Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Attack on Titan characters except for my own added original characters.

Note: I decided to change a few things in the chapter nothing major and I did try to fix some spelling error, but I make no promises that there won't be any mistakes because I am human and a bad editor.

Chapter 12

The wooden door creaked open as I entered Levi's cabin. The fresh smell of mint tea penetrated the room as steam rose from the tea cups places on the table. Three men were present, two were standing, one was sitting at the far edge of the table. The room looked rather spacious given its small appearance on the outside. Of course the lack of furniture did well to aid that. The living room was at the entrance of the door and at the left the living room seemed to blend into the kitchen. There was an opening between both sides in which I believed lead to the bedroom and bathroom.

Levi noticed me as soon as I entered and directed his eyes towards me. "Sit." I did as commanded and sat across Erwin, who at the moment was drinking from his tea cup. As I sat down Pixis coughed, trying to break the silence. The insides of my stomach were stirring with worry. I felt like just bursting.

"Um, Erwin, about tonight's sponsor party…"

"You're not going." He set his tea cup onto the table and looked at me with a serious. cold stare.

"Why not!" I jumped to my feet pushing the wooden chair back and and into a tumbling fall. The scrapping of the chair's legs against the floor and the clattering sound of it's fall filled in the gaping void of silence.

Erwin eyed ,my standing form as he contemplated his next set of words. "You remember what were the conditions given to you. I order for you to come here you agreed to no special treatment. I believe this classifies as special treatment."

I stared at him as he took yet another sip of his tea. I struggled to bite back my tongue and restrain myself from acting before thinking. He was right. I did agree to this, but no, it's not the fucking time to bring out technicalities. My window of opportunity was closing fast and if I wanted Erik out of my life and under control I need his permission to attend.

I glanced at Pixis, who was leaning besides a window, arms crossed and looking rather focused in our current conversation. Levi was also leaning against the wall, standing directly behind the sitting Erwin. His head was bowed, and his arms were crossed. He looked asleep.

Looking back at Erwin I balled my hand into fists. I'm not giving up that easily. I took a deep, silent breath and looked into Erwin's eyes. "I know I agreed to this term, but right now is not the time to be thinking about technicalities. Instead I like you to weigh out your options."

"My options?" Levi's head raised up. "Are you saying that I should sent you, a recruit, to a sponsor party meant for only officials. A gathering meant to be the last chance to persuade sponsors into funding our military operations." Erwin's posture never changed as he calmly stated the facts.

I nodded. "You recruited me because you could see some value in me, not because you pitied me, but because you knew you could use me, and so here I am. Use me." Erwin stared into my eyes. "I promise you that I can get every single sponsor in that party to fund in one way or another towards the Survey Corps."

"That's quite the bold statement young lady." Dot Pixis removed himself from the wall and stood next to Erwin. "You can't back out now."

"I won't. I've got nothing to left to lose." My resolve was made, no backing out.

"With this I take it you've agreed to be my puppet." Again with that eerie calmness Erwin takes another sip of his tea.

"Yes."

"Then congratulations Sina, you've just sold your soul to the Survey Corps." Erwin smiles, and Levi detached himself from the wall and takes Erwin's now empty cup away.

I shook my head slightly. "No, I've never had a soul to begin with."

…..

Upon having returned from Levi's cabin one problem was almost resolved, but to achieve resolution to all my troubles I had one more task to finish. Lunch had already ended, and I walked towards my group training in combat formations. The stares of the people in the unit burned my back as I walked forward, face up, back straight, just like my mother taught me. The wind brushed by my face sending loose strands of hair to my face. One got into my eye and I had to pull it away as it started to sting. I finally reached the commander in charge and handed him the note given to me by Erwin. He unfolded it and as he read it his expression transformed. His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows knitted themselves together. "What is the meaning of this?"

"What do you mean sir?"

"What do I mean? Why are you being given permission to attend the sponsor party?"

