When I grow up I want to be insolent.
Year 848- April.
Elizabeth had agreed to spend an evening for women only, including Hange among them. She had been forced to ask her several times but in the end the team leader gave in and they found themselves in Petra and Elizabeth's room drinking tea.
The conversation had been directed towards one of the post-expedition drinks, when they all drank together to celebrate success, one in which Elizabeth had drunk the most, remaining completely lucid.
"How much can you drink without being completely wasted?" Hange asked, listening to Petra's story and then bursting out laughing immediately afterwards.
Elizabeth sipped her tea, then smiled at the memory that amused her every time. "More than you think."
Petra smiled sweetly at her friend or, even better, her sister. She, after returning from that secret mission which she could not talk about, had decided to reveal to her something else that she already knew very well.
It wasn't hard to guess that there was something between her and the Captain, a particular affection they didn't feel for others; the fact that she decided to tell her had filled her heart with joy and, if possible, increased her affection for her.
She had been honest, trying not to hurt her feelings, and had revealed things to her gently without pressing anything or making her feel bad.
On the contrary, Petra was sorry to see the guilt as she revealed it to her.
It was Petra's words, on that occasion, that definitively strengthened their relationship, making it special.
"Elizabeth you don't have to feel guilty. He loves you and you love him. I can't compare my feelings for him to yours. Don't ruin something beautiful just for me; we're not all lucky in love but I am lucky in other things, ones you never had. Promise me you'll always hold him tight."
And Elizabeth promised her it.
It was precisely because of this that hearing her talk about a certain boy she had met, also a member of the Survey Corps, had made her smile happily.
A Mike's team member, if she was right.
Petra deserved love as much as her, even if, for Elizabeth, she deserved it more than herself...
"Uh... let him arrest you."
Hange almost spat at Elizabeth's sentence and not only for the perversion that ensued but also for the embarrassed look of Petra who was immediately blushed.
Those two together were dangerous.
"We don't arrest anyone."
"Right. Then get punished with him."
"I think punishment only works with you Liz." Hange added, unable to stop laughing.
That hilarity immediately involved the other two who, after a quick glance, joined the team leader.
Elizabeth felt agitated.
Zackly sat there, so high and unreachable for anyone; the greatest exponential figure, one wrong word in front of him and she could have been kicked out of the Survey Corps in an instant.
She and Misha, she had discovered to be the redhead's name, were forced to stand in the center of the assembly, with only the representatives of the two Corps on either side. Survey Corps for her and Military Police for him.
"Elizabeth Blossom, you are being held accountable for the attempted murder charge against your fellow soldier."
"The girl is unstoppable." exclaimed a military policeman, interrupting Zackly and standing up. On the other side, right in front of him, Levi mentally cursed him.
It would have been a long process...
"Not even Captain Levi was able to handle her. She's a criminal."
"If it wasn't for the other boy, Misha would have bled to death."
Elizabeth bit the inside of her cheek, she couldn't speak until she had permission, and she couldn't jeopardize her already precarious condition.
Zackly had taken a long time before calling that assembly, going through everything, but the stabbing had forced him to take this step. It was evident that he did not want to, she did not know how to explain it but she felt that the man kind of respected her, perhaps he saw her as a valid weapon.
"Silence!" exclaimed the General, slightly raising his voice as he adjusted his glasses on his nose.
"Misha's deposition states that he was stabbed, badly wounded by Elizabeth outside the battlefield. He defines it as an ambush and that he was the personal target."
"How much bullshit..." Levi murmured next to Erwin. If it hadn't been for the proximity of Erwin and Hange he would have already spoken, none of that bunch of idiots would have had the courage to reply to his words but Elizabeth, on hearing Zackly's words, had turned towards him, begging him silently not to act.
"Yes sir. That's how it went." Misha answered, holding his chin up and proud, too convinced of winning to bother with her answers.
"How do you answer Elizabeth?" the General asked, turning his gaze from the man to her.
It was her chance and she shouldn't waste it. She could silence that infamous once and for all.
