When I grow up I want to be authoritarian.
"So it's not just me who thinks it." the Commander said seriously, riding with Elizabeth at her side as she was expressly requested. Their voices were so low that no one else could hear them, as they repeated for what could be the umpteenth time that suspicion settled in both minds. Erwin appreciated her precisely for this: she could read his thoughts and always found himself in agreement both with her assumptions and her military strategies. She was a person worthy of trust on all fronts.
"No, on the contrary. If all goes as we have assumed, this will be the right opportunity to finally find out who did it. I know it's the same person who killed Hange's titans."
Elizabeth was strangely serious that day, even more than usual. By now she was getting used to her new role and she no longer bothered but that feeling she had in her chest would not abandon her. Her sixth sense told her to be alert because something terrible was going to happen.
"I'm sure our plan will be successful. Or in any case we will do our best to make sure."
When the gate of the Walls was finally opened, the blonde took care to turn around for a moment where Captain Levi looked at her with apprehension.
"We now begin the 57th expedition, advance! Forward!" Erwin yelled, giving all the soldiers the order to leave and perform the tasks they had previously been assigned. Levi's team still stood behind him, waiting for the blonde to approach the Captain. "Elizabeth, with me!"
"Yes, sir." she answered noticing a certain astonishment in everyone's faces, Eren in particular that did not believe that the Vice Captain would not fight alongside Levi. "Try to return without being hurt."
"I can say the same to you." the Captain answered, trying not to add anything else. He trusted her and her abilities and would never question them.
"Isn't Elizabeth coming with us, Captain?" Eren asked, shaking his head a little to recover from the shock as he watched Elizabeth change direction from them and follow the Commander's group.
"No." Levi answered, recovering the maximum coldness that his bearing could show, managing to make him shiver for a few moments. "And for you she is Vice Captain Elizabeth."
"We shouldn't have trouble getting the wagon through." Elizabeh exclaimed showing Erwin what, in her opinion, was the safest place to reach the place to set the trap. She had taken care of her part, making sure that the team in charge had done everything perfectly, that there was enough explosives and that the traps were all fully functional.
They couldn't afford such trivial mistakes.
The blonde was sure that the spy was someone with the same powers as Eren and when she talked about it with the Commander, he immediately agreed with her. The mission itself was not born for the reason that everyone thought but precisely to bring out the spy and the two had been clever enough to plan everything. Very few people knew what was really going on and Elizabeth felt a little guilty for not saying anything to the team but she had orders to respect too.
Walls were always listening.
Finding the perfect spot in the midst of a dense network of tall trees, Elizabeth left her horse to another soldier and activated the ODM Gear, climbing onto a sturdy, halo branch and soon finding the Commander beside her.
"Make sure all traps are positioned to point at the center. Levi's team will lead the titan over there and pass right in the middle." Elizabeth yelled loud enough to be heard by other men as Hange looked at her contentedly with her hands resting on her hips, moving only long enough to raise a thumbs up on her.
"I have to admit you're doing really well." Mike admitted, climbing up to join her, waiting for their part of the plan to be fulfilled.
The noises of the first signal flares reached them, a sign that the blonde had seen it right: they had been attacked by an anomalous.
"I would rather have been there to fight but they are all trusting me." Elizabeth answered without showing the slightest sign of abating. Once the mission started she was no longer the same as before, she seemed to become a completely different person and many feared her for it.
"I am among those who have trusted you, you know. I always thought that sooner or later Erwin would promote you."
Elizabeth looked away from where the titan would soon arrive just long enough to look at the squad leader with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, I think you have more nose in this than I do." she answered alluding to his extraordinary ability. Mike smiled faintly at her, squeezing her shoulder in a thoughtful and encouraging way before resuming his seat and leaving only the Commander beside her.
"It is all ready?"
"Yes. The explosives should be enough, but if that wasn't enough, I made sure that some men had spare batteries of varying intensity ready."
Erwin was not looking at her but kept his gaze on the same spot she was merely observing, with every sense on alert. "Very well."
The noises of the horses' hooves soon began to reach their ears and with it the thud of a running titan's footsteps, a sign that their time had come.
"They're here!" Elizabeth yelled to alert everyone as Captain Levi with Eren and the rest of the team in tow passed through their post.
Eren noticed her immediately, opening his mouth wide in amazement, while she raised two fingers from her forehead in greeting, then raised the corner of her mouth to the rest of the team who, instead, smiled at her happy to see that she was fine and alive. And she shared the same thought towards them.
