Saph's PoV
The utter screams of depravity sent a hard shuddering down my spine dragging an array of goosebumps in its wake. Titans had never sounded so human and yet animalistic to me before. Annie's and Eren's violent clashes made the streets quake with their thuds and throws. Townspeople screamed and fled in all directions as they tried to escape the utter apocalypse descending down upon them and their families. There had been no warning that the smell of death would reek from the inner walls today. The unlucky ones were either crushed by the Titan's or the rubble of the building's structure collapsing above. People were doing anything in their power to stay out of the way of the two powerful opposing forces.
"She's running away," I said through clenched teeth as the Female Titan turned around and began to head for the wall like the coward she was. My knees braced as I tried to decide whether or not I wanted to join the fray, but something kept me back. Or someone.
"What are you waiting for? Go and help," Levi said as he stared in frustration. His bandaged ankle being the only thing keeping him from joining the battle. His black coat hung loosely off his arm. The frigid air around him hid little of the chaos brewing within his small figure. The man never had been one to sit on the sidelines.
"I'm not leaving you. What if she tries to attack you while you're injured?" My trepidation at the fact that Annie could kill Levi not only lied in the fact that he was injured but also he didn't seem to be the most mentally stable since everything. While I didn't believe he held a death wish, his sheer rage towards the Female Titan had made Erwin ask me to use my best judgment on where I'd be the most beneficial. By Levi's side or helping take down the Titan.
Levi leaned forward until our foreheads almost touched. "Are you disobeying a direct command?"
"Yes."
"Are you scared? Might piss yourself?"
"Yes. Well no on the end part."
Levi wrinkled his nose. "Of death? Getting chomped up or stepped on by the Female Titan? Or maybe an accidental blow from Eren?"
"No."
"Of what then?"
"Of you dying."
Very few times in all my interactions with Levi did I ever truly stun him into silence.
"What if she tries to kill you while you're injured? What if you were killed?" I swallowed hard, "You think Eren is the only hope for humanity. At his current state, even as a Titan, he's still not as strong as you."
Levi's eyes locked onto mine with pinpoint accuracy and a horrid ferocity that almost made me reel backward at the impact.
"She's climbing up the walls!"
"Do you want us to go, sir?" Levi asked Erwin, breaking away from staring at me.
"Mikasa just cut her fingers," the soldier shouted from his spot above us as ground tremor made us brace for the impact. The bitch had fallen.
Erwin calmly climbed back onto his horse. All the Military police gaped at him, not knowing what to do. "What the hell have you done?" one of the men asked.
Not wanting to deal with the aftermath of the pissed off Unicorn Police, I removed my jacket to reveal all my gear underneath. "I'm going over there now," I mumbled to no one in particular right before I shot off. My feet ate up the ground as I extended my stride to one as long as possible. Screams of fear and anger flew past my ears like the wind as I soared above the townspeople heads. What destruction Erwin's plan had caused to the innermost wall. Most of these people had never seen a Titan much less felt the loss that their appetite can cause.
Careful to avoid latching onto the many crumbling buildings, I glided towards the body of the titan lying on the ground completely helpless. Eren stood above her with no hint of sympathy as he ripped her head off. A flash of light appeared with her skin being ripped away as if lightning had struck the Female Titan in that exact moment. My fingers curled tighter over the handle of my blade as I tried to prepare myself for anything.
Landing lightly next to Mikasa and Armin. I made my way over to Eren (still in his Titan form) and what he was looking at. There I saw a blonde girl encased in crystal substance. Her expression is calm and placid as if not a monster who'd destroyed hundreds of lives in a cruel and careless fashion. That's the bitch that killed my squad. Eld. Gunter. Petra. Tons of other soldiers that had also perished in an attempt to capture this monster.
"We have to get her Underground!" Hanji shouted as she dragged a soldier away as he tried to break the crystal. "We don't know when or if she'll wake up."
"She just keeps getting to escape punishment," I growled in utter frustration. Wanting to try my hand at breaking her crystal, I raised my arm only to have my bicep to be latched onto.
Levi gave me a hard stare. "Do you have shit in your ears? Hanji said to get the crystal Underground."
Ripping my arm from his grasp, I glowered at him as I rubbed the skin. Secretly glad that Levi was acting like his normal self, I felt slightly more at ease even though the depths of hell seemed to surround me as fires began to burn, yet he made me feel like everything was going to be okay.
Switching gears, I helped latch my gear to the crystal to help maneuver it into the cart. I saw Levi start walking back towards the wall, his back to me while his cape trailed slightly behind his clear figure.
