Well, I got no smartypants comment this week so you darlings just go ahead and give this chapter a read. Hope you're all having a nice, warm last stretch of spring before summer heat kills us all!
Alright, so as always my lovelies, go ahead and enjoy this chapter and don't forget to toss me a little review, to let me know what you think~ ;)
P.S. All Attack on Titan characters belong to Isayama Hajime. I only own my OCs.
10. Promises
~ 850 ~
The knock at his office door had Levi set his pen down while calling to his visitor to enter.
"You wanted to see me, Captain?" Natalie inquired, poking her head inside.
"Yeah." he replied, gesturing for her to approach his desk. "About this expedition—"
"If you're worried that I'll do something stupid, I promise I won't."
For a moment he silently stared her down from behind his clasped hands, after she interrupted him.
"This won't be like the other missions." he at last spoke again, ever so slightly narrowing his eyes. "This time we might have to sacrifice some of our comrades."
"Sacrifice...?" she frowned, not certain if she liked how that word sounded.
"It might be necessary. I need to know that I can count on you to keep your emotions in check, should it come down to that. That I can count on you to keep our squad's role in mind – we're to defend Eren and make sure he comes back without a scratch. That's all."
Taking a moment to better analyze his words, she stepped forth until she was close enough across the desk that she could lower her voice.
"I won't turn. Forget about what would happen to me, if anyone knew... but eventually it would get out that you knew about it all along. And I would never do anything that would harm you. If I have to kill my emotions for that, then I'll do it."
Had she not been paying attention to him, she likely would have missed the subtle changes in his expression as she spoke; from the way his jaw slacked to the way his eyes widened.
"You—" he murmured, sounding taken aback.
"Levi, Eld said Natalie came to—oh, she's here." Miche interrupted him, opening the door without knocking. "Good, Erwin wants to see you Natalie."
"The Commander?" the redhead asked, puzzled by the information. "Why?"
"Who knows? Better not keep him waiting."
"Yes."
With the man gone, she turned back upon hearing the chair scraping against the floor to find Levi had gotten up from his seat.
"I'll come with you." he said, walking past her while she followed with a confused frown.
"Do you know what this is about, Captain?"
"Maybe... it depends on whether or not you're really as smart as you seem. I'll bet Erwin wants to test that, too."
Even more confused in wake of his cryptic answer, Natalie fell silent the rest of the way. Was it something to do with the expedition? It couldn't just be a coincidence that Levi had summoned her to discuss about that, almost at the same time Erwin had thought to call her to his office. And then her suspicions were somewhat confirmed when she entered the room behind Levi, to find the Commander poring over the formation map.
"Natalie..." he greeted, looking up and blinking once in surprise at seeing Levi standing next to her, before a knowing smile curved a corner of his lips. "So you guessed why I called her in here, huh?"
"So I was right... well, have at her. This can only help, if she's able to rise up to the occasion. It would make my job easier, at least."
On that note he walked over to the couch and plopped himself into a seat, leaving the redhead to stand alone before the fair haired Commander.
"Well... I'm afraid I must once again ask for your opinion, Natalie." Erwin spoke up, carefully examining every twitch of her expression in reaction to his words. "With Karl gone, and you having proven that you can rise up to his level of strategic thinking, I'm willing to rely on you to deliver good ideas."
"I see..." the redhead replied, her cautious tone revealing that she was already trying to guess what the Commander was getting at.
There was no way he was praising her like that simply for the sake of inflating her ego. And she knew him well enough by now to know that he always was at least a few steps ahead of everyone else when it came to planning. Just as well as she knew she was nowhere near Karl's level of intelligence, no matter what anyone said. Her brother had been a genius years ahead of his peers; something she could never hope to replicate. Still, she straightened her posture and clasped her hands behind her back before speaking up again.
"Very well... as you said before, I won't gain any experience unless I take on new challenges. Should my analysis prove unsatisfactory, I apologize ahead of time."