"Well, commander Pixis asked me if I would like to accompany him as his date to the party, and I thought 'sure why not'. So yes, I'll be going." He didn't like it, he could see through it, him and all the eyes staring. They didn't know what was conspiring around them, but they knew one thing, and that was that I was being treated differently, in a special way.

"I'll be sure to pass this on so the other commanders as well." He was angry, but did I care? No. Not really..

Among the masses of recruits I found Aki and Jeremiah practicing and hurried to join them. As I got closer I saw Aki being lifted up in the air and thrown to the ground face first. "Oh, looky what we got here. Miss Sina finally decided to join us!" Jeremiah smiled at me with that crooked smile.

"Hey Sina." Aki's voice came out muffled as he spoke with his face still planted on the ground. I reached for him and pulled him up by grabbing hold of the hair on his scalp and flipping him on his back.

"You need to be more careful. I don't want you getting hurt." Aki's face flushed red as his glasses were barely hanging on his face, the one crack on his lense from when we first met was still there. I placed my hands on him and started to brush the dirt away from his cheeks and shirt.

"Well aren't you two getting all cozy together." Aki's face grew so bright, I thought he was going to die.

"Stop it Jeremiah. He's hurt."

"Awe, come on. He can take care of himself ya know." Yeah he was right. I glanced at Aki's tomato face and smiled, he has shown me that he can be strong.

"How about you let him rest though, and take me on?" I stood from my sitting position next to Aki, and stood face to face with Jeremiah.

"Ho ho, so ya think ya can beat me." He stood in front of me and looked me in the eyes. "I'll have ya know that I was one famous fellow back home. The kids would run away at the sound of my name. No one, and I mean no one messes with the Lesli!"

"Lesli?"

"Yeah, it's pretty cool huh? The kids gave me that nickname. They told me it meant destroyer in some ancient language." He spoke with such sureness it felt as if it were true.

"I'm not the smartest person, but I'm sure that just means Lesli."

Jeremiah took one step closer, irritation evident in his eyes. "Are ya calling me a liar?"

"No…. let's..let's just fight." This was getting awkward.

"Get ready to meet your maker missy!"

…

I lost. I fucken I lost! It was the first time I've ever lost in combat training! I was fuming. "Come on Sina don't get mad. You can have a rematch tomorrow."

At the moment I was sitting outside the locker room fresh out of the shower. I just couldn't get over it. Me loose to… to Lesli? I sighed, in relinquishment.

"Aki, you know tonight I'll be going to the sponsor party with commander Dot Pixie." I looked up to meet Aki's gaze.

"Yeah, I know. All the guys in the showers were talking about it." He paused for a second, as if hesitating whether or not he was going to continue. "They say you're probably sleeping with the commanders because you're getting so much special treatment… But… but I don't think so! I told them so too! I said that it's because you're a really nice person so...so they are being nice to you too and...and..." He's face was red.

"Aki, I'm not sleeping with anyone, don't worry. You don't always have to defend me."

"But if someone says mean things about Sina how can I stay quiet?" Aki you're such a nice person.

"Aki, I think it's time I tell you everything."

Aki's eyes grew wide and so he sat next to me as I told him the story from start to finish.

"Do you hate me?"

"No."

"Even though I don't care about my parents, or that I burned away my little sister's dead body, or that I sold myself away to the military?"

"Sina, I could never hate you. I can't say much about your parents because I've never met them, but I can tell you loved your sister, and this may be selfish of me to say, but I'm glad you ended up here. If you hadn't, we would've never met. If you never had joined I'd probably still be stuck between those two buildings. I'm happy that I got to met you, without you I still be too weak to stand up for myself." I smiled. His words were as sincere as always, that's a part of Aki that I can't help, but appreciate. His words never make me doubt, there is never an ulterior motive to what he says.

"Thank you." I stood up from my sitting position and smiled down at Aki. "I have to go get ready now, but Aki you've never been weak. If you were able to withstand all that taunting, all that bullying without quitting, without being consumed by anger and fear, that just makes you the strongest person I've ever known," and with that I ran towards my cabin to get ready leaving behind a wide eyed Aki.