"Of all the things you choose in life, you don't get to choose what your nightmares are. You don't pick them; they pick you." -John Irving

WARNING: This chapter has somewhat graphic descriptions of rape, so if that is too much for you, simply skip the italicized section at the beginning.

-Emmryn's POV-

It was a dark and cold night when I decided to spend my break from the Training corp visiting Erwin and I's childhood home in Wall Rose. Since my older brother had entered the Survey Corps, he had not had time to visit the home often, and I wanted to make sure it was being maintained, so that one day, when we were both in the Survey Corps together, we could celebrate different times off in our home. It had been just the two of us for almost as long as I could remember, and I wanted to maintain some sort of home for us to come back to. For some reason, it seemed important to me.

When I arrived at our home, I couldn't help but smile in excitement. It looked like at least our yard area had been maintained by our kind neighbors, including a red rose bush that I had spent weeks convincing Erwin to get me for my 10th birthday. He always had a soft spot for me and would always protect me and do his best to give me everything he could. I entered the house and was shocked to see that everything seemed to be fairly clean as well. I looked at our small dining table that could only fit maybe 4 people comfortably and saw a piece of paper on it. Picking it up, I full on grinned.

'Em,

I know you've been coming home every break and cleaning the house. I decided to hire someone to clean the house every now and then so you would not have to spend your break doing it. I will be coming to visit you for part of your break on November 14, so please, try not to burn the house down between now and then.

Love Always,

Erwin'

So I may possibly have the best big brother on the planet. With this reassurance, I decided to head to bed since it was pretty late. Also, tonight was the 13th of November, so that meant if I went to bed that meant time would pass sooner to where I could see Erwin! With excitement and happy thoughts, I found myself quickly drifting to sleep.

BANG!

Scared and shocked awake, the door to my room opened so hard that it broke off the hinges, and in walked two very intimidating men. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, one of the men grabbed me by the hair and slung me onto the floor and kicked me in the stomach. I screamed in pain before I was yanked up by the arm to eye level to one of the men. He had dark green eyes and cropped brown hair, and he was grinning at me in a way that churned my stomach.

"Hey, my sources were right! She is a pretty one! She'll make us great money in the Underground!" the man said to his partner before turning to me, "Oh how rude of me! My name is Friar Reed, your new boss!" I stared in shock before somehow finding my voice.

"I-I don't understand... There must be some mistake... What do you mean by new boss? I'm a cadet for the military," I asked confused and wincing. The man, Friar, cackled before throwing me onto the bed and coming towards me, removing the buttons on the slacks he was wearing, and I started shaking in realization of what was happening.

"Hey, Henry... Go keep watch! I'm gonna give this lil lady some training for her new job," Friar said, as the other man, Henry I presume, nodded and shut the door behind him, "Now, where were we?" He smirked as he came towards me and grabbed my nightgown and tore it open.

"Ah yes. We're gonna have some fun, and I'm gonna teach ya how to treat yer customers." With that he pulled down his pants while towering over me before reaching down and holding my hands behind my head with one hand when I tried to fight back by punching him. He pinned me against the bed.

"Brother! Help!" I screamed as loud as I could as pain wracked my entire body emanating from my most intimate of places, as all of my innocence was stolen.

"AGHHHHHHH!" I woke up with a blood curdling scream escaping my lips as tears flowed down my face, and I wrapped my arms around myself digging my nails into the pale skin until they drew blood. My whole body was wracked with sobs and the constant shaking from terror and the hyperventilating I was doing.

The door burst open, and I didn't even process what was happening until my hands were ripped from my arms. My head snapped to the person who had touched me without my permission. To my relief, I was greeted by auburn hair and glasses that were accompanied by a very concerned expression on her face.

"Emmryn, I need you to calm down and take some deep breaths, or else I will have to put you back into a coma," Hange said calmly, but bluntly. Despite my heart telling me that was impossible, I managed to take a couple of deep breaths. My shaking decreased with this but did not completely subside.

"Th-Thank you, Hange," I said quietly, my voice raspy and difficult to use. Then, I registered what she had said. "What do you mean put me 'back' into a coma?" My voice was getting slightly stronger the more I spoke. Hange looked at me in relief.

