Early upload, boo! Haha, enjoy!
LEVI POV
"Well you can't say the bastards aren't getting more creative." Hanji sighed and took a moment to clean her glasses.
It had been four hours, but the crystal just kept on coming. She cracked her neck and leaned in close to Robyn's back again, cutting away another piece of crystal. After being injected with the syringe, the same material that encased Annie Leonhart had begun to protrude from the small of Robyn's back, and along her shoulders, starting at her nape. It pushed through her skin, bloodied and murky, but after a few hours of monitoring and investigation led Hanji to believe she would be able to surgically remove the pieces. Robyn was kept sedated, the pain having pushed her to the brink.
Make it stop! Please! Someone fucking make it stop! Please!
Levi shuddered and placed his hand over Robyn's as it lay slack against the mattress, her skin cold, having been warm only a few moments ago. Fevers continued to rise and fall within her system. Steam rose from the wounds left by the crystal, before more crystal formed in a few minutes. But it had slowed, and seemed to be smaller each time. Perhaps the effect was wearing out as the contents of the syringe worked through her system.
Probably out of nervousness, Hanji kept talking. "Did they not know what happened after Reiss attempted this? Why are they still trying? Whoever 'they' are…"
All he could muster was a shrug.
As soon as the crystal broke through, Robyn had been beyond his reach, seemingly unable to even hear him anymore. Tears streaked from her glazed eyes, blackened veins threaded along every limb and clustered over her heart. And blood. So much blood. She begged for the pain to stop, sobbing wracked her body. Then the sedation had finally took hold and she gave him a look of longing, and worse still, apology.
"Levi, please." Hanji sniffed, sounding distraught. "I'm sorry, alright? I know the process of recruiting has to be more careful, I just don't know how we can–"
"I'm not blaming you." He shook his head.
"Y-You're not?" She blinked, wiping her tears. "Thank goodness, I thought because you were being so quiet, that you… Well I know you're hardly a chatter-box otherwise, but still…"
He pushed the hair back from Robyn's forehead as it began to bead with a fresh cold sweat. Another fever would be setting in soon. He began to soak the cloth in the iced water.
"No Glasses, I'm just trying to not lose my shit, or go down to those cells and dismantle that fucking sadistic cadet."
"Oh. Makes sense." She returned to her bloodied work. "No doubt Robyn will want to join you anyway. Best to wait."
"Exactly. Of course I don't blame you, Glasses. These bastards are tricky, they'll sneak in no matter what we do. All we can do in the meantime is show what we do when we find them."
"Mm." She continued her work, no longer filling the quiet with her nervous chattering.
Recruitment was a headache regardless of what precautions they took. If they set up in town squares, people got annoyed at them for pushing an agenda. If they set up inside buildings, they were accused of being sneaky about it. No one could be pleased. And the longer peaceful times went on, the more people looked at the Scouts as being superfluous. Why retake Maria at this point? Things were good under the new queen. Why keep pushing? Of course this wasn't the only consensus. The Scouts still had support from most civilians, it was just that the negative voices were always that bit louder.
After another three hours of cutting and cleaning, finally the crystal stopped forming and the fevers stopped peaking. Robyn was put into a fresh medical gown and allowed to rest, her body no longer needing sedated, but her system wrung out regardless. The blackened veins had begun to fade, and her skin around the puncture mark was returning to normal as well. Once again, it hadn't made her shift. All it had done was cause her pain.
They set up a small bed for Levi in the room, and brought in food and tea every so often. Keza took over whenever he needed to take a breather or visit the bathroom, but otherwise he refused to leave Robyn's side. Not only did he not want her waking alone again, he didn't dare trust anyone to be looking over her when she was so vulnerable. She had managed to act fast when the syringe was applied, containing her attacker and getting help, but in her current state she could do nothing. And for some reason, the bastards were clearly still trying. Not that he was sure who the bastards even were anymore. Presumably it was attached to the 'they' Kenny had mentioned. Control. He spoke of someone wanting to control Robyn. But why would that be part of this serum headache? Maybe it wasn't. Maybe–
"Hey." She whispered, and he jolted out of his reverie. She was awake. Kind of. Her eyes looked dull as she watched him, exhausted. He shuffled his seat closer and took her hand when she reached for him. "You okay?"
A laugh rushed out of him. "Yeah, I'm fine. How're you feeling?"
