This chapter will be a bit action packed and introduce more OC's. Enjoy :)
"Any familiar faces Levi?" Commander Erwin smiled down at him.
Levi glanced over towards the prisoners who heaved and groaned at ropes as they were dragging the titan training dummies over the hilly terrain.
"Maybe".
There were indeed a few known thugs and thieves. Straight from the underground to prison - and now in training for the Survey Corps - petty fools they were. Not knowing which misfortune was greater, he wondered if he'd be standing where they were now if Erwin hadn't recruited him back then.
"You shouldn't make this a habit"
"You think it's too late for them to change? There is hope for everyone and I'm sure we will find some untapped potential. I know you don't want the responsibility but I can't think of anyone better for the job."
The stinging sensation of denial formed a clot in his throat but Levi knew that he was right. Growing up in the underground, dreaming of gaining citizenship on the surface, he and his two friends had taken a job from a stranger that was going to make their dreams come true. They were to be caught by Erwin in order to infiltrate the Survey Corps and assassinate him. Instead, he found both of his friends ripped apart into pieces by titans on their first expedition. With nothing else left to live for, he decided to follow a man with implacable determination and the unclouded vision of humanity's salvation. Erwin Smith.
"Tch, … whatever", he snorted and turned away.
By the looks of it Erwin was the only one who harboured a positive attitude towards any of this. The hard labour was the cause of much swearing, snarling and grunting amongst the prisoners.
A heavyset lad at the front, strong enough to pull an entire wood armature by himself, led them on. Siegfried Liebermann, a notorious thug back in his day, though well respected and loved by many. He was a mountain of a man, and strong as an ox, but with a soft smile and a tender heart. "Pull, ya fat, lazy bastards", he shouted in a deep roaring voice, getting the odd cheap laugh out of some, and murderous stares from others.
"Ey sweet darling your hand looks heavy, shall I hold it for you?", a scruffy looking short man shouted, mocking a fellow trainee who was struggling with the load. There was laughter again, but the man on the receiving end remained oblivious to the mockery. He was tall and slender with a handsome face, his waist-length silver-blonde hair wavering and glistening in the sun. He stood out with the bizarre magnificence of a diamond on a dung-heap.
"Had a horse with a beautiful mane like yours, a fierce beast but nothing a gentle touch couldn't tame", another beside him spoke and reached out towards the tall man's head just as Levi's grappling-hook shot past him with half an inch distance sending splinters flying as it pierced through a nearby tree. He pulled himself forward effortlessly and landed right behind them. Immediate silence then - no need for violence; "Good," Levi thought. Didn't have to get his hands dirty again. He glanced around to check whether anyone else wanted trouble and caught Nina watching them. Her face was expressionless and she turned away and went back to work as soon as their eyes met. She seemed to be more cooperative than Levi regarded her to be. No doubt there were a lot of people who were against recruiting prisoners charged with felonies but Erwin was vehement about giving her a chance. Her file hadn't even stated how many titan kills she had in the past but if Erwin was going to take a risk with her, it was surely for a good reason.
[Training Square - 3D manoeuvre practice]
All eyes were on the ever emerging silhouette which displayed this unfathomable performance of inhuman agility, quick and yet so graceful as if the wind itself had materialized. While he moved he hadn't sliced a single titan dummy. When he landed Levi saw that he was the same person who got bullied earlier on the square.
"Who is he?" Levi asked the military guard beside him who took notes on his clipboard.
"Vincent Valentin, 27 years old. Former blacksmith and skilled craftsman of 3D manoeuvre gear. He is part of that terroristic group who call themselves freedom fighters. They carried out attacks on the royal government and members of the military police.
"How many did he kill?"
"None", the police guard replied.
"Shame." Levi puffed and walked towards Vincent, leaving the man beside him baffled.
"Oi, what's up with you not using your swords, you think they're there for show?", he called out to him.
"No, Sir", Valentin replied with a straight face.
"Then why are you wasting our time by lapping around the place aimlessly?"
"It's not my fighting style, Captain."
"What's this nonsense you shitty brat, you think the titans will drop dead if you blow them a kiss?".
A wave of laughter swept through the crowd but Valentin seemed deadly serious.
"No Sir, before I was in captivity I was developing a long ranged weapon that suited my fighting style and elevated my kill potential. I would like to confer with Squad Leader Hanji about taking up my old work so I can be put to use as a soldier.
"Hanji isn't here right now. Grab a pair of dusters and clean the castle windows until the next part of the practice session."
The rest of the practice dragged on without any further incidents. Most of them had shown average skill. Levi had high expectations for Nina but at the end of the practice session he couldn't see Erwin's reason for taking on a difficult case like her. She had no grace and kept relentlessly dashing and crashing into the titan dummies as she moved through the terrain, all whilst using up way too much gas. The only thing she excelled at was using her swords, but even then she lacked refinement and dulled her blades with unnecessarily deep cuts, more a lumberjack hacking away at wood than a trained soldier slicing the crucial weak point at the nape.
