Hey everyone! I'm back with another chapter! Sorry I was gone for so long. I got super sick and ran out of back logged chapters for this story. Chapter 25 was legit like a filler that I put out because I felt bad I wasn't posting. Anyway, thanks for reading and enjoy the story! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
The stand-off grew worse with each passing minute. More scouts joined as they came across the scene until the Commander got word and came down himself. He ordered the scouts to all back off and let Annie and Reiner take me out of the castle with them. I hoped he was taking the threat to my life into account when he made that call, but I think he might have just been worried about them shifting into titans and destroying our building.
In the clearing just in front of the castle, we stood. Scouts surrounded us on all sides ready to strike if the opportunity presented itself or whenever the commander ordered.
I could barely move as I contemplated how this would end. Annie and Reiner seemed like they must be titans as well if this was how they were acting now. All they were doing was damning themselves. I thought about my life and the fact that it probably did hang in the balance now. If we weren't wrong in our suspicions about Annie and Reiner, they probably knew how to kill a titan, not just how to become one.
But then there were the other thoughts. Was it just a coincidence that I was grabbed? Did they know I was a titan? There were so many possibilities and no clear answers to be found, the truth remained to be seen.
I felt sick to my stomach, my hands shaking as the thoughts all just kept filling my head. My knees felt like they were going to give out and if not for the burly arm wrapped around my waist, holding me in place with a sword raised before me, I probably would have fallen and lost my head.
I couldn't comprehend the words that the Commander was exchanging with my captors, my heartbeat in my ears and pulsing through my whole body was just too damn loud.
I searched the crowd of Scouts for Ms. Zoë or someone else I was close to, someone who's face may comfort me, but I soon found myself growing more fearful. Levi was nowhere to be seen and I worried for him. Was he okay? Was he as scared as I was? There was nothing else for me to wish for at the moment then to be sitting on Levi's office's couch wrapped in my blanket, watching him do his paperwork behind his desk. I didn't dare wish for more, not for him to sit beside me or hug me. I just wished we were within seeing distance.
I tried to tune out my heartbeat, swallow some of my fear and figure out what the Commander was saying to my captors.
"Let her go and you can leave."
"How many times have I told you no?!" the man, Reiner yelled, "Bring Bertholdt and then we can discuss further!"
"And how many times have I told you that is out of my hands?" the commander didn't raise his voice any louder than just enough to make sure he was understood, his tone was chilly and indifferent, as he continued, "Mr. Hoover is no longer in my custody and the people who do have him will never agree to an exchange when we only get back a child. If you'd managed to grab Captain Levi maybe you would have negotiating power but you only took a child."
"Oh, I think we took much more than a child, Commander Erwin."
He knew. Reiner, and Annie too, probably knew that I was a titan. I stiffened and my eyes grew visibly wide. I wondered if the commander had realized the implications of Reiner's words.
"No more than a child." he shot back with a frown.
He knew as well. The Commander was trying to tell them they were wrong, to bluff his way out of the situation.
"Erin Jaegar is much more than a child."
They knew my true full name. There were not many with that information unless it had been leaked by Levi Squad, the Commander, Levi, or Ms. Zoë and I didn't think they would do that. There was never even really a need to talk about it. I was a specific target if they knew my real name.
It took all the courage I had in me but I managed to speak, "... Ackerman."
"What?" Reiner's grip on the sword faltered, but I let it go. Now was not the time to make the wrong move.
"M-my name is Erin, but my- my last name is Ack-Ackerman, not Jaegar. You have the wrong- the wrong person, please let- let me go..." I let the tears I'd held back fall down my cheeks and gave Reiner my best pleading face.
"What?!" Annie suddenly yelled. It seemed out of character for her based on Mikasa's description
"There should have only been one child that stayed at this castle and was not actually a scout. Her name is Erin Jaegar, you are telling me this child is not Erin Jaegar?!" Reiner seemed angry, very angry, like something in his snapped as he started yelling.
"Please let-let me go!" I begged, "I'm not this-this Jaegar you are loo-looking for. I'm only here because the -the Captain is my cousin and I-I don't have anyone-one else."
There was mumbling among the ranks of scouts. No one had ever confirmed a familial tie between the captain and I before, but most had assumed it.
"Erin," the Commander hunched over a bit, playing along perfectly, "Erin, look at me alright? Everything is going to be okay. Don't panic, everything will be fine."
"Commander, where's Levi?" I forced myself to cry harder, actin the part of a terrified child, "I want to see Levi before someone kills me."
"Moblit, bring the Captain!" the Commander ordered, "but keep the shackles on him."
"Commander? Why is Levi tied up? Did he do something wrong?" I sniffled.
"He was interrupting the negotiations, it was better we prevent the inevitable violence if he remained here."
It remained an eerie kind of quiet while the deadlock continued while Moblit was out getting Levi.
"Commander!" Moblit came running out of the castle, "He's gone! Captain Levi knocked out Eld and Gunter and disappeared!"
What was he thinking? I wondered and then I heard the familiar rustle of leaves above me and the long drawn out pitch of ODM gear cables retracting. I held myself back from looking up as I realized what was about to happen. It would be better not to give away the captain's position.
"Find him!" the commander yelled, but just then the very man they were looking for came flying out of the forest like a bat out of hell, sailing through the air and right into my captors.
Reiner and I were knocked to the ground, the sword nicking my cheek as we fell, and I managed to push myself away from the man and run off behind the wall of scout's right into Petra.
"Erin!" she grabbed me tight. Sometimes her peppiness was annoying, but right now all traces of that was gone from her as she clung to me desperately, "Are you alright? Your hands are freezing, let's get you out of here."
"No..." I shook my head. She released her hold on me to give me a once over but I took the chance to plop right on the ground and pull my knees up to my chest.
"Krista," Petra looked to a young blond girl near the door. She looked like she might be one of the cadets here for 'extra training,' "Can you go get me a blanket and fill my canteen for Erin?"
The girl just nodded and took off inside the castle, returning very soon after. I was bundled up, beside my insistence that I was fine, Ms. Zoë even stepped in to say that I was probably experiencing some shock and that I needed to let people help me.
"Erin!" I heard Levi's voice as I took a sip of water. I jumped up and ran at him, throwing my arms around him and taking him down to the ground with me.
"Levi," I cried on his shoulder.
"It's okay, you'll be alright."He sat up, then managed to pull both of us up to our feet and take me back inside the castle, Petra wrapping the blanket around me once again as we passed her.
When we arrived in his office, the door closed, Levi, for just about the first time ever, initiated a hug with me.
"Levi." I held onto him, collapsing in to an anxious heap.
"Shhh," he pat my back, "It's over now, everything's okay."