Part 69
Separation
The world suddenly lingered in silence. The shuddering strides of Bertholdt's Colossal Titan haltered, Reiner in his own armoured form lay defeated and the thundering impacts of debris against brick and stone no more.
Eren, exhausted, looked down at the decaying, burnt body of Armin. "I should've known this would happen…" He sobbed. "Armin… Why don't you just run away?" The sudden fall of house tiles from behind him then caught his attention. Eren's eyes frowned at this sight of the Titan that haltered there, the unknown man who possessed the Beast Titan still recovering his severed limbs from within the confines of the Titan's protruding jaw.
"Don't you come closer!" Eren roared, lifting up Bertholdt's unconscious body in front of him, his worn cutter to his throat. "I'll kill him!"
"This one has Titan lines around his eyes too…." The nameless male would groan to himself. "You… Eren Jaeger, yes? You don't look much like your father… But you must trust me. I understand you. We are both victims of that man. He brainwashed you."
Left stunned, the limbless male then peered his eyes above him. There stood Levi, atop the wall, blood from slayed Titans covering him, their steam leaking off him as the liquid slowly began to dissipate.
"Impossible! He chased me here?! Alright, Levi Ackerman… Let us consider this a draw. Bertholdt… Sorry, but this is the end for you.
Eren. One day, I will save you from this Hell." Making their retreat, both the male and the Titan, Eren loosened his clutches of Bertholdt just as Levi landed near the mess that had occurred. "Captain?!"
Levi, in a rare form of hurry and panic, threw his shattered cutters aside. "This is the last of my gas, but I'm going after him! Give me your spare blades, Jaeger!"
"What the hell is inside this?" Fury questioned aloud, holding an enclosed metal casing she had picked off Reiner, who they all now had in custody and still unconscious.
"Before we cut anything off him, he used the last of his power to escape from his Titan." Hange murmured whilst having Conny place medical bandages around her right eye.
"Suicide pills?" Fury suggested, then tapping the metal container on the stonework ground. "Defiantly not a bomb…"
"A… letter…" Reiner then croaked. "From… Ymir… Krista…"
Fury huffed, handing the contents to Hange who then would say, "After we see the letter first…"
"This is getting us nowhere…" Fury pulled out her cutter, tapping the sharpness of the blade against the tip of her finger. "Seems his armour his harder than his mouth. Looks like he isn't all that willing to answer questions we all have."
"Wait a minute!" Jean called out as Fury pushed her cutter against Reiner's throat. "Are we all sure about this?! Can't we take his power while he's still alive?"
"Well right now, we don't even know if Levi or the others are even alive! Erwin gave the Captain the Serum needed to turn someone into a Titan. If Levi… If he's… he carried that Serum with him into battle.
Dammit… Since I joined the Scouts, I've experienced more separation than I would personally like…
I know you all see me as heartless… Cold, uncaring even. But believe me when I say that there's not a day that goes by that I don't remember the names of everyone I know we've lost.
Petra
Eld
Olou
Gunther
Hexis
Isabel
Farlan
Kenny Ackerman… Now, for all I know, maybe even Levi and Erwin." The others listened in a hushed silence. Jean, especially, could somewhat understand Fury's words from himself losing a friend in Marco. "I know you all can… probably relate to this feeling. We all lose someone, eventually."
"But Fury… We can't continue to fight back against things we don't know. We need Reiner alive." Hange would confess. With a sigh, Fury removed her blade from Reiner's throat as Hange then looked over to Mikasa's way. "How much gas do you have left?"
"Not much." Mikasa would reply softly. "But I have enough to reach Armin and Eren's location."
"Same with me." Fury would also adjoin.
"Alright…" Hange pondered for a moment. "Fury, take Mikasa with you to Eren and the others and exchange gas there. Take the Serum from Levi. If that can't be done, one of you fire a signal. That signal will be for me to end Reiner's life."
A nod from both Fury and Mikasa, both women would ODM towards Eren in a quick hurry.
"This my decision now." Hange would then inform to Jean, who was still against the idea of losing Reiner.
"Armin is still breathing!" Eren roared as his friend's chest still slowly rose and fell with each struggled breath. "Fight, Armin!
"A-Armin…" Came the shocked words from Mikasa, who landed atop the roof with Fury, who herself was overwhelmed to see that Levi was here too. But she couldn't help but have her thoughts still wondering on where Erwin was.
"Captain! Give me the Serum!" Eren cried out as Levi, who seemed hesitant to do so, began to fumble around for the enclosed injection. "We have to change Armin into a Titan! And have him eat Bertholdt!"
"Mikasa…" Fury would speak to the still stunned girl. Snapping out of it, Mikasa looked at Fury and she nodded her head. Raising a flare gun into the air and releasing the smoke signal for Hange and the others.