"Then..." Erwin smiled briefly. "You were present along with your squad when we investigated the murder of Sawney and Bean. What do you think of that incident? You may speak freely... what do you think the enemy is?"
"For one, I believe the way you posed that question in itself is strange. I thought the same on that day when you asked Eren this question." she stated after thinking it over for a bit, and the glint that came to Erwin's gaze told her she was on the right track. "Rather than asking 'who' you asked 'what' the enemy is. Which has led me to a simple conclusion: you believe the one who killed the Titans isn't just a regular human, who couldn't contain their thirst for revenge. That it's someone like Eren, correct?"
"Elaborate..." Erwin goaded her on with a nod; he could practically see the gears in her head turning at full speed and was eager to see where she would go with her analysis.
"Someone who can turn into a Titan themselves... if we think along those lines, then it stands to reason we should assume the Armored Titan and the Colossal Titan, who attacked Shiganshina, are the same as Eren. That they're humans who somehow acquired this power, as they're the only other Titans who displayed human-like intelligence and coordination. It also stands to reason that they would try to keep us from learning anything about Titans, if they feared that research would somehow lead us to them – thus, they would seek to kill Sawney and Bean before Hange-san could finish the experiments. The question remains... why didn't they kill the previous Titans we captured? Was something holding them back... or did they do it now because we have Eren?"
When she seemed to waver in stating her thoughts, the Commander again nodded encouraging her to continue.
"...Could it be that Eren unwittingly threw their plans off? When I read the full report on Trost, I did find it odd that the Armored Titan didn't immediately show up to breach the inner gate, like in Shiganshina. In hindsight, I also find it weird now that they simply allowed Eren to seal the outer gate without any attempt to stop him. I read that several of the cadets from the 104th Cadet Corps were present both when he first transformed, and when he carried the boulder to the gate..."
Pausing for a moment, she lowered her gaze as she analyzed all the information she had gathered over the years, as well as the bits her twin had revealed.
"You believe one or more of these people have infiltrated the Survey Corps, don't you?" she at last said, her eyes snapping back to Erwin's face. "That it has to be someone from the 104th group of cadets; someone who was there, who saw Eren transforming into a Titan. That's why you didn't mark our squad's position on the maps used by the others. You think there's a spy in our ranks, and you're using this expedition to flush them out. Our goal isn't to establish a route to Shiganshina... it's to catch this spy by using Eren as bait."
"Most impressive." the Commander finally spoke again, offering her a satisfied smile. "That is the kind of logic I expected only of Karl. I'm relieved that you chose to join the Survey Corps, Natalie."
Pausing for a moment he allowed humor to fade from his features before continuing.
"You're exactly right... at the very least, that is precisely what I believe at this point in time. However, I must order you to keep everything you just said to yourself. This mission is of utmost importance and so far only a handful of people are privy to this sensitive information. You and Levi will be the only ones on your squad who know the true nature of this expedition. I must insist that you keep it that way... even if it comes down to sacrificing comrades for the success of it. Can you do it?"
"Yes, sir!"
There was no doubt or flicker of hesitation in her mind about it... she would never willingly put Levi in any sort of danger. She would live with any burden, no matter how heavy, if it meant she could protect him.
~ oOo ~
It had been about two hours since the Survey Corps had left Karanes District and so far the mission seemed to be going smoothly. Ever since they had split from the other squads, they had only seen the green flares indicating various changes in direction to avoid Titans.
'It's going well... a bit too well, I think...' Natalie mused, seeing yet another set of three green flares rising on their right side.
Perhaps it was just her anxiety speaking, but she couldn't help the bad feeling she'd had since before the gate had even opened to let them out. It was far too similar to how she had felt the last time she had seen Karl, before he had left for his final mission. She could feel it in her bones... something would go horribly wrong at some point.
"Don't break formation, Natalie!"
Startled out of her thoughts by Levi's voice, she realized she had been pushing Ran so much that she was now galloping at his side rather than a few steps behind him.
"I apologize!" she said hastily, just as another rider caught up with them looking frazzled.
