Sooo I had a very busy but interesting week; at least it was a bit cooler at night so I slept better these days. So here I am with a new update! I'm hoping you're all enjoying the story so far, in fact on that note I want to ask you lovelies a question:
What is the one thing you like/dislike the most about the story, so far? That's it, just one thing. You can write a phrase, a paragraph, a wall of text... I'd love to know your thoughts!
If you guys like this and actually answer, I'll try to come up with one question for each of the following chapters. I'm dying to know what you all think and what you connected with in this story. Or what annoyed you, I would love to know that as well~
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.
21. Drunk
~ 850 ~
"Are you finally awake?"
Sighing lightly as Levi pulled her out of the saddle into his arms, Natalie nodded while he helped her steady herself.
"I think so... at least it worked."
She had come back to her senses just as they were entering Orvud District and had gotten the short version of their way back.
"Captain Levi." one of their Scout colleagues rushed over. "Please gather your squad in the main hall. The strategy meeting will begin shortly."
"Alright." he replied, turning back to her. "If you need to rest—"
"No, I'm fine." the redhead cut him off, pouting at his skeptical look. "You know I wouldn't lie to you..."
"No, you would only try to protect my feelings." he retorted, lightly tousling her hair.
"I can't sit this out... I promised Eren I won't leave him alone anymore."
Her words froze his hand onto her head, before he heaved a displeased sigh; that kid was turning out to be more trouble than he was worth, in some ways.
"What you promised me takes precedence over that. Do you understand?" he ordered, moving his hand down to grasp her chin between his fingers. 'You're my last hope for any kind of future, and I won't let anyone take that away from me... not even you.'
Was it a selfish thing to say? Yes, especially with him preaching to her about how their people's future was more important than their feelings for one another or any relationship they could have. But at the same time he couldn't let her go anymore; he couldn't sit back and have her dying for Eren or anyone else, despite her self-sacrificing tendencies. But then she smiled with that warm, loving gaze that was starting to get to him more and more each time; the one that melted his heart and shattered his willpower to resist her.
"Captain... I'm not going to die in a meeting, I promise."
Her humorous retort made him narrow his eyes at her. She knew he wouldn't resort to overly affectionate or too familiar gestures in public, and she was starting to learn how to defy him by using that against him. It was an interesting development in her personality, but one that irked him nonetheless.
"Are you talking back to your Captain?" he shot back, pinching her cheek lightly.
"Now why would I ever do that?" the redhead pouted, rubbing the sore spot. "Just because my Captain is acting like a mother hen all the time?"
"Then maybe you should be less reckless, so I won't have to worry all the time."
His answer made her stick her tongue out at him, taking advantage of the fact that everyone around was too busy to pay any attention to them.
"Don't think doing it in public is going to spare you the consequences later." he huffed, flicking her forehead with a smug smirk when she blushed at his words.
At last with the cart pulling in and the rest of the squad gathering around them, Levi went back to business as soon as his eyes found the blonde among the group.
"Historia, forgot to tell you... we need you to do something; Erwin's orders."
"...Yes?" the girl replied, sounding somewhat wary after her earlier ordeal.
"Once this is all over, become the Queen." he stated, leaving everyone to gape at them. "The coup d'état was successful, but the people won't follow a military regiment sitting at the top. What we need is a story to spread – that a true heir took back the crown from the fake King."
"I..."
"Um, Captain?" Conny spoke up in her stead. "I, uh... I mean, by leaving her father she finally broke free of that burden. And yet, again..."
"What?" Levi goaded him on, when the boy hesitated to finish his thoughts. "If you have something to say, just say it."
"W-what Conny means to say is that..." Jean interjected trying to spare his friend. "Historia finally broke free from Rod Reiss and found herself. And now you're forcing her into another role? Isn't that... isn't that not fair to her?"
"Alright." the girl replied, nearly cutting him off. "My next duty is to be the Queen, right? Understood. I'm grateful for your concern, everyone... but whether or not this is forced on me, is for me to decide. However... Captain, I do have one condition. Since this is my own life and my own fate, I want to lay it all on the line."
"I think that's a reasonable request, Captain... considering what we're asking her to do in return." Natalie agreed, discreetly winking at the girl who smiled in gratitude for the backup.
"...Very well." he at last replied, walking away from them. "You and Eren go get your gear on and come to the meeting hall. Erwin's called a strategy meeting with all of us."