"Like a Titan waltzed all over me." She smirked and squeezed his hand. "Am I out the other side of it?"
"Seems so. You haven't had a fever for a few hours and the uh… The other side effects have stopped as well."
She frowned. "What were they? Aside from hurting like hell I couldn't really tell what was happening."
"Remember that crystal that Leonhart sealed herself in? It was… Well it seemed to be coming out of your spine, at the small of your back and your nape."
Her nose wrinkled. "Fucking lovely. Did it break away or…"
"Hanji is handy with her scalpel."
Robyn nodded and squeezed his hand again. "Sorry, I didn't see the syringe till it was in my damn arm."
He leaned close and kissed her forehead, glad to feel a regular temperature there. "You've nothing to apologise for. We had no reason to believe the shitheads would try anything again. The shifting serum doesn't work on you."
"Yet." She sighed and the word churned in his stomach as he watched tears wet her eyelashes. She sniffed. "Just feels like they're never going to stop."
He let go of her hand, perched on the bed and cupped her face. It took a moment, but eventually she met his gaze and didn't look away; she looked so frightened.
He ran his thumbs under her bruised eyes. "We'll make them stop. You're not going to be their puppet."
"It was definitely a different serum though, right?"
"Seems that way. Hanji's looking into it."
Above everything else, he hated not knowing the origin of the threat. It wasn't the government, it wasn't the royals – both had been scrubbed from the inside out. It wasn't the MPs either from what they could tell. And forcing someone to shift didn't seem like a tactic the other Shifters would use. It made no sense.
"We're gonna be heading for Shiganshina soon, right?" She asked, leaning into his touch when he gave a questioning frown. "If we could find my old basement, maybe there would be notes from Vincent. The basement wasn't hit by the fire. Even if they rebuilt on top of it, there might be hidden compartments."
"Did you remember something else during the fevers?" Levi eased her back into the pillow.
She shook her head. "No, but he was always down there, and he was a secretive shit. Doesn't seem like much of a stretch to think he might have a secret stash down there somewhere."
"Seems logical."
"I need to crack this." She set her teeth tightly, eyes looking to the side, mind rumbling away somewhere he couldn't reach.
For so long she had outrun her past, and since Vincent turned up in her life again the past had stuck to her boots like mud. It was bad enough for him to be faced with Kenny again, he could barely imagine what it was like for Robyn to have these things dredged up over and over, paraded in front of her so blatantly. And worse than that. They kept hurting her. Dragging her down. And then he realised why her jaw was so tight, why her hands were bunched in the sheets and her cheeks flushed. Shame. She hated being back in that bed, tended to, watched over, protected. A burden. That would be the word running round her mind, cackling in that bastard's voice.
He kissed her. She trembled.
"Robyn." He leaned back, meeting her confused eyes again. "Doesn't matter how long it takes to figure out, you're not a burden. We want to help, to protect you, just like you would protect us."
Her bottom lip wobbled. "That's kind."
"No, it's just the damn truth." He snapped, leaving no room for doubt. "Sure I love you in perhaps a more potent manner now, but everyone who has served with you loves you in the way of comrades, and friends. You inspire that in people, brat. Just fucking accept it."
She laughed into a sob and pulled him into a fresh kiss.
One day she might actually believe him.
Then again, one day pigs might fly.
ROBYN POV
The crystal was cold to the touch. It didn't vaporise, crumble or diminish in any way. Sunlight caught along it, dancing in the many prisms, reflecting back against my skin or the sheets of my recovery bed. This material had come out of my skin? I rolled it between my fingers. Cold. It was chilled even though it had been sitting in the sun most of the day. Hanji was keeping a close eye on me, checking my back and arm every hour or so. The blackened effect to my veins had paled, and now was barely a flicker of grey against my pale skin.
The pain had been immense. Like nothing I'd ever felt before, and yet somehow oh-so-familiar, like de ja vu or something. It made no sense. Apparently Mikasa had been worried too – but not about me. According to her, around the same time as the crystal started to push through my skin, and send me over the edge, Eren had been in pain also. We had to assume another attacker had been in play. The symptoms were so similar. His neck, shoulders and back. All on fire with pain. He'd been floored. But no crystal had appeared though, and they couldn't find any puncture wounds either. So it wasn't exactly the same. Levi wondered if Eren's drink had been spiked, or his food maybe. Hanji wasn't so sure. And she kept looking at me strangely. She said she was fine, but I couldn't escape the feeling she had been looking at me like… Like I was a smoking gun.
