She walked through the empty Underground streets, her footsteps resonating in the entire cave accompanied by the occasional water drip from the stalactites above. There was not another soul to be seen or heard, yet she still covered herself in a large black cape to avoid any kind of recognition, with the fabric swaying as she moved forward. She didn't know why she was there, or where was she headed, but she still felt like she was meant to be there.
She arrived at a dark, dead-end alley and distinguished a small figure at the back, crouched as if it were hiding from something, asking for help. She accelerated her step, but no matter how fast she walked, the end of the alley seemed further and further away, making the figure unreachable.
She suddenly heard a series of blasts behind her, like weapons firing. She turned around, frightened, trying to identify the source of the conflict. But the firing stopped, and she found herself looking at an empty city again. As she revolved to continue walking through the alley, she unexpectedly found herself at the end of it, with the crouched figure being right in front of her. She kneeled to get a better view, despite the darkness of the area, and the stranger slowly moved its head up to face the woman.
It was a young girl, with dark eyes and brown hair tied up in a bun, staring back at her with fear. Her pale and dangerously thin body made her look more like a corpse than a human. The woman gasped as she recognized who that was.
"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry," she said with a stutter as she stroked the kid's cold and bony cheek. The girl kept fixing her eyes on the woman, not even blinking. Suddenly, a thread of blood emerged from the side of her mouth and traveled down the chin, dripping on the floor. Before the woman could react, the kid slowly leaned to a side and then dropped dead.
The woman stood up with a gasp, horrified at the scene. She tried to ask for help, but the loud noise of a slam covered up her voice. She turned towards the source of the sound and found a grand, golden door encrusted on a wall. She approached the entrance and, with a tremorous grip, grabbed the door's handle and pushed it to enter.
Inside, she found herself trapped in darkness, with no trace of the door that had led her there. She felt her throat and chest tighten as she tried to breathe, making her panic. An invisible, female voice echoed, "you broke your promise."
"But…I wanted to be free...and live above," thought the woman, unable to speak due to her heavy breathing.
"You promised," rumbled the voice.
Out of thin air, a small area got illuminated by an invisible light source, revealing a mountain-like structure taller than her. She approached it with slow steps, trying to calm herself on the way.
The mountain was formed of piled-up bodies. There were more than she could count, but she managed to distinguish some of them: the carpenter, the deserter, the blond gang leader, the redhead girl with the pigtails, militaries, nobles, underground inhabitants. No matter their age, origin, or morals, they were there.
Another illuminated stack in the darkness appeared next to them. This one did not have corpses, but rather weapons and machinery, as if it were showing both the victims and evidence of her crimes. She kneeled in front of the piles with a horrified expression, grabbing her head with both hands as she tried to scream between struggling breaths. The stack filled with armory started to increase in size spontaneously. Now it was made not only out of weaponry, but also golden artifacts, jewels, paintings, and empty alcohol bottles.
Unable to bear the sight of it for any longer, she covered her eyes, begging the torture to stop while tears streamed down her face. Suddenly, she felt someone in front of her. Despite not knowing who it was, its presence calmed her down and so she slowly moved her hands away. She looked up and saw Commander Erwin, kneeling with a calm and gentle expression. Next to him stood Hange and Levi, smiling at her.
"I don't deserve it…I betrayed you all. I'm a traitor and a coward," she cried.
On the spur of the moment, two Titans appeared behind the Corps' leaders. They were just like her mother had described them to her; tall, monstrous beings. Before she could warn the leaders, the monsters grabbed Hange and Erwin and brought them to their mouths. They screamed in pain and fear, unable to escape the grip of the Titans' massive hands. She tried to avoid the sight, crawling back as an attempt to run away before realizing that those tall devils were not the only threat. Next to them, a man wearing the antipersonnel gear and a gray pork pie hat had grabbed Levi by his neck, threatening to shoot him as the Captain struggled to breathe. She knew that man was no other than Kenny Ackerman.
Powered up with hate, she ran towards Kenny, punching him in the face to free Levi from his grip. Kenny fell from the impact, and so she placed herself on top of him and savagely punched his face before grabbing one of the guns and shooting him in the head. She could feel her face and hands covered in blood, and the loudness of her heartbeat resonating in her head.
She turned towards Levi, who looked at the scene with a shocked expression. She quickly stood up and hugged him, caressing his hair while whispering apologies and regrets, but the man remained frozen. She didn't feel any warmth from the embrace, nor comfort.
"You killed them," he said before pushing her away. Kenny's blood was now all over his clothes.
"No, no! I was protecting you. I swear!" she cried.
"You were protecting yourself," he said before disappearing into the darkness.