Right as I saw him disappear, my help became unnecessary with us successfully shifting the foreign coffin onto the cart. With Erwin and Hanji handling everything, I bounded away towards where I saw Levi leave.
"Levi!"
"Go back to the castle, Saph." He demanded without turning around and before I could get another word out.
"There's a Titan in the walls!" I heard someone scream before I could argue.
In a flash, I readied my blades by my side and hopped over in front of Levi. Brandishing my weapons, my whole body tensed.
The only creature that was moving was a crazy ass priest who grabbed Hanji's shoulder. "Cover it! Don't let sunlight hit it!"
Levi calmly walked around me. "You dumb or did you not hear me the first time?"
"But-"
"Leave! Take care of Eren."
Gritting my teeth, I took off. Using all my pent up emotions as fuel as I sprinted and flew through the town. My eyes began to water at the speed I was going.
"What did the priest say?" I asked as soon as Levi appeared at the door.
Instead of answering me, Levi just tilted his head to indicate that I should follow him.
Rushing forward, I looked at him with fever as question after question burned on the tip of my tongue. Figuring that he'd tell me something if he thought I should know, I tried to stop bouncing on my toes with the anxiousness pent up inside of me.
There were two carts outside and as soon as we left the building Levi pointed at the far right one that held Hanji and Armin. Eren and Mikasa sat with the priest in the other.
"Saph! That's my new buddy Nick! He and his church knew that there were Titans inside the wall but didn't tell anybody. Pretty neat right?" Hanji said as I took a seat next to her. "He would prefer to die than to tell us anything else."
I turned my attention to Nick who was shifting uncomfortably as Levi held a pistol on him. "That's a request I'd be happy to fulfill if you wish," I icily responded while drawing my knife from my boot.
"Well Saph, he wants to see everything with his own eyes. He's volunteered to come and see everything before deciding to say anything."
"Well Hanji if you need anyone to torture him, I have great knowledge and experience in that area," I said giving her a toothy smile.
Armin squirmed at my comment, but I was too tired to lessen my bloodlust. Knowing that Annie, at the moment at least, was escaping from the fate that awaited her, I wanted to have vengeance on someone. My attention soon diverted to the rock that Hanji held in her hand. "Why are you carrying that around?"
"It's a piece of armor from the Female Titan's hardened skin. It has a very similar structure to the wall actually."
Armin looked excited as he opened his mouth to speak only to have Hanji shut him up by covering his mouth.
"Let me say it, Armin!" She sat back to continue speaking, "If Eren can use the same abilities, he could use himself to seal the wall."
"Him?"
"If that is possible. But! I was also talking to Auruo before we left because he'd mentioned something very strange to me." Hanji turned her attention towards me specifically as she shifted her body. All of a sudden she was her serious scientist self. "This is why I wanted to talk to you with Armin. Do you remember anything from fighting in the forest against the Female Titan?"
My mind began to reel erratically as my stomach curled as the memories began to flood my senses. Petra. Death. Blood. Levi limping. "I remember Levi hurting his ankle and the Female Titan headed towards us and then nothing," I said, honestly. I hadn't been able to talk to anyone about what happened before I woke up. All I knew was that I survived so I'd figured the details weren't valuable. With everything else happening in the Survey Corps, those moments couldn't have added up to something much.
"Auruo told me that when you, Mikasa, and Levi were fighting the Female Titan to get Eren back, that you were completely different than usual. More erratic. Running and jumping with a speed that could rival Levi's. He even said that there was a moment when he thought you were crushed by her but instead you, yourself had formed a protective shield on your skin like hers that prevented you from dying."
I laughed. Hard. "He was missing one leg and had to be a pretty far distance from everything. He's probably just rambling and the blood loss got to his head and started making him see things." Me? Like Eren? Fuck no. "Did you ask Levi if he saw anything?"
"His focus had been on Eren, so he didn't witness much. I did consider that to be the possibility with how beat up Auruo was, but now with Annie herself in a crystal, I'm not going to dismiss any possibilities." She turned to Armin, "what do you think?"
I snorted at the absurdity of what the words I was hearing. "I could bite my hand right now to prove to you that I'm not. Besides…" I didn't even know what to add.
Hanji sighed, "We still don't know enough about Titans, in general, to say anything for sure. I just want you to really think back-"
"On if I've had any Titan shifting experiences? Okay," I murmured in amusement. "Did you notice anything like that with Eren?" I asked the blonde hair boy.
