"What're you doing on the floor?" I looked towards the sound of someone's voice from the door and saw Levi. His bored expression went to one filled with concern as he strode across the room and knelt down in front of me. "Why are you crying?" I lifted up my hand felt my cheek. It was wet from the unknown tears that had fallen from my eyes.
"I was just…I found this." I handed Levi the feather pendant and he looked at it with soft eyes. I could tell that he began to think about the rambunctious red head that we took in all those years ago.
"Do you remember that time she ran towards us because she got excited about dinner and ended up slipping and landing on her face?" Levi asked. I began to laugh at the funny memory of Isobel. When we all began laughing at her she quickly got up and began to yell at us for laughing.
"Or do you remember that time when Isobel tricked Farlon onto a secret date because he thought it was the girl from down the street?" Levi lightly laughed at that memory. I knew that the image of Farlon sitting across from a woman he did not find attractive would make anyone laugh. I smiled at the sound of Levi's light laugh though – I rarely heard it nowadays. Our laughter began to die down as our eyes landed back onto the pendant. "I miss them." I mumbled.
"Me too." We were silent for a few seconds before Levi spoke, "They were our kids." I looked up at him with a small smile on my face as I nodded my head.
"They'll always be ours." I told him. He nodded his head at me as I bit down on my lower lip. I placed the necklace onto my bed before looking back at the black haired man in front of me.
"I know." He then turned around on his heel and walked back towards my door before pausing and looking over his shoulder. "Also, come with me, we're going to see Erwin."
"Okay…Levi, wait!" He continued to look at me with his eyebrows raised – waiting for me to tell him what I was about to say. "Do you still…you know…" His facial features relaxed back into his bored expression before shaking his head.
"If you really have to ask that then you don't know me at all." Levi took a step out of my room, but before disappearing down the hall he said, "Always, Ryder. Always." And then he left me with a giant grin on my face.
After being told to wait, Levi and I were finally allowed to go see Erwin. He wanted one week to think a few things over and it took them some time to get him stable – plus he was sleeping majority of the time anyways. When he had come back word had reached us that his right arm was bitten off by a Titan. I cursed when I fond out the news, but there was nothing I could do now.
"You're a crazy person, you know that?" I said to Erwin once Levi and I entered the room. Erwin sat up in the bed and it looked like he had aged several years with his dishevelled hair.
"I learnt it from you, Ryder." He told me. I sighed before reaching for a brush on the side table. I began to comb his hair out of his face.
"What're you doing?" Levi asked me with his arms crossed over his chest.
"My mother always told me that having your hair just the way you like it can make your day a little better." I then made eye contact with Erwin. "I hope this makes your day just a little bit better…considering the circumstances." He gave me a small smile before saying,
"Thank you, Ryder." I have known Erwin for a few years now and one thing that I learned was that he never liked being fussed over. He did what he does and that's that. He doesn't want any kind of prize or anything. He would also never admit when he needed some kind of attention when he was hurt or wasn't feeling well, but just because someone doesn't ask – doesn't mean they don't deserve it. That was another lesson I learned from my mother that I now carried with me.
"I heard Pixis is coming today." Levi said.
"Yes, he has information to tell me and I would like it if both of you were here when he arrives." Erwin said to the two of us.
"Of course, I mean…Levi is your right hand man." I winked and began to wiggle my eyebrows at my inappropriate joke. The two men in the room continued to look at me with a blank stare. "Is it too early for those kinds of jokes?" I questioned out loud. Then, a harmonious sound came from Erwin as he began to laugh. Erwin was a lot nicer to people than Levi, but I rarely heard him laugh, so knowing that I made him laugh sent a warm feeling up my spine.
"I think you're the only person who can get away with shit like that." Levi commented with a smirk playing on his lips. I became aware that even Levi enjoyed what I had said.
"God, we have some twisted humour among us." I said as I finished combing Erwin's hair and sat down on the sofa to Erwin's left since Levi took the chair on his right. A knock was heard on the door before it was opened. Levi and I stood up when we saw Pixis walk in and the three of us gave a salute to each other. I allowed Pixis to sit on the sofa, but I felt uncomfortable to sit next to him since this was the first time I was meeting him. I walked over and stood next to Levi as Pixis and Erwin began to talk, but Levi stood out of his seat and made me sit down. Levi then walked over to the sofa and sat at the opposite end since he clearly felt more comfortable than me to sit near Pixis.
"What is the update for this past week?" Erwin asked Pixis.
"Well to put it frankly, during this one week we claimed wall Rose was peaceful and not otherwise. The refuges are currently returning to their own land, but the problem at hand is the use of the military force in the middle of this chaos. The illegal inhabitants that were in the former underground city have been ordered to evacuate…but they clashed with one part of the military police in the area. There weren't any casualties, but this incident had an impact all over the walls. I saw Hell's boiler lid being opened for an instant. Everyone strongly believed that killing between humans would continue one week after the fall of wall Rose." The bald headed Commander explained the current situation to Erwin.
"Sorry, Erwin. This could hardly wait until you had recovered. We couldn't lay on our ass' only watching as the week passed by." Levi apologized.
"No, I was getting tired of sleeping. Continue." Erwin instructed Levi.
"It's too bad about your right arm…" Levi said.
"How many hundred of titans almost ate me until now? One arm is nothing. It'll be fine as long as I pay the bill for hell to come." Erwin said as he looked down at the spot where his arm used to be.
