Note : I apologize for not updating twice today like I normally do, but as an apology this chapters is over 4000 words and includes Levi in the end~
It wasn't long after the whispers of panic began to spread that an elderly man screamed for the attention of all the men and women around her…it was the commander. Elliot turned to look up at the man, Eren was right behind him and she went wide eyed for a moment looking over the two men. 'He's safe,' she thought to herself a small smile forming on her lips, her smile disappeared as the man introduced her friend though. 'A product of science…what the hell are they talking about?' she thought to herself, mind you she knew Eren did indeed have to power to transform into a titan, but she also knew he didn't even know about the ability. If he was some science guinea pig than she was pretty damn sure that he would have known about that, but no he was just as confused and lost as everyone else was the moment he transformed. Elliot bit her lower lip fists clenching at her sides, she could understand why people were leaving and saying 'fuck this' it only made sense to not believe something like that. Elliot unconsciously released her fist and gently reached out for Sasha's hand looking for some sort of comfort. As soon as her hand touched the other woman's she was abruptly pulled into a hug, Elliot took a small breath before hugging her friend back. "I'm so afraid, but I won't leave. You won't either, right Sasha?" Elliot asked smile forming on her lips despite her tear filled eyes as the woman nodded her head against her friend. More people continued to leave around them and Elliot flinched when the crazed man from earlier mentioned slaying people for treason. "Isn't there enough death already?!" Elliot cried out toward the crazed man from earlier, flinching when the man turned toward her and Sasha, but he was quickly knocked down a peg when the commander spoke up again.
No one would be charged with treason for leaving under his order and if that wasn't enough he even went on to keep talking of the purge from all those years ago. Elliot watched as men and women slowly got back into line all for different reasons she believed. "We'll make it through this, don't worry Sasha," she whispered softly against her friends shoulder as her tears and sobs came to a stop. Elliot slowly pulled away from her friends, 'No more tears,' she thought to herself, no it was time for her to get ready to pick up her sword and fight. She listened intently as the amazing commander gave his speech, this man was truly inspiring, it gave the young girl chills and she could do nothing but, stare in awe at the man before her. 'Yes, but I won't die here!' she thought to herself before placing her right hand over her heart before looking over at Sasha. "I have to go now, but I'll see you when this is all over!" Elliot said happily pulling her friend into a hug once more. She ran off as fast as her feet could take her through the moving crowd, everyone was getting prepared for battle but, she had someone she had to go and find. After a moment of searching she spotted the familiar dark haired boy with Jean and Connie. "Marco, when all this over I want to talk with you!" she said bowing quickly to the man before her and hiding her face because she was sure it was splashed a bright red color. Her response was a pair of warm arms wrapping around her and holding her upright. She almost cried at the feel of those arms around her quickly wrapping her own arms around him in return. "Alright, find me here once all this is through," he said but, his tone had a knowing ring to it. Elliot smiled against his chest before frantically nodding her head yes, she would tell him everything from her apology to the kiss she shared with Reiner to her feelings for Marco. He pulled away with a somewhat soft smile before leaning forward to gently kiss her, but she turned her head away, a goofy grin spreading across her lips. "Hey now! Not yet! Save it for when we win!" she cried out happily before pulling away to leave, she still hadn't been assigned to anything yet.
"I still don't get how we keep getting paired together!" she shouted toward a blond male that flew beside her, three others flew behind them Bertolt being one of them. "It's because we complete each other!" he called back earning him a laugh from the small girl beside him. "You two stop there! Two titans ahead!" came the male voice of the squad leader, the two of them stopped on a nearby rood, the other three landing with them. "I can distract them," Elliot spoke watching as the squad leader shook his head. "No, Jason can lead the distraction. I need someone quick on their feet and I'm not sure about your speed cadet," the leader said frowning a bit when he saw a pout cross Elliot's face. "With all due respect sir…" she was cut off though when the leader gave her a stern look and told Jason to lead the two titans to them. Elliot sat back away from the men as Jason led the two Titans to where they were hiding, but in the next second his screams were all they heard. Elliot quickly looked over form behind the large chimney they were hiding behind, the man having been grabbed by both his arms. "Shit, how do you fuck up being a decoy," she grumbled under her breath before firing her hooks over toward the two titans. She was faintly aware of Reiner and Bertolt following after her or how their squad leader yelled at the three of them to get back. "You won't make it in time!" Bertolt shouted as Jason was literally about to be dropped into the mouth of the Titan. Elliot shot a hook forward, the hook going through the man's leg just above the knee cap, as soon as it connected Elliot shot her opposite hook back against a building before using her body weight to pull back pulling the man from the titan's mouth. The man came crashing back into her screaming in pain and fear, pain because Elliot hadn't made it completely in time the titan having eaten his left arm and fear because he was almost just eaten. Elliot crashed back onto the roof with a painful groan escaping her lips as the man named Jason landed on top of her. She pushed him off of her and gasped her air feeling like all the air had been knocked out of her lungs. She then quickly looked over the older man, his chest was rising, but he seemed to have passed out. She slowly stood up just in time to have Bertolt and Reiner land beside her with two Titans starring down at them. "You two grab Jason and get back, I'll distract the titans and bring them over," she said quickly watching as the two boys nodded, Reiner gabbing the now one armed male before the two of them flew back into position with their cowardly leader. "God you guys are so ugly!" she yelled out toward the titans who slowly turned their attention to her. She raised a blade to point at the two of them and grinned as they approached her. "That's right, come right over here…a little closer," she said to them but, easily released her hooks once more and flew back some frowning a bit when she felt a bit of debris scrape passed her cheek as the bigger one's hand made impact with the roof she had just been on.