"Levi… Captain…" Came the sudden exhausted groans from an unnamed soldier, climbing to the rooftop and who was carrying Erwin strapped to his aching back. "I finally caught up to you… Commander Erwin! He's dying! Stomach was torn out by the stones thrown by that Titan! His organs… they were everywhere… I tried putting them back in, but the bleeding… the bleeding won't stop! Maybe that Serum can help?"
"Erwin!" Fury cried out, shoving Mikasa out of the way, as she hurried over to bring the soldier and the Commander onto the roof. Taking the unconscious man out of his carried restrains, she pushed the exhausted soldier aside as she then laid Erwin carefully down upon the tiles. "Levi, do as he says!"
Split now between Armin and his Commander, it didn't take Levi too long to refrain from giving Eren the Serum for Armin's aid. "Levi, hurry up!" Fury continued to frantically call out. "He's still breathing!"
"Still alive…?" Levi muttered, slowly getting to his feet. "Then I'm giving the Serum to Erwin."
Frustrated, and only wanting his friend to survive, Eren also stood up before Levi, looking down at him with gritted teeth. "Just now, you were going to give it to Armin… Why change your mind?"
"Because I'm giving it to someone who can save humanity."
Mikasa, shaking, pulled out her cutter, her eyes set on Levi and his choice. Fury, who then stood up from beside Erwin herself, then also drew her own cutters with intentions against Mikasa. Both women ready to defend those they truly cared for.
"You two…." Levi then addressed Mikasa and Eren. "Do you even have any idea what you're doing? Erwin is the one who can continue leading humanity to freedom. Such as we have always fought for. You're letting your emotions get in the way of logic."
"My emotions?" Eren questioned. He then grabbed onto the box containing the Serum, only to have Levi retaliate by punching Eren out of his way to Erwin. Triggered by instinct, Mikasa then lunged herself towards Levi, quickly pinning him down on the rooftop, fighting against him to take the Serum for Armin.
Fury's Bloodborn instincts then became apparent, as she too then lunged for Mikasa, forcefully pulling the unstable girl off Levi, keeping a tight grip on her wrists.
"Mikasa!" Fury called out as she struggled in her constraints by Fury. "You know how much we need Erwin! You all want to fight for hope; therefore you can't let that burn out from Erwin's death!"
"Armin…! Armin could do that too!" Mikasa sobbed frantically.
"I get it! Armin is a smart kid! But he doesn't have the Leadership or the experience that Erwin has!
Didn't you listen to me earlier?! There are people even I wish that I could bring back…"
The last few words from Fury, who was doing her best to remain calm herself, had eased Mikasa. Her fighting stowed and she accepted that they all lost Armin this day. But for Fury… she couldn't help but see her own selfishness in this moment in fighting for Erwin to be the one to survive. Her heart hasn't slowed down since seeing him so defeated.
Hange, Jean and Conny, who carried an injured Sasha, all then landed atop the building. Each of them left without words other than cursed ones to say at seeing the situation at hand.
"Reiner was taken from us…" Hange wold then reveal. "Some four-legged Titan came and took him from us before we were able to kill him."
"Move out!" Levi then ordered after he hissed at Hange's news and he then prepared the Serum. "We need to be clear of this area so that Erwin has a direct line of sight on Bertholdt to consume him!"
Eren then grabbed Levi's ankle, squeezing it tightly for one last attempt at begging the man to revive Armin instead.
"Have you ever seen the sea, Captain?" Eren would softly ask, tears still falling from his eyes, teeth missing from his mouth from the force of Levi's punch. "Armin described it as a really big lake that expanded out to places no one has yet seen. His dream reached beyond the constraints of these walls.
That is someone who is more than capable… of leading us. Someone who has a vision that extends further than what the rest of us dare dream for…" Levi sighed, pulling his ankle away from Eren's grab. Eren himself laid there feeling defeated and broken, with Mikasa then coming over to him to console each other. Many thoughts travelled through Levi's mind as he then dragged Bertholdt's unconscious body to lay beside Erwin's.
The Captain showing that he was tired and that his own eyes were beginning to weigh heavy, even for him, as they eerily looked over at Fury, who stayed nearby.
Lifting up Erwin's sleeve, Levi was fully prepared to inject the Serum into him. But a last effort from Erwin himself had him pulling his arm away from Levi.
"Teacher…" Erwin stuttered. "How… don't exist?" He gasped for his last breaths of air, his blue eyes moving to look up at Levi, who was stunned by Erwin's rejection of the Serum. "Keep… Her safe… from them."
"Give up on your dream, and die for us." Levi suddenly recalled himself saying to Erwin.
More and more cliche phrases began to pass through his current memory.
"Everyone is a slave to something… What about you two?"
"Levi… Thank you…"
Awaking from his unconscious form, Bertholdt awoke to the stumbling noise of a freshly made Mindless Titan on the edge of the rooftop from him. The Titan seeing the limbless young man then reached out to grab him, his body flailing effortlessly to avoid being brought closer to his death.