"Reporting in!" he called out. "Attack from the rear! The right wing suffered severe losses! Parts of the scouting formation are no longer functional! Please pass this message on to the left!"
"You hear that, Petra?" Levi inquired once he'd gotten the full report. "You do it."
"Yes, sir!" the woman nodded, immediately veering off to the left and splitting from the team.
"Natalie!" he then called out, prompting the redhead to once again spur Ran and align him with the Captain's mare. "What do you think?"
For a moment her mind blanked at the question, unable to process if he was really asking for her analysis on the fly. Her next thought was that she wasn't experienced enough for him to rely on her like that. But then, almost at the same time it hit her... the specific goal of splitting the formation into such small groups was precisely to not draw many Titans to them. There was no way they would have been attracted there in such high numbers; at least, not on their own.
"I think Commander Erwin's fears are coming true!" she finally replied, trying her best to not divulge more information than needed in front of the others. "It's that... it has to be!"
As if to confirm her fears, a group of black flares signaling an Abnormal went off on their right flank.
"Eren, you shoot it!" Levi ordered, before huffing. "Tch... this is such a fucking mess. We let it penetrate this deep into our formation."
"That means Commander Erwin should have some orders for us soon, doesn't it?" Natalie inquired.
"Yeah... looks like we have no choice. We'll have to go through."
At that he gestured towards the giant forest they could see growing on the horizon. Natalie had heard tales of it and how it was both the perfect environment for fighting Titans, due to the abnormally huge trees, as well as a death trap due to the heavy shadows and low visibility.
'...There? Is that where this will all fall apart?' she pondered, feeling her jaw clench.
As she had expected, a few minutes later one of the Scouts from the squad ahead of them rode back to relay Erwin's order that the entire middle section would go through the forest. With Petra at last rejoining them, Levi turned back to the others.
"Listen up; we're changing the squad formation. Eren, you stay in the middle right behind me... Oluo, Gunther, you two take the right flank. Petra, Eld, take the left. Natalie, you stay at the head next to me."
"But... won't that leave Eren open in the back?" the redhead blinked, caught off guard by the command.
"It's a risk we'll have to take... I might need your split-second input again and I can't have you at the rear." he replied, turning his eyes back to the forest ahead. 'And I don't want to get distracted, worrying that you might die back there.'
At first it did cross her mind that maybe he was doing it because he didn't trust her to control her emotions otherwise, and that hurt a bit.
'No... if I go down that trail, I won't focus anymore. I'll just believe that he actually does want my input for now. I can discuss it with him later.'
A few more minutes and the squad at last reached the forest, entering the sun speckled shade on the pathway which cut straight through to the other side. It was exactly as Natalie had feared, when she glanced around to try and familiarize herself with the environment. The scattered sunrays penetrating the foliage blindsided them on both sides of the road, and coupled with the deep shadows beneath the trees made it almost impossible to tell whether something was approaching them or not. And what made it even worse was that their pursuer was an intelligent Titan, who could make use of the cover provided by the forest.
'Shit... at this rate we're riding completely in the dark.' she scowled. 'All we can do now is trust Erwin.'
"Captain!" Eren suddenly called out startling her. "Captain Levi!"
"What?"
"What do you mean, 'what'? If only the middle section is in the forest, we won't be able to tell if any Titans are closing in. And there seems to be something approaching from the right side! How are we supposed to avoid the Titans or protect the wagons?"
"Could you not ask such stupid questions?" Levi retorted, looking a bit more than annoyed by Eren's lack of judgment. "Obviously we can't do that anymore. Look around you, Eren... at all these big ass trees. It's the perfect environment for using ODM gear. Now use that sad excuse of a brain to think... if you don't want to die, that is."
"Yes, sir!"
For a few moments he actually did try to figure out what was happening, until he glanced over at the others. Their unsettled expressions brought him to the horrible realization that he wasn't the only one in the dark. But then he looked back to Levi, only to find Natalie watching him over her shoulder.
"Just keep going, Eren. Everything will work out!"