From there, she took off both titans following close on her tail but, with each grab they made she easily maneuvered herself out of it, with each twist, turn, flip, and taunt she made it closer to the point where her team was located. She eventually passed by the roof they were located on and grinned as she landed on the ground, turning around just in time to watch the two titans fall, Berotlt and Reiner landing behind them. "Jesus, how many titans does that make now?" Elliot asked grinning a bit when Reiner held up the number seven with his hands, but the moment was ruined when Bertolt noticed the red smoke in the sky. Elliot's eyes went wide before she shot to the roof with her leader and Jason, the two boys following quickly behind her. "What the…," Elliot started but, stopped when she heard her captain say they needed to get back over the wall now. Elliot nodded her head in agreement before giving another look toward the red smoke, 'I hope everyone is still alive,' she thought to herself taking off after the rest of her squad but, she quickly caught up. "He's losing a lot of blood, we need to h-!" her squad captain called out, but just at that exact moment an abnormal leapt through the air taking the captain and Jason with him to a building not far from them. Elliot made a movement to go after them, but stopped when she heard Reiner call out behind her. "They're already dead!" he said rushing to Elliot's side as she tumbled across a roof, shock having settled in and causing her to misstep her landing. "Guys! Move now!" Bertolt called over toward the two before taking off himself, he was right the three of them needed to get over the wall. Reiner grabbed Elliot by her arm and quickly pulled her to her feet, "Get your shit together," he said lightly shaking her, Elliot nodded her head slowly, shock still clear in her eyes. She knew this was no time to be panicking though, she blinked a few times trying to clear the shock from her face before she took off, jumping from the roof and shooting forward. Reiner of course followed quickly behind her, it wasn't long after that that the two of them made it to the top of the wall, Bertolt waiting for them.
Elliot slumped over as soon as her feet hit the surface of the wall taking a breath of air to calm her nerves. "I'm still alive big brother," she said softly raising her arm up and looking over the leather strap. She smiled a bit at the strap hardly aware of how Reiner was pulled aside by Bertolt. "What the hell you yanking on me for?" the blond male asked his friend, he was about to go and comfort Elliot, but his tall friend had other plans in mind. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you, but you need to stop distracting yourself with her or its going to affect our mission," he spoke, voice low and eyes darting around to make sure no one was paying attention to them, thankfully no one was since everyone was too panicked over the whole 'red smoke'. Reiner was about to say something but, stopped when he felt a hand tug at his sleeve. Elliot had moved from her spot and slowly moved over toward the boys, she hadn't heard a thing they were discussing, but she had her own things she wanted to talk about…namely with Reiner. "Hey Reiner, can we um –," she stopped herself though when she heard someone yell out 'look'. Elliot slowly turned her attention away from Reiner and in the direction of where everyone else seemed to be looking. Her eyes nearly bugging out of her sockets the moment she saw the boulder moving through the city. "Eren...," she whispered to herself before putting on a large grin, she was so happy they were alright, but with Eren moving the boulder now she knew it was time to get a move on herself. "Forget about it, I'll talk with you later. Right now, I think we should get back out there!" she said happily before taking a running jump from the wall, leaving the boys to stare at where she once stood. "Damn, she's still as gutsy as ever," Reiner said ignoring how Berotlt scoffed beside him. "Well, we better go back her up," Bertolt spoke sighing a bit as Reiner shot a toothy grin his way before both boys took the same running jump Elliot had. Just like that, the three of them were heading back into battle.