Following him while the rest of the squad went to change into fresh clothes, Natalie was left to wait until everyone had gathered and Hange had returned from the infirmary.
"We've confirmed the location of Rod Reiss' Titan." one of the Scouts reported once Erwin nodded his approval for the joint meeting with the Garrison to start. "It's southwest, heading straight for Orvud District. We estimate that at its current pace, it will reach us by morning."
"Then, Commander Erwin." the Garrison team leader spoke up. "We're waiting to hear your thoughts... how do you plan to evacuate the people in the district?"
"We won't evacuate."
In the deathly silence that followed his opening statement, Natalie had to bite into her cheek to withhold a giggle. Why had she expected anything else from Erwin than yet another huge gamble? But then the man lunged out to grab Erwin by his jacket, startling her.
"What the hell are you thinking? Are you insane?! By dawn that Titan will be all over us!"
"That Titan is an Abnormal." Hange replied matter-of-factly.
"What the hell does that even mean?!"
"It means it's strangely attracted to high concentrations of humans; that's why we call it an Abnormal. It means he'll turn a blind eye to a small village and ignore it, in favor of reaching this fortified city. If we move the citizens within Wall Sina, it would simply change course and destroy the Wall along with everything in its path. Eventually it would reach Mitras, with the highest density of population, and deal a devastating blow to humanity. On our way back we attempted to use Eren Jaeger's power to control Titans, but Rod Reiss' Titan showed no response whatsoever."
"If we are to stop that Titan we must do so outside Orvud District." Erwin at last interjected. "For that to happen, we must have the citizens acting as bait. However, this does not change the fact that our first duty as soldiers is to protect their lives. Supposing we're unable to stop the target, we'll take measures to ensure not one civilian is killed. We'll announce an emergency evacuation drill for Orvud District, so that the citizens will be ready to evacuate should the fight go poorly."
"...It seems there's no other choice." the Garrison soldier reluctantly agreed.
"The body of our target is the biggest we've ever seen. Therefore wall-mounted cannons should prove highly effective. However, in the eventuality that they don't bring it down... the Survey Corps will throw all we have at it."
Upon those words he looked over to Eren and Natalie, seemingly pondering for a moment before speaking up again.
"We will require all of the gunpowder you can find before dawn, as well as a sizeable amount of netting and sturdy ropes."
"So..." Levi interjected, seemingly figuring out what their Commander was planning. "You're saying we'll stuff gunpowder down its throat and hope it's enough to blow up the nape? True... with the amount of heat it's giving off, I imagine it'll ignite it without a detonator. So as long as we somehow get it to open its shitty mouth..."
"Correct. The explosion must go off from the inside – attacking the nape from the outside wouldn't be enough. The target may not even have a mouth to open, however... that's the gamble this time."
Again he looked up from the district map to Eren and Natalie; again he seemed to weigh them both in his mind before at last delivering his orders.
"We'll have Eren do it. His Titan's ability to harden its skin will provide additional protection from the explosion and any attacks the Reiss Titan may attempt. Natalie... you have actual experience in killing Titans and an impressive tally. I want you to join Levi and the rest of your squad up on the Wall. Should we succeed in blowing off its nape, we'll need as many skilled people as we can get, with ODM gear, to find the right piece and finish it off before its body regenerates."
"Understood." she replied, shooting a side-eye glance to Eren who looked somewhat conflicted about the plan.
~ oOo ~
"Fire!"
At the Garrison Captain's order, the entire line of cannons atop the Wall filled the early morning air with blast sounds and smoke. The redhead felt her hopes rising when the assault halted the creature in its path, only for it to resume crawling a few moments later. With the commanding officer of the ground team ordering a volley, it was made clear to everyone that the cannons would not be stopping that thing.
"The ground cannons seem even less effective." Erwin commented.
"Of course they are." Levi retorted. "The ones atop the wall barely hit the nape, even with the better angle. What's the problem here?"
"It's a mishmash of soldiers... cannons they barely scraped together... superficial leadership. To top it off, this is a northern district; they have absolutely no combat experience. However, this is the best we'll get..."
"That's more than obvious." the Captain replied sounding utterly displeased.
With Hange and their squad arriving at last, bringing the gunpowder and the ropes, Erwin turned back to Levi.
"Then Levi, Natalie, Sasha, Jean, Conny... I want you to handle the left side."
"Captain..." the redhead called out as she was following him towards their place. "Maybe we should use the water barrels we brought up earlier."
"Hmm?"