The reassurance in her tone helped to somewhat calm his nerves, only for his anxiety to spike again at the sound of a flare going off behind them.
"Black smoke round!" he called out.
"From behind us!" Eld reported. "It's that thing that's been chasing us from the right flank."
"Everyone, draw your swords!" Levi ordered. "When that thing shows itself, it'll all be over in a moment!"
Eren's horrified gasp a few moments later, as well as the rapidly approaching thuds, told Natalie that their prey had finally caught up to them.
"It's fast!" Gunther scowled. "We can't get away in the forest!"
"Captain, can we switch to ODM gear?" Petra called out. "Captain!"
When Levi turned to look back at their pursuer, Natalie followed his lead only to grimace at the sight. There was absolutely no more uncertainty in her mind that that was a human controlling a Titan. It looked far too similar to her own Titan, and the intelligence she could see in its eyes left no room for doubt. And it seemed Levi shared her sentiment when he hesitated to give orders. But then she managed to catch his eye and shook her head, encouraging him to not order an attack... to trust Erwin's plan.
"Reinforcement from behind!" Petra called out just as Levi turned his eyes back to the road.
Though she heard their comrades' agonized yelps and the way they abruptly cut off, Natalie only kept spurring her horse on. Her knuckles had bled white as she squeezed the reins and her teeth hurt from how she was clenching her jaw. But if she looked behind again, she knew she wouldn't be able to keep her composure. All she had to do was to keep looking forward and try to ignore the tears that the current fortunately plucked from her eyelashes before they could cloud her vision.
"Everyone, cover your ears!" Levi eventually called back, after what seemed like an eternity of everyone begging him for orders.
Spotting the flare gun in his hand, Natalie pressed her hands up to her ears just before the Captain fired a sound round. She could only hope they were close enough to Erwin, to where they could get away before that bitch overtook them.
"What are your jobs?" he called back again. "Do they involve getting overwhelmed by fickle emotions? Our squad's duty is to keep this shitty brat safe and without a scratch; even if it costs us our lives. We'll keep fleeing on horseback."
At his words the squad at last calmed down, being reminded of their initial orders.
"Flee? To where?" Eren gasped, glancing behind them again. "It's already on our tails. Again... reinforcements! If we don't hurry to help them, they'll die just like the others!"
"Eren! Face forward!" Gunther scolded him.
"Don't slow down! Keep going at full speed!" Eld concurred.
Eventually even Natalie had enough of Eren's whining about the people dying behind them, and turned to him.
"We don't need a second-by-second report!" she scowled. "Do you think we can't hear what's going on back there?! Do you think we don't know our friends are dying?!"
"Then why...?!" he yelled, only cutting himself off at the sight of her tearstained frown.
"Because the Captain ordered so!" Oluo retorted. "You just don't get it because you're still a rookie! If you do get it, then shut up and obey!"
The redhead had just turned back to the road, however, when she heard Petra scolding Eren behind them. Glancing over her shoulder again, her eyes widened at the sight of that idiot trying to bite himself so he could shift.
"You're not wrong in that." Levi retorted, her expression giving him the confirmation that Eren was about to destroy their entire plan. "Do it if you want to. It's clear to me now... this guy's a real monster; and it has nothing to do with his Titan abilities. No matter how you train or confine him, forcing his mind into submission is an impossible task. The difference between your decision and ours, Eren, is a gap in experience. But you don't need to rely on that... decide. Believe in yourself, or believe in the soldiers of the Survey Corps including myself. I can't give you the answer; I never knew it myself. Whether I believed in myself, or the calls of the comrades who earned my trust... the outcome was always a mystery. That's why you should just choose what you think you'll regret least."
She could tell Eren was conflicted just by the sheer silence he had fallen into. But then he glanced behind them again and brought his hand up once more.
"Eren!" the redhead called out. "Are you still you? Or are you the same as that monster back there?"
"Eren... believe in us!" Petra concurred.
"Hurry up!" Levi finally yelled, when the boy kept hesitating. "Decide already!"