"Ahhh... Yes... About that... See, Cadet Emmryn, with all the trauma you faced, both mental and physical, I had to keep you in a medically induced coma for only about 4 weeks..." She answered barely saying the 4 weeks loudly enough for me to hear, and my eyes went wide. Well eye. My right eye was open I think, but I still couldn't see a damn thing out of it. "But on the bright side, since you haven't really moved, your broken bones have healed with no problem!" she continued with a big smile on her face, obviously skimming over a bigger issue.

"Hange... I can't see out of my right eye," I pointed out before asking bluntly, "How bad is it?" Hange blanched at my question and looked away from me. "Forget it. I'll go see it myself. I need a mirror," I said trying to get out of the bed before completely collapsing on the floor cursing. Right. Haven't moved in 4 weeks. Son of a b-

"Oi, brat! How stupid are you trying to walk after shitty glasses just said you've been in a coma for 4 fucking weeks?" I heard a bored voice say. I glared up at the source of said comment to see a familiar ebony haired captain.

"I'm sorry, Captain," I said through gritted teeth as I glared at him. As out of it as I was, I did remember this rude guy's response last time I smarted off, and he really didn't seem like the type to take it easy on me even if I did just wake up from a coma.

I looked up to see him simply nod, "Much better. Maybe that fall knocked some sense into you, brat." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and had to hide my shock when I saw his hand extended out to me. Since there weren't a lot of other options, I took it and the Captain helped me up and I sat back down on my bed in the infirmary. He immediately withdrew his hand and pointed to the metal tray next to my bed that had bread and what looked like a bowl of some kind of soup on it.

"Eat. You need to regain your strength, so I can attempt to train you enough that you don't die in the first five minutes outside the walls on our next expedition," he ordered, his voice sounding as bored as his facial expression looked.

"AWWWWW! Levi, you're being so nice to little Emmryn! Not that I blame you! I mean she's superrrrr cutteeeee!" Hange squealed, running over to the captain with a huge grin and thumbs up.

I tuned them out as I eagerly took the bread and began wolfing it down. Until it had been pointed out, I hadn't realized how hungry I was. Within minutes, the bread and the soup were long gone. I looked next to the tray and saw a cup of some sort of steaming liquid. I looked at it and recognized it from my childhood. Tea. One of my favorite drinks as a child. I gingerly held the cup to my lips and sipped on the hot tea. Mmmmm. Black tea... And whoever prepared it had put some sugar in it too. I couldn't help but feel warmth from the drink. Looking over to the two that had previously been arguing, I was confused to see them both looking at me.

-Levi's POV-

There was something off about Erwin's brat sister. It's like she had a split personality, and it had really taken me aback when she didn't smart off like she had in the carriage. Shitty glasses had warned Erwin and I that this might be the case from the trauma the brat had gone through. We have no idea what the so-called trauma was. Shitty glasses for once was actually keeping her big mouth shut and told us it would be up to the brat to decide to tell us herself if she decided she wanted to.

When we had stopped arguing, we had looked over to see the girl with a small smile on her face as she drank the tea I had made her. Erwin had insisted that she have some when she woke up, and since he knew I drank tea all the time, he asked me to make it and told me to add sugar to it for her. Emmryn was holding the tea cup with both hands as if she was afraid that if she used only one hand, she would drop it. The small smile on her face seemed so peaceful compared even to how she had looked during her coma.

Apparently noticing our silence, the small cadet looked up at us with confusion before carefully putting her cup down before standing up shakily at first before managing to stabilize herself by leaning the backs of legs on the infirmary bed before looking me in the eye, determination evident in her visible large blue eye, as she brought her arms into a perfect salute.

"Captain Levi. Section Commander Hange. Thank you so much for all of your help. I vow to do my best to repay both of your kindnesses," she said with a strength and calmness in her voice that I had not yet heard from her. Hmm... I can finally see the resemblance between her and Erwin. With that thought, I had to resist the urge to smirk. She may not die immediately after all.

Song: Towards the Sun by Rihanna

Edited: 03/24/2020