She was in his arms. Or, rather, he was in hers.

He remembered it as a series of moments, fragments, pictures out of order in a storybook that he could only sluggishly read. He'd opened the door—no, she'd opened it—and he'd seen her—seen her standing there, on both her feet, alive—and. He blinked. Levi could barely remember why he'd come here.

Because he was in her arms.

She'd thrown herself forward, and now she clung to him. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, her cheek pressed against his. He felt the dampness of tears—somewhere in his mind that registered, but he could not respond. A sob; she buried her face against his shoulder, tightened her arms. Her heartbeat pattered against him, a bird wild in a cage. He had never been pressed against her like this before. Once, in a tree out in that bigass forest, they'd had to shelter together out of the rain when they got separated from the others, when visibility had been low and titans everywhere. Cold, they'd had to huddle for warmth, but he'd held onto her through layers of clothing and prayed that his thoughts wouldn't tend to anything too erotic—she might feel his desire. No, he'd never really held her before. Not like this. Not like now.

She was alive, and he tentatively put his hands on her, returned her embrace as carefully as he'd enter a stream just after the spring thaw. When his hands closed on her back, and he felt her bare skin, he shut his eyes. He had never touched her so intimately before.

Had he been frightened about something? About what? For a few seconds, every thought but her went out of his mind. She was his new, favorite reality.

"I got you. I got you," he murmured, pulling her against him. Petra took a deep breath, her body expanding in his arms, and then gave some kind of long, weeping sigh. Relief mingling with stress. Levi held her close, his hand moving up and down her back. He wanted to lean his own head against her shoulder. The rose perfume of her hair soothed him, enveloped him. She pulled back, and her cheek grazed his once more. Levi could not help the way his breath stuttered at that touch.

He entertained the idea of picking her up and carrying her away from here, taking her to some parlor where a servant would bring them tea, and he'd soothe her. Kiss her eyelids, the tip of her nose. The snow would fall outside the windows, and she'd be safe in his arms. Never leave them again. The radical idea of carrying her everywhere from now on, never letting her feet touch the ground, seemed, for half a second, perfectly normal.

She was all right. If Petra was all right, then the world could continue. He'd allow it.

"Captain. Thank you," she whispered. She pulled back to face him, her amber eyes swimming in tears, pale cheeks streaked from the bleed of her cosmetics. Crying. Why should she ever cry?

But he could not even focus on that, because the way she was looking at him…

The glimpses of desire he'd seen in her expression from time to time, the wishful glances that he half-hoped, half-feared would disappear, had transformed. This situation, whatever he'd walked in on, whatever he was getting her out of, had shattered all previous restraint. Her lips parted, her eyes traced his face. Levi had never seen a woman look at him like this before—like he was all she wanted in the world. He understood, then, that all he had to do was take her away from here and she would burrow herself against him. Everything he'd ever been afraid to ask her, she'd tell him freely. Not that they were gonna find a closet to fuck in or anything like that, fuck no, but the words would pass her lips. I want you. Whatever happens, I want you.

She wanted him. Cared for him. Loved being held by him. Desired him.

And finally, all it needed to bloom was a word on his part.

He swallowed. "You…you okay?"

"I am now," she whispered. Her lips twitched with an attempt at a smile.

"I. Fuck. I was…worried," he muttered. Even now, admitting any kind of weakness made him want to turn away from her.

"Me too," she whispered. Her hand found his, her thumb stroked his palm. That touch alone unraveled him, and there would be so many more now. "Please. Let's go."

In this perfect dream, Levi had her fingers entwined in his, her eyes lovingly searching his eyes.

But as he emerged from that dream, Levi studied her more closely. Saw more than just her smile and her beautiful eyes. Saw other things. Noticed other things.

Like the way the right side of her face was beginning to swell with the faint outline of a handprint.

Like the dotted pattern of emerging bruises on her cheeks.

Like the…blood…at her breast. Levi stared, not giving a damn if it was immodest or some shit. Those…those were teeth marks. On her breast.

