A.N: So, the manga is officially done! Did we get Nikolo's last name? No. Names for the Blouse kids? Nope! But Lara got a name in the anime, so maybe the kids will, too? Not holding my breath for that one though, so for now they'll remain as Emil, Claus and Anya. I also had a last name planned out for Nikolo in case he didn't get one in canon, but it'd feel weird to start using it this far in to the story, so I'll just leave it out.

Chapter 35

The next day Nikolo lay on his bed, thinking. A doctor had visited him in the morning, checking him over again and telling there'd be no lasting damage. That was good, but he'd also told that recovery would take a while, which meant that once Nikolo returned to duty, he'd be stuck behind a desk for a while. Hopefully one that wasn't too close to Jonas.

"But maybe he'll be back on the field by then" he thinks with a snort, but soon his face grows serious again as the moment of distraction has gone by. How much trouble was he in? He had a bad outburst at someone higher ranking than him on that night, not to mention his outburst at two officers the day before. He wouldn't get fired, but there would likely be some consequences. Otherwise, he wouldn't have minded that natural result of things, but it made him a less reliable source of information and would make it less likely that people would believe his version of what happened that night.

"That night… had I done something differently… would Helmut still be alive?" he wondered. Truth to be told, he hadn't gotten much sleep last night because of the same thought. Was it his fault? Would Helmut still be alive had he not convinced the man to surrender? Or if he'd actually tried something saner to help him?

"No… no use thinking about it; he's already dead" Nikolo told himself, gritting his teeth "I can't change that; I need to focus on how to get him at least some justice!"

Not that that would be easy, either.

His musings are interrupted when there's a knock on the door. He gives the permission to enter, and the two from yesterday walk in… along with the three officers from that night.

Nikolo knows he should keep a straight face, he tries to keep a straight face, but he feels like he's failing miserably. Then again, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Those three did beat him up rather brutally; his reaction is by no means uncalled for, now, is it?

"Sir" he salutes, and waits for someone else to start talking.

"At ease, soldier" he is told "I hope your head is clearer today than it was yesterday."

"Of course, sir. My apologies" Nikolo says, casting a meaningful look at Richter "I'm afraid strong pain medication can mess one's head a little."

"Of course, of course" the highest ranking of them all, the colonel from yesterday, said, but the bedridden soldier was sure he wasn't convinced "Now, just so that we can be sure, was it these three that caused you to end up in that condition?"

Nikolo looked them over once more, just to be sure, before confirming it: "Yes, sir."

"And all three were there when the Eldian was killed?"

"Yes, sir" Nikolo confirms again, pointing at Richter "I didn't see the shot itself hit, but he was the one with the gun, so I consider it reasonable to assume that he's the one who shot the man."

"Yes, so their reports say" the man confirms "And according to them, the gun used was taken from the Eldian."

Nikolo froze. What? There was no way that was true; if Helmut had had a gun, he would've told him! And how could an Eldian who wasn't a soldier have gotten a gun in the first place? They had to be lying.

"We've already checked the gun, and it doesn't belong to the military. Nor does it belong to any of the three of them" this time it's his direct superior talking "Nikolo, it's clear that the Eldian was the one who brought the gun, thus making shooting him reasonable self-defense."

"No, I don't think he brought it. How would an Eldian even get a gun?" he tries to reason.

"As unfortunate as it is, illegal purchasing of firearms is a real problem in Marley" his superior tells "I'm sure there are some folks in the black market who don't care who they sell to as long as they get the money."

"But then how would he have- "

"Soldier" the colonel interrupted him "Why does it sound like you're trying to desperately defend the dead devil?"

"The dead man" Nikolo snapped without thinking "…Sir."

The colonel huffs.

"Fine then. Dead man" he corrects himself "Now answer the question, soldier."

"This is about basic human rights and decensy, sir" Nikolo told him "Different and a slightly dangerous race as they may be, Eldians are still humans. Therefore, I would expect to see them treated as such."

Nikolo can see the look of shock on his superior's face, as well as the looks of disgust on the three officers, but he keeps his gaze firmly locked on the colonel, waiting to see his reaction.

"Their report" the colonel nods towards the three "Mentioned things that heavily implied you to be one of the people who oppose our system and want to put the Eldians on equal grounds with the rest of the citizens. I'm starting to think that this is indeed the case."

"Now now, let's not jump to conclusions, colonel. I'm sure Nikolo is just- "

"No" Nikolo interrupts his superior, getting tired of this shit "I am someone who supports basic human rights and civilized behavior when with other people, regardless if those other people are of the same race as me or not. If that is against our current system then yes, I am against the system and will continue to be so!"