Seeing them all together and alive had cheered her up even if that weight in her chest did not decide to leave. The mission was still in its infancy after all.
"Fire!"
The squad advanced past them as a particular female-form titan was pinned down by all the traps set off with meticulous precision.
"Captain!" she greeted him as soon as he left the horse to join them, using the ODM Gear.
"Elizabeth." he replied giving her a relieved look before focusing on the beast in front of them, completely frozen and with her hands on the back of her neck.
That gesture did not escape the blonde.
She is fully aware of what she is doing and what happens to her. She is exactly like Eren.
"Looks like it's immobilized." Levi said studying her with a nod of disgust, still hanging from the tree while he pressed the trunk with his feet to give himself stability.
"We can't let our guard down yet but great job getting her here."
"We only bought time thanks to the rear guard who sacrificed their lives. Without them it would not have been possible." he answered without looking at the blonde.
She hesitated barely, looking down in the knowledge that those people had also died because of her, for a plan she had partially devised. She dug her nails into her flesh until her knuckles whitened.
"Is that so?" asked the Commander, who did not miss either Levi's gaze or Elizabeth's gesture at all.
"It is. Thanks to them we can meet the one in this things nape. I hope they haven't pissed themselves..."
The Captain prepared to sheath the blade and attack but Erwin stopped him before he could launch at him.
"Wait Levi, an eye for an eye. Artillery 2 and 3, fire! Fire all you've got left!"
Also discharged the new batteries, the blonde continued to observe the movements of the titan.
She found it too weird. She didn't move, she didn't take any steps.
She didn't even try to free herself but only to keep her neck covered.
There was something very strange.
"How do you like that?" exclaimed satisfied Hange when all the ready charges were used and she made sure that the titan would not attack her. Her eyes sparkled at the prospect of studying that specimen. "You can't even scratch an itch now. You won't be able to make a single move, probably forever. They're designed so that the more you regenerate your injuries the more immobilized your joints become. Even still, they can't extract whoever is inside. What are Levi and Elizabeth doing?"
At the Squad Leader's exclamation, both threw themselves on the titan's nape, with the intention for Elizabeth to cut off her fingers and for Levi to then act on the nape of her neck, but their plan did not go as planned because at the last moment their blades broke in contact with her skin. Elizabeth's eyes widened to see how her hands suddenly turned a blue hue but she didn't have time to stop, now in full swing.
"This really didn't take. She has a skin that is too resistant for our swords, a characteristic that she shares with the armored titan as we continue the attacks, maybe we might even be able to weaken her but we don't have the time." examined Erwin as Elizabeth returned to her seat, leaving the Captain alone, visibly annoyed.
"No, she hardened it. I saw it clearly."
"In that case..." Erwin whispered, reflecting a few moments before turning to the other men. "Prepare the explosives, we'll blow off its hands."
"Yes sir. However it's possible that the amount of firepower we're carrying could vaporize what's inside as well." answered a soldier climbing up to their level, observing in bewilderment Elizabeth's way of staring at the specimen. She didn't just study her but it seemed like she wanted to read into her and she realized that something was wrong. He just wondered what it could be that upset her so much.
"In that case set the charges to amputate the wrists. Set the all off together on my signal"
"Yes, sir."
The soldier took care to carry out the order given to him by Erwin while Levi put a foot on the titan's head, looking at it with extreme contempt. He was starting to get impatient.
"Hey why not just come out?" Levi exclaimed quietly but in a tone that made clear he was sick of that situation. "We don't have time to waste so what do you think will happen to you now? Do you believe you can escape? I wish you'd consider all the trouble we're going through... as I recall you killed my troops in many creative ways. Do you enjoy yourself? Right now I'm enjoying myself. Well, you felt the same, right? I think you of all people should understand me. Oh right... I wanted to ask you something. It is okay if we cut off your hands and legs? They'll grow back, right? I'm talking about your limbs, not the titan's. We need you alive after all..."
The Vice Captain continued to observe the silent scene, trying to understand what was missing. Her stern eye did not miss even a single movement of the titan, who watched Levi almost with anger, as if she were planning something.
Just when the Captain tried to grab the blade, to cut the skin again, the titan let out a scream that caused many to crouch on the ground from the shock waves and the discomfort it caused to the ears.