Out of the corner of his eye watched Mikasa and Eren. "Guys?! Guys, help me!" He would call out, and yet, they refrained from doing so. "Annie! R-Reiner!" Bertholdt then cried out as the Titan placed his head upon its bottom row of teeth.
The shattering sound of bone echoing out as the Titan consumed the now silent and previous Colossal Titan.
"Why?!" Suddenly came the shaken bark from Fury, as the others steadily awaited for Armin to arise in his awakened body. "Why did you do that, Levi?!"
"Can't you just let him have his peace…?" Levi would then solemnly speak for his response.
Her head peaked up from leaning over and clutching at Erwin's lifeless body, griping at his shirt, even doing her best to stop the endless bleeding from his torso, even as she knew it was too late. Tears aggressively strolling down her cheeks, as the Titan near them, now clearly Armin, began to stumble at receiving the powers from Bertholdt.
"Why?" She asked again as Floch, the soldier who brought Erwin back to the rooftop, dared to try and pry Fury away, only to have his hand shoved off her shoulder as Fury stood up herself, eyes glaringly narrowed at those before her. An aching pain in her chest she did not wish to feel.
"He's free from this hell…" Levi continued, himself looking at his Commander's body.
"A hell we all asked of him to take us through!" Fury retaliated, her eyes slowly but surely becoming bloodshot from her uncontrolled emotions, hands formed into a fist and clenched tightly enough that her nails dug into her skin, causing her own blood to fall. Droplets landing on Erwin's already stained white shirt.
"And by bringing him back, he'd have been continuing to take us through it." Levi would argue, though calmly. "At least this way, he finally gets to have his rest that he deserves."
Fury then aggressively lunged at Levi, teeth gritted and eyes ablaze with red, only to have her jacket pulled back on by the silent Hange.
She grabbed at Levi's collar, Floch now jumping in on trying to pull Fury back. But her pain was too strong.
"Bullshit!" She sobbed, her eyes gazing directly into Levi's own, and yet even though she was trying, she was unable to succumb him with her ability of control. Something she once told Erwin that she would never do to another human being. "You took his life! You took it to spite me! Didn't you?!"
"Fury!" Hange called out, though she was tired herself, already previously injured and enduring grief of her own from losing Moblit, who courageously gave his life for Hange.
However, Fury would continue to remain irrational. "Because I kept Kenny from you! Because I thought that keeping him from you would keep us both safe and alive!"
Fury's tampered anger then began to effect Hange and Floch, who were succumbing to unknown pain from within their own bodies. "Fury!" They both called out to her again just as Levi dared to put his hand atop of her shoulder, despite her gripping at his collar, daring to tighten her grip, baffled as to why he showed no emotion.
Before it hit her... How the tables have turned. For she was once in Levi's position, and he in hers, when they lost Isabel and Farlan.
"I promised him… that I'd take out that Beast Titan." Levi winced from the tightening around his throat. And yet, he was simply okay with Fury lashing out at him. As long as it was him. "And to keep you safe from them… And though my promise is on hold, for now, I'll damn well make sure that murdering fuck's life is taken by my hands, for you and for Erwin…"
Fury's eyes slowly softened, though the tears were constant. Her grip of Levi's collar loosened and the pain ceased to effect Hange and Floch, both of them left dazed and in a sever ache, as they then had no strength in them but to do anything but kneel upon the rooftop, taking in deep breaths.
She then placed both of her hands onto Levi's chest, her head lowering as her silver hair fell to cover her face, his shirt becoming scrunched up between her fingers. The shaking of her body caused Levi to keep his hand atop her shoulder. He still had a heart, at the end of the day. And she was still severely important to him. A truth he would never speak.
Flashes of faces began to form in Fury's mind, and distant voices began to whisper in their torment..
Isabel.
Farlan.
Hexis.
Wishing that she could only see them again, barely remembering their own voices, now fearing Erwin will just become a name on a list of people she fights to remember. Recalling back to a time where she didn't care if she was ever remembered or not. Now seeing how difficult it was to not remember those who impacted lives, in some way, that are now gone.
As all of this lead back to her earlier opening up of separation from those we care about.
Inhaling, Fury pulled herself away from Levi, lifting her head. Eyes still red, but seemingly from the crying and not of her anger. She didn't want this weakness to be seen. But it was impossible. And despite what she is, at the core, Fury was still human too.
Looking down at Erwin, she watched as Hange closed the Commander's opened eyes, truly allowing him to rest fully and no longer live in a hell he no longer had to suffer in. Kneeling down beside him, Fury's eyes lingered over Erwin's peaceful features, moving some of his blonde hair aside to keep him looking as presentable as he liked.
Bottom lip still trembled.
"We joked about it once…" Fury muttered, taking his cold hand and bringing it to her lips, where she could gently place a soft kiss. "... I t would've been a yes..."
Her eyes closed. More tears fell. Her shoulders shuddered as the crying grew. Fury leaned over, head laying on Erwin's chest as his shirt then absorbed her tears. "... I let you down... Forgive me..."
