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Content Warning: Moving forward this story will be taking a darker theme. AOT does not shy away from these themes and neither will this story. I won't be able to put a content warning before each chapter so please be warned if things such as major character death, suicide, and self harm are things that trigger you.

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Part 2: The Elite Soldier

Chapter 9

One Year Later

Willow's heart races as she runs with all the force in her body towards the incoming Titan. She looks up at the ugly giants approaching her with dead eyes and a smile that reaches its ears. She shoots her grappling hook into its shin and skates on the ground before flinging herself to the back of the Titan's heel, slashing it expertly. From here, she propels herself up its back, digging her sword into its skin on the way up. Her sword shatters as she pulls out of its skin, she quickly replaces her blades, twisting her sword in her hands and lays on her gas, launching her with greater force towards the nape of the Titan's neck. She brings her two swords to her face and digs them into the mound on the nape of the neck. The Titan reels and she twists her sword, expertly taking over the Titan's body.

Captain Malik attaches his hook on the back of the Titans neck and propels himself to stand next to her. He places his hand behind the Titan's ear to stabilize himself while she moves the Titan to her intended target. She steps towards the horde of nine Titans in her horizon. She swallows hard, knowing that the more they add for her to attack at once, the harder it is on her. She wipes the sweat accumulating on her forehead as she presses the Titan to charge forward.

The Titan clashes with the first victim, punching it with great force that decapitates it. Another Titan retaliates and punches Willow's. She holds on tightly and Malik jumps off the Titan with his ODM gear, allowing her to focus on killing the ones ahead of her. She turns and begins fighting the Titan that retaliates against her. She finds the Titan attacking her to be stronger so she digs her swords deeply into the one she is controlling, killing it instantly.

She jumps off of the dying Titan and grapples onto the stronger one. She launches herself at the nape of the neck, locating the mound of skin instantly and drives her swords into the receptors. She drives the stronger Titan towards the approaching others, taking them down with ease.

Hange lands on a branch that Malik watches from, "This is becoming too easy for her," she notes as she watches Willow take out the Titans with ease.

The blonde Captain nods once, with eyes fixated on Willow's performance. "How is your squad handling the process?" he asks uninterestedly.

Hange clicks her cheek with a downward frown, "They can find and hit some receptors when the Titan is immobile, but have been having issues when on the field. Same goes for Levi Squad."

Malik's eyes shoot over to Derrek Squad as they bring in more Titans for the girl to take on. "Hal has mastered it as much as he can," he tells Hange with arms crossed over his chest. "But no one seems to be able to seamlessly attach like Willow."

"Twelve Titans seems to be a lot for her to take on at once," Hange states as she watches the Titans pile towards her behind the tails of Derrek Squad.

Malik stiffens when he sees Hal come riding in with unmatchable speed. "Sometimes we need to test the limits, Hange," he says as he propels himself off of the tree and towards the fight. Hange looks over with wide eyes when she sees the Titan behind the tails of Hal is an Abnormal.

Willow breaks free from the Titans that begin clawing at her. She presses her Titan out of their grasp and begins running it as fast as its legs will take her. She looks back to see they are following her at her feet. She smiles and drives her sword into the Titan, killing it and rendering its legs useless. The Titan falls to the ground with a crushing blow, and she jumps from its neck, looking back to see the three Titans trip on the body of her Titan, falling down like dominos. Willow looks to see her swords have broken from the force she drove into the nape, and she replenishes her swords as she grapples onto the head of one of the fallen Titans. She swings herself to its nape, slashing it deeply. She jumps from fallen Titan to fallen Titan, slashing their napes, and killing them before they can lift themselves up.

Willow takes a moment to breathe, smiling at the steaming carcasses at her feet. She looks up when she sees Hal approaching her with an Abnormal charging behind. Her brows press together, and she growls to herself in frustration.

She jumps off of the Titan bodies and runs out in the field, holding her hand out to signal for Hal to come pick her up. He lowers his hand and swipes her up effortlessly onto the back of his horse. "What the hell is this, Hal?" she asks him in frustration as she wraps her arms around his waist.