An inhuman scream that sounded agonizing and for many it was, except for Elizabeth. The blonde also covered her ears with her hands, like everyone else, but she noticed more that everyone missed.
"Well that was a surprise." Levi said impassively as usual while many started to get up again as soon as the titan finished screaming.
"Were those her dying scream?" Mike asked in shock, looking around to make sure everyone was okay.
"No." Elizabeth exclaimed looking at the titan in her eyes, who now watched her as if the host inside wanted to challenge her.
It was a move directed against her who had just figured it all out.
"Fuck." the blonde exclaimed as soon as she managed to reconnect everything. "Commander, get all ready!"
"What do you mean?" Erwin asked, alarmed by the Vice Captain's attitude. It wasn't like her to panic and lose her temper, if she alerted everyone like that it was because she understood something that everyone must have misunderstood.
"This wasn't a scream of pain, it was a call." she explained putting her hand on the blade and pulling out one to gain advantage in case of an attack.
Mike joined them quickly, nodding to the blonde.
"Elizabeth is right, Erwin. It stinks."
"What direction?"
"Multiple sources from all directions at once."
"As usual, you are always right Elizabeth." Erwin concluded, letting Mike go to take his place again to prepare for defense while the blonde regained her lucid and cold calm.
"I would have preferred to be wrong."
"Ready those explosives now!" he then ordered all men so that there were as few losses as possible.
Mike sniffed the air under the expectant gaze of the blonde, who began to put pressure on all her senses to understand where they would come from.
"Erwin the first wave will come from the east, they're almost here."
"Wagon escort team, intercept!"
The Commander's order was immediately accepted by the soldiers closest to the position but the sudden attack of other titans was too big.
Some managed to kill specimens, but others fell under their hands, even though they deliberately left the men on the ground to move forward.
They weren't there to defend the female titan but to take her.
"Three have broken through!" warned a soldier engaged in combat while Levi reserved a furious look at the titan who was still helpless on the ground. Too quiet for Elizabeth's liking.
They had failed, the mission had been useless from her point of view.
"You just pulled something, didn't you bitch?"
"Levi, get out of there! It's their goal! " she yelled at the Captain, also now aware of what the girl had guessed just a moment before.
Levi jumped in one smooth motion, rolling his body in line to hit all three of the first specimens that had managed to break through their defensive line at the same time. Once they were killed he rushed over to his woman, making sure with a look that she was okay.
Not physically but emotionally.
Cold and impassive, apparently nothing could have scratched her at that moment according to what everyone saw, but the Captain now went far beyond the appearances; Elizabeth was using all of her intelligence to find a way back without other people losing their lives.
She felt guilty.
"So they're all after the female-form titan?" Erwin yelled so that everyone else knew what was going on.
"They are coming from all directions." warned a soldier, then receiving direct attention from the Vice Captain who, however, turned to Erwin instead of him.
"They want to kill her. She called them to be killed."
"All men engage, defend the female-form titan, even if it costs you your lives!"
The multitude went into battle and Elizabeth could no longer stand beside the Commander to watch. Without even waiting for an order and in contravention of not leaving his side, she threw herself on three specimens that she found too close to the female titan.
With a sharp movement of the blade she jumped on the back of one cutting the back of his neck and then jumping a second time when the latter fell to the ground lifeless, only to move backwards on the specimen next to her to repeat the same gesture.
The more they killed, the more they came and the men available weren't enough to handle a wave of that magnitude.
"It's no use!" Hange exclaimed with a scream, pausing from her task just long enough to observe a few seconds Erwin who seemed emotionally destroyed.
She couldn't even imagine what he was feeling watching that scene without being able to do anything to save them all.
"We can't continue like this." Elizabeth added, getting Erwin's attention. "We have to withdraw."
And those words were the coup de grace for the Commander, received by the very last person he would have expected to request a retreat. She was extremely proud and would never admit to failing at something, however now her position required her not to think only of herself but also about the team she helped to captain and she had realized that they were losing.
Elizabeth had grown up lately. He didn't know what had specifically happened to her but she wasn't the same girl she had sent to the underground. After her return she had slowly changed into a proud, mature and extremely responsible and calculating woman.
"Retreat men! Fall back into formation! Return to Karanes!"
Erwin's order prompted all men to hook onto the trees with the ODM Gear as the titans passed undisturbed not to take the female titan and take it away but to eat its flesh.