The woman fell on her knees and cried. There were no more Titans, just her surrounded by corpses and blood of both comrades and enemies. Another light appeared, this time on the blue-eyed man that had been the source of all her sins, standing up in front of her and gazing at the crying woman with a pitiful look.
"This is all your fault," she screamed at him.
"You did this, dear" -he kneeled in front of her- "remember, 'till death do us part."
A knocking sound woke up Sophie, who quickly incorporated herself letting out a small scream. She tried to come back to her senses, but her heart was still racing, causing her shortness of breath. She wasn't in a dark room in the Underground anymore, she was in the master bedroom at the Mitras manor. A ray of light, breaking through the red curtains covering the window, illuminated a small area in front of her, while her bed remained in the shadows. She rubbed her sweaty forehead, attempting to ease the headache, while her heartbeat and breathing returned to a normal rhythm. Once she felt steady enough, she looked around the area. She was alone on the bed and, judging by the unwrinkled state of the bedsheets next to her, she had also slept alone. There was a mannequin on the other side of the room, wearing a long black dress. The clothing acted as a grim reminder that she had a funeral to attend that day.
A man entered the room, but Sophie refused to acknowledge him. He did not greet her, instead, he simply walked towards her bedside. She reached out to her nightstand, messing one of its drawer's content with uncoordinated motions. Anxiously, she tried to find some of her designated alcohol doses in an attempt to bear with the aftermath of the nightmare. Before she could get her hands on any booze, the man sat next to her and slipped a hand into his fine jacket's pocket to retrieve a small flask. He handed it to her with care, observing the woman's wretched state with his icy blue eyes.
"Thank you," she said, accepting the offer. The response had been more of a customary sentence than actual gratitude.
"You need to play your part today. You know that, don't you?" he said while watching her drink all the content of the flask in an instant. "We are on the tightrope now that there is a new Queen."
She nodded slightly. She actually didn't agree with any of his plans, but they were both too much on the deep end to blow up everything and spend the rest of their lives in prison. Or worse.
"I don't want to do this anymore…he was my friend," she said with ache. After all, that dream had been far too real. He sat next to her and gently rubbed off one of the tears on her cheek. There was no regard or care in his touch. He simply had seen a mistake that needed to be corrected.
"You are not a traitor; you are a survivor."
"We both know we are way past survival."
"And that is why we shouldn't give it all up now," he said before standing up again. He opened the curtains, allowing the sunlight to swallow the room. Sophie wrinkled her face, trying to get used to the ambiance. "Once the new government is settled and our affairs are locked up, we can pretend as if nothing had happened and move on. Until then, you still need to play the dutiful tin soldier." He turned around and looked at her, with the same determination as always. "Maybe joining the Corps is not that bad of an idea after all, if that means the Military will stay away from us."
She didn't say anything. For him, everything was part of a plan. He didn't see her joining the Corps as altruism. He only saw it as a motif to please the Military and prevent them from looking at his endeavors. His own benefit was the only reason why he tolerated any of her questionable actions in the first place.
Sophie finally stood up and walked towards the mannequin. As she passed her fingers through the delicate black fabric, she wished for another drink so she could withstand the day she had ahead.
Levi observed his reflection on the mirror and adjusted the fit of his jacket. He felt stupid caring for his appearance when he was about to bury the 13th Commander of the Survey Corps, Erwin Smith. He had been his superior and role model, and the main reason he had for fighting for humanity's freedom. But most of all, he had been his friend.
For the other militaries, it always seemed like the heartless Captain was used to seeing his comrades die. In fact, he suffered just as much as the rest; he just did not show it so easily. Despite knowing that Erwin's life would be at risk from the moment he set foot on Wall Maria, he was still unable to process the events of that day. Not only that, but he had also failed to kill the Beast Titan, which was the reason Erwin had died in the first place. Now that he was gone, Levi did not know what the future of the Corps would hold, except that he had to kill that furry monster.
He thought he had found something else to turn to in Sophie, but after coming back from the mission she had not contacted him at all. He figured she had probably forgotten everything from that night due to the alcohol, and he would be relieved if that were the case. In the end, he had acted improperly for his rank. Despite denying it at first, the kiss had meant something to him, as he found himself thinking about every detail; the taste of the wine on her lips, the sound of the river, the moonlight shining on her skin…However, he couldn't let her know. He couldn't risk everything for a woman who had probably been too drunk that night to make a wise choice.
His tired face showcased the lack of rest in the past few days. After the events of Shiganshina, he had to deal not only with Erwin's death but also with all the revelations from Eren's basement. Hange and Historia were still deciding on how to make the information public to the rest of the population within the Walls. There was no time for grieving, and even less for silly romance, not when an attack from the outside world was imminent.
