Fuck," he cursed.
It took him three attempts to stand upright. Now for walking. He told himself that he would see Hanji soon, which gave him consolation and something to look forward to. He just needed to get back to Xandra and...
He got as far as ten steps before his legs buckled and he fell on his face. As long as he had energy to swear, he wasn't dead, he told himself. So he swore, long and nasty. He could do this. He really could.
"And who, pray, is going to clean up this mess?" someone said somewhere above him and sighed dramatically.
Levi turned his head and blinked the blood out of his eyes. Troubled blue eyes were staring down at him. For a second, he thought it was Commander Erwin and felt relief. That just showed how out of it he was though: Of course it wasn't Erwin.
"Up," Renzo said and put his arms around Levi's body. "Up, you bastard. How dare you create such a fucking mess, you idiot? Curse your entire bloodline to hell and back. You're nothing but trouble. We were doing so well without you."
"No, I want to see Hanji," Levi said and struggled against Renzo's grip.
Levi felt the man's laughter in his own body and it fucking hurt. He tried to kick him away but missed.
"I've got your Hanji, idiot," Renzo said and let go of him. Others took over, holding Levi up by his armpits, beginning to drag him forward. "I bet she can't wait to see you like this."
But Levi wasn't worried about that. Hanji would understand. He would tell her about Oliver. They would get the antidote. They would leave. And they would spend the rest of their punishment at Survey Corps headquarters like two obedient soldiers. In bed. Together.