"A gift from Malik," he yells back at her. "Don't say he never got you anything," he says with a chuckle at his dumb joke.

"I have eight more of these bastards to take out and he wants to add an Abnormal in the mix?" she says with aggravation in her tone.

"Hey, don't kill the messenger," Hal says seeing the irritation consuming her. "I got your back," he reminds her.

"Of course," she says flatly, turning from him and propelling herself off of his horse towards the Abnormal. She grapples onto the Abnormal's shoulder, but as she zips towards it, the Abnormal grabs onto her wires and sends her flying. She quickly recovers and takes a lower approach on the Titan, latching onto its upper thigh and slashing its knees and heels with ease, taking it down with a thunderous crash.

She walks on the back of the Titan, looking at the nape of the Abnormal's neck. She finds the small mound of skin and presses her swords into it, but as she does, the skin in the neck hardens and she shatters her swords on its neck. She growls and grabs new swords from her waist, looking down with clenched teeth, making a note that these are her last swords. Willow thrusts herself away from the Abnormal and heads towards the remaining Titans she is expected to kill. With only one pair of swords left, she does not want to chance it on the Abnormal's hardening skills.

She kills a small 5-meter class Titan that joins in with the others, never really having a fondness of taking over the smaller ones. She begins running towards the horde as her gear is beginning to lose gas. She contemplates pulling out for a moment to replenish, but knows that she will not have enough time, and needs to focus on killing the Titans and making a name for herself within Malik Squad.

"She's not too happy with that Abnormal addition!" Hal calls out to Malik up in the trees while he hangs below on the back of his black horse.

"She needs to get used to it!" he calls back down to him with hard blue eyes fixated on Willow's performance. "It's not always going to be sunshine and rainbows out there."

"Why is she not using her ODM gear?" Levi asks from a higher vantage point, "Is she out?"

"She's running out no doubt with all those showy moves," Hal says with an aggravated tone. "Should I bring her replenishments?"

Before Levi can tell him yes, Malik tells him not to. "Let her learn that she cannot be frivolous with her equipment out there," he says in a harsh tone that makes Levi flinch in worry. His grey eyes search for her as she runs towards the hordes of Titans.

Willow huffs in as she loses her breath, feeling the fatigue of running for so long. She swallows hard as she propels herself towards the nearest Titan, hearing the sputtering of her gear. She does not have much gas left, so she will have to make it count.

She presses her swords into a Titan and takes it over with effortless ease. She pushes the Titan to kill the ones approaching her as they claw at hers. She is too close to the ground and figures that she needs to find a taller Titan. She kills her ride and jumps onto the next, killing one after the other until she makes it to the tallest of the group measuring within the 12-meter class.

Willow watches as the Abnormal comes rushing towards her with crippling speed. She shakes her head and moves her Titan towards the Abnormal. Her Titan is more than 3 meters shorter than the Abnormal and much weaker than her first Titan. The Abnormal smoothly grabs onto the neck of her Titan. Willow jumps away from the Abnormal's grasp as it crushes her Titan's face in its fists.

Willow looks down at her swords to see they have shattered, and she has little but stubs left of them. She swallows hard as the Abnormal reaches for her. She tries to fling herself away, but her gas sputters and she begins freefalling off of the Titan.

Willow quickly lassos her un-retracted wires to the Titan's neck and wraps it around the remaining stub. Her gear catches and she groans in pain as her body smashes in the suspended air. She looks down to see that she is less than 4 meters from the ground. She knows that she can make the landing without dying, but she worries that she will hurt herself. She knows that if she drops, she will not have any gear to fall back on but figures that no gear is equivalent to empty gear.

She releases herself from her belt and falls to the ground. She luckily lands to where she does not hurt herself and begins running as fast as she can to the caravan, hoping someone sees that she is no longer in gear.

The Abnormal turns and runs towards her. She violently runs towards the caravan as she begins crying out that she is empty of equipment. Hal is the first to notice and begins charging towards her on horseback with as much force as his horse can take. Levi springs into the field, but without any trees in the area to launch from, he will not be able to get to her quick enough.