Today we would be talking with my attacker. The cadet had been silent since she was put into her cage, but hopefully she would be more talkative with me present. Mainly I wanted to know who the hell we were even dealing with at this point. Levi had spoken to me about his own theories – how the government and royals were out, and it made little sense for it to be our Shifter foes at that point. So there was potentially a whole other element running around that we didn't even know about. That was exhausting to even consider.
Carefully, I pulled on my uniform, every movement aching and making me flinch. I felt a hundred years old. But at least I could stand without being dizzy. Once my straps were in place, I made for the door. Just then, Levi knocked and strode into the room, seemingly surprised to see me up and dressed.
His eyes darted all over me, like he was expecting to find fresh wounds – or like when he was checking me over as a new recruit, checking I'd done my straps correctly. He frowned. "Are you sure you're okay to–"
"Let's go find some answers." I squeezed his hand and led the way to the dungeons. In all honesty I had expected him to be more eager to be down there, to be practically chomping at the bit to start the questions. Instead, he dragged his feet.
Outside the stairs to the cells, a guard stood with his gun at the ready. Did they expect people to try and get down there to hurt the cadet? Or perhaps to aid her escape? It seemed that everyone was a little on edge – I didn't know whether to feel flattered or guilty.
Levi clasped my wrist a few metres away from the door. "Robyn, wait."
"What is it?" I glanced towards the guard who was looking at us expectantly.
Levi pulled on my arm slightly, towards the side of the corridor. I allowed it, stepping in close and perching on the nearby window sill when he gestured me there. His eyes were so uncertain, but the clenched line of his jaw said otherwise.
"C'mon, spit it out."
He sighed. "I'm not sure you should go see that cadet."
"Because?"
"Just something Kenny said when I saw him after the cavern. It… Well it sounded a lot like there was some way for these bastards to…" He frowned down at the ground. I waited. He sighed. "To control you."
I think my eyebrows went all the way round to the back of my skull they rose so fucking fast. Control me? How? I wasn't aware of some cosmic leash around my neck. And I also realised I was so miffed by this insinuation I had forgotten to actually verbally respond, leaving Levi looking very unsure.
Despite how my temper was flaring, I took a long breath. "Control me? How?"
"He said something about a phrasing, it was hard to deduce in all honesty, and then that cloaked fucker swooped him away so I couldn't clarify. But if they have something else up their sleeve, I'm not sure we should be risking you being in front of one of them."
Thinking back to that small supply room where the girl had shoved the needle into my arm, I did recall her saying something about me serving 'the way I was meant to'. But there had been nothing particularly odd about how she spoke otherwise, no 'phrasing' that was out of place. Unless she hadn't had the chance before I had her pinned.
"All right… I won't show that I'm with you, but maybe I can pick up on something if you get her to talk? I just… I want to be helpful."
He smirked and nodded. "I know, Brat. I know. All right, if she doesn't know you're there, that might be okay. And hey, I might just be being paranoid. I just figured it was better to tell you than to risk you being blindsided."
"I appreciate it." I kissed his cheek and he smirked. "What?"
"That's gotta count as progress, right? Communication and all that shit."
I snorted. "Sure."
He was right though. A few months ago we likely would have ended up in an argument over this, or an ongoing misunderstanding. But this time we had really talked, and even better, we had heard each other. I think we were learning to really rely on each other more.
The guard let us inside and we headed down into the cells, me staying close to the wall and remaining out of sight the entire time. There had been no noise of pacing or scuffling. Presumably she had hauled herself into a corner to sulk. Hanji hadn't got anywhere with her questioning and so far Levi had resisted coming down because he was genuinely worried how he might lash out at the cadet. Or rather, the rat. She was no Scout.
Levi stepped up to the bars, but didn't quite touch them. His expression was stoic and he folded his arms across his chest; every bit the level-headed Captain. He clicked his tongue. "Good morning."
No response.
He continued. "I hear you've not been keen on talking to Commander Hanji during your stay, fancy chatting with me instead?"
A shuffle of a boot sounded. Was she even looking at him? I hated not knowing, but at least I had Levi's face to read, as I stood one cell over, leaning against the bars.