There was a silence as everyone looked at the man, stunned. Even the colonel was clearly caught off guard and, to be honest, Nikolo himself was surprised, too. He hadn't meant to go that far, hadn't meant to be that bold, but now that he had, he found out that it felt good. But he wasn't stupid; he knew there'd be consequences to what he just said. And they'd be big.

"In this day and age, there isn't really anything we could do about a civilian empathizing with the devils"

"Officially, you mean" Nikolo thought, but didn't say it.

"You, however, are a soldier, and that is another matter entirely. We can't have someone opposing the system or parts of it do as they please in the military" the colonel continues, and Nikolo knows he'll get demoted, at the very least. Honestly, he didn't consider it fair at all, but knowing how things worked, he wasn't all that surprised, either. Protesting wouldn't do him any good; he just had to take whatever was coming with dignity and work his way up in ranks again, even if it would be twice as hard as it normally was. He wouldn't resign; he wouldn't give them that satisfaction. And while he clearly couldn't do much as a soldier, he knew he'd be able to do even less as a civilian "We will be deciding about the appropriate course of action after we've concluded exactly how far you'd go for your ideologies."

So, they were going to be asking around? He could probably trust Jonas not to say too much, but with Thomas it could go either way. What about everyone else he'd been working with? Considering that his direct superior wasn't saying anything anymore, Nikolo doubted the man was on his side, but if he was lucky, he wouldn't be actively against him, either.

"But well, as long as nothing concrete has actually been caused by that ideology of yours, you will be getting off easily" the colonel says with a smile, no, it's more like a smirk. There was something more to it, something Nikolo was sure he wouldn't like "While the skirmish between you four ate away some precious time, all turned out well in the end. Did it not, Richter?"

"Yes, sir" the man says, and Nikolo feels that there's something off about his face too, but he can't really tell what "All Eldians involved have been either caught or taken down for resisting arrest now; the matter will be solved soon."

Nikolo had a hard time with keeping himself from glaring as he gritted his teeth. If all were caught or dead, that meant that Herbert was also-

"Wait" he suddenly thought "May I ask how do you know you got everyone?"

He sees Richter glance at the colonel, but once the superior officer nods, he says: "The ones we caught first started talking fairly quickly. We didn't just get how many of them there were, but also the names."

"How do they know they were told the truth?" Nikolo wonders, but doesn't say it. If they really had been fooled, he'd prefer for it to stay that way "Of course, they probably checked that all the people named really weren't where they were supposed to be, but the captured ones could have left some out of the list. Even if they eventually checked that no one was missing from the ghetto, it'd take a while to do it efficiently."

"The one that you also encountered was apparently called Helmut Weber" Richter says, much to Nikolo's surprise "It's surprising how he managed to keep his record squeaky clean when he was up to something like this; one would think he would've gotten caught doing one thing or other at some point."

"So, his record really was clean" Nikolo thinks "Herbert's is probably, too. Maybe he can still make it."

"The same with his little brother, who was also involved" Richter continues "That was one crafty pair of devils."

"Was?"

"Fortunately, both are dead now. Of course, we would have handled things by the book had they not caused so much trouble" Nikolo suddenly found it harder to breath. Herbert was dead, too? Had he been unable to help at all!? "This later one especially; how can one rat cause such a mess, I'll never know."

He didn't know what Herbert had done, and a part of him didn't want to find out, either. If he had to hear any more of this-

"Quick on his feet, that one" Richter says, coming right next to Nikolo's bed as he does. Had the soldier not known any better, he could've sworn that the man was asking to get punched in the face "Clever too for an Eldian, I'll give him that. We lost the sight of him several times; he was good at hiding. Though then again, I suppose rats usually are."

It took all of Nikolo's control to keep the rest of his body in check, so he was sure his anger was plain on his face by now.

"Don't punch him, don't punch him"

"He was kind of pathetic when I finally caught him though; kept begging for his life" Richter continues "Really, you should've all seen his face- "

Punch him!

And Nikolo did just that. Being the fool that he was, Richter was standing right next to the bed, so landing a punch wasn't a problem for the bedridden soldier this time. His fist landed nicely on the smug man's cheek, and while there wasn't enough power in it to make the man fall, he did stumble back a step. Nikolo however, wasn't done. He swung out his other arm as well, ignoring the pain the movement brought to it, and landed it to the man's stomach, though that didn't go as well as the first one due to the target being a little further away now. But Nikolo didn't let that bother himself as he continued his assault, landing a punch after punch on the surprised soldier, though most of his hits barely had any power, his beaten body too tired to have him hit anywhere near his full power. Not that he noticed; he was too blinded by his own rage.