"You see all that?" she replied, gesturing to the huge plume of steam rising from their target. "All it takes is a wind change, and that scalding steam... that will be all over us. He's emitting even more of it now that the cannons injured him; we'll be burned alive before we even get to fight him."
"True... everyone, cover yourselves in water." Levi ordered.
"Roger!" the trio nodded, rushing to grab buckets and obey.
"You too."
When he grabbed her arm to pull her along did she notice she had stopped walking, staring at the Titan as it approached. No sooner had he reached the others than Sasha handed him a full bucket which he dumped onto the redhead, making her gasp at the cold water. With Conny handing him another one for himself, they were then left to wait and watch the Garrison's futile efforts to blow up the Titan's nape with the cannon shells.
The sudden tremor that coursed the entire Wall told them it was finally time. And as Natalie had predicted, the wind changed direction instantly bringing visibility down to zero. Even with the water she could still feel a lot of the heat, especially breathing it into her lungs. But then her attention was drawn to the impossibly huge hand rising over the wall and smashing down atop it just a few meters away from them, crushing a part of the Garrison soldiers and their cannons.
"Sasha!" Levi called out just as the yellow lightning strike alerted them of Eren's transformation.
"Ready on your order!" she replied, setting Hange's contraption in the position to blow off the Titan's hand.
As the Titan used the wall to prop itself upright, they were left to stare in horror at the mangled mess that it was. Half of its face had been completely torn off as it had crawled on the ground, exposing its empty eye sockets and its brain, as well as what was left of its skull. The sight of its open abdomen and the intestines falling out of it, however, was what had Natalie covering her mouth to try and swallow her urge to vomit.
A mere few moments later, which felt like hours in the suffocating heat, the Captain spotted Erwin's red smoke signal and lowered his arm. Activating the anchors tied to the powder barrel, Sasha pulled the trigger letting the ODM gear do its job of reeling in the cables and projecting the bomb right into the creature's hand. As they had hoped, the heat it gave off ignited the powder once the barrel split open and the ensuing explosion blew its hand off the edge.
"It worked!" Jean cheered as the Titan lost balance and its head landed atop the wall.
"Everyone, ready your gear!" Levi ordered when Eren came running towards the Titan and shoved the entire load of gunpowder down its throat.
The explosion, much to their relief was enough to blow the nape and the Titan's entire head into pieces which started raining down upon the terrified citizens.
"All troops finish it off with ODM gear!" Erwin called out prompting everyone to take to the air and start hacking away at any piece of flesh they could reach.
After a few minutes' struggle and slashing away any piece that came within reach, Natalie at last spotted what seemed to be a human sized slab of meat flying past. The insane amount of steam trailing behind it was all she needed to know that it had to be the right one.
"Natalie!" Historia called out to her just as she was preparing to go in for the kill.
Spotting the blonde, Natalie nodded and gestured for the girl to go in for the attack. If they wanted Historia to become Queen, then having her deal the killing strike would give her the perfect story to spread, as Levi had put it. Much more than even a 'true heir', she would become the hero who had saved the Walls and everyone living there; and that would make the people all the more willing to follow her.
'She did it!' the redhead smiled, once Historia had slashed through.
The sudden explosion from the piece of flesh would have caught her right in it along with the blonde had Levi not come to her aid yet again, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her out of range.
"See? You always make me worry, idiot." he commented as he made his way back towards the wall with her in his grasp.
"Well, I probably won't be eating for a week after your dashing rescue, so we're kind of even..." Natalie coughed, still feeling as if her stomach had been crushed against her spine.
~ oOo ~
How long had they spent walking amidst the ruins of the caverns, seeking survivors? She imagined it had to be at least a few hours, with how the lighting had changed. Now that the ceiling had fully collapsed she had at last seen just how immense the underground area was, and had to wonder how even the Founder had been able to create it.
"Don't fall behind."
Startled at the call, she hurried to catch up to Levi. He hadn't said a word since they had arrived, and though she hadn't pressed him to talk, she could tell he was looking specifically for Kenny. He might have made the older Ackerman seem like a monster, but she refused to believe Levi truly hated the man who had raised him.
'We'll find him.' she pondered, somehow unable to bring herself to break the silence.
Again they resumed searching in the ever decreasing daylight as the sun descended towards the horizon, when she spotted one of the Scouts who had joined the search teams running up to them.
"Captain..." she called out, just before the man called to him as well.
"What is it?" Levi inquired when the soldier came to a halt, heaving for breath.