Willow looks back to see that neither Levi nor Hal will get to her in time, and she begins to panic. She runs as fast as her legs will take her, and Erwin begins charging towards her on horseback, seeing the peril she is in. Her eyes widen as she sees the worry in Erwin's eyes as the gravity of the situation unfolds around her.

She is swiped up with brute force and no regard to her safety. Her hair flies wildly in the wind and for a moment she closes her eyes and imagines that it is Hal or Levi, ready to scold her for being stupid with her equipment use, but it is not Hal or Levi who scoops her up, it is the Abnormal.

She opens her eyes and figures that she needs to fight. She pulls out a knife from her boot and begins slashing at the Abnormal. Its grip loosens and Willow runs up its arm, not allowing her mind to come to the realization that she does not have ODM gear on and if she falls from this height, she will die. She runs to the nape of the neck and digs her knife into the skin. She feels safest here since there is no hair on the Abnormal for her to cling onto.

Willow begins stabbing into the nape of the Abnormal's neck, hoping to get to whatever is in there, and stabbing it to its knees. Tears fall from her eyes as she thinks about the last time she was here, and what she was feeling. She was frail back then, she was scared, and she was clueless. She is no longer any of those things and that brings a fire in her strength.

Willow looks down at the nape, seeing the same peculiar smaller nape as she had seen before back at Wall Maria. She knows she does not have time to examine the nape and instead stabs at it with as much force as she can manage. The Abnormal freezes, stopping in its tracks and Willow begins shaking. She has control of an Abnormal!

She presses the knife into the nape and attempts to move it, but it does not move at all; it is rendered completely still. She continues to dig around at the receptors she has mesmerized with as much force as she can when she presses too deep and the knees of the Abnormal buckle. The Abnormal begins falling and she begins to panic with wild heart beats, knowing that she cannot use ODM gear.

Holding on for dear life, Willow digs the knife into the back of the Abnormal's neck, giving her as much as she can hold onto. But when the Abnormal falls to its knees, Willow loses her grip and begins falling towards her death.

She closes her eyes, not wanting to see the world falling towards her as she cascades towards her death. But her arm snaps before she can hit the ground, making her eyes shoot open as she's suspended in the air. She looks up to see Levi attached to the Abnormal with his left grappling hook. His body is twisted to his right while his legs are planted on the back of the Abnormal for stability. His right arm is extended out, holding onto her right arm as she slowly twists in the suspended air.

She looks up at him with wide worried eyes and he does not respond with some aggressive comment about her rashness, he instead looks at her with pressed worried brows. "I've got you," he reassures her. She looks down, seeing that from this height, she will most definitely die if she were to fall. "I've got you!" Levi presses with a firmer tone, seeing the worry in her eyes.

"I'm slipping," she tells him masking the whine in her voice. "And my shoulder blade is dislocated. Maybe broken."

Levi grunts as he uses all his might to pull his arm up into a curl. She grabs onto the back of his neck as soon as he pulls her high enough to lace her arms around it. Once her arms wrap around his neck, Levi slides his arm under her armpits, down the small of her back and tightens his grip on her as he hugs her close to him.

He presses her as closely to him as he can, and she holds on tightly. She looks at him, feeling his hot breath on her face at such a close proximity. His eyes land on hers and there is an intensity building between the both of them. She sees the fear in his eyes knowing that she was so close to death without his intervention, and she feels overcome with gratitude as he holds her, knowing that she would be dead without him.

She breathes in deeply, trying to keep her mind off of how overcome with emotions she is looking into his steely eyes. She presses her forehead against his chest as his heavy breaths rock her head back and forth. She closes her eyes and relishes this moment of safety, if only for a second. Levi looks down at her, burying his nose in her blonde hair, taking in her familiar scent of daisies, noticing hints of dirt and iron from a nonvisible bloody source blending with her signature fragrance. "You're such a fucking idiot," he breathes his insult as she expected him to do earlier, burring his nose and lips to her head.

She smiles at him, exhaling with a sharp laugh. She pulls away from him and looks up into his strong eyes, "Yeah and what does that make you for being here?" she laughs and sees an upward twitch in Levi's lips that almost forms into a smile as he looks up to the horizon.

