Chapter One:
A Thunderous Affair
International Airspace of Imperial ZonLu
This was the mother of all miscalculations she made in her life.
She had estimated a good five hours before the storm hits and she'd be drinking beer in an outpost in Sta. Bane Island with the regular crowd before heading to the WanTai Surveyor's HQ. The weather forecast did warn against flying with the LPA brewing but she thought the short distance to Sta. Bane was worth traversing rather than staying in that godforsaken mainland. After all, it's not like she was flying a commercial aircraft.
Now here she was, caught in a freak thunderstorm thousands of meters high in the sky. Electricity flashed in giant violent streaks around her. The hovercraft was a mere receptacle getting tossed and shaken as lightning strike it. Every alarm on her vehicle screamed, the lights blinked red in a dizzying spell. Her heart pounded in her chest, she had the steering wheel in a death grip, knuckles white—caught as lightning danced in a brilliant rendering of what the first thunderstorm must have been like. The gods are in turmoil.
This was it; this must be how it ends. Another 'surveyor' lost in an assignment. There were no wills to be written for her. If she'd known, she would've eaten something more than saltine crackers and drank more of the best wine in the world she kept deep in her trunk.
"Well, shit," she muttered, as one last strike of lightning flashed before her eyes, blinding, killing off the blare of alarms and angry lights. The impact caused a ringing in her ear and the last thing she felt was the sensation of the downward spiral she knew for certain was to eternal oblivion.
X.x.X
Wall Maria, 848 A.D.
The expedition was running too smoothly, Levi Ackerman thought suspiciously. They haven't had any encounters with titans except for the occasional one or two that was swiftly disposed of. Instinct and experience told him to be more suspicious of the relatively peaceful environment. Not that he was asking for trouble. They were now heading back after successfully setting-up a supply post in one of the towns directly on the way to Shiganshina District.
"It's really quiet today, don't you think Captain?" Eld Jinn, his second-in-command commented from his right.
"Don't hold your breath," Levi grumbled in response.
Just as he thought it, the sky darkened, plunging their surroundings in a pallid gray mood. In the distance ahead, the sky gave a low, rumbling warning of rain. What a shitty day.
CRAAAACKABOOM!
Thick ropes of lightning streaked violently above them, which seemed to render the atmosphere in half.
"Fuck," Levi cursed under his breath. This was going to make it hard for them to employ the formation and use the smoke signals.
"Captain! Look!" Petra shouted, pointing upwards, her eyes wide with fear.
Levi lifted his head, his eyes widening in astonishment. In the middle of the lightning, accompanied by smoke and fire, spiraling downwards was an oddly shaped hunk of mass. The sight had him pulling the reins of his horse to watch it disappear with a resounding crack of thunder in the Forest of Giant Trees up ahead to their left. The lightning display ceased in an instant.
"What the fuck was that?" Oluo Bozado gaped.
"We should check on it, Captain!" Gunther Schultz suggested in excitement turning to Levi expectantly.
Levi furrowed his brow just as the first drop of rain hit the ground. Flipping over the hood of his cape to keep the water from his face, he made a quick estimate of the Legion's formation and location. Erwin was way ahead of them opting to avoid the Forest of Giant Trees and making a straight beeline for the wall together with the rest of the cargo teams and right flank. His squad was at the head of the left flank, with Hange behind them. So they have seen it too. The weather and rain had basically rendered their smoke signals ineffective meaning teams will be employing relay messengers instead. But this also means lower chances of encountering active titans. In a rare moment of confusion, his instinct warred with reason. The best course of action was to hurry and follow through with the front group back to the wall. Checking on it was going to expose them unnecessarily. However, every fiber in his body was pulling him towards the forest. What would Erwin do?
"Petra," Levi said in a decisive tone. "Inform the Commander that we'll be looking for that thing that fell in the forest and will request back up from Hange's squad. Tell him, don't bother turning the whole legion around and we'll handle it instead. Same goes for you once you report."
"Yes, captain!" Petra answered with disappointment before galloping past them.
"Oluo, tell Hange we're entering the forest. That crazy Four-eyes is probably planning to do the same thing anyway so tell her to hurry up."
"Yes, captain," Oluo called turning from them towards the left flank.
"Let's go," Levi said kicking the side of his horse to a gallop with Eld and Gunther.
X.x.X
Falling. No, it's more like weightlessly sauntering downwards—as in a dream. Vaguely, she can feel the air vibrate around her, wisps of electrical energy caressed her skin and it was bright, bright with streaks of green, violet, and blue bolts of electricity which mingled and flashed to create a blinding whiteness. But most of all, it was the silence that calmed her.
This must be what it's like to die.
Her eyes fluttered close at the thought. It isn't so bad as what other people make it to be after all. Strange though, why was she still able to feel? A sigh escaped from her, it will be over soon.
Except it wasn't. She was still falling. Fuck. That can't be right, she thought. Why is it not ending? Her eyes snapped open just as bolts of lightning collided breaking her bubble of silence like an amplified gunshot. Panic jerked her senses into alertness, her whole body heavy as if gravity finally recognized her dead weight. There was no time to scream, nor flail her arms around. She had never felt so trapped in this endlessness. She was falling. Faster. Faster. Faster. Faster. Faster. Faster. Faster. Faster.