They next stage was teamwork assessment.
"You will be split into groups of four. There are three locations and three flags, each of the locations is a hill on which a flag has been mounted. It will be your group's task to take the flag and hold it for as long as possible and to fight titans on your way. Do not take it for a game, for your performance will play a big part in your suitability assessment. It should go without saying that you are not to inflict harm on your fellows and competing soldiers, you are not to take the flags by brute force but with agility and mental acuity. The failure of a trainee to comply with these conditions will be punished in a manner consistent with the severity of their transgression."
Two large men, one mid 40's and the other late 20's, Nina guessed, possessing completely opposing body shapes, had joined her group. The young thin one was prettier than all the prisoners combined, not that it really meant anything here. His ridiculous good looks and elegance plus the idiotic exchange with Levi had made him the laughing stock within the first day.
"My name is Siegfried but you can all call me Sigi" the boulder beside him replied, warmly smiling at the newly met people as if he had known them for years.
He then turned to the other man "You fly like you were born with the gear, it was a great performance, I've seen people with amazing skills in the underground but you don't see that every day".
Nina stretched out her hand towards Sigi; "Thanks, name's Wenning, 'tis a pleasure".
Sigi chuckled and Valentin looked at her unimpressed.
"Relax. I'm not stealing your thunder it was a joke", she hissed.
"Vincent Valentin", he smiled an unexpected smile, "the pleasure is all mine". Nina couldn't tell whether he was being sarcastic or not.
She turned around looking for the fourth person whose presence they had almost forgotten about. An individual smaller than Nina and probably even smaller than Levi was stood a good distance away from them, Nina reckoned they were late 30's or early 40's. Its gender, though, was harder to deduce. He or she had creamy brown skin, shaved sides, jet black hair with several white strands that showed their age and granite grey eyes that looked at the sky above them oblivious to their surroundings. Nina looked at their chest for hints but even though it was flat , the eyes seemed too feminine to belong to a man.
"Dude, what even are you?", she demanded blatantly.
The person's eyes immediately shot at Nina's with curiosity as if she hadn't realised that there were other people until then.
They opened their mouth to speak a few words in a strange sounding tongue that Nina couldn't understand, then turned around. There were certain regional dialects but Nina couldn't make sense of what she had just heard and the voice didn't give her any leads towards the question she had asked, so she gave up.
"You have 5 minutes to discuss tactics with your team", a guard shouted.
Sigi took charge immediately and instructed them. It was a no-brainer that Valentin, with his excellent manoeuvre skills, should be the one to carry the flag. Nina volunteered to take out anyone who came close to him, Sigi was going to lead the way and make decisions and the stranger, who hadn't said another word, nodded when Sigi asked if they could deal with the titans.
They had agreed to let Vincent go alone, they would have held him back otherwise. They flew after him as well as they could but he had already become a small dot. When they reached a clearing Vincent had already taken a blue flag and shot back.
"Duck", Sigi shouted when he saw a man flying towards Valentin. He immediately shot one hook down and the other 90 degrees off to a tall tree and dodged diagonally.
"Assume Glide formation!" He sounded more like an army veteran than your common thug. Sigi was at the front, Valentin moved after him, now at the same speed as them, worn out from holding the flag. Nina looked out for enemies on the right, nothing, she looked to her left to which the stranger was assigned - nothing.
"Shit". They hadn't noticed that she was gone now it was up to them. She turned when she heard a whizzing sound. A group was approaching quickly.
"Raise attitude". Sigi shot at a very large tree and pulled himself up". The pursuers had closed the gap and were only a few yards back now. Nina shot a hook at both sides and broke immediately leaving her mid-air for a few seconds. The person behind her rammed into her rope at full speed and landed hard on the floor. One shot past her but two more were approaching. She saw Vincent and Sigi take a left turn and moved up and into the trees to the left watching them move towards a titan dummy that appeared out of nowhere. She had to be fast and she would have to use a lot of gas. When Sigi took out his swords to cut the nape the guy from the other team who had escaped Nina was quicker, but it seemed like he wasn't done. He went after Valentin's rope but when he realised that he couldn't catch up turned to Sigi. Nina rammed her shoulder into the guy pushing him aside.
"The other two?", Vincent asked.
Nina looked back and saw a dozen people approaching like bloodhounds. There was another flag holder to their right and the group behind them split into two, though there seemed to be more people coming after them.
Valentin kept going without turning back "Six more, what do we do?" his raised voice.
"Don't worry, just save your breath and follow me", Sigi shouted back.
They made a sharp turn and Nina felt her strength fading, her arms, not used to this much physical activity, felt weak and wanted to give away like jelly. Her hair was taken by the wind of a figure that flew past her and she nearly crashed into a tree. She managed to dodge him but collided with a heavy branch, the pain shooting through every joint in her arm. Now they were surely done for. Three of them were circling them and took turns attacking Vincent and Siegfried. Another was beaming at Vincent with a bloodthirsty boasting. Nina cried out in pain when she attempted to go after them.