He stared her down for a long time and then sighed. "If you insist on being executed without even attempting to answer our questions then fine, just makes the paperwork more complicated."
A cleared throat. Had that idea caught a nerve? Execution. Technically she had tried to kill a superior officer, as well as a fellow Scout, so the charges were just. Perhaps she had been expecting a rescue from her allies before now.
She sniffed. "And how would answering questions help?"
"Might make us more lenient." He tilted his head. "Better than nothing, right? If you're holding out on the hope of rescue, you should know that we've had no enquiries about your situation, nor have we announced it. So if your pals know due to having other spies within our ranks, they don't seem to care. And if they don't, they have no idea. No one is coming to save you."
"I was just doing my duty."
"Ah, so it's a supposedly honour-based thing." Levi quirked a brow, eyes travelling up and down, likely making her feel absolutely tiny. He was giving it everything he had. "Doesn't seem like there's much honour to be had in drugging an innocent woman when she's unarmed."
"Innocent?" The cadet laughed. "A Sanshi can't be innocent. They've been outcast since turning their backs on their purpose. That bitch deserves everything that's coming to her."
A chill ran down my spine, the sheer amount of venom in this woman's voice against me, when I didn't even know her. We hadn't spent any time together at all. She didn't know me. Sure, she might know of my foul-ups on the field, of my team losses. But the hatred in her voice didn't seem rooted there.
"All right." Levi nodded, keeping the mask firmly in place. "Enlighten me, what's their purpose?"
"Like you care."
"I do. Not knowing something is very different to not caring. What is it that I'm missing?"
"That whore of yours is meant to be serving us, she's meant to be serving the empire and she fucking knows it!"
I knew nothing of the damned sort. And what empire? Was there some kind of Shifter Empire beyond the walls? The idea in itself seemed laughable, but also gave my nerves another reason to fizz. We really had no idea of the scale of the issue we were dealing with. How many shifters were there in total? Was it more common where they came from? Maybe most people could do it there. Maybe we would soon have an army of them battering into our walls.
My throat thickened but I tried to stay focused. One problem at a time.
During my panic, Levi had simply stared the cadet down, waiting until her breathing had evened before he shifted his stance and continued speaking. Little to no reaction came from him otherwise, he was giving the cadet nothing to read. Which was likely driving her mad.
He looked her up and down, letting the tiniest smirk slip into place for a moment. "So you lot really are desperate, good to know."
"The hell does that mean?" She snarled. "We're breaking through your ranks, attacking you inside your own bases! We're–"
"Using stupid children who rely on making petty remarks in order to make an impact." He tilted his head. "You're a zealot and nothing more. Robyn Sanshi is a dedicated Scout who is enduring your bullshit, she's not enabling it. But if you're so keen to have her serve, perhaps explain exactly how she's meant to be serving."
"The Sanshi line was created in order to serve the true royals, just like you damned Ackermans were made for protecting them. Fuckin' Paradis fucking everything up."
She was using words I knew, and yet the understanding was getting less and less. Paradis? The hell was that? She used it towards us. I knew that word from somewhere, didn't I? But where? My head hurt.
Levi raised a brow. "Paradis? Is that what you're calling our people?"
A choking noise occurred. "Just leave me to rot, would you?"
So she had already said too much. All right. We were getting somewhere. If someone started making mistakes that easily, that early on, they were clearly a liability. So if her allies knew she had been caught they would likely make an attempt on her life to stop any more information escaping. Or, they had no idea, because she had been sent in alone.
"If that's what you want, sure. You've already given me plenty to work with."
"I gave you fuck all."
Levi clicked his tongue. "Another botched attempt at a serum was made, it failed again. Another botched attempt to infiltrate our ranks was made, it failed again. You have already let slip about an Empire, about Sanshi bloodlines being more important than we realised, and something about Paradis, whatever the fuck that is. Only breadcrumbs, but more than we had before. And beyond all of that, a pretty big indicator of how downright desperate you lowlives are that they're relying on snivelling children to come and do their dirty-work."
Silence.
The choking noise occurred again before quickened breathing took over. Panic. Sheer panic gripped the cadet and all Levi did was stare her down, letting her know how sealed her fate was. She had attacked me, fully intended to turn me into some demented puppet, but I admit I still felt a swell of pity for her to be under that unforgiving gaze.
Then she whispered something.
"Blood of the father…"
My head filled with ringing.