"Sir, we found Kenny Ackerman!"
Leading them to where the man was, Natalie spotted him sitting against a tree and wondered why he wasn't running despite there being no soldiers to guard him. But as they approached she noticed the burns covering half of his face, the other half stained in blood from a wound to the head. His shirt and vest as well were red, from the still bleeding cut Levi had left across his stomach. And though her mind instantly replayed the moment when he had tried to kill her, she couldn't help feeling sorry for him – even more so for Levi.
"Kenny." the young Captain called out, startling her back to reality and prompting the man to open his eyes.
"What... it's you two?" he smiled, even after coughing up a mouthful of blood.
"You can go; I'll be fine here alone."
While the other soldier nodded and stepped away to return to the caverns, Natalie only stared him down with a light frown until he sighed and allowed her to stay. Truth be told, he was grateful that she didn't want to leave him alone; he didn't really want to be alone with Kenny in that moment.
"With those burns and that blood loss... there's no helping you now." he concluded, taking a moment to assess the man's situation.
"Yeah? Who knows..."
Revealing a small black case he opened it and Natalie heard herself gasping at the contents. The bottle looked similar to the one she had taken down in the caves, and she dearly hoped her intuition was wrong for once.
"Swiped this one right out of Rod's bag. Seems if I inject this, I'll become a Titan..." Kenny went on, confirming her fears. "It'll be one of those dumb Titans, unfortunately. For a while it should extend my life."
"You've had the time and strength to inject yourself. Why haven't you?"
"I wonder... if I don't inject it right, I might end up like he did... all messed up." Kenny replied and Natalie could clearly hear the lie in his voice.
"I know you're not sitting here waiting to die. Don't you have a better excuse?" the young Captain cut him off.
"I didn't want to die... and I wanted power..."
"But why... why would you want that?" the redhead asked, drawing his attention when she pointed at the injection. "Wouldn't that be worse than death?"
In the face of her sorrowful, teary expression the older Ackerman heaved a sigh and leaned his head back against the tree. Were all the people who could turn into Titans just like Uri?
"Somehow... ya remind me of him. How do you people find the time to... be so compassionate? But... I see... after all this time I think I understand why he did it."
"Huh?" Levi inquired, frowning in confusion while Kenny chuckled to himself.
"Everyone I've ever met... they were all the same. Drinking... women... worshipping God... family... the King... dreams... children... power... everyone had to be drunk on somethin' to be able to go on living. Everyone... was a slave to somethin'... even him."
Again he coughed up blood, his efforts to keep talking sapping the last of his strength.
"And... what are you?" he went on, looking up at Levi. "A hero?! What are you drunk on, Levi?"
Seeing the way his eyes instinctively went to Natalie who was standing at his side, the older Ackerman again chuckled.
"I see... the girlie, huh? Love...? Well... at least one of us should... get to know what that's like. At least you... picked a good one. I can tell. She's stupidly kind... just like him."
As if sensing that he was in his last moments, Levi knelt and dropped the rifle instead reaching to grab the man by his shoulders.
"Kenny... tell me everything you know!" he ordered. "Why doesn't the First King want humanity to get rid of the Titans?"
"Beats me... but, we Ackermans... opposed him... for that reason." he replied, startling Levi when he coughed a mouthful of blood in his face.
"My last name seems to be Ackerman, too." the young Captain pressed him. "You... what were you really to my mother?"
"Heh, you idiot..." Kenny smiled. "Just her older brother..."
In contrast to his eerily cheerful retort, both Levi and Natalie stared at him in utter shock.
"That day... why?" the young man asked in the end. "Why did you abandon me?"
To anyone else his tone wouldn't have revealed anything of what he felt in that moment, but Natalie knew; she remembered every word he had told her about his life before the Survey Corps, and she had to bite into her cheek to distract herself from the knot in her throat and the tears prickling her eyes.
"I... I'm not meant to be... someone's father..." Kenny at last replied.
His words made her angry at his stupidity, as well as breaking her heart because she was seeing exactly what she had told Levi before. The man wasn't a monster – he was just a coward; scared of responsibility, scared to be a father, scared to die. But then the click of the case lid closing startled her just before he shoved it into Levi's hands with his final breath.
"...Kenny."
Levi's whisper and the near inaudible gasp that left him as he realized the man was dead had her reaching out to grasp his shoulder. She didn't even need to see his face to know how hard it had hit him, because the way he squeezed her hand told her all of it.