And the way she struggled to hold her dress up revealed that—yes, someone had unbuttoned her. His eyes flicked to the bottom of her dress, a part of it torn and trailing after her. Someone had stepped on that.

Someone had been hurting her. Hurting her in a very specific way.

Levi felt the ecstasy drain out of him, as if his soul had been boiled and all the impurities removed. Now, he was a simple machine. Inside that dark room, he heard the groans of men. She'd put them in their place, apparently. Of course she had. She was strong. Willful. Courageous as hell.

But she didn't have his special touch, and that's what these pigs needed right now.

A lesson. Fuck talking. Fuck negotiating. Fuck everything that wasn't pain.

"It's all right, Petra." His voice sounded cool now. Good. No more of this frightened schoolboy with a crush shit. He patted her arm, and stepped aside. "Go find Oruo, and he'll take you downstairs to the guys."

"Sir? Come with me." She tugged at his elbow, but he slipped out of her grasp and walked into the darkness. "Captain! Please. I took care of it already."

"I'll be right there."

"Captain!"

"Petra. Do as I say," he snapped, not turning back to look at her. Right now, with his mission in mind, she was only an inconvenience. Those large eyes of hers, those parted lips, her sweet arms around his neck, they didn't tempt him now. Nothing except blood could excite him.

"N-No! No, sir."

"Then stay. It's up to you," he growled, approaching the man rolling around by the side of the bed. "But keep out of my way."

Some bastard, probably an MP, whined as Levi rolled him over with his foot. The guy gaped up at Levi, hands on either side of his head.

"What did you do to her?" Levi growled.

"C-Captain…Levi?" Now the man tried to scramble up, making soft, choking noises as he did so. "I, I didn't know. If I'd known—"

"If you'd known she's on my squad, you wouldn't have tried to rape her?" Even he was impressed by how cold his voice had gotten.

"Not me! Not me! He, he made me—"

Right, Levi didn't even need to look to check where this scum was pointing. The large, groaning shape on the floor by the foot of the bed had to be Karl Morgenstern. There'd be time for that in a minute. Business first.

Levi had always saved the best parts of his meal for last.

"I look like I give a fuck about your reasons why, shitmouth?" Levi smiled, a brief pull of lips, then raised his foot and slammed it down on the guy's head. The man's body spasmed as if he'd been shocked by an electric current, then went limp. Groaning, the guy lay there in agony as Levi picked his way back around to the foot of the bed, to Karl. Had he heard some kind of noise out of Petra when he smashed the guy?

Did he fucking care right now? All he knew was that she'd been hit, and stripped, and bitten. Treated like an animal.

He was no kind of man if he let that go unanswered.

"Get up, you lousy piece of shit," Levi said to his maybe-half-brother. Levi cleared his throat as he unbuttoned his jacket, folded it neatly, and placed it on the bed. "Get up. Don't make me drag you up by your balls. I've done it to better men than you."

"Captain. What…a pleasure." Karl Morgenstern gave a thick, juicy snort—sounded like he was talking through his nose. When the larger man got up off the floor and faced him, Levi learned what the hell was up. The lord's otherwise perfect face had a giant, squashed bruise of a nose now. Petra's handiwork, undoubtedly. Good girl. "I'd been hoping…for a visit." Snorting, Morgenstern straightened. Nose aside, he seemed to still be in fighting condition. Good.

"Oh, you're getting one, pig." Levi began rolling his sleeves. Morgenstern snorted, then winced; apparently that hurt now.

"Gearing up for the fight, I see."

"No. I just hate getting my clothes dirty. Blood's difficult to get out," he said. "Now. Before I take your fucking head off, I'd like to know why." His temper flared, but he quashed it. His voice never got above its normal volume. They might have been conversing downstairs in the corner of the damn party. "Why did you go after my subordinate?"

"The fact she's a delectable little piece of ass isn't answer enough?"

Levi was angry, but he was not stupid. This guy wanted something, something from Levi specifically. Trying to goad him into a calculated response.

"I'm gonna guess your uncle told you something about me." Levi gritted his teeth. He still did not want Petra to know about his potential connection to the Morgensterns—he wasn't even certain she was still here. He wouldn't turn and look. If he did, and he saw horror or fear in her face, it could throw him off. Make him question what he was doing.