"Eren once summoned up the upper half of the body of a Titan to protect me and Mikasa from a cannon blast. Annie was able to draw Titans to herself to eat her." His voice didn't hold much confidence, but if Hanji asked for his opinion, it was one she considered worth listening to. "While I haven't seen Eren do anything like that, you should ask what he remembers."
Biting my lip in contemplation, I turned my gaze away from him. "Where are we heading right now then?" I asked, eventually.
"You and Levi are going to watch Eren tonight back at the castle while I take Nick to go see Erwin. Mikasa and Armin will be there as well," Hanji replied.
"Why are Mikasa and Armin going to be there?"
"They'll be some of the first new members of Levi's squad," she answered, simply.
I barked out a laugh. "Good luck to you two then. Our survival rate is even less than the actual Survey Corps." Tilting my head, I considered the small boy in front of me. He didn't seem strong enough to kill a Titan of any size on his own. Though with his blonde hair, blue eyes, and his intelligence he seemed almost like a mini Erwin to me. And Erwin was shit at the 3DMG but his brain certainly drove the entire Survey Corps forward. "Though with a Titan and from what I've heard, Mikasa certainly knows how to fight as your two friends, you should be alright."
"That's the spirit, Saph!" Hanji shouted as she climbed into the carriage with the priest.
My shoulders drooped low as I let out a long sigh. "Am I supposed to cook then?" I asked no one in particular. I knew things were chaotic but my eyes could barely stay focused and I usually contained no ability to direct other people anyways. Only this morning did Eren fight Annie, and I just wanted to collapse for a week at this point. "I'll make some soup. Then you three get to bed."
Levi faced Eren. "Sorry, but you'll still have to sleep in the dungeon." Mikasa glared steadily at him but he wouldn't budge.
"No. I understand."
"I'll ring the bell when dinner is ready." They all left to get cleaned up from the violent and bloody day we experienced.
Dragging my weary feet, I made my way to the kitchen. Food that belonged to Petra, Auruo, Eld, and Gunter still filled the shelves. I'd have to clean those out later. Fixing a pot of potato soup, I tried to not let my mind drift to anything or everything. Petra's death. Levi. Finding out I might have Titan powers. Levi.
Clink!
The spoon bounced until it rested under the table. My hand that once held it now grasped the top of a chair, holding up my gasping body. It all hurt. I'd thought the two of us were beginning to be open about trusting each other. That he began to value me even a semblance of how much I valued him. Now everything seemed wrong. Why couldn't I protect the people I cared about? I could kill. I was good at killing, so why couldn't I just stick with that? What made me so incapable of shutting down completely?
Drawing in a desperate breath, I steadied myself as I poured soup into five bowls. "It's like I enjoy getting hurt," I murmured while setting the bowls on the table where everybody on the team used to sit. Taking a few steps back, I acknowledged the empty room for what it was, a place now full of memories for me. They'd rescued me, but when they needed me, I didn't rescue them.
After I rang the bell, everybody walked in appearing to be exhausted as they tried to consume their soup. Levi favored his leg as he came in, even without fighting too much today, he'd still strained himself. Ashamed, I kept my eyes on my bowl. I hated seeing him in pain, especially since it'd been due to my own actions.
"Is there anything to drink?" Armin asked.
"Yes. I'll get you some water." I got up and grabbed the pitcher from the shelf.
Levi held his cup up to indicate that he'd like some too. I poured the two men some water.
"It kind of tastes funny," Armin commented as Levi downed his before grimacing.
I smelled the pot, it did smell weird.
Armin stumbled as he stood up, "I think that's poison."
Ice flooded my veins as I whipped my head to look at Levi. "You need to go get it out of your system."
A loud ban echoed above the kitchen. Someone had just kicked in the front door. Levi stood up, but just barely. Unfocused eyes paired with heaving breath, he seemed to be struggling to even stay awake and focused. "I feel like shit."
"Is it because of what happened today?" Eren inquired, "That we captured the Female Titan?"
"I don't know but you guys need to get out of here," I said while grabbing Armin to hand him over to Mikasa to carry, "but you guys need to get out of here."
They began to leave as I readied my sword. "Make sure they get out of here," Levi commanded, his legs shaking.
"I have to protect you."
"No. You have to make sure Eren doesn't get captured."
Growling, I wanted to scream at him. Defenseless because of his injury and now drugged, there would be nobody here to make sure he didn't get kidnapped or killed. "They have Mikasa."
"Go!"
Ripping my eyes away from his failing state, I sprinted out of the door.