"I'll be the distraction!" Elliot called out to her two comrades from behind her laughing when she heard Reiner's response. "Nah! I thought this time I could be the distraction and you could deal the killing blow!" he said sarcastic thick in his voice, but he soon found himself smiling when he heard her laughter. The two boys pulled back a little and watched as Elliot connected with the titan and flew straight for its head. She slashed at its eyes before releasing some gas to flip on top of its head, laughing victoriously before the two boys shot passed her. Reiner throwing his hooks back and connecting with the titan before flying toward its weakness. Bertolt flying further ahead to kill a titan with its back turned toward them. Elliot shot off from the titans head before landing onto a nearby roof to catch a quick breather. The two boys she was more than familiar with quickly landing beside her as well. "You would make such an impressive soldier if you could cut deep enough to kill a titan," Bertolt said from her left side watching as she turned to smile at him, sweat forming at her brow and for some reason, Bertolt found himself smiling lightly at the female as well. "Well maybe you should help me train!" she said happily before pointing her sword out toward another titan that was a bit far off, but it was the closest to them. "Found our next target! Come on we need to keep moving toward the wall!" she said happily before running on foot to jump to the next roof, not using her 3D gear to save herself some gas.
Reiner cut through yet another titan, god knows how many they had killed or ran from at this point and it seemed like they weren't any closer to Eren and the others. The closer they got, the more titans they seemed to run into, but it wasn't long before the yellow smoke shot into the sky, the trio looking up, Elliot was sitting down on the roof exhausted when the two boys landed beside her. "C-Can we go back now?" she asked voice shaking, she was so exhausted from all the running and maneuvering she had to do as the distraction. "Yeah, we can head back now," Reiner said offering a hand toward the girl, but eyes slightly widening when Bertolt did the same. Elliot smiled tears forming at the edge of her eyes as she took the hands of both boys and allowed them to lift her from the floor. It wasn't long before the three of them were traveling back over the wall and Elliot soon remembered her promise to Marco, she grinned ear to ear forgetting about her exhaustion for a moment. "Hey, I'll catch up with you boys later!" she called out happily before flying away from the boys. "Wasn't she just tried?" Bertolt asked eyeing Reiner who only laughed a bit at her behavior, she really was full of energy but, she defiantly needed that for the role she was given in a squad.
Elliot smiled happily as she skidded to a stop in the place she had promised to meet Marco once all was said and done. Her heart was pounding hard against her chest as she thought about her words for Marco. She stood like that waiting for a long time, but no Marco came by, but still no Marco came. She froze, a thought coming to mind, was he still over the wall with those titans? She could feel her heart pound against her chest for a whole new reason now and before she could comprehend what she was doing she was moving to the top of the wall. There she quickly replaced her gas tanks and made a running lead off the wall and back into the battlefield. She knew most of the titans were being fired upon near one of the walls, but she also knew that a few other titans still roamed around…stragglers she called them. She also knew that only the elite were supposed to be here at the moment, wiping out those stragglers. That hardly mattered to her though, she was running on adrenaline at the moment, eyes darting everywhere to try and find Marco. She came landing on the ground a few times when she saw a corpse that could have been him, but so far she had no luck…or maybe it was luck in itself that none of those corpses were him. She had no idea what she might do if she found Marco dead…he just couldn't be dead…she still needed him. She couldn't stand the thought of losing someone else she loved. She stopped though, hiding behind a chimney on the roof when she spotted a nice sized Titan. She was going to make a run for it in another direction, but a body caught her eyes and she felt her body run cold. It seemed like her heart had stopped for a moment. A few feet in front of the titan was the body of the man she loved. She felt her fingers tighten against her blade before she sent a heated glare over toward the titan that was currently on march toward her dead lover. She knew he would walk right passed him, but her anger was too much for her to handle. She didn't want that thing anywhere near the body of Marco, it didn't deserve to even walk beside him for a second.
