When I grow up I want to be self-confident.
A loud sound of water filled the ears of the special team of the Survey Corps, while Eren, transformed into a titan, lifted a ship on his shoulders to carry it on the beach.
The smell of salt was still new to Elizabeth, it was hard to get used to and they hadn't even been there many times but they had a mission to accomplish.
They had finally arrived there and she couldn't wait to find out what the rest of the world was hiding.
Her heart was beating hard in her chest, full of adrenaline and emotion. She liked that thrill, it turned her on.
"Hello, friends from Marley! Welcome to Paradis Island! I'm Hange, here to greet our guests who've come so far across the sea! Now, step this way and join us for some tea! By the way, we've already friends with this guest that arrived before you!" Hange exclaimed smiling in satisfaction, stretching an arm around the shoulders of a young blond guy they had kept with them from the ship that had joined them a short time before. That wasn't the first, but they were the first to bring something that interested them. "Isn't that right, Niccolò?"
"Captain, forget about me and shoot those devils!" shouted Niccolò slightly frightened. He didn't seem very friendly but Elizabeth felt like tease him slightly, not only embarrassing him but also managing to silence him for a while without him knowing how to respond.
"What are you saying Niccolò?"
"He's tired of your shitty skit." Levi added, raising an eyebrow and flanking the two on the same rock.
"Niccolò... understand this, you devils! Marley doesn't mingle with filthy blood! Go drink your pig piss with your filthy friends!" exclaimed the one who must have been the commander of that ship.
"Hey!" asked Hange, feigning indignation but smiling then satisfied to see Eren's eyes shine in the dark of the night. "You sure you wanna be rude to us?! Can't see the titan behind you?"
"Well come on, it's dark. It is comprehensible." Elizabeth exclaimed, joking as if they were not on a mission and destabilizing for a moment those who, at the time, were their enemies.
"We will not give up in the face of the power of demons!" resumed the man and Elizabeth, careful to be seen and heard by them, ignored him completely, starting to talk to the guys with her.
"I feel like I'm back when I was like eight years old..."
"Why?" Jean asked beside her, not knowing what he was doing but deciding to follow her.
"Oh I never told you. They called me 'cursed' for my eyes."
"What's wrong with your eyes?" Connor asked instead, more engrossed in that conversation than the rest.
"Maybe it was for the fact that she have two different colors..." Jean surmised.
The commander of that ship opened his mouth slightly, shocked and undecided about what to do. That was something that had never happened to him and he didn't even know how to react.
Levi raised the corner of his mouth, noticing how Niccolò looked at him in search of something that would help him understand. Seeing all those bewildered faces as she ignored them was terribly funny.
"Maybe." Elizabeth said, turning her back to the ship.
"Are they ignoring us?" an officer asked their commander, who promptly decides to take the opportunity and point the finger at them.
"We'll never yield to you devils! Say hello to this!"
"How rude, can't you see I'm talking?" Elizabeth exclaimed feigning offense, turning once more and carefully studying all the officers, with those white uniforms on before scratching the tip of her nose lightly. "Maybe we should teach you some education first."
The sound of a shot made everyone stoop down, covering their heads, except for Levi, who the sound had no effect on, and Elizabeth who, instead, remained standing with her head tilted slightly to the side, running her tongue over her teeth.
"Hands up, Yelena!" one of them exclaimed as she stared at his companion with the still smoking gun aimed at the commander's corpse.
"Drop your weapons."
The fleet split in two in which Yelena's faction handcuffed the remaining comrades.
"Hange, I'd be happy to accept your invitation. Let's have tea." Yelena exclaimed, leaning towards them and smiling at him affably. "And… Elizabeth, you were very timely with your signal. I almost didn't hope for it anymore. In fact it's true, with the color of your eyes it was easy for me to recognize you."
"Nice to meet you." Elizabeth greeted her still standing in her posture as the young men got to their feet, not quite aware of what was going on.
"I've longed to meet you, Eren. he then added Yelena, turning, this time, towards Eren still transformed and apparently impassive.
The three superiors entered a tent, leaving the rest of the team to rest, deservedly.
The weapons that Yelena and her partner left on the table were incredible, they seemed something almost inconceivable and the curious spirit of Hange immediately took over, marveling at what was placed in front of her.
Levi remained seated in the chair, more composed and impassive, while Elizabeth smiled sweetly at her best friend, then feeling the man's gaze on her. Yet he wasn't looking at her with malice but seemed softened by her expression, as if he saw not demons but people capable of have feelings.