"Something like that," Karl hissed.

"And you wanted to get me up here, why? So you could fight it out? Huh? Winner gets the whole fuckin' thing?"

"I must say, Captain, you are remarkably perceptive," Karl drawled. He bounced on the balls of his feet as he got into an excellent fighting stance. Clearly, the lord had been trained well. "Your underground upbringing aside, you must be a man of remarkable intelligence. Probably got it from my father." He lowered his voice. "That whore mother of yours was likely good for only a few specific needs."

The inside of Levi's mind became quiet, the sound of the snowfall outside the window.

"Ah," he said, and stepped forward. Karl swung at him, and he bent backwards, letting the blow sail directly over his head. Levi pulled his arm back, and struck Karl directly in the center of his stomach. It was a hit at only about half of Levi's strength. If he'd gone all in, it might have killed the young lord. Levi wasn't looking to kill him.

Not yet.

Karl doubled over and dropped to his knees. He opened his mouth, and a patter of vomit hit the floor. Levi wrinkled his nose at the bilious stink of it.

"Tch. Disgusting," he muttered, pacing back and forth in front of Karl while he spat. "On your feet. I'm not done yet."

"Y-You are an animal," Karl Morgenstern groaned.

"Probably," Levi agreed, and grabbed Karl by his thick hair, yanking the man's head up. "Consider this the brotherly asskicking I never got to give you when we were kids."

Karl snarled, and swiped at him. Levi easily evaded his grasp, but startled backwards when the lord leapt to his feet and swung hard. Fuck. He was faster than Levi had anticipated, and Levi grunted as Karl got him in the side of the face. Staggering to the left, Levi worked his jaw and shook out his head. Idiot. He'd been too angry, and too sure of himself.

It had been years since he'd truly fought another human being. He never got into physical fights with his comrades, and most everyone tiptoed around him anyway. He was Humanity's Strongest, the guy destined to save them from the titans and grant them a future. That was his title, wasn't it? His role?

For someone who'd grown up on the streets, sticking his knife into sternums from the time he was twelve, smashing heads to get his share of underhanded deals, the position of a hero had been unexpected. But he'd taken to it, he realized, because it gave him a little bit of pride. A little bit of a reason to live.

But sometimes when that darkness rose up within him and looked out of his eyes, Levi would want to cut a few throats again. Just to know that he was still untouchable. Still his own man.

"Good. I'll give you that," Levi said approvingly as Karl turned, on his feet again and ready to fight. "You're a bruiser, aren't you?"

"I was trained to fight all types of bastards," his maybe-brother said. Levi wondered if they might've gotten along, had their introduction been less…well, this.

He narrowed his eyes. Eh. Probably not. Levi didn't much like new people, especially rich ones.

"See, that's the difference between us. You were trained to fight." He stepped to the left. "I fought to survive."

"The difference?"

"Fucking huge." Levi lunged to the right, moving quickly now. He knew from experience, from being told, that he could move at speeds that appeared superhuman to the naked eye. Karl made a befuddled noise as Levi got around him and knocked the lord's legs out from underneath. Karl made an 'oof' noise as he fell to the ground, wincing as he collapsed on his tailbone. Levi stood above him now, triumphant.

He could deliver one quick jab to the broken nose and walk away, honor satisfied.

But that wouldn't be nearly enough fun.

"The man who raised me taught me this move," he growled. "Lemme 'train' you how to use it, little brother."

Levi's signature kick had been out of practice for years, but he remembered it with an absolute fluid ease. He kicked Karl hard, his leg flying out. Then, before the man could catch his breath, Levi began stomping him into the ground. Stomp. Stomp. The man wheezed and gave a high, strangled cry as Levi proceeded to beat him into the carpet. Levi felt warm blood spatter on his cheek; disgusting. But there would be time to clean.

Always time to clean.

