The wheelchair rolled along noiselessly as Connie pushed Levi down the hallway, Gabi and Falco trailing anxiously behind them. They had both tried to say their piece regarding Arya's innocence, but it had fallen on deaf ears: his only reply was to ask to be taken to her. Luckily (or not so luckily) Levi's recovery room was in the Parliament building and not the hospital a few streets over, which made for a quick trip. Connie wheeled him down several hallways before coming to a stop outside a set of heavy brass doors. Falco ran to push the door open for them as they quietly entered.
Levi's eyes swept quickly around the room, which purpose seemed to be for large meetings, and spotted the five people bunched up at the far end of the room. Most of these faces he knew: Armin, Pieck, Reiner, Jean. The fifth person had his back to him, but what he could see of them told him it was a woman. A very small woman with long, dark hair. Jean's arm was in a sling, and his face was contorted in annoyance and discomfort as she adjusted his bandages. Levi had only caught the tail end of their bickering, which ended with the woman letting out a sigh of exasperation.
"Oh, Jean, stop being such a baby. I swear, all that luscious hair of yours is squishing your tiny brain into mush." Her voice struck a chord in Levi's mind, a memory, perhaps? He didn't know, but her comment was amusing to him.
"Who knew such a small person could be filled with so much venom." He said with slight humor. The four people he knew turned to acknowledge his arrival as the woman finished tucking in the gauze on Jean's arm. She turned to him then, big brown eyes locked onto his, a small smile playing around the edge of her mouth.
"I find that rather funny, Captain, coming from you."
Several things happened at once. Matching faces of aghast horror appeared on all the ex-Scout Regiment members, petrified at the casual rebuttal the woman had given their former captain. Falco and Gabi stifled their laughter with little success, making the others even more terrified. The woman suddenly seeming quite nervous at the reaction around her, though she continued to hold his gaze almost defiantly. The strangest reaction, however, was the one that Levi had himself. His normally narrowed eyes widened, and his good hand gripped his arm rest so hard that the wood nearly splintered. Memory came rushing back, memories of her heart-shaped face fueled by fire. It was her.
His reaction only lasted a few seconds before it disappeared entirely. Confusion replaced it as the image dissolved, the feeling it carried all but gone. In front of him now was just a woman. Perhaps considered appealing in her small and slender frame and locks of thick long hair, but just a regular person all the same.
She was still looking at him, a crease of concern now etched on her brow.
"How are you feeling today, Captain Ackerman? Are you in any pain?"
Her question reminded him why he had entered this room, and he realized quickly that she was the one he had come to see. This was his attending physician, the one who had altered his body without his permission. His face hardened.
"Who are you?" He asked coldly. Who was she indeed, to experiment on him like some common rat? Who was she to go against his wish of no additional treatments, as so many others had failed in their attempts? The woman ignored the undertones of his question, instead choosing to address the more obvious one.
"My name is Arya Halbrand, sir. It's an honor to finally meet you." She said earnestly. "Though, I wish we were meeting under better terms."
Arya approached him, ignoring the looks of warning she was getting from her companions. She knelt in front of him, and Levi leaned back from her unexpected closeness, frowning.
"Allow me to sincerely apologize, Captain. I assure you that I don't make a habit of performing medical procedures on people who can't speak for themselves. I understood your wish to forgo any more treatment, yet I allowed myself to be threatened into doing it anyway. I take full responsibility for my actions and accept any reprimand or punishment you wish to give."
Arya put her fist to her chest and bowed her head. The man in front of her deserved all the respect she could give him, now. She knew of his greatness; of the things he had done for the people of Paradis and for the world. He was a living, breathing legend, one who had every reason to hate her for what she had done to him. Her face flushed with shame. How could she have let President Wohl bully her into doing something so against her morals? She should have just accepted the loss of her citizenship and fled. At least that would have been more honorable.
Tension built in the room as the others looked on in concern. Levi remained silent, appraising her words. Before she had ducked her head, the only thing he could sense from this woman called Arya's expression was sincerity. Connie had said the President had threatened her with removal from Marly in order to get her to comply to his wishes. If this was indeed the case, his anger and resentment was misplaced on this woman: it was Wohl and his lackeys that it should be directed to. More than that, he was having a frustratingly difficult time maintaining his anger towards her. He may not have been able to remember the person he had seen painted against the sky during his rescue, but the woman kneeling in front of him radiated a kind of energy, one that was hard to mistake; she felt… good.
Levi closed his eyes and shook his head a little, trying to rid himself of these ridiculous thoughts. These were not thoughts he normally had, nor ones that he planned to continue having. By the time he opened his eyes again, he was himself once more.