"The Marley army has 20.000 soldiers per division, with 50 divisions that's 1.000.000 soldiers. There's also the navy with three fleets, each comprised of 21 battleship. They've made tremendous progress in new weapons and aerial warfare as well." Yelena explained, sitting at the table and sipping her tea. Its heat slowly warmed her, savoring the slightly bitter taste of the drink.
"Aerial?!" Hange exclaimed with her mouth wide open, having resumed her seat and also earning a knee from Levi.
"Tch, don't freak out or they'll think we're weak."
"I know."
"In other words, vehicles allowing one to attack the enemy from the sky." Onyankopon added, stopping to stare at the Vice Captain, slightly amused by the annoyed look that Levi gave him instead.
"Huh?! From the sky?!" shouted Hange rising to her feet, even more shocked than before.
"Hey."
If Levi was getting irritated by her reaction, Elizabeth understood her. She knew well that for Levi was the same thing, he was as amazed as they were, but they had different ways of showing it. She was out of breath, she wanted to listen as much as possible and assimilate as much information those two could give them. She could still feel her heart beating fast but not like when she was with Levi, it was a completely different kind of enthusiasm, she felt the adrenaline rush through her veins, fast, filling every corner of her body.
"If Marley had such capabilities this whole time, why haven't they attacked in over a year?" then asked Hange, composing herself.
"There are two man reasons. One being the pure titans released here; even with the latest weapons they would hinder a land assault. They were used as a tool to confine Eldians within the walls, but in turn they've protected Eldia from invasion."
"Yeah. We'll, ain't that funny?" Levi commented to Yelena's explanation.
"Though dawn is coming soon, and that's when titans are active. But if we're way out here, sipping on tea outside the walls, you must have killed all the titans roaming around. Is that true?"
"What if it is? You gonna report it to Marley?"
Levi remained the most resentful. From the start he wasn't very happy to hear of Hange's communications with this Yelena but, he had to admit, he was interested in her information. She had shot his commander in the head without thinking twice, the person to whom she had sworn allegiance. She had guts but he still didn't know if he could trust her or not and he noticed that Elizabeth, beside him, despite her relaxed expression, thought the same way. Her torso was stiff and she kept her arms folded, sometimes she squeezed her arm lightly and took slightly deeper breaths than others.
"No, it blows away my expectations."
"And the second reason?" then asked Hange again, curious but more serious.
"Currently, Marley is at war with multiple nations and they can't be bothered with Paradis. You defeated the Warrior Unit, Marley's pride, and captured two of their main weapons: the Colossal and the Female Titan. Marley's many enemies took notice and were quick to unite and declare war."
"If you guys are secret agents who infiltrated Marley, I'm guessing you came from conquered nations?"
Their guests stared at the Commander silently and amazed, they didn't believe she would understand them so quickly but that look only meant one thing: she was right.
"Oh I'm right! If you're going up against Marley, I bet you've got big backers!"
Yelena smiled again and Elizabeth continued to listen to her in silence. It was strange because she saw a familiar determination in her look but there was something about her that told her not to trust her.
Her instincts never failed.
"We're not secret agents or anything of the sort. We were powerless. Marley took our homes and forced us to be soldiers; we were close to losing hope at ever striking back. Until we met him. A titan that people of the world feared, calling it a devil. But I saw something completely different. A God. One that gave hope to the powerless. Under Zeke Jeager's command, we shot our superiors. We're the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers. Our goal is to free the Eldian people."
After the discoveries made with Yelena's statements, the Scouts also had to inform the general assembly made up of the rest of the army superiors, in front of Zackly and the Queen.
Zeke Jeager's requests, which seemed to want to deal with them, were not welcome and Elizabeth became very impatient. At that moment she thought she was talking to capricious children who did not want to listen, who did not want to consider any point of view outside their own. Even for her it was not easy to consider the words of that bastard after the events of Ragako and Shiganshina, but at the same time she did not want to behave like… well, the rest of the world; people who hated them without ever even considering their point of view. She had to admit, at least to herself, that Zeke had a lot more information than they did.
Zeke claimed to have a secret plan for the salvation of the Eldians, which included the Founding Titan and a titan with royal blood, but they would have no further information.
And Eren made, for the first time, a revelation that baffled Elizabeth. Finding out in that moment, and suddenly, that Eren had activated the powers of the Founding Titan by touching Dina Fritz, transformed into a titan, was too much to bear. She still decided to keep calm but something lit up in her, the spark of doubt began to creep into her mind and if there was one thing she did not want to do it was to doubt him.