"Commander Erwin has requested my presence on a rather delicate mission. As I have already reported on my return, I have dealt with a particular drug trafficking that had involved our soldiers, sir."
Elizabeth began to speak, serious but proud, so much so that Levi felt a particular surge of pride in her. That woman would have been a great leader.
Misha, beside her, began to tremble.
"During the investigation I found out who was involved, who was bringing the drugs from underground, which was them and a third man, who I assumed was the boss."
Misha swallowed, his confident smile disappeared, giving way to an astonished expression.
She couldn't have proof of what she was saying, they couldn't have proof that he was involved...
"When I was kidnapped and tortured, for exactly six weeks, the two of them were in charge of keeping me alive but inflicting ever increasing physical pain on me. Then when I managed to free myself, the goal had become to kill me to prevent me from speaking and he tried to attack me. It was self-defense sir. "
"You have no proof of what you are saying, you fool!" screamed a man belonging to the military police, one who seemed to have seen somewhere before but she could not remember.
"Maybe not." Elizabeth answered with a particular twinkle in her eye that managed to put some men in awe. "But the evidence that I was careful to collect before escaping, despite the wound in my abdomen, I think contains enough material, considering that he was smart enough to write on it. Or am I wrong General?"
Zackly laughed slightly on the inside, holding back so as not to overdo it. He saw a couple of soldiers stare in shock and Misha beside her open his mouth in complete amazement.
No one would ever dare to use such a defiant tone in front of him but she knew she was right and would use every way to prove it.
Proud of herself as everyone said.
"You're not wrong." Zackly answered.
"How can we trust her, sir? Who tells us that evidence wasn't rigged? After all, she comes from underground, she's a criminal!"
Levi clenched a fist, wishing he could act somehow, but he knew how much she was worth alone and didn't need him.
She had been waiting for her moment to speak and now she was responding to anyone who dared to go against her, like the rebellious spirit she had always been.
"So the fact that someone decided to bring me into the world down there automatically makes me a criminal?" Elizabeth turned to the soldier, a team leader she seemed to remember, raising the corner of her mouth slightly. "By the same reasoning, considering that drug trafficking research led to the military police, it should make you a drug addict."
"How dare you, you insolent brat?!"
"I just followed your reasoning, sir."
"Would your mother be proud of you if she knew you were responding in that way to a superior, brat?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest with an air of superiority.
"I was just born when she left me next to the garbage, but if I meet her I ask her."
Part of the men remained silent after Elizabeth's statement, while he opened his mouth a little, probably feeling guilty for having touched what might have been a sore spot for her.
It was a really bad story.
"That's enough!" Zackly interjected, determined to put an end to that hassle as soon as possible.
"Commander Erwin, you requested the mission. Do you have any additional information?"
Erwin straightened up in his posture, looking at Elizabeth for a few moments before focusing on his superior.
"I sent Elizabeth down there, yes. It was a mission in which she was monitored for her safety. If it weren't for the man who warned the guards that Elizabeth had been kidnapped by now she would most likely be a corpse. Furthermore, Elizabeth's handwriting is not like the one found in the notebooks and, Captain Levi can confirm, she was in terrible condition when he found her."
A soldier from the opposing faction started to speak but Zackly moved his free hand, making a gesture to let him know he wanted silence, as he rested his head on the other hand, thinking.
"Captain Levi, can you confirm?"
"Yes." Levi replied, with a dark and disturbing look that made some people swallow with fear. He was furious but Elizabeth's shocked gaze, which she was still hiding behind her own facade of pure pride, hadn't escaped him.
She didn't know anything yet...
"I would say, then, that your request is completely denied Misha. You will be arrested for introducing experimental drugs into the military police. And for you, Elizabeth..."
Zackly turned his gaze to the girl, waiting a few moments to study her. She was an enigma. She was something he had never faced before.
Her team was ready to do anything to defend her if she was right and to punish her when she was wrong; Erwin himself had placed the utmost trust in her with a particularly delicate mission that he had delegated only to the Commander.