Ow. I put a hand over my left eye and shuddered.
"Blood of the mother…"
Levi glanced at me and frowned. My lungs ached and my limbs felt like they were all falling asleep in unison, a prickling sensation bleeding out from my torso. I slid down the bars and tried to drink in more air, but it wasn't enough. Fuck. Fuck what was… what was happening…
"Whether your damned Mother likes it or not, you're going to fulfil this duty. It's that or oblivion, do you understand? Do you get it, you little shit?"
"Y-Yes Dad."
"Stop fucking stammering!" Slap. Smack. "You obey, they all obey. So just fucking take it in, make it work and let this hell end."
Another injection, another set of symbols etched into my skin, another god-knows-how-long listening to him babble in the darkness. Blood of the father… Just make it end. Blood of the mother… Make him end. Red. Make it all stop. Burning. No. Please! Blood. I don't want this!
SLAM.
I blinked at the scene before me. The Cadet was pinned to the cell wall by her throat, my arm pressing her to the stones as I bared my teeth into her paling face. Her lips had begun to go blue. And someone had been pulling at my shoulder, trying to dislodge my hold. Levi. He had been yelling, telling me to stop. But I couldn't. My snarl weakened and I pursed my lips, looking back at his confused face as I let the girl slide to the cell floor where she hacked and wheezed. Bruising littered her face and her hands were scratched badly too.
"What the fuck…" I looked at my hands, nails bloodied by her torn skin, knuckles bruised by hitting her over and over. "The hell were you saying?"
She groaned against the stones, unable to respond.
I looked at Levi. "Did you hear her? Something about blood."
He looked between me and the Cadet, probably struggling to keep up on who was meant to be the demented one here. I stepped back and looked down at my hands. The rage that had risen up in me, it was just like before, just like when Vincent appeared in that damned line of convicts. But I figured it was just the release of all my pain, my anger, my trauma. I didn't have that with this mousey girl though. Sure, she had hurt me, but few in this world hadn't. This went deeper. My heart thundered in my ears and my skin itched all over. I wanted to tear her apart like wet paper. The need to was visceral. Intoxicating. Like doing anything else would be wrong.
I left the cell. I climbed the stairs. I didn't stop until I was on the training grounds, just shy of the thicket of trees, staring into the woods, panting hard. A moment later I heard Levi jogging after me, his steps slowing a few metres back. My hands twitched. They needed cleaned.
"Thought you said you didn't know her." Levi spoke calmly, but I knew there was an edge of anger in there. He probably suspected I had withheld something. Hidden it. But I really hadn't. Or at least, not to my knowledge. "Robyn c'mon you have to–"
"I don't know her." I swallowed hard and turned to him. "But it was just like before, right? When I killed Vincent?"
He hesitated, but then nodded.
My hands shook as I studied them. "It felt similar too. This ringing in my ears, this compulsion to act, to… t-to hurt. But it made sense with him, I wanted him to shut up, to cease to fucking exist. Her… I… Why the hell…" I shook my head and closed my eyes, a few tears escaping and running down my cheeks. "Is this the fucking phrase Kenny mentioned? D-Doesn't exactly seem like control, does it?"
"Unless that wasn't the full phrase."
I looked at him and found Levi looking to the side, a thoughtful crease between his brows. The day I killed Vincent I was totally out of it, barely knowing what had happened until I woke in my quarters later, bound to the bed. Levi had been there, along with Eld and Mike. So of course we only had Levi's interpretation of things to go on, unless he had talked to them about it at the time…
Levi pinched the bridge of his nose. "Mike mentioned that Vincent had been babbling something about blood before you lost your shit in the mess-hall. And then something about Vincent being enraged you weren't obeying him. So… It's thin, but it is a link. I heard the cadet say something about a mother's blood and a father's blood but… I can't say it made much sense."
I nodded. "I heard the words but now I can't… It's like I can't quite remember the shape of them or something."
He came over to me and carefully took my hands in his, inspecting the wounds. "If this is the phrasing Kenny mentioned, it would make sense that there was something built in to avoid you remember it being spoken. Not that I'm sure how you create that kind of defence." He sighed. "The shit that man must have done to you in order to accomplish that…"
"Not worth thinking about."
"Maybe." He put a hand to my cheek. "Or the key to understanding how you can be free."
Dun dun duuuuun!