Zeke knew how to activate the Rumbling and Eren had deliberately decided to keep certain information hidden from them, to save Historia from what he said, but he could still have talked about it with them.
It was obvious that they would never endanger the Queen, they cared about her too.
And that event disappointed her a lot.
The Marleyans remained unwelcome guests in the eyes of the army, but the Volunteers' radio communications were very valuable,
When a new ship arrived in Paradis, another that they were ready to welcome already stationed on the shore, Elizabeth came up with a plan that included both Yelena and Onyankopon, also trying to begin testing their loyalty, using them as bait while Armin transformed, thus pushing soldiers to get off the ship of their own free will to seek shelter on the island.
Elizabeth watched the scene with some satisfaction, then snapping her tongue on her palate when she saw Levi lightly climb a rock and welcome the frightened and wet enemy soldiers.
"Welcome to the filthy island of filthy demons. You're gonna love it, as long as you love pig piss. You can leave if you want, but not on a ship. Are you good at swimming?"
"I think I have a problem." Elizabeth murmured, flanked by Jean and Sasha, a little further back than Levi but with a perspective of her husband that she did not disdain at all.
Too bad there was a cloak to cover it...
"Why?" Jean asked, taking a couple of steps with folded arms.
"He's so sexy..."
"He's furious." the young man added, holding back a slight laugh.
"I know." Elizabeth answered eloquently, turning slightly towards him.
"Yes, you really have a problem."
"It's called 'being in love'." Sasha added happily and enthusiastically but earning a raise of an eyebrow from Jean and a little laugh from their Vice Captain.
"Come on, let's go."
"I want as few deaths as possible." Hange exclaimed, letting the rest of the team take part in the operation as well.
"Then leave it to me." Elizabeth answered with conviction, without waiting for a positive nod.
Elizabeth approached them with skill, taking advantage of the lost gaze of what must have been the commander of that ship and lowering herself to her knees to his level.
"I hope you aren't stupid enough to want to fight."
"Shoot!" he ordered, stepping back a little and falling on his back into the water, looking for his gun.
"Since when is gunpowder useful when wet?" Elizabeth asked. Advancing a couple of steps under the gaze of the various Marleyan men.
"Come on guys, it's late and I want to go to sleep as much as you do. Let's put an end to this drama."
"Stay away from me, demon!" one of those men yelled.
"Hey, I'm offended." Elizabeth murmured continuing to advance towards the man.
"Women like you should be burned alive."
"Okay, now I take this personally." Elizabeth commented, drastically changing her expression. If, until then, she had kept one relaxed and calm one she now mirrored all her annoyance, an almost inhuman coldness in the eyes of Marleyans who had never seen such a look.
Her green eye seemed almost made of crystal as it glowed in the dark of the night.
"But how the hell does she do it?" Jean asked referring to that sudden change, that control that she was able to have over her emotions as if nothing could scratch her.
"Liz has so many hidden abilities." Hange answered smiling with folded arms.
"I love that woman." added Levi instead, satisfied to see her kick the soldier's face with force and turn him with extreme ease and speed. A quick nod and the Marleyans found themselves surrounded, rifles aimed at them and the Colossal Titan preventing them escaping from the sea.
One by one they began to handcuff them to take them to the cell and interrogate them, looking for someone easy to break from whom to get some information, but one of them felt particularly witty in better looking at the body of Elizabeth who was passing by still serious and authoritarian.
Seeing such a woman give orders was inspiring but they still considered it odd.
"Hey, can you come to the cell with me?" commented one of the Marleyans with a chuckle, facing one of his companions but loud enough for the Eldians to hear him too. Some companions laughed and Elizabeth turned to him smiling.
The man stopped laughing when he saw that expression not at all annoyed, or at least apparently, because she kicked his face hard, letting him fall from the hands of her subordinate to make him fall to the ground. She dropped to her knees, pulling up the man's face with his hair and barely studying his nose bleeding face. Satisfied with her work and without the slightest desire to fight, she got back on her feet, smiling and intimidating the other Marleyans in handcuffs.
"Anyone else would like to take me with them?" Elizabeth asked looking at them one by one, without getting an answer. "Very well."
Once the man got back on his feet, they resumed their journey towards the wagons to return to their bases but after a few steps Levi decided that he did not want to leave the work unfinished. He was nervous and wanted to let off steam somehow; luck for him that idiot had a mouth too wide.