They were getting dangerously close to where Erwin had set up the trap, and to have Eren transform near the others would have spelled disaster.
"I'll keep going!" he at last replied.
No sooner had he said that, than the squad passed by the trap and Natalie caught a fleeting glimpse of Erwin watching them from a branch high above the road. It all happened so fast that it took her a moment to process it. She heard his command to fire and then the forest filled with the sound of cannons, drowning out everything else.
'That's what you get, you piece of shit.' she huffed, hoping Erwin's weapons would do at least half the damage she had done to their numbers.
"Natalie!" Levi called out, startling her when he threw the reins of his mare into her grasp before reaching for the hilts of his swords. "Everyone secure the horses up ahead and switch to ODM gear. Hide Eren a good distance away from that Titan... I'll act independently for a while. Eld, you have command of the squad!"
~ oOo ~
"What are you thinking?"
Surprised by the sound of Eld's voice so close to her, Natalie turned her eyes from looking the way they had come, up to the blond standing next to her.
"Nothing in particular..."
She could only hope he would swallow the lie; the truth was that she was so tense she felt like vomiting. Not only could she still not shake that horrible feeling that something would go awfully wrong, she was now conflicted about whether she was supposed to have tried to change something in hindsight. What if her inaction led to their deaths? What if it allowed their prey to escape? Or... should she have tried to let them escape? Then again her twin wasn't there to guide her, so how the hell was she supposed to know what she should try to change?
"It's driving me insane..." she muttered.
"Don't worry, Captain Levi certainly won't go down so easily."
Grateful that Eld seemed to have misunderstood her concern, she decided to play along.
"Yeah... I hope so."
It was when the others raised their voices that they both turned back to the rest of the team, to find Oluo and Petra arguing with Eren.
"Are you saying we're not trusted by the Commander and the Captain?!" the woman frowned.
"No, but... that's what it looks like, isn't it?" Eren defended himself. "Forget about the rookies like me, but why wouldn't they tell you veterans about this plan?"
"Petra, yank out his teeth!" Oluo chimed in.
"No, it's exactly as Eren said." Eld interjected. "I think the Commander had his reasons for keeping this from us. There's only one reason to not trust your comrades... a human who can transform into a Titan, or maybe a spy working with them, is amongst us."
"...Do you really think that?" Gunther asked, looking unsettled at the prospect.
"At the very least that's what the Commander probably believes. I daresay only the survivors from five years ago were told of the plan."
"If that's the case then it makes sense." Petra at last agreed. "They probably believe the spy slipped in five years ago when the first wall was destroyed. And they're trying to narrow down the suspects."
"Then the spy is also the one who killed Sawney and Bean?" Eld theorized.
"So that's what the Commander meant by that question, that day..."
"If we had been able to answer that question, we may have been told about the plan. But I don't think such a person exists..."
"Except for the fact that you already answered the question." Natalie finally interjected with a sigh.
Looking over to where the redhead was checking if her gear was properly clasped to her harness, Eld at last seemed to realize something.
"You... don't tell me you knew about it."
"Huh?!" Oluo gasped. "That's impossible... there's no way this wench was told and we weren't!"
"I thought you were a bit too well composed while we were freaking out, earlier." Eld went on, ignoring their teammate. "Why did the Commander tell you?"
"Because I answered his question... the one inside that Titan's nape is likely the spy; the one who killed Hange-san's Titans and the one who probably helped breach the wall in Shiganshina. That's why we have to capture them alive, no matter the cost."
Almost before she had finished speaking, the forest echoed some of the most inhumane screams she had ever heard, sending a cold shiver down her spine.
'This... is this it? Did it go awry?' she gasped, turning back to face the direction where they had left Erwin and the others.
No more than a few minutes later, however, a black smoke round told them that the mission had apparently ended.
"Looks like we're done here." Gunther stated. "Everyone get on your horses. We're heading back."
"Looks like it." Oluo concurred, sheathing his blades. "Why don't we go take a look at that shitty bastard?"