As he trampled the young lord, Levi's mind floated away, observed all this from a safe distance. Levi had never been any kind of "good man" in his underground days, but he'd liked to think he wasn't an asshole, either. He had never stolen from people who needed what little they had to survive. He'd fought women before, sure, but he never went out of his way to target them. The men he'd seen who did go around strongarming girls into doing things for—and to—them had usually met the edge of Levi's blade. He recalled murdering a pair of shits who'd cut Isabel's pigtail off. Even as he was stabbing them to death, he'd wondered in some quiet part of his mind if he was overreacting.

If this wasn't how a psychopath justified himself.

But Levi could not help the ecstasy he felt now as he beat this man into the ground, because the fucker deserved it.

But his calm was shattered when Karl spat blood and…laughed.

The fucker was laughing.

Frowning, Levi leaned in over the asshole. "What are you laughing at? You reek of shit. How is that funny?"

"You…are…a fool," Karl rasped. He grinned, his teeth mottled with blood. "Did you…think…I had no…plan?"

"Huh?"

And then, Levi understood.

Karl had never expected to win this fight against Humanity's Strongest. He'd planned to goad Levi into violence, then have him detained by the MPs. After all, if Levi went to prison for assault against a member of the aristocracy, he couldn't inherit the title or the land.

Maybe that's why the two MPs had been here to begin with. As witnesses.

Torture his subordinate to get to him, then endure an ass kicking. Kinda smart, if a little masochistic.

"I get it. I get it." Levi jerked his chin. "Now I'm off to prison, and you're lord of the manor. Right?"

Karl wheezed as Levi drew nearer. He got almost nose to nose.

"You made one mistake, though." Levi's nostrils flared. "How can you be the lord if you're fucking dead?"

Karl's eyes widened. "Th-they'd hang you."

"You bit her. Didn't you? You were going to rape her. You treated her like she was an animal."

Karl must have seen, then, what was in Levi's heart. Must have read it in his eyes. The lord moaned, and his head jerked. To hurt one of Levi's subordinates or comrades? That required an ass kicking of epic proportions.

To hurt the woman he loved? That was a lethal move.

"I didn't understand. I didn't understand. I, I can help you." Karl clutched at Levi's leg as he stood, gazed down at the lord. "I'll brush this off. You won't go to prison. Y-You can have the estate. Whatever you want."

"I want to break you under my foot," Levi said, marveling at the flat, disinterested sound of his voice. "That's all I need."

And with that, he got to work.

Karl's face became a bloody mass. His eyes closed, eyelids swelling to almost comical proportions. Teeth scattered across the ground. The young man, his handsomeness now erased forever, whimpered and gradually stopped clawing at Levi for mercy. His arms raised over his head with every jump, every kick, every stomp, Levi felt as if he were running down a hill and into a valley, the sun at his back, the world rejoicing around him.

It felt so fucking good.

So good to let himself go on a piece of shit like this. So good to protect Petra, to avenge her. And the tightness in his balls as he laid Karl Morgenstern to waste reminded him that this man had had Petra sprawled out on the bed. Had been undressing her. Had probably been close to penetrating her. And his own frustrated desire, the fact that he had never been allowed to take her to bed like that, finally spilled over inside of him. The desperate longing for her body drove him forward, let him take out his pent up lust on this man's flesh. His bones cracked in an orgasmic symphony of noise. Again. And again. Levi grabbed Karl by his collar, yanked the nearly unconscious man's face to meet his. Blood drooled from the side of the man's mouth.

"You idiot. You thought you could do this to me? To her? Idiot!" He smashed Karl's head back against the floor, and raised his foot. Yes, a quick stomp to the throat. The crunch of the windpipe. The final, uneasy gurgles as life fled the body.

Pain. Levi was a messenger of pain. An avenging angel for his woman, even if she could never really be his…unless she could. Unless he slaughtered his rival and became lord, and then she'd really be his. How could she not want that kind of power? How could she—

"Stop!" Sobbing voice in his ear. Hands yanked at his shoulders, pulled him off the young lord. Levi grunted as he spun around, and found Petra. She held up her hands, trembling as she looked on him. "Stop, Captain! You'll kill him!" she screamed.