"Come on, we don't have all night." he ordered making them advance one by one under the control of his subordinates.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Levi murmured when he found himself in front of the same soldier who had previously had the brilliant idea of making that joke about Elizabeth. He moved so that he was facing him and gave him a hard kick in the stomach. "This is for daring to make certain jokes about my wife."
That evening Levi and Elizabeth stayed up late to compile new reports. The discoveries were always sensational but they too had to beware of the information that leaked.
Eren's reluctance to reveal details about the royal family titan must have meant, at least in Elizabeth's eyes, that part of him didn't trust them. While they needed Eren's information.
She didn't hide her disappointment even after the assembly, pointing out how much she was in his behavior.
Did he really think that, in the light of that uncertain information or not, they would allow Historia to be transformed into a titan just for the Rumbling?!
But apparently for Eren it was like that and during the lecture he felt guilty. Part of him wanted to reveal it but a bigger part prevented it.
Something was changing in that boy and Elizabeth didn't know if it was for the better or for the worse.
When she decided she was somewhat hungry and she went down to the kitchens looking for something to fill her stomach, she heard a noise coming right from the room and she found a burning candle on the table used for cooking.
A small female figure was huddled near the potato sacks, which hid some meat put to dry under another wooden table but covered so that nothing could compromise its integrity.
"Sasha..." Elizabeth murmured, making herself noticed. The girl jumped up with a guilty look.
"Miss Elizabeth... I don't..."
The Vice Captain chuckled amused, that girl had an enviable appetite,
"You particularly like meat, I see. I don't love her very much instead."
"Oh yes, I like it very much." Sasha answered, holding a very large piece of meat in her hands.
"Does the spicy bother you?" she then asked, destabilizing the young sniper. That girl had great aim and liked to train her and help her improve. She was full of surprises.
"No."
"Then put some of this in. It will enhance the flavor." Elizabeth exclaimed, reaching for a small cabinet where they kept the spices, taking one bright red.
"I won't be punished for coming here from hiding... er, at night?" Sasha asked still guilty, but lightened by the tone the Vice Captain was using with her. She was different from the other superiors, she protected them and always encouraged them to bring out the best in them.
She always tried to be helpful, to comfort them and not make them feel like they were just soldiers part of a squad. They were much more.
"Nah, I did it too." Elizabeth chuckled as she sat up and reached out to the chair in front of her, inviting Sasha to do the same. "I sneaked in here to make a cake, but I got busted by the cook and even fought over it."
"Seriously?!" Sasha exclaimed, then embarrassed by her suddenly used conversational tone, even though she knew perfectly well that it didn't bother her.
"You can call me you, huh. We are not on the battlefield." Elizabeth smiled at her, completely dampening her agitation at being caught. "It was a cake for Levi."
"Does the Captain like sweets?"
Elizabeth chuckled again at the young woman's reaction and leaned against the table with one elbow, then using her hand to support her face.
"Not much, but he liked it anyway. At the end."
"I can't imagine a sweet and romantic Captain." Sasha murmured looking into space, then immediately turning to her superior. "No offense."
"He is in his own way."
"You don't like meat?"
"Mh, I never ate it in the underground, maybe I'm just used to not doing it."
"It must not have been an easy life." Sasha murmured, barely saddened at that thought. It was no mystery that whoever lived there did so in poverty and misery.
"What are you doing here little girl?" suddenly exclaimed a man, another superior, noticing from the entrance to the kitchen, initially, only Sasha sitting. Only when he peered completely out of the entrance he also noticed the woman sitting next to her. "Elizabeth."
"Good evening." the blonde answered, smiling affably and calmly, trying to make Sasha understand to stay calm. "Sasha wasn't feeling very well, she passed out. She evidently ate little by her standards and she could not handle today's training. So I took her here for something to eat."
The explanation of the Vice Captain struck the man who immediately lost his frown to make way for a more calm but sorry look. He was not a bad man, he cared a lot about the lives of his subordinates but he demanded that the rules be always respected.
"Oh I'm sorry. Are you feeling better now?"
"Er… yes, sir. Much better." Sasha immediately replied, understanding Elizabeth's bluff.
She had helped her...
"Then I can go. Here you can get by on your own. Sorry for the inconvenience and goodnight." the man said before turning and walking away.
Elizabeth turned back to Sasha, winking at her and making her smile.
"Thank you."