"Did we really get them?" Eren pondered while they were checking to make sure they had enough gas for the trip back.
"It's all thanks to you believing in us." Petra smiled. "Because you stuck with us then, that's why we got to this result now. I'm proud of you, Eren... it's not always easy to make the right decision."
"Don't spoil him so much, Petra." Oluo complained. "What did he do? He was just whining all the time, wasn't he? Well, I guess it's enough that he'll come back alive after his first time."
"Let's go!" Eld ordered.
Sighing in relief at not having to listen to Oluo's incessant blabber anymore, Natalie immediately moved to follow him. And then, just a few minutes later, the sound of a flare broke through the silence, drawing her gaze to the green smoke on their right.
"That must be from the Captain..." Gunther surmised, halting on a branch and shooting a green shell in reply. "Guys, we'll meet up with the Captain to get orders. Save the rest of the gas for later."
'...Why? That was the signal that the mission succeeded, wasn't it? So why am I so nervous?' the redhead berated herself, her eyes darting about ceaselessly. 'There's no way anything happened to them... no way...'
It was the same; exactly the same oppressive anxiety as the day when Erwin had told her that Karl was dead. The kind that made her palms clammy, that barely let her hold back from fidgeting, the kind that forced her to clasp her hilts so hard her fingers hurt. And she couldn't understand for the life of her why her intuition was flaring up like that. It felt like she was on the edge of a battle... like at any moment some unseen horror would leap out of the shadows and she would have to defend herself.
She had just followed Gunther who had suggested they try to reach a more open space so Levi could spot them easier, when a hooded figure wearing the Survey Corps' cloak appeared on their left.
"Captain?" Gunther blinked in surprise. "No... it's not him. Who are you?!"
As if his words had been a trigger, Natalie hooked into the nearest tree to him and lunged forth, her blades narrowly parrying the stranger's attempt to slice into her teammate.
"You little shit!" she growled.
Pushing against Gunther's shoulder with her foot to gain some leverage and try to shove the attacker away, while at the same time forcing him back, she grimaced at the sound of her blades scraping against the other's. But then the attacker pulled back, leaving her to slice only at air before Eld caught her by the waist to stop her fall.
"Why?! What happened?" Eren called out as he and the others caught up.
"The Female Titan!" Natalie yelled back at them. "She's here! Don't let her get to Eren!"
'Shit... what happened to Erwin and the others? Where's Levi... Hange...?'
"Damn it, what do we do?" Oluo called back. "Eld, where do we go?"
"We don't have time to reach the horses." the blond replied, trying to find a good spot to let the redhead go. "Head for headquarters as fast as you can!"
With their mysterious pursuer hot on their trail, he couldn't afford for them to get attacked while he had his hands full with Natalie. But then the hooded figure suddenly withdrew into the thick shadows beneath the trees and the redhead scowled, pushing herself free of his grasp and anchoring into the nearest tree.
"She's coming!" she warned, a split second before the lightning flickered through the darkness and the crack of thunder echoed in their ears.
"How dare you?" Eren scowled. "This time I'll defeat you!"
"No!" Eld ordered. "The five of us will take her down! You continue to head towards HQ at full speed!"
"I'll fight too!"
"What, brat?" Oluo scolded him. "Do you doubt us?"
"Is that right, Eren?" Petra called out. "Do you find it that hard to trust us?"
Though none of them could have guessed it, Natalie herself was currently struggling with much the same problem as Eren. It would have been so easy to transform... then she could have helped Eren and maybe together they would be able to take her down.
'...And then what? What do I do after... when they'll find out Levi knew about this? When they'll come for him, what do I do then?'
Even now she could hear him telling her to choose what she would regret least, to think it through and decide whether it was really worth revealing her secret.
'I'm sorry...' she gritted her teeth.
Whether or not her decision led to her team's death, she couldn't and wouldn't betray Levi. Maybe they could hold out until he got to them... that was all they needed to do. If anyone could really take that thing down, it was their Captain. All they had to do was survive until he found them.