Levi grunted, and took a step forward. As he did, Petra shrieked again and stumbled backwards, hands out in front of her.

A protective gesture.

She was protecting herself…from him.

Levi paused, and looked down at his hands. Blood splattered up his arms, elbow deep, staining his shirt. His knuckles had split, and were bleeding. Drip, drip, drops of blood pattered on the carpet from his hands.

And Petra. She was on the ground, hands out, defending herself against the beast he'd become.

There was no light in her expression now. No desire in her gaze. Fear and disgust had replaced those sentiments.

He revolted her. He frightened her.

He had killed the love in her eyes.

Levi let his hands drop to his sides.

"I would never hurt you," he croaked. Petra's eyes widened in terror.

If a man had to say that to a woman, it was already too late.

She sat there, weeping, as men began to rush into the room. Levi barely noticed the Military Police as they surrounded him. As they ordered him to put up his hands. Karl moaned and wheezed behind him. He let the MPs bind his arms and lead him out of the room. He caught flashes of Petra as he walked out, Oruo suddenly there and comforting her, rocking her in his arms as she sobbed bitterly. He did not think to look back at Karl; at least he'd left the lord breathing.

It didn't matter, though. Levi had killed one of the few things in this world that had any value to him.

She'd looked at him with such fear.

I would never hurt you.

She'd tried to pull him off, to lead him away from vengeance and into her arms, but he had needed to take those steps into that dark room. He'd needed Karl's blood under his fingernails. He'd gotten what he wanted.

He'd lost everything.

"I need to clean up," he muttered. No one listened to him.

Time passed, though he did not know or care how much. He was sitting in a small room, some kind of parlor. How many damn parlors did one house need? This room had red walls, and a fire in the hearth. A few MPs were stationed around him, none of them in their uniforms. Everyone watched him out the corner of their eyes, like he was going to suddenly get up and start kicking asses.

Likely, Levi was going to prison. Erwin was going to be shorthanded. Levi closed his eyes. As bad as hurting Petra had been, disappointing Erwin was equally going to rip Levi's guts out. Why? Why did he keep doing this to the people he cared for the most?

A door opened, and that wispy looking punk Nile showed up. Erwin's rival, his old friend from training days. Tch. Levi knew that they'd both shared the same woman at one point. How any woman could want a milksop like Nile over Erwin Fucking Smith, he'd never know. Clearly, he did not understand women.

Clearly.

"Where's my squad?" Levi muttered when Nile pulled up a chair opposite him, looking grave. "Where's Erwin?"

"Captain Levi. It is my duty to inform you that you have violated one of the central tenets of our society. These actions cannot be condoned. You understand what I'm telling you?"

"Apparently you didn't hear me," Levi growled. Looked like beating up on a rich guy amounted to violating a sacred law, or some shit. "Where's my squad and Erwin?"

"Commander Smith is being informed of your current situation. Your three men are awaiting his arrival."

Levi frowned. "Three?"

"The fourth, Petra Ral, has been detained as an accomplice."

No. No. Levi clenched his teeth and rose to his feet. Everyone's breath in the room quickened; he heard it happen in unison. Nile placed his hand on the arm of his chair, ready to spring up.

"Accomplice to what? That shitbrained Morgenstern guy tried raping her," he growled.

"That is all speculative." Nile watched him warily; the guy spoke like some mealy-mouthed teacher at the front of a classroom, trying to drill big words into his students' heads. "It has been speculated that Miss Ral arranged a tryst with Lord Karl of her own accord. You found them out, and in a jealous rage—"

"That is horseshit. And even if it weren't, how's that make her an accomplice to kicking some rich guy's ass? Worst you can do is lock me up for a couple months, isn't it?" Levi leaned nearer to Nile. He had never liked this weedy guy, but now he downright despised him. "He was assaulting my subordinate. Maybe I went too far, and the bastard won't be pretty again, but—"

"You must be joking," Nile said flatly. Levi blinked.

"What're you talking about?" Dread began to build in his throat. Come to think of it, why…why were there so many MPs around this room?

"You murdered him, Captain." Nile scowled. "Lord Karl Morgenstern is dead."