The moment between them is fleeting as Hal comes galloping towards them. He propels himself up the Abnormal to Levi and situates himself behind Willow. He positions his knee under Willow so she can sit on it and alleviate the weight from Levi's neck and arm. Hal uses both of his hooks to get a better hold on the Abnormal that Willow now sees has died and remained upright on its knees. Hal grabs onto Willow and instructs her to take hold of him. She releases Levi and shimmies over to Hal, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. Hal nods at Levi and he returns the gesture, communicating that he can take the girl. Hal releases his left grapple, and they propel themselves down the Abnormal's back.

Levi is quick to join them, finally feeling the rip in his bicep muscles from curling Willow's entire weight with one arm. Willow releases a built-up sigh as she touches the ground, finally feeling safe for the first time since the day began.

Before Levi can ask her if she is alright, Malik comes galloping in on the back of his horse. Willow turns to him with dark eyes and tense shoulders. "We need to talk," she says in a low voice coming off as strong as she can.

"I figured as much," Malik says bluntly, bringing his hand down and pulling her up onto the back of his horse. She fastens herself behind him and they gallop off to the camp. Levi watches as she rides off with Malik, only imagining how angry she must be with him.

They gallop past the caravan of other Scouts as they watch the exchange from afar. Malik gives Erwin a single nod, telling him that he can handle the incoming fit of rage Willow undoubtably has in store for him. Erwin responds with a nod, knowing that despite her anger in this moment, he trusts Malik to talk her from the ledge.

"Can you believe he sent an Abnormal at her like that?" Oruo mentions with a sour taste in his mouth. "I mean, did you see the way she looked at Malik when he came to get her? If looks could kill…" he lingers in wonderment at her fierceness.

"Why didn't she replenish her supplies when she had the chance?" Petra asks with a shaking head. "She really put Levi at risk out there to save her."

Oruo rolls his eyes at Petra's blind devotion to Levi, not realizing his own for Willow. "I think he could handle holding her there. But did you see she took down an Abnormal with nothing but a knife?"

"I wonder what this will do for our training," Eld continues the sentiment. "Being able to freeze an Abnormal with the same attack is interesting information to say the least."

Meanwhile, Malik closes the door behind Willow as she hugs her undoubtably broken arm close to her chest. She looks back at him with eyes that could kill, and he releases an amused scoff. "What the hell was that, Malik?" Willow spits with hate, trying to place her hands angrily on her hips, but reverting back to hugging herself from the pain.

"You're going to have to be more specific," Malik teases and Willow flares at this response.

"You know what I am talking about!" she says so heated and flushed with emotion that she does not care about holding herself back from disrespecting her Captain.

Malik sighs heavily taking a seat at his desk, already feeling the exhaustion of this conversation and realizing that she is in no mood for his mocking remarks. "You cannot expect every mission to go as planned. Sometimes, an Abnormal shows up, and sometimes you aren't aware until they are charging at you."

"But you deliberately lured one towards me, and you did so when I had more almost a dozen other Titans to deal with."

"And you will thank me when that situation arises, and you are able to effectively handle it."

She drops her face at this comment in an unenthused way, "When would I ever be in a position that I have to take down multiple Titans and an Abnormal all by myself without the help of anyone else within the Scouts?"

"I am testing the limits of your abilities."

"You are testing my limits!" Willow's voice rises, bouncing off of the walls. "Now my shoulder is broken, Levi's bicep is undoubtably torn, and I almost died!"

"And whose fault is that?" he returns with a rising voice. "You decided to be wasteful with your equipment out there. And you decided not to replenish your supplies before attacking the horde. You cannot blame me for that, and you cannot always expect Captain Levi to be there to swoop you into his arms and save you."

She flushes at the idea, angrier with Malik for devaluing her strength more than the mention of Levi. "It is not realistic to depend solely on me to save the Scouts from the Titan threat. That's not fair to put on me." she says with a more stabilized tone.

Malik rubs his face at the frustration of the conversation, "Willow, I am your superior, you cannot speak to me like this," he reminds her of her place in a leveled tone so not to upset her even more than she already is.