A high pitched sound pierced her consciousness like a focused beam of red light. The ocean engulfed her, above lightning flashed in a crescendo. The current tossed and swayed her in the warmth of the darkness, the high pitched sound forcing her back into unconsciousness.
X.x.X
The dreary weather made it less likely for titans to attack unless they faced off with an abnormal. The three of them were now in a vulnerable position, veering away from the main formation. Whatever that thing was better be worth the risk. In any case, the giant trees would make it easier to maneuver their gear.
The dense and compact foliage of the forest barely let any of the downpour in, muting the light and muffling sound. He made a pretty good estimate of where the thing was located judging from the trail of smoke emitting atop the trees. They rode straight to the heart of the forest—his weariness contrasting directly with Eld and Gunther's palpable excitement.
The air vibrated with leftover current, permeated with the smell of burning wood and the sharp tang of metal. The thing rested in between two thick branches, the wreckage of the branches it broke lay right below it on the forest floor. Levi's eyes widened at the sight.
"Good god," Eld said in awe as they neared.
"Gunther fire a green smoke signal, switch to 3DM," Levi ordered.
The lone gunshot rang through the forest and with practice ease; the three of them launched themselves to the air, anchoring themselves high up the trees. Levi circled to the object. It was nothing like they have ever seen. Sparks licked the sleek, irregular-shaped, silver metal in hisses. It was bulky, at least four meters long, two meters wide, the flat surface rose to a hump—half made of clear glass and the other half, made of the same sleek metal, overlapping near the edges. At one end, smoke sputtered in guttural intervals. Levi paused in a branch near the object.
There was no mistake what he was looking at.
"Is she alive?" Gunther spoke beside him.
"No one's going near it without my signal," Levi ordered before launching himself in the nearest branch, landing in front of the thing.
It looked like some sort of container.
Part of the object was made of glass which allowed him to see through its contents. An unconscious woman was strapped in a chair—in front of her a wheel of sorts and various dials that made no sense to him. Even her appearance was unordinary, unmistakably different from them. The hair that fell over her shoulders was light silver but graduated into dark blue ends. The skin exposed on her face and arms was fair but golden tinted. The shirt she wore was white with multicolored prints in the middle. Kneeling in front of the glass, he brought his face close and tapped it with his knuckles.
No response. But he can at least see the subtle rise and fall of her chest. The branch they rested in gave a warning crack, dislodging the object to a downward angle from its precarious position.
"Shit," Levi cursed, forcing himself not to jump back. He needs to get her out before the thing crashes on the forest floor.
Spotting the groove in between the glass and metal, he slotted his blade in, forcing with a hard push through the material that sealed it together. He pulled the blade towards him and something clicked, the air hissed as the metal slid neatly backward with a mechanical whir, exposing the inside. The thing sputtered with a final breath of smoke, breaking the branch it rested on.
"Captain, watch out!" Gunther shouted from above them.
Instincts kicked into overdrive, Levi felt everything move in slow motion. His feet separated an inch from the thing he was stepping on as it fell, with one hand he grabbed onto the glass and slashed the straps that held the woman, catching her by the waist as she fell forward mimicking the way the thing nosedived. He immediately launched his hook in the nearest tree, barely feeling the woman's weight he held, on one hand, he swung to its branches and landed gracefully on his feet.
The container fell in a series of crashes as it took a few more branches in its wake to the forest floor which unbelievably cushioned it to prevent any damage. Leaves flurried around him while he settled the woman, with uncharacteristic gentleness to rest on the branch, popping her up the trunk. He felt her pulse and breath steady but frowned at the blood that had dripped from her ears to her shoulders.
"Are you alright, Captain?" Eld asked as soon as he landed in an adjacent branch behind him, followed by Gunther.
"I'm fine," he said as he took out a handkerchief from his breast pocket, dabbing the line of blood on the woman's neck, brushing away the silver-blue hair.
"Hoo-wee, that is definitely not a titan," Hange Zoe, section commander of the Survey Corps whistled from below him with two squads composed of 5 members each and Oluo following close behind her.
"Section Commander Hange! We're up here!" Gunther called out.
"Oh, hey Levi! What you got there?" Hange shouted waving her hands energetically. Not bothering to come up to them, her eyes transfixed with unadulterated wonder at the strange object before her. Same with the rest, nobody was particularly concerned with any titan attacks given the weather and the advantage the forest provided them. Instead, they hovered around the wreckage like flies to shit, both scared and excited to get their fill.
"Eld, Gunther, report to Hange," Levi ordered without looking at them. He had her arm around the woman, having removed his raincoat and placing it on her, tucking in her unusual hair in the hood.
It felt wrong to expose her to the other soldiers. He'd go as far and label it as an instinct to hide how she looked like, the thought made him frown.
"Yes, captain!" they both answered hurrying to Hange who had dived right into the wreckage, whooping happily.
Shifting on the wide branch, Levi sat beside the woman instead, his back to the trunk, his arm still around her. Her head lolled to the side, resting on his shoulders. An unexpected shiver ran through him as he felt the warm breath on his neck. Her face had been half-hidden by the hood; he can just make out the delicate shape of her mouth and nose, a hint of long light lashes. Levi felt a sliver of foreboding.
Gritting his teeth against the damp and dreary weather, he watched silently as Hange successfully pry the thing open further, various things and bags coming out from pockets they had never seen before.
A/N: a test chapter. maybe I need a beta reader to ask me to keep going? I'm not entirely sure how beta readers work.