The lesson.

Not everyone you love

Will stay

Not everyone you trust

Will be loyal

Some people only exist

As examples of what to avoid

-Author Unknown

-EMMRYN'S POV-

The rest of our lookout shift passed by in a flash after our initial discussion, and for the first time in a while, my heart felt light. A huge burden had been removed from my shoulders thanks to one, usually apathetic, raven-haired captain, and I was determined to thank him somehow when we returned from the expedition.

After the next team came to relieve us, Squad Levi returned to camp and were told to sleep on the second floor of the building Levi and I had found the rest of the squad in earlier, while Levi went, I assumed, to report to Erwin and spend the night with the other officers. Our entire squad was exhausted and quickly fell asleep after eating our rations.

The whole Scouting Legion was up at the break of dawn and had set out to continue the expedition before the sun had fully risen above the horizon. Despite my soreness from riding the day before, I found myself almost giddy as I mounted Icarus and admired the horizon.

"Oi, greenhorn!" Oluo's voice called as I turned towards him, "If you don't focus, you're gonna get eaten by a titan!" I smiled at him despite his obnoxiously pompous tone as I fell into formation to his right and Levi's left, the captain looking bored as ever.

"Awww, Oluo! Thanks! You must secretly care," I teased, tying the top half of my hair back out of my face revealing both my eyes as I focused my gaze ahead. I noticed that small shadows were starting to appear in the right part of my vision, and I took that as a hopeful sign that maybe I could one day recover some of my sight in my right eye.

"Tch! Like I'd ever care for some greenhorn underground prostitute like you!" he retorted, and I noticed Levi tense up ever so slightly ahead of us. Sigh. Time for me to once again do damage control and save Oluo's ungrateful ass. I nudged Icarus to pick up speed just enough to catch up with Levi before speaking just loud enough for only him to hear.

"It's fine, Levi. Thanks to what you did yesterday, I can handle him myself," I said, giving the stoic captain a reassuring smile when his eyes met mine briefly as he nodded acknowledging that he had heard me. I quickly fell back into formation.

"Oluo, you moron! Don't talk to Emmryn like that!" Petra was scolding angrily from Levi's right, and I smiled even wider at her jumping to my defense.

"It's fine, Petra!" I called out before directing my words to Oluo, my tone slightly taunting, "Hey Captain Wannabe! You're going to feel really stupid when this Training Corps droupout, ex-prostitute beats your kill count within 3 expeditions!"

Laughs could be heard from my other three squad members, especially at my 'Captain Wannabe' comment. All Oluo could do was click his tongue in response.

Just like the first day of the expedition, our second day went fairly smooth; however, that all changed when, as we were almost back to our base outside the walls, red flares began showing up on all sides of the formation. Seconds later, black flares were shot up on both sides as well. My heart rate shot up as I tried not to panic.

"Squad Levi, prepare to deploy ODM gear!" Levi ordered, just as 5 titans came into our view. There were two ten meters, an eight meter, a twelve meter, and a six meter approaching us. The six meter was on all fours and moving with much greater speed than the others. My eyes widened: an abnormal. Before I had time to panic, Levi began barking out orders.

"Oluo and Petra, you two take out the twelve meter and then provide support for whoever needs it when you're done. Eld, Gunther, each of you take care of one of the ten meters. Smith, you've got the eight meter. The abnormal is mine! Now! Go!" Levi ordered launching himself from his horse and deploying his ODM gear.

With no hesitation, all the members of our squad went after our assigned titans. As I came up to the eight meter, I deployed my ODM gear, attaching the hooks into its back as I quickly used the gas to propel myself upwards, retracting the hooks before landing on the neck of the titan.

Right as I saw a giant hand reach for me, I jumped and cut a deep section of the nape out of the titan's neck, successfully killing it. As the titan fell, I ran halfway down its front before attaching my hooks to the ground and jumped, rolling as I hit the ground to reduce the impact. I quickly whistled for my horse and mounted Icarus as soon as she reached me.

Looking up, I saw a sight that took my breath away for all the wrong reasons. Levi was on the back of the abnormal when it suddenly stopped, flinging Levi forward and grabbing him tightly in midair. Without thinking, I had Icarus shoot forward and, right as the titan opened its mouth to eat the captain, I deployed my ODM gear and used a large burst of gas to gain momentum and cut the titan's arm that was clutching the captain clean off.

The hand released Levi, and he rolled on the ground unmoving, causing my heart to ache as I felt an unfamiliar rage fill me. Turning my focus to the abnormal, I let out a yell in my rage as I travelled up its remaining arm, slashing it to pieces as I made my way up to its neck. Using my momentum and the strength from my rage-filled adrenaline, I slashed out a section of the nape so deep that it almost beheaded the damned thing.

I fell back down, landing on Icarus who had dutifully followed me, before guiding us to where Levi had fallen. There was a small pool of blood around him and his ODM gear, along with his left arm, appeared to be crushed. My breath caught in my throat as I dismounted Icarus and ran to him.

That's when I noticed the very slight rise and fall of his chest. Levi was alive! Thank the Walls, but I didn't know how long he would make it without medical attention. In order to hopefully slow or stop the bleeding, I ripped off a strip of my green Survey Corps cloak and wrapped it tightly around the wound that I found on his right temple.

Right as I was trying to figure out how I was going to move him while doing the least damage possible, I heard the familiar thumping sound of horses approaching us. My gaze shot up, expecting to see our squad but instead, I was met with the concerned face of my older brother. Relief and panic flooded me simultaneously causing my head to spin as I gently placed Levi's head on the ground as not to hurt him, before running up to my brother and his tall white horse.

"Erwin! It's Levi! He's hurt! His head is bleeding, and his arm is broken! He's still breathing, but barely! Please help, Erwin!" I begged, panic filling my voice and tears filling my eyes. My older brother looked at me in shock. Sure, we had gotten closer, but I'm sure he had not expected me to lose my composure so much, especially in front of others.

"Cadet Emmryn, calm down. We are retreating, and we will need you at your best to fight off the titans as we do so," Erwin said authoritatively, his voice a deadly calm in contrast to my panicked tone. He looked to a man to his left, I believe his name was Mike, and nodded. Quickly, Mike and the two others with them went over, carefully picking up Levi and placing him in the cart for those who were too injured to ride a horse.

As they rode off, leaving Erwin and I alone, he took out his flare gun, loaded it, and shot it high into the air. The blue pillar of smoke signalled our retreat, and I quickly mounted Icarus, getting ready to speed off to the formation.

"Em," Erwin called, his voice much kinder now that we were alone, "I can see that you and Levi have gotten close, but you need to keep your head straight if you don't want to lose others." I glared at him.

"I apologize, Commander," I growled, spitting his title at him, "But I have not lost anyone yet. He is still alive, and my head is fine. If humanity loses Captain Levi, we lose one of, if not the, most important soldiers we have in the fight against the titans. I'll return to my position, Commander." With that, I gave my brother a quick salute before leading Icarus back to our space in formation, ignoring the questions of concern from my fellow squad members.

The retreat went by in a blur for me. Despite this, I managed to kill three more titans and provide four assists when the titans got too close to the injured cart. Finally, we reached the inside of the Walls. The heckling and rude stares of civilians barely reached me as I stayed fully focused on the medic cart.

Two hours later, we reached the Survey Corps HQ, and I had to force myself to correctly stable Icarus, take a shower and change clothes before sprinting to the infirmary. Please be okay, Levi… Please…

Song: The Monster by Eminem ft. Rihanna

Edited: 03/26/2020