"Enough!" he was pulled back by his superior, hitting the man by accident once before finally realizing what he was doing "Nikolo, that's enough!"

Finally starting to come back to his senses, Nikolo was breathing heavily. Looking up at Richter, who didn't look to have taken too much damage aside from the first punch or two, the soldier noticed him smirking. Why would he-?

"No way" Nikolo finally realized as his mind cleared "I lunged right in to his trap!"

Right, of course. Looking back on it, it became so obvious. He'd gone on and on about what happened, very unprofessionally, yet no one had moved in to stop him or tell him to shut up. He'd also come so close to Nikolo, for no other reason than to get punched. Even if the man could've avoided it, he wouldn't have, for this was the plan. They had decided to get him off their backs by putting more blame on him than there was on them.

"Fuck…" he cursed, briefly considering saying his accusations of them playing dirty out loud, but he realized that wouldn't do any good. At this point nothing would, really. He'd lost completely.

"It seems we really do have an Eldian sympathizer in our ranks" the colonel says "One that won't hesitate to rely on violence, even. This calls for some strict measures of control."

Figures. He was going to military court for sure, Nikolo knew. And to jail from there, no doubt. Something like this shouldn't be enough to get him a death sentence, but that's just on the official side. It could very well be that someone in the jail would be paid to have him die in an "accident."

"Calm down, calm down, you're getting ahead of yourself" Nikolo told himself, trying to pull himself back from the verge of panic "You survived dealing with the MPs on Paradis; you'll survive this, too!"

"I believe that'll have to wait until he has rested a little bit" his superior says as he forces Nikolo back down on the bed "He'll be able to think clearer too after the pain medication is no longer so strong."

Yes, he would. Not that it'd do him much good anymore after his latest outburst.

"Of course," the colonel's smug tone didn't escape Nikolo's notice as he turned to leave "Please do calm down your subordinate before you leave."

"Yes, sir" the man saluted. The other four left, and Nikolo remained in the hospital room along with his direct supervisor. A very pissed off supervisor by the looks of it, but he was too. He wasn't in the mood to take on any more shit than he already had.

"But he's really going to let me have it anyway, so better get it over with" he thinks "Alright, I'm listening. Just say it."

To his surprise, the man just sighed. He sounded tired.

"I'm not mad at you- or well, actually, I'm really mad, but more than that, I'm worried" he says "Nikolo, I haven't wanted to pry because I feared bringing up too many unpleasant memories, but now I have to ask: Just what happened to you on that island? What turned you in to… in to this? According to people who knew you before your capture, there was no inch of sympathy in you towards the Eldians."

Nikolo winced at the last comment, but he knew the man was right.

"I think it's best to not to dig myself in a deeper hole" he decided "Lots of things. I also learned what it's like to be on the receiving end of violence only based on what you were born like."

"…Guess you weren't ready to return to duty when you did" he says "In fact, maybe you should've just honorably resigned. After spending nine years as a prisoner, no one would've looked down upon you for it. No one would've dared."

He knew that.

"I just wanted to- "he stops, reminding himself to not make his grave any deeper. He sighs "Never mind. Is there anything else or can I rest now?"

The man hesitates, Nikolo notices. It makes him a little curious, but not enough to push it. He'd either tell him or he wouldn't, but he didn't care much either way.

"I shouldn't be telling you this, so if someone asks, it wasn't me. Or actually, make sure no one finds out you know the truth" Nikolo simply raises an eyebrow, too tired to react otherwise "About those two Eldians, the one who was shot and his brother, we know you had a… connection with them."

Nikolo's eyes widened.

"Fucking Thomas" he thought, but didn't say it out loud since there was a miniscule chance that it hadn't been him. It probably was, but he couldn't be hundred percent sure. Someone else might've seen them, too.

"Which is why we decided to make up that thing about the younger one… what was his name again? Never mind" make up? "The point is, while he was on the list of the people involved, he and one other one is still on the run. So far, we have no idea where they are."

Nikolo stared at the man, openly gaping. Herbert was fine? They'd tricked him worse than he thought!

…Still, he obviously preferred this as the truth, even if it made him look like a fool. Oh well.

"Is that all?" he asks, schooling his features to a blank mask, or at least so he hoped. He supposes it worked, for his superior looked at him in surprise, before nodding.

"Yeah, that's all. Thought that knowing might help you to keep your cool" he says "You're in big trouble you know; try not to dig yourself in to an even deeper hole."

"Now that's a real truth of the day" Nikolo thinks as the man leaves. Sighing, he lets his head sink in to his pillow. His mind was racing as he tried to make sense of everything.