Willow widens her eyes, taking a step back from him. She inhales a deep breath, trying to calm herself as she realizes that she is out of line with her emotions.

Malik takes in a heavy sigh, seeing just how much of this is weighing her down. "Willow, I understand your frustrations with me, but you need to understand this: new Cadets are arriving this week, and it is the largest group we have ever seen," he says and Willow looks down, knowing where he is going with this. "Word is spreading of your findings on the Titans, and Commander Erwin has received sufficient funding since you joined the Scouts. It is because of you that people trust the Scouts and are proud to lay down their lives for the Survey Corps," he says with pressed brows. "Your actions are what are is giving us a chance against the Titans. And if I have to throw you out there to show the new recruits the amazing wonder that you are, then I am going to do that. Because we need people like you."

"It has been like this for a year, Malik," she begins with a more leveled tone. "You are pushing me to a breaking point while the other Elites get to sit back and watch," she tells him with a leveled tone. "I am scared out there, Malik," she lingers for a moment, hoping the gravity of her words press down on him. "I am alone, and my life is at risk. And it may seem like a wonderous show to you and all watching from the sidelines, but it is terrifying for me," she says, "And I am exhausted."

Malik leans back in his chair with his right hand rubbing his forehead, something that Willow has noticed he does under extreme stress. "Willow, you have been on my team for a year now, and in that time, you have impressed me in every way that I have imagined." Willow frowns at this, wanting to be mad at him and not have his actions explained. "I have watched you grow from a scared wide-eyed girl to a soldier that stands tall next to the other Elites I have hand chosen." Willow looks down at her arm, hugging it tighter to her body. "You sat on that field and prepared to fight to the death before abandoning Oluo to prove yourself Elite material. I turn you into an Elite, and suddenly you no longer want to be on the field fighting for the other?"

Willow huffs at this, "Malik, it wasn't sudden. It's been a year of you isolating me in the field, only interacting with others when they lure a Titan at me," she says with a sigh.

"You don't get it do you? You're the best we have, Willow." Malik says frustrated with her that she is not seeing what he sees. "Meet me halfway here, Willow. You cannot be as strong and fierce as you are, and expect us not to use you against the Titans. I chose you to be on my team with the belief that you were willing to lay down your life for your partners and not give up without a fight. That is what you showed me a year ago when you fought to stay with Oruo in those woods."

"But I got the worst score on your obstacle course, I almost died on the field with Oruo, and I was bed ridden for four days," she reminds him.

"You were the only Cadet who hit every single obstacle in the course. Even if it meant you got your ass kicked, you still saw the importance of hitting every target of your goal," he begins. "You went back for Oruo when you didn't have to. You stayed with him and tried to fight when your body told you to stop. You are not like the other Cadets. You have a brutality in you that I have never seen. You were the first person I recruited in five years, you were promoted to Lead over two veteran members of my team, and those decisions were the best ones I have ever made," he tells her, seeing the dejection in her eyes. "I care about you, Willow. I truly do. And though it may not appear that way when I send an Abnormal your way, I see the greatness in you, and I know that you will be the best thing that has ever happened to the Scouts."

Willow frowns, looking down at her arm as she thinks about everything he said, knowing that she has given the Scouts a new hope, but still feeling drained at the whole year spent chasing dead-eyed monsters and evading death at every corner.

"It may seem like your life is at risk out there, but Willow, I promise you I watch you, and I will not allow anything terrible happen to you. But you are doing so much for the Scouts, and I understand it is draining, but meet me halfway here; we need you."

Willow shakes her head slightly, fighting back tears from breaching her lashes. Malik releases a sigh, seeing her crying before him, "Why don't you go to the infirmary? I am sure they will bench you considering your injury. Take some time away from the field and take a step away. I will talk to the Commander about a ramp up plan while you are gone to alleviate the load from your shoulders, and then you can come back with the promise that the other Elites will be there on the field with you. Does that sound reasonable?"

Willow inhales at the comment, holding herself tightly as she nods at him, "Yes, Sir," she says looking up at him with a prominent frown forming on her lips.