"Twisted branches reach for her

the earth rises up to swallow her

as pain echoes through the woods

lingering in the trees."

~Christy Ann Martine

When we arrived at the Survey Corps headquarters, I noticed that they had gotten an upgrade while I had been gone. This was not the old castle I was accustomed to seeing. Instead, it was a new building with clearly set apart training grounds, though I didn't get much of a chance to check things out before I was escorted quickly inside. Thank the Walls we arrived late at night, and it appeared that no one was awake. The rude Captain walked off as soon as we arrived at the HQ, muttering something about paperwork, leaving me with Erwin. I followed Erwin quietly, my wounds screaming with every step I took until we reached stairs, and I cursed under my breath causing Erwin to look back at me.

"Let me guess," I said clearly frustrated, "The infirmary is upstairs." Erwin gave me a pitying smile and nodded. "Whose genius idea was that?" I muttered under my breath. These wounds and the pain was clearly affecting my personality and my usual calm composure. I needed relief, but first, I had to grit my teeth and get up these damned steps. At least that was my plan until I felt an arm hook underneath my legs and another arm supporting my back before quickly and gently lifting me up. I panicked and struggled, but the arms held me tight. I looked up to see Erwin who was giving me a sad and knowing smile at my discomfort.

"I'm sorry, Em..mryn," he forced himself to say my complete name, "This will be faster and won't agitate your wounds, and no one is here to judge you or think you're weak." My left eye widened slightly in shock. I guess he did remember some things about me. Erwin quickly carried me up the stairs and two doors down before gently setting me on the ground and knocking firmly on the door. I felt bad for whoever was stuck with the night shift in the infirmary. It had been a minute or so, and I almost asked Erwin if we could just have me evaluated in the morning when the infirmary door opened to reveal a very wide awake lady with dark auburn hair and glasses who looked at me and immediately grinned. By this point, I was beginning to get a bit unsteady on my feet though I did my best to hide it.

"Oh my gosh! You look terrible! We need to get you checked out right away! I'm Hange Zoe! Nice to meet you!" the lady said with way too much energy for any sane person to have this late at night. But she seemed so nice that I couldn't help but give her a small smile. "Hi Hange. My name is Emmryn," I said quietly, intentionally leaving my last name off, not knowing how much to reveal to this new person. My vision was starting to go a little wonky as well so I couldn't exactly focus on making that kind of judgement at the moment. I heard Erwin clear his throat.

"Hange, I need you to do a full medical evaluation on Cadet Emmryn as well as treat her wounds," Erwin said in his Commander voice, "She has been seriously injured, and we don't know the extent of her injuries." That was the last thing I heard before everything went black.

-Erwin's POV-

"Emmryn!" I called out, slightly panicked as I caught her small frame before she could hit the ground. I lifted her gently and brought her into one of the empty beds in the infirmary. Hange's eyes were burning a hole through my back, and I realized that Emmryn was still wearing my dress uniform coat. Turning towards Hange, I was met with a serious gaze full of concern.

"Erwin, just who exactly is this girl, and what the hell happened to her?" Hange demanded to know, her voice laced with concern. I sighed. There was no hiding things from Hange. She would eventually find out anyways.

"Her name is Emmryn Smith. She's my younger sister who was kidnapped and taken to the Underground 6 years ago. She just escaped her captors, which I'm assuming are the ones responsible for the state she is in," I answered calmly, but my fists clenched and I said the last part through gritted teeth. Whoever these bastards are, they broke my baby sister. Hange nodded in understanding before going to work on Emmryn.

"Her wounds are really bad, Erwin, but I have a feeling her mental damage is even worse. You should go get some rest. I'll be able to give you a full report on the extent of her injuries in the morning," Hange said to me trying to be comforting but still being her brutally honest self. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. I knew she was right about me needing rest, but how could I when my baby sister was laying on this infirmary bed after spending 6 years being tortured? I knew how or at least why. Because the future of humanity always rested on me being able to make the right decisions, which frankly was not a possibility if I was not getting at least some rest.

"Hange," I said as I went to leave the infirmary, "Do not tell anyone who she is as far as being my sister is concerned. The only ones who know are us 3 and Levi. No one else can know." Hange hmmmed in understanding as she continued her evaluation of Emmryn. I closed the door quietly and headed back to my room.

-Hange's POV-

After 3 hours, the evaluation of the younger Smith was finally completed, but I couldn't say that I was relieved. The girl was in terrible shape, and honestly she was lucky to be alive. I looked at the notes I had compiled about this young girl. She had obviously been through hell. That was especially obvious by the multitude of scars that littered her small frame and the evidence of being raped numerous times. It's hard to believe she had survived all of it; however, as I had told Commander Erwin, I had a sinking feeling that her mental health had suffered far more than her body had. I sighed feeling an intense amount of sadness for the girl in front of me.

She was only 22 and had clearly endured torture for the past 6 years. It was a sickening reminder to me that titans were not the only monsters we faced in this world, and when looking at the damage done to Emmryn, I'm not even sure that I believe that titans are the worst monsters this world had to offer.

The sound of whimpering snapped me out of my thoughts as I saw the pained look on the young Smith's face. I took a syringe with a sedative and a pain killer in it and quickly injected it into her left forearm. (I had immobilized her right arm earlier after setting the broken bones to allow them to heal quickly and correctly.) Within 5 minutes, Emmryn appeared to return to a more peaceful sleep.

Rather than leaving the poor girl alone in an unfamiliar place, I decided I would sleep on the infirmary bed across from her, so she would at least see someone when she woke up. Besides, I only had about 3 hours before I had to be up anyways. As soon as my head hit the pillow on the infirmary bed, I was out like a light.

Song: Silence by Marshmello ft. Khalid

Edited: 03/24/2020