He left the room and found Hange waiting for him in the corridor. They looked at each other in silence, and despite Hange's eyepatch covering their damaged eye, he could still feel the pain in their gaze. In the end, they had both lost Erwin and Moblit. Without a single exchange between them, they got in the carriage waiting outside the Survey Corps HQ.
They arrived at the graveyard, filled with government officers, militaries, nobles, and peasants. It was probably the largest crowd there had ever been at an official funeral. Despite the success of the Wall Maria mission, there was a grim atmosphere. It was a solemn ceremony, filled with over-the-top speeches from the Queen, Commander Zachary, and family mourners. Despite how much he valued his subordinate's lives, and especially Erwin's, he had always hated these performative memorials.
He separated himself from the attendees and waited until everyone had paid their respects at the gravestones, so he could finally get some alone time to mourn the Commander in peace. As the crowd dissipated, he recognized a familiar face on the other side.
"Of course, she is here," he thought.
Sophie was alone, watching the coming and going of people at Erwin's grave with a sad expression. Even though Levi had not interacted with her at the Corps, he still knew that she had been supporting all of Erwin's new tactics in terms of equipment. He believed the Commander had considered her as some sort of ally. However, Levi found himself recalling Erwin's question; Do you trust her?
He shook his head and snapped out of the memory. Erwin had been a careful man, and after the coup, Levi figured that his concerns about her were only to ensure a steady future for the Corps. But regardless of her do-gooder motivations, Levi didn't want her to go into the field. He had just lost Erwin, and he couldn't fathom the possibility of losing her now that they had finally reunited and made amends. For so many years, and despite working so close to one another, he had avoided any contact with her to prevent exactly that. She was the only person from his past that he had managed to not drag into his life of death and misery.
Once he fulfilled Erwin's promise, there would be no more reasons for him to keep fighting. When that happened, he wanted her to be alive. He wanted to have something to come back to.
He considered accompanying Sophie and telling her about the mission firsthand, to explain to her why now, more than ever, she shouldn't join the Corps. He knew that the right thing to do was to distance himself from her, instead of assuming that she remembered anything at all from that night. But perhaps, after all the events of that week, his emotions were finally cracking his heart of steel.
As he debated over his feelings, he saw a tall, brown-haired man approaching Sophie. He had never seen him before and assumed him to be one of her butlers. But suddenly, he surrounded her with his arm, and she gently rested her head on his shoulder.
For a moment, Levi ran out of breath and felt his heart drop to the floor. He was confused, hurt, and disappointed at the same time. Had she played him? Had that kiss been nothing more than some affair to her? Did she even remember what had happened that night?
"Talk about a power couple, right?" said Hange, suddenly appearing next to him. The sentence was supposed to poke fun at the distant pair, yet their tone was serious.
"Huh?" responded Levi, confused not only at the sight but also Hange's words.
"You should listen to gossip more often; you always learn a thing or two."
"Just who the hell is he?" He tried to ignore Hange's comment to focus on the mysterious man, but their words echoed Erwin's.
"Are you so short you live under a rock now? He is Asbel Barnes, the businessman from Mitras. I hope I don't have to remind you who Sophie is…"
"I know who she is," he replied with disdain, trying not to snap at their sneer. It was so common for both to mock each other that not even Erwin's funeral was an exception.
"Well, they have been married for a few years now. It was the talk of the town for a while. How did you not know? Weren't you friends with her or something?"
Levi ignored the questions. His head was still stuck at the beginning of the sentence: married for a few years. He had been played. He knew Sophie was a magnet for problems, but he had never expected her to bring him straight into one. He was furious and disappointed that he had been so easy to fool, especially after he had risked so much that night. He had tried to convince himself that the kiss had just been an old teenage fantasy, but after the mission, he had finally come to terms with the fact that it had meant more than that to him, that she was something to look forward to after fighting for so long, now that Erwin was gone. Only for it to end like that.
Sophie made eye contact with him. His expression remained impassive, but hers showed surprise as she quickly moved away from her partner. Her husband looked at her confused, and they both exchanged some words, while Levi continued to observe them from a distance. The man ended up leaving, without even acknowledging the Captain's judgmental gaze. Sophie was now alone, rubbing her forehead as she nervously looked all around, except at him.
Erwin's words echoed in his mind again, swallowing the rest of his thoughts; Do you trust her? I agree that she has a notorious reputation. Do you trust her? Do you believe she could easily switch sides again? Do you trust her?
And now she was there, at his friend's funeral, flaunting her relationship while he was left to watch and sustain. He was not someone to start unnecessary fights, but he did have pride. She liked trouble indeed. But now she was playing with fire.