She had lived up to Erwin's expectations but had also amazed him.
"Thank you for your work. It will now be your Captain's jurisdiction to punish you one day for nearly killing your companion or not. I declare it all over."
Elizabeth looked ahead for a few moments as Zackly left the room without admitting any reply. If her look said how proud she was, her mind was furious.
The last time Elizabeth stormed into a room it was Levi's one, so it was a whole new thing for him to see her walk into Erwin's office with that attitude.
With him, however, she was careful to knock and wait for permission to enter but his gaze said it all for her.
Hange crossed her arms over her chest, just as she was telling the Commander that he was wrong not to tell her anything about it.
"Commander, with all due respect, but did you really pay a man to keep me under control?"
Erwin had requested the presence of the Captain and the squad leader to discuss some things about the squad but, evidently, it wasn't over yet for Elizabeth. And he expected it.
He just turned to Levi who looked at him with a shrug.
"Yes."
"Are you serious? Don't you have any confidence in my abilities?"
"Elizabeth, it was the only way to know about the progress of the mission."
Erwin was definitely impressed of her, she was so proud of herself that she didn't even notice what the 'suicidal detail' was.
"It would have been enough for you to trust me instead of taking advantage of Frank and his need for money."
The Commander barely widened his eyes, Hange beside him opened his mouth in shock.
Levi grinned satisfied. He had warned him not to underestimate her...
"How do you know it was him?"
"Oh please, I'm not that stupid. I've known that man all my life and better than anyone. It was evident that he was hiding something from me and keeping me under control. The fact that you admitted it to Zackly allowed me to to complete the puzzle."
Elizabeth shone with her own light, whenever she stood up for a cause she did it with all the passion she had in her body. Erwin was beginning to understand why she, of all women, had managed to take Levi's heart; she was not only strong and determined, she was intelligent and shrewd, skillful and proud.
"Well, then I think I owe you an apology. Your work, as I have already told you, has been impeccable, at least from my point of view. If I have made the mistake of briefly distrusting you, surely it will not repeat a second time."
Elizabeth was speechless; she had again acted without thinking but this time she had gained sincere words from her superior, words that, yes, had inflated her ego but had also just urged her not to disappoint the Commander's expectations, now that they were even higher. She was an excellent soldier, beyond her relationship with Levi, and she would go on to prove it to everyone.
"Thank you Commander." she answered straightening up just as a sign of respect. Apart from anger, he remained a superior to her and she should not exaggerate.
"I have to admit you were amazing before Liz." Hange said with a smile, making the situation less formal. "Nobody ever talked like that."
"I can't stand that guy." she replied nonchalantly, as if often stating the most normal thing in the world. "He deserved a lesson."
"Considering what I read above, he had the misfortune to write down in detail every substance used in there. It was not difficult for me to obtain a document with his handwriting to combine with the evidence given to Zackly." Erwin added, deciding that she deserved to know more after risking her life. He had kept her in the dark about a couple of details since her return and she didn't deserve it, and now he was also sure of her ability to keep a low profile and secrets.
"And I'm grateful to you Commander, my accusations would have been in vain otherwise."
"Now it would be better if you went to dinner Elizabeth, I know I made you angry hiding certain things but you need to eat if you want to keep up for the reconnaissance."
Elizabeth barely widened her eyes as if she had awakened from a spell and Levi knew it would not bring anything good, at least for him.
"It's true, I was angry." Elizabeth said taking up that frown on her face that Levi found damn inviting and, he believed, that Erwin knew it for provoking it once again.
"And not only with you, Commander. You too knew it and you didn't tell me anything." she added pointing her finger at Levi.
Hange laughed amused as Erwin restrained himself by lowering his face so she wouldn't see him.
Elizabeth was now directing her anger towards the Captain. Indeed, at that moment towards her boyfriend.
"You. Don't talk to me for three hours." she concluded before asking for leave and getting it from a particularly amused Erwin.
Levi glared at him as he let out a light laugh.
Oh he would make him pay for it, but first he would do it to Elizabeth; he just had to wait three hours.