"Finally the last one," a dark haired man said setting his eyes on a slow moving titan, it wasn't all too large but, size didn't really matter when it came to a titan. The man changed his course toward the titan moving quickly to finish the job, green cloak blowing in the wind behind him. He readied his blades, hands gripping tight to them, but in the next moment someone shot passed him and he could only blink in surprise watching as the small figure shouted out in rage. "Don't you dare take another step you ugly shit!" Elliot yelled at the top of her lungs gaining the attention of the titan rather easily, it turned to her, lips pulled upward forever in a smile. The titan quickly raised a hand to grab her, but Elliot easily flipped out of its way before aiming her hooks to a nearby building, she landed easily before once more shooting forward this time behind the titan, hooks have retracted and were once more shot forward connecting with the building across from her. She pushed herself forward even faster before she raised her blades and sliced clean through the titan's neck, a large chunk of flesh falling from the titan's weak spot. She landed safely on the roof, blood splattered on her jacket and dying a bit of her hair red, the steam quickly rising. The titan fell to the ground with a loud crash, dead the moment Elliot's blades sliced through, but she was far too preoccupied with traveling down to the building to care about the titan she had just killed for the first time. Elliot ran the last few feet to Marco, unaware of the pair of gray eyes that were staring her down. Elliot looked down at him, red eyes large and in shock filling with tears. "No…it's not real, this is just a dream" she whispered, body trembling as she closed her eyes and quickly shook her head in denial of his death. "When I open my eyes…he won't be there, I'll wake up in my bed…yeah, that's it…in my bed," Elliot spoke, fists clenched at her sides, she was afraid to open her eyes. Elliot was completely unaware to her surroundings that included the short corporal that came up from behind her watching the scene unfold in front of him. He was honestly confused, but from what he could tell, this woman knew the corpse of the man before them.
Elliot finally gained the courage to open her eyes and sure enough Marco still lay there before her, lifeless eyes downcast. "If this is a joke Marco, it isn't funny…you can't….you," she said losing her voice with every word and by this point Levi couldn't stand watching this girls denial anymore. He raised a hand, grasping her shoulder, but to his surprise the white haired female turned around and threw herself against him, burying her face into the crook of his neck and crying against him. Levi cringed as the girls tears fell onto his own flesh, but he made no attempt to push the woman away though he desperately wanted to. He had no idea what to do as this unknown girl cried on him, he obviously couldn't just push her away and tell her to get a hold of herself. He highly doubted any kind of speech or words would make it through to this girl right now, but he also wasn't about to wrap her up in his arms and tell her everything was alright…no, that just was not happening. Levi was just about to finally push her away almost at his breaking point, but froze fingers gently touching the fabric of her jacket. "Why is it that I'm always the one to live? Why do the living always have to suffer through carrying the weight of the dead?" she asked, her voice nothing more than a whisper as her hands gently clutched at his clothes. Levi slowly wrapped an arm awkwardly around her back but, the girl seemed to only break down in more tears at his kind gesture.
As more time went on, Elliot began to quiet down and slowly she pulled away, eyes looking toward the man who put up with her sobs for the last few minutes. Elliot felt her breath catch in the back of her throat though when her eyes settled on his own eyes…gray, just like her brothers. She swallowed down on a lump in her throat before bowing slightly and thanking him. "Tch, brat, what the hell are you doing here anyways?" he asked watching as the woman only smiled lightly at him, but he could still see the sadness in her eyes. "I told this man I would meet him after all this was over, but he never came. I got scared and came searching over the wall for him…I was right to be afraid," she muttered under her breath kneeling in front of Marco and raising a hand to gently brush against his bangs, his form was grotesque but, she still couldn't pull her eyes away from him. "I loved him so much and yet…I never got to tell him that at the end just like with….," she muttered under her breath trailing off at the image of her brothers back. She slowly pulled her hand away and stood up straight to look over at the man she was with once more. "Oh yeah, I'm Cadet Elliot Falkenrath," she said before quickly saluting the man before her. "Levi Ackerman," he responded before turning away from the girl missing how her jaw nearly hit the floor when she heard his name. She wanted to make a big deal out of meeting him, but she held it back. "I look forward to working under you then Corporal," she spoke but, her voice was quiet, so far from her normal loud self that always hung out with Reiner and Sasha. Levi turned toward her raising a curious brow, 'so, she's joining the scouts then,' he thought to himself, thinking back to just a moment ago when she actually managed to impress him with that speed of hers. There was no arguing with her skill using the 3D gear, but her cut against the titan was shallow, barely enough to kill one and that cut had been fueled with her rage and hatred for the loss of her lover. It was a lucky shot the dark haired male estimated, 'She'll have to work on her physical strength,' he thought to himself before telling her that they needed to leave. "I don't want to leave him behind though, not only because he was the man I loved but, because he was one of my comrades in arms," she spoke, stopping him in his tracks, he understood the feeling of not wanting to leave a comrade behind all too well but, right now was not the time he had to regroup with his squad and he doubted she could carry this man on her shoulders over the wall. "We'll come back for him," he said simply, sighing a bit when the woman nodded slightly toward him. "Thank you," she muttered under her breath before watching him take off. She took one last look toward Marco, "I love you," she whispered biting back tears before she took off herself to catch up with Levi, which was easier said than done.