"Then Erwin…should we go to that side of hell together?" Pixis asked.
"What's wrong old man? You intend on following him? You mustn't have had enough alcohol." Levi sarcastically said.
"Yeah, now is the place to have some, but it's been confiscated. I even have to be watched out for my diaper." Pixis sighed at the thought of his confiscated alcohol.
"I'm sure they're just trying to keep you safe and healthy, Commander." I piped in. Then someone had knocked on the door and opened it up. The door opened slightly and Hanji's face was now visible.
"Excuse me, Erwin." Hanji walked in with Connie at her side. The two gave a salute and stood up against the wall. "You seem quite nervous, Commander Pixis. It's perfect then. This boy has come to report on behalf of the Survey Corps concerning the current incident. He is-"
"I'm Connie Springer of the 104th Survey Corps." Connie introduced himself.
"His birthplace is Ragako village. In order for soldiers to know of the simultaneous outbreaks, I had my Survey Squad accompany me." Hanji said.
"Connie…good work." Levi complimented him. I was slightly surprised by Levi since he rarely complimented anyone, but it made me happy that he did.
"Yes…" Connie trailed off as he began to think about what he was about to say.
"Let me explain, about the origin of the titans outbreaks. We've had a reliable increase of data confirming my hypothesis. The houses of the village had all been destroyed from something that seemed to have exploded from the inside. Also, while the vestige of destruction was still present…we couldn't even find one bloodstain. What's more, the inhabitants of Ragako village still cannot be found. Finally, the total number of titans that were eliminated upon discovery inside the walls corresponds to the number of inhabitants in Ragoko village." I could feel the tension in the room at that point. We only found two people who could turn into titans, but now the possibility of a whole village doing that completely surprised us. "It's highly possible that he true form of the titans that were discovered this time, is from the inhabitants of Ragako village."
"In other words, these titans were humans." Erwin summarized up Hanji's explanation.
"There is no proof showing that all the titans are like this but…but…if this is really the case, it'd make me get a better understanding of their weakness being the nape of their neck. Why the weakness for titans is the same while there are so many individual differences between each of them…1M length, 10CM wide, must correspond to some kind of guide. If a part of the people is located here…then, it applies to the largeness of the spine from the brain. If that part is cut off, all functions are lost and regeneration is impossible. This must be the independent organ, it's the substance the titans are made of."
"Wait…you did that experiment though a while back when you opened up the back of a titans neck…and you still didn't see any of this?" I asked her. This was a farfetched theory that kind of made sense at the same time, but we still had no concrete proof.
"Yeah…I didn't see any differences from people, but somehow, the time is takes for one cut to close, like in the nape of the neck, didn't give time to confirm the presence of a human brain, but certainly, if there is something of the same largeness of 1M in length and 10CM in width…then most likely-"
"It would be assimilated to this appearance…" Levi cut Hanji off.
"What are you saying, I don't get it." Hanji told him.
"Then…is that it? It means the flesh I was frantically cutting was a part of a human? Then I've only been killing people right and left until now." Levi's voice sounded grim as he looked towards the floor.
"But we don't have any concrete proof yet." I said out loud. Levi was a soft guy at heart and I didn't want him believing that he had been killing other people just to save the rest of us quite yet.
"If this is true…then this means…what is different from Eren and your ordinary Titan is that they don't fully assimilate a body of flesh." Pixis began to say out loud as he too took in the new information.
"Hey…Erwin…what're you smiling at?" Levi asked Erwin. I looked over and saw him with a creepy smile on his lips and his eyes were as large as dinner plates.
"Ah…it's nothing." He answered.
"…You creep." Levi said.
"I was often told this when I was a child." Erwin told us.
"Is that really why you created the Survey Corps?" Levi asked.
"I'm sorry, Levi, Don't you think it's pitiful of me to have my mind and body weary from having my arm eaten?" Erwin changed the subject.
"It's not like you…" Levi said.
"Anyways, where are Eren and Historia Reiss?" Erwin asked Hanji. We had learned a few days ago that Krista was actually Historia Reiss and that she was forced to change her name.
"Well…it's connected to all this so let's continue. Firstly, we hid them in a safe place. This chaos will calm down until they become adults." Hanji explained, but then Pixis intervened.
"No need to rush, right now the world is in turmoil. That explanation of the titans is still at its early stages."
"Yeah…we aren't allowed to fail anymore. If we are to follow Christa, then we'll need to pursue a more detailed plan against the titans. If Eren could use his ability, recapturing the wall would be possible. Right now, these two are more important than anything. Where are they?" Erwin asked Levi.
"Because of your pitiful state of weariness in your mind and body from having your arm eaten, I decided some things. My squad will be formed anew. Eren will be in a suitable desperate environment." Levi answered.
"We'll start training and experiments on his moulding capability because we need him to be able to do that effectively if we are going to take back wall Maria." I chimed in.
"Who will be a part of the new Squad Levi?" Erwin asked.
"The remaining of the 104th Survey Corps." Levi answered.
"And me." I added.
"Have you healed from what happened?" Erwin asked me. I saw Levi's lips part because he was about to answer, but I answered before he could,
"Yes. I'm ready to go back into battle." I answered.
"Good. That's what I like to hear." Erwin told me, but I looked at Levi and I noticed the slight glare he was giving me. He knew that my condition didn't improve overnight, but I wasn't about to let him have all the fun without me.
Do you guys want to tel me anything? :D