With Eren at last agreeing to put his faith in them and go ahead on his own, Eld turned his focus on coordinating his team; at first with verbal commands, until they managed to blind the shifter. Switching to silent orders, he directed the four of them to shear off the muscles around her shoulders so they could gain access to her nape. Their mission was no longer to capture the human inside, as that had clearly failed... only to take her down by any means necessary. After what seemed like forever of them slicing off her flesh, the shifter's arms at last fell to her sides. And still Natalie couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong, even if their attacks seemed to be going smoothly. Stopping for a moment on a branch she looked over the Female Titan, before it finally struck her that the only steam she could see was coming from one of the eyes.
"Eld, don't!" she screamed just as the blond lunged in to hit the nape.
In a terrifying twist of fate, she saw the exact moment when the shifter regenerated one of her eyes, zeroing in on Eld before she snapped her head around to catch him in her mouth. With no hesitation she bit the man in half and spat out the rest of him, Petra's horrified shriek confirming to Natalie that he had really just died before her eyes.
'...Why? How did this happen?'
In the spur of the moment she brought her blade down to her hand to slice the skin, only freezing when Levi's face again came to her mind.
"I need to know that I can trust you to control your emotions." his words echoed in her head, blurring her eyes with tears.
'Very well... I'll just take her down like this!'
Lunging forth she hooked into the shifter's limp arm and pulled herself up to the face.
"I'll slice that fucking mouth off you!"
Using that as a diversion to try and get at the healed eye, she was forced to pull back when the shifter pushed forward to try and bite her. To her great fortune she found footing against the female's cheek and pushed off, but before she could hook into the tree to right herself she saw the shifter's foot coming up. For a split second, time stopped in her mind as the foot connected with her body, before she felt the current whipping past her as she was kicked away from the battle scene. The last thing she heard was Eren and Petra screaming her name before her body hit a tree, plunging her into darkness.
~ oOo ~
The sudden roar echoing over the forest made Levi's heart jump. His first thought turned to Eren, but if he had lost control and turned then that could only mean one thing.
'Shit...' he gritted his teeth, changing direction to head towards the source of the sound.
Even more worrisome was that he couldn't hear any other sound, which meant Natalie hadn't transformed; and he didn't know if that meant she was holding back, or if something had happened to her and the others. It didn't take him long to find the traces of anchors in the trees, and from there he headed straight up until he abruptly came across the small clearing strewn with the bodies of his squad. Halting in one of the trees he surveyed the damage, his knuckles whitening as he squeezed the hilts tighter and tighter with each body his eyes fell upon. To look at him one would not have been able to guess the storm raging beneath his calm expression, until his eyes suddenly widened and his muscles gained slack.
'She's not here...' he realized upon failing to locate the redhead's corpse. 'Don't tell me she—!'
Had she turned and just been quieter than Eren? Or had she gone to chase the Female Titan as a human? Of course there was always the possibility that she had been eaten, but that was a thought he didn't want to entertain. And so he continued onward finding the second trail much more easily, due to the massive destruction left behind by the scuffling Titans. Eventually he came across a still evaporating carcass and his heart squeezed, until he spotted the severed head nearby and realized it was Eren's Titan.
'Calm down...' he berated himself. 'If she's still chasing them, you won't help if you're not clear headed.'
At last he spotted the blonde Titan still running towards the edge of the forest, with one lone soldier trying to take her down. For a moment he felt his hopes rising, until he realized it wasn't Natalie but Eren's friend. Shoving aside the anxiety that tried to overtake him, he lunged forth when she launched an erratic attack that would have gotten her killed, grabbing the girl and pulling back.
"Pull back for now..." he ordered, releasing her and gesturing for the girl to follow. "Maintain this distance; it seems she's getting tired, she's moving slower than before. Mikasa, was it? Where's Eren? It looked like he was bitten right out of the nape... is he dead?"
"He's alive." she scowled. "Our target seems highly intelligent and capturing Eren seems to be her primary goal. If she wanted him dead she could have easily crushed him in her jaws. But she's keeping him inside her mouth."