"Get off your knees and stop groveling. If what you say is true, it is not you I take issue with. Following orders is not a sin, though perhaps it should be. Can you at least tell me what it is that you have done to me?" He said briskly. Arya looked back up at him with alleviation. Levi was not meeting her eyes anymore, as if he lost all interest in their conversation. The group visibly relaxed, yet Levi noted the hard glint in Armin's eyes as he responded to her. Hmm, they care for her.
"Yes, sir." She stood and backed away to the table they had been standing around before this uncomfortable interaction. She returned to him with an intricately wrapped belt with two small metal pieces side by side. She handed it to him.
"Your hand has been fitted with a steel base for this. I won't get into the specifics, but basically, we grafted your hand in a way that allowed for this base to fit comfortably between you knuckles. It was a simple procedure; one that should heal fairly quick." She pointed to the device in his hands. "That there is a set of metal-casted fingers and their control belts. You would attach the ends right there into the divots in the base, locking them in place. The control belt works in a similar fashion to an ODM harness: The positions you move your hand will dictate the angle of the fingers. It would take some time to figure out I'd imagine, but once you did you would practically have full use of your hand back. May I?"
Arya pointed at Levi's elevated leg and the bandages that wrapped his knee. He gave her a hesitant nod. Reaching down she began to unwind them, being careful to touch him as little as possible; as if she already realized how little he enjoyed being this close to others, which was something it seemed she could relate to.
His knee was a bruised purple and had a three-inch long incision running along the inner side.
"They idea here was much simpler, though the previous injury and whatever those idiot doctors had done before me made it rather difficult. Your kneecap and attached cartilage were severely damaged, so what I did was I removed the damaged sections and replaced them with metal alloy, which your bones will grow over. This will take longer to heal, but once it has, I expect you will have full mobility again."
Levi looked at his leg for a long moment, doubtfully. He could not allow himself to believe what this woman said was true. On too many occasions a doctor has said something similar, only to have yielded zero results. What would make this attempt any different? Only time would tell, he supposed.
"Unfortunately," She continued, "Your eye is beyond my skill to heal. Though, Oz and I are in the process of cooking something up that might help with that." She smiled at him, but he didn't respond.
"See, I told you! She's a damn sorceress." Connie said breaking the silence, meeting her smile with his own. Gabi and Falco were still looking at Arya with profound awe, trying to wrap their heads around the idea that Levi may be healed. Gobi stepped forward, then stopped. "Who are you? Where did you come from? How do you know all of this?" She asked breathlessly.
Arya turned to her and extended her hand, which Gabi shook enthusiastically. "I trained here in Veritas, though it was my parents who taught me in my youth. As for where I came from… I'm from Paradis. An "island devil", just like the rest of the people in this room, except for you and your friend there, of course." She smiled kindly at Gabi's startled reaction. "I've been on the mainland for a little over three years." This casual use of the Eldian slur regained Levi's attention. His eyes snapped up to peer at her cautiously.
"You're the Jaegerist who helped them escape, aren't you?" Falco said quietly, coming to stand next to Gabi. "Reiner told us about what you did."
"Ex Jaegerist." Armin spoke for the first time since they had entered the room. He walked over to them and gave the younger ones a somewhat stern look. "Arya has done more than her fair share to help us. I believe this exonerates her from that title."
"Of course, I didn't mean"- Falco stammered, but Arya cut in with a light laugh.
"Don't give them a hard time, Armin. They are just curious." She nudged his arm lightly with her elbow and Armin's demeanor relaxed instantly.
Levi's skin began to crawl slightly as he regarded this simple interaction. Another memory was trying to make an appearance. Something about her touch… but that had been a dream, hadn't it? Either way, Armin's reaction was strange. It was as if that most basic contact had simply erased any of his discomfort. In fact, even Gabi seemed more at peace after shaking her hand, and the other members of the group looked on with a protective expression, except Jean, who was still grumbling about his arm.
This woman seemed to have a hold on them, somehow. Whether it was because she was pivotal in their escape from the Capitol, or some other extraneous force remained to be seen. Regardless, Levi had no interest in finding out, and certainly no intention to join them.
"Yes, yes, the Jaegerist turncoat who went on to save the Heroes of Humanity in a daring escape; better roll out the red carpet." He said shrewdly, "If you two are done gawking, now that I'm conscious there are a few people I need to speak with. Particularly President Wohl." He turned expectantly to Gabi and Falco, who gave their companions a long look.
"I suppose you're right." Jean said unhappily, standing up from his perch on the edge of the table and striding towards the door. "Best we all get this over with now." The group exited the room, Falco pushing Levi along with them, as they headed to the President's office.