Humans are not meant long for this world. It is so easy to erase them from existence, so easy for all their life's achievements to be blown away with out a second thought and gone with the wind. Even their castle can fall, eventually fading into ashes and dust just like everything else.

Levi supposes that was their appeal in the cosmic scheme of things, but he has to call bullshit on the notion. It could never match the beauty of something that could stand the test of time.

To be more accurate, he should say "who" instead. For Petra lives up to every standard her name holds for her. No matter the situation she is a rock, steady and firm. Despite her kind and caring attitude, she never wavers in her mission. Her emotions don't hinder her, but fuel her to seek justice. She is ferocious when needed, but remains soft in a world that demands hearts be hardened. He is in awe of her to say the least. Combine this with the fact that by some holy grace she returned his affections? He can't help but believe she will endure forever. It is foolish, but some believe in an almighty god, he simply believes in her more.

He is not blind to that fact that Petra is painfully human. But that makes her all the more unbreakable in his eyes. She stumbles and falls, but gets back up every time. She bleeds like everyone else but grits her teeth and accomplish the impossible so that no one has to die today. She sleeps in and has to run around like a chicken with her head cut off in the mornings. She snores and hog covers and hums sweet melodies while she sweeps and gets angry over little things and gossips and curses and drinks with the rest of the squad and does a million other things that don't match up to the "pure" image he has seen others try to place on her. She is a star, living her life to the fullest and burning as brightly as possible.

But despite his delusions, Petra eventually burns out. Those hazel eyes dim and never light up again. Her skin grows cold and her chest fails to ever rise again. Her corpse is abandoned for the titans and so her grave marking sits upon and empty plot of land.

There is pain for the first few years after her death. Levi can barely look her father in the eye. he can barely look back on old memories of the times they were happy. But when life finally slows down for him and he is able to grieve properly, he finally realizes something.

She may be gone, but she lives on in the hearts of all her loved ones. And that is not counting the lives she saved or even the little meetings in her existence that she didn't even remember. She left her mark on the world, and it can never be erased.

So he learns to be able to go through her old items the next of kin didn't want. He visits her father and tries not to be as socially awkward as he usually is around strangers.

Petra can live on forever, he just needs to not let her physical death stop her.


A.N. Think of this as a counterpart to yesterday's piece, that one was about grief and this is about healing