"Eating Eren may also have been her goal. If so, he'd be inside the stomach... there's reason to assume that he's dead."
"He's alive!"
"I hope you're right..."
"If only you'd protected him, Eren wouldn't be in this situation right now!"
At her venomous retort, Levi took a better look at her and finally recalled her face from the trial.
"So it was you back there. You're Eren's close friend. Speaking of friends... did you happen to see the redhead on my squad? I thought she might've been the one chasing that bitch."
"N-no..." Mikasa replied, caught off guard by his sudden change of topic. "I haven't seen anyone from your team. When I arrived, the Female Titan was already in the process of extracting Eren and there was no one else around."
"I see... we'll focus all our power on one goal. Forget about killing the Female Titan."
"But she killed so many of our comrades!"
"So long as she can harden her skin, there's no way we're going to kill her. Trust my judgment... we'll place our bets on Eren being alive and try to rescue him before she leaves the forest. I'll hack her up... you draw her attention."
And he would make certain that overgrown bitch would pay tenfold for every single Scout she had killed that day.
'If you really ate her... you can bet I'll dig her out of your fucking stomach. Dead or alive... I'm taking her back!' he swore when Natalie's smiling face flashed through his mind.
With Mikasa's efforts to keep the Female Titan's focus away from him, it took him only a few minutes to hack away at her until she was forced back against a tree. And once she fell onto her seat, he lunged in slicing downwards and splitting her torso in half from collar bone to groin, only to find her stomach empty.
'...What? Where the hell is she then?'
At least, now that he knew she hadn't been eaten, he could go back to that clearing and search for her after they got Eren. He could only hope that she was still alive and would survive until he went back for her. Pulling back when the Female Titan brought her arm in a sweep to try and grab him, he spotted Mikasa attempting an attack on the exposed nape.
"Stop!" he ordered just as the Female Titan brought up her fist to crush the girl against the tree trunk.
Rushing in to push her out of the way, he found faulty footing on the shifter's hand and gritted his teeth at the pain shooting up from his ankle. But now that he was so close to her face, he could reach her mouth and slice through her cheeks. With the jaw falling open he eyed Eren and grabbed the boy before ordering Mikasa to pull back.
At last they made it out of the forest to where Erwin and the rest of the surviving Scouts had gathered. Upon landing he again stiffened at the pain in his leg, limping over to them before dumping Eren onto the grass.
"Get him cleaned up and see to any wounds he has." he ordered, ignoring Mikasa's awkward attempt to thank him and going off to find Erwin.
There was no way he could still go back with that leg, but he had to get Erwin to send someone to that clearing. Finding the Commander in the process of splitting off several teams to go into the forest and retrieve as many corpses as they could, he gave Erwin the location of his squad and told the assigned team to search the place thoroughly until they found the redhead.
"You should get that leg looked at, Levi."
"Do you think I care about that right now?" he frowned.
For once Erwin was hesitant to tell him that the most likely outcome was that Natalie had died with the rest of the team. Seeing him limp towards a nearby log and sit there, facing the forest which had claimed so many of their comrades, was heartbreaking. He was sure Levi knew the possibility anyway, and felt there was no point in adding to his stress just then. So he left the man to his own thoughts and returned to gathering reports from the surviving squads.
It was agony. Having to wait like that, without knowing whether she was still alive, was pure torture. And then, in a sudden bout of panic it struck him that if she had any open wounds they would be steaming as she healed... assuming she was still alive.
'I should've been the one to go.' he scowled, squeezing his left thigh when he tried to put pressure on the foot only for the pain to spike all the way up into his head. 'If anyone finds her like that...'
Had he known, or even hinted, that his entire team would get wiped out he would have taken her with him. He should have taken her with him... even if it looked like favoritism, he shouldn't have left her alone out there. But she had promised she wouldn't do anything stupid; that she wouldn't die or make him worry. And he had been such an idiot to believe her!
'You promised!' he bit into his lip, clenching his hands together until they went numb.