It all happened really fast, the stranger who was supposed to flank them from the left of the formation emerged from out of nowhere behind one of the attackers and put her arms around him removing his gear then disappeared with him. They kept dodging the remaining two when a minute later the same happened to the other one, only leaving the small one who still had a murderous expression as he stalked Valentin.
The man was after blood and he withdrew his swords charging towards the front. Nina bit down the pain and screamed using the last of her power to stop him but he was too fast for her. The man turned his blade and used the hilt to ram it into Valentines ankle. They spun mid-air and both of them hit the floor tumbling a few yards before they stopped. Valentin ignored the blood that soaked through his trousers and shoes and immediately gave the flag to Siegfried who had landed beside him, urging him to go on. Siegfried tossed it aside and knelt down checking his wounds. The aggressor reached out for it but Nina was faster this time. She seized it and slammed it into his stomach, planted her foot onto his chest pushing him on the floor.
The thick smell of iron in the air made her blood surge in her ears and raised her hackles. The man before her squinted in pain, his panting sending a sweaty shiver down her back. She growled like an animal through gritted teeth, tried hard to suppress the erratic rage boiling within her, fists clenched so hard her knuckles turned white. It was pointless. She blindly lunged at the man with a head-butt that immediately knocked him out, hitting the unconscious man with her fists as she felt getting dragged back by a strong force. She wanted to rip him apart, tear him into pieces and work him into mash. Sigi's strong arms were around her, as she tried to break free, she felt the pain of her finger breaking, but it was but a soft tingling to her. With her left hand she managed to shoot a hook and broke free of his strong grip pulled herself forward and flew headfirst into a tree. Everything went black.
[Erwin's Office]
"And all this time I thought people couldn't get crazier than Hanji. You knew about her condition and you still won't have her confined?", Levi asked.
Erwin's stern expression eased into a crooked smile "it's part of my reasoning bringing her here".
"Not that the rat didn't deserve it but she would have beaten him into a coma if Siegfried hadn't stopped her, was that part of your reasoning too?"
There was a pause before Erwin spoke again.
"No, having someone strong like Siegfried to hold her back was"
"So you'll count on him being there all the time?", Levi demanded.
"No... But you will - plus I know you can dispose of her", Erwin coldly replied.
"With Eren, that's two people I need to ... babysit" Levi crossed his arms, hesitated a bit then broke the silence "I need to know what I'm dealing with."
"Do as you please, it's not like you to ask for my permission" He raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
"I'm not asking for your premission, I might kill her, just letting you know." Without waiting for his response, Levi rushed out of the room and hurried down the dark corridor. The castle felt haunted at night. The walls were covered with grotesque paintings and some of the rooms still had strange devices that looked like they were used for torture. It was an old asylum after all, but he wished they could have atleast gotten rid of the creepy furnishing that was impossible to clean.
He opened the door without bothering to knock. Nina looked up at him, she was topless, her chest strapped back with bandages. He saw something he hadn't noticed before when he had freed her from the straitjacket. Scars and tearings of many magnitudes, different shapes and shades were all-over her arms and shoulders.
"Come with me", he blurted out.
He had expected her to ask questions or disobey, but she did neither and put her clothes on and followed him.
"Can you ride?"
She nodded. He took two horses from the stables and they made their way to the forest. The moon glinted on the edge of Levi's sword hilts. He was fully equipped but hadn't asked Nina to wear her gear. It was a silent journey and Nina didn't know why but it had felt as if it could be her last one. She had the same feeling when she was dragged into the court room waiting for judgement to be bestowed upon her. Hearing that she had beaten someone unconcsious without even having any recollection of it was not a one of a kind experience for her.
They reached a clearing when the night had become the darkest, at a spot that looked like the only one the moonlight could reach through the thick forest. The mesmerising beauty of this place was reminiscent of a scenery from a fairytale, though the situation she was in unfortunately wasn't. Levi helped her off her horse but immediatly pushed her down to the floor. He withdrew his sword and glanced down at her.
Was it truly the last face she would ever see? She didn't know why she was thinking this now but he perfectly blended in with the surroundings. His liquored eyes had a strange melancholic beauty to them, she knew she should have feared her reaper but at this moment he looked truly devine.
She wanted to accept her faith but the loud thumping of her heart proved that she was just as scared of dying as everyone else.
The mist rose when he moved closer. He put his hand on her head and tilted it back. Nina looked directly at the moon now. Don't be such a fucking coward just bare with it soon you'll be truly free and released from this flesh prison, she thought to herself.
"Now" Levi hissed and drew his sword closer. He put his thumb on her forehead and slowly ran it against the sharp edge of his blade. She felt the warm sticky wetness of his blood running down her face.
"Show me what you got."
Sorry for the cliffhanger everyone. As always don't forget to follow/favourite/ review 3