"Just look at you, don't tell me..." Levi murmured, clinging once more to the trunk of the tree, watching the titan become food for her own specimen. A gruesome scene.
"Our enemies are prepared to sacrifice everything. I never expected the enemy to destroy itself along with the evidence by inciting other titans to devour its flesh." Erwin noted more to himself than to the other two pairs of ears particularly close and attentive to him.
"After all our big talk at the court martial this is what happens. If we return empty-handed who knows what will happen to Eren. Or to us." the Captain answered with his gaze fixed on the titan as well as the Commander, who could not distract him.
"We can think about that after we make it back. For now our priority is getting home without any additional casualties. For now... the steam from its corpse is limiting visibility. It might interfere with our signal flare message relay system."
Levi decided he didn't want to look any further. The mission had apparently failed and the only thing he wanted was to make sure Elizabeth was okay but when he saw her he knew she wasn't.
The girl continued to stare at the titan with a blank stare, one he had never seen before. Other times she had failed in something but her determination always pushed her to reflect immediately on her mistake and correct it. That was the first time she couldn't do it, she was unable to do what she did best and the weight of the lives lost until then was weighing on her shoulders.
He wanted to hug her and share that weight with her, lightening it, but it wasn't the right time to do it.
"I'll call my team."
"Refuel with gas." she whispered in a low voice; she couldn't raise her tone, her throat was completely dry and her hands itched with anger and frustration. The only thing her eyes saw were those of the titan who, despite being eaten, had spent time staring at her. On hearing it, however, it was Erwin who looked at it for a few moments and then repeated it to the Captain.
"Wait Levi. First refuel with gas and blades."
Elizabeth still had that terrible presentiment up to her chest. And if it wasn't about that failure she had before her eyes then she still couldn't explain what it was.
Her first instinct was to protect Levi from that feeling, while still relying on her excellent ability. She couldn't predict the future but she could avoid certain unexpected events.
It was only her voice that was missing now.
"There's no time, I should have enough. Why?" Levi replied who was already preparing to leave, not without first a last look at the distraught blonde.
"It's an order, obey." Erwin concluded authoritarian, making him understand that he would not admit objections. They were all exhausted but still could not call themselves safe.
"All right. I trust your judgment." Levi answered, heading right where he had just been directed, but not before adding something just for her. "And in Elizabeth's."
"Elizabeth you stay here." Erwin added before she could even propose to follow the captain.
"Yes sir."
As soon as Levi walked away to join the team, with a titan carcass on the ground, steaming so much that the ground could no longer be seen, Elizabeth raised her hand and fired a flare for general retreat into the air so that everyone else would soldiers could receive the order.
The group climbed back onto the horses, resuming their ride through the dense network of massive trees, in absolute silence. Until it was Hange who broke it.
"Erwin why did you order Levi to refuel? There is no time to waste."
"The titan with female features has been eaten but have you also seen the person inside being eaten?" Erwin asked continuing his ride with his eyes ahead of him. "Elizabeth and I don't."
"Are you saying that..."
Erwin did not hesitate to answer, immediately giving the squad leader the explanations she was asking. Elizabeth could not speak, she just listened absently to the two talking, including her but not expecting her direct involvement in the conversation. She was completely shocked and angry, if she spoke she would explode. At that moment she was like a time bomb.
"Yes. If your original hypothesis was correct they can still move to degree after regaining human form. If they prepared 3dmg in advance the person inside the female-form titan is wearing our uniform right now. When the colossal titan vanished however was inside had been wearing maneuver gear, so that they could escape in the steam. Don't you think the same possibility applies here?"
"But at the time... based on what we saw when Eren emerged from the titan we concluded it would be impossible. His equipment was destroyed and his uniform was gone. Above all Eren was so weak he couldn't even stand unassisted." Hange answered, turning a quick glance to Elizabeth still impassive. It was impossible to read a single emotion on her face at that moment, it reminded her very much of Levi. In that they were similar, the emotions always off the battlefield.
"The female titan was able to attract other titans with its cry. We failed to predict this and the operation failed. If the enemy has some way to retain its strength it may be able to transform again." Erwin asserted confidently, adding more that Elizabeth knew was addressed directly to her. His way of comforting her. As well as to warn you. "Here's what I have gleaned from this mission: if we only focus on making the best moves we will never get the better of our opponent. When necessary we must be willing to take big risks and be prepared to lose everything unless we change how we fight humanity cannot win."