First off, he was in deep shit. He'd end up in jail for sure; there was no way he'd get away with this by simply being lowered in rank or even with getting fired. The real question was for how long? Few months would make sense and still be tolerable, but if he had really pissed off the wrong people, which he probably had, he could end up behind the bars for a year. Or years.

"And if I'm really unlucky, they might arrange to have me die in some "accident"" he thought, and suddenly the panic was about to return. He tried to force it down by taking slow, deep breaths and more or less succeeded "The MPs tried that a few times… Jean put a stop to it, though. Or maybe it was Hanji from behind the scenes; I'm not really sure."

But there was no Hanji or Jean to help him here. Was there anyone who'd go that far for him…?

"Gotta think of something else; positive thoughts" he decided. It probably wasn't good to stress himself with the worst-case scenario this soon "At least Herbert's alright."

And now that he thought about it, Helmut had said that his little brother had gotten shot, yet the soldiers hadn't brought that up at all. Looking back, Nikolo realizes that that should've aroused his suspicions earlier. Damn.

"But he hasn't been found yet, so he might still be alive. Helmut said he'd gotten shot to the leg, which isn't fatal unless the bleeding can't be stopped, so he could very well be fine" despite everything that had happened that day, Nikolo couldn't keep a grin from spreading over his face "Yeah, he's fine. I'm sure he's fine."

The soldier laughed.

XXXXX

"If I got a coin every time a Marleyan looked at me like I was lower than the dirt they walked upon, I'd be rich by the end of the month" one of the soldiers gathered for a break together with Sasha complained "Couldn't they at least glare at us normally?"

"Normally?" Samuel echoed.

"You know, the way our superiors, minus captain Levi, being scary as hell, glare at us when we don't get something done in time? Or the way those stuck-up MPs look at us who actually work" the man clarified. Sasha snorted at the anything but subtle jab at the MPs.

"We'll get there, eventually" she says with a laugh "In the meantime, consider it a good chance to train your poker faces!"

"Such training would do you some good too" Emil chimes in, and the others laugh at Sasha's expense. She glares at the boy who in turn asks: "Is that what you meant by a normal glare?"

"Maybe a little less heated than that" the soldier replies, laughing along with the others. Sasha just huffs. Why did she always end up as the target of everyone's fun these days? Where was Jean when she needed him!? "Has anyone seen Jean?"

"What a subtle way to change the subject" Samuel snorts "But no, I don't think he's around. The commander's probably working him to the bone."

Sasha grimaced, glad that it was him and not her. Having a good head on one's shoulders clearly came with a price.

"No wonder he's seemed a little stressed lately" Daz, who'd known Jean as long as Sasha had, said "Then again, the reason for that could very well just be this situation in general and… you know, Marleyans."

"What did those guys do to Jean?" Samuel asks, but Daz just shrugs "Probably nothing more than they do to all of us, but Jean's been here longer than most, so it might get on his nerves more as he has no real time to get away from them aside from when he has a longer vacation."

Sasha frowns, wondering if Jean really was overly stressed or if he simply came across that way when putting up his act. Maybe she should ask him about it later.

"But he's a war veteran, he survived Shiganshina; I don't think a few cranky Marleyans can do much to him in the long run" Emil says "He's probably just stressed about the workload."

"Actually, it's probably not just that" says a young soldier, Emil's friend and squad mate, whose name escapes Sasha's memory at the moment. With everyone looking at him now, he clarifies: "I mean, um, he has been complaining about the Marleyans a lot lately, right? Mostly when he's drunk, but still."

"Now that you mention it, he really has" Samuel agreed "But everyone needs to went sometimes… right?"

Sasha hoped the man would've managed to sound a bit surer of it.

"Of course," she decides to say "Or who here can say they never complain? About their friends, their comrades, their bosses or the Marleyans?"

The answer she got was a bunch of sheepy grins.

"Thought so"

"Still, Jean's been complaining a lot" Daz pauses "And drinking, too."

Sasha frowns. That might be an actual problem. She should talk to him, after all.

"I'll check on the drinking -part" she assures the others "In the meantime, don't offer him any drinks, just in case. And if it seems to get out of hand, get me or the commander."

"…Not captain Levi?" Emil asks.

"We don't want him to get in to that much trouble, do we?" she asks, and everyone laughs. Sasha smiles, but it's not quite as carefree as it was before the break. She better be worried for nothing, or she'll give Jean an earful.

A.N: A bit shorter chapter this time; sorry about that. Next time, we'll see the full consequences of Nikolo's actions. Any guesses on exactly what will happen to him?

In case someone forgot, Daz is a canon character from the 104th. In the manga, spoilers ahead mind you, he dies alongside Samuel, but that fight didn't happen in this fic so he's still around.