Boom, extra update! Enjoy!

LEVI POV

"L-Love you… Too…" Robyn choked out, and as she slumped into Keza's arms he felt himself finally take a proper breath.

She had been lost before, yes, distant, but this had been so much more than that. Not only had the light been out in her eyes, it was somehow as if it had never been there, like it had been robbed from her entirely. But Keza managed to find it again, to coax it back to life, like she was resurrecting the barest ember back to a blaze. And then Robyn went limp, mind and body alike spent. And so he went to her, he carefully cradled her to his chest, glad to feel her breath sneak past the collar of his shirt as he carried her to their room. Her skin wasn't so cold now, the shivering had finally stopped too. But the veins remained so darkened, and that glaring bleached hair was hard to ignore. There was no way that could be a good sign.

Keza stayed close, helping him get Robyn undressed, giving her a gentle but basic sponge bath and then laying her into the bed in her nightclothes. She didn't stir at all. The darkened effect to her veins was stark against her pale complexion, but Keza assured him they had already improved since she fell asleep. He wasn't so sure. But Keza didn't deal in false hope, so he just nodded and went along with it.

And then they sat in his main room, with the door closed, sharing some tea before the crackling fire. He thought she would leave immediately, or refuse to leave Robyn's side at all, but no, Keza seemed content to simply sit there with him in that strange quiet. Rain trickled down the window. Damp caused the fire to pop and hiss occasionally, but on it went, dancing behind the grate. Keza had curled up into her seat, clasping the tea close, her mind likely rattling along as fast as his was. Did Robyn have only 13 years left to live now? Was it going to be less due to her powers being such a bastardised version of the true Ymir connection? Or did it not apply to Robyn at all?

"She'll beat this." Keza said suddenly, her posture not changing, and her eyes not leaving the flames. She pursed her lips, brows lifting a little in the middle, no doubt fighting the urge to cry. "I know she will. Like everything else this world has tried to take her down with."

Levi wanted to agree. Of course he did. Looking back at the fiery cadet who caught his attention with her hair resembling a flame, at the woman who fought tooth and nail to save her team upon the field, the woman who's own mania tried to send her toppling from the roof, the woman who waited for him for six months and was willing to do anything to bring him home. Yes. Of course. But then there was the woman just behind those accomplishments, those strengths and rushes of adrenaline. The woman left behind afterwards, bruised and shivering. The woman who stood in a corridor and forced the words around a bruised throat that she had been attacked, a woman who mopped her brow and went into another fighting stance for sparring, the bruisable, real, tender woman behind the mask. He didn't doubt her strength, but he did wonder how many more times she could be beaten without being broken. Everyone had a point of no return. And Shifting took a toll on the body. They had seen that clear enough when Jaeger or Artlet trained too hard. And that was with a genuine Shifter ability, not whatever madness Vincent had cooked up and somehow made work.

Keza sniffed. "Don't you think?"

"I hope." He nodded, looking down when her eyes flashed to his. He couldn't stand it if he saw hurt there, or betrayal. It wasn't that simple. "I want her to be able to withstand it all, of course… I just don't know if I can still ask her to."

"The hells does that mean?" Keza's eyes shone with tears, her cheeks flushed as she uncurled and slammed her tea down. "Are you seriously giving up now?"

"No, not at a–"

"You can't do that, not after all the shit we've waded through. You can't fucking do that." She began to yell, her breathing coming faster as she stood up and marched over to him, looming, jabbing a finger in his face as her tears fell. Her terrified tears. Her mournful tears. Had she looked like this when pleading with Erwin not to go on that mission? Had she looked like this when hearing of Shiganshina's fall and not knowing Robyn had survived? Levi doubted Keza had ever looked so shaken. And in a way he was glad. "She will beat this, she will come out the other side and she will get to enjoy her freedom. You hear me, fuckface? She will!"

He stayed perfectly still. If Keza had to rage out about it, that was fine. If she had to kick and scream, slap him and berate him, that was fine. He owed her that much and so much more on top. "I hope so too."

Her face crumpled and she clasped her hands over her mouth as the sobs broke free. "How dare you! Don't you look at me like I'm crazy. We've lost enough, haven't we? Erwin's barely been in the ground for– And now I might have to lose her to this– No! Fuck no! Don't you say 'hope' like it's some lie. No. Fuck you. I can–"

He stood and pulled her into a hug. She struggled, she shoved at him and her nails caught along his skin, but eventually she stopped her struggles and just clung to him instead. He held firm. He let her unleash her agony against his chest, her pleas with the world, the universe, anything that would listen.

"I can't accept it…" She sobbed, choking as her breathing remained erratic. "She can't go out like this, not because of that bastard not because of his shit. Please. Please don't let it go like that."

Levi held tighter and put his head against hers. "We're not giving up on her Keza, none of us are. Understand that, trust that."

She breathed and then looked at him with such desperation he flinched. He had seen her in the throws of mourning, of the immediate pain of Erwin's loss, of the dulled ache of his funeral, but never so adrift. Clearly she needed Robyn just as much as Robyn needed Keza.

She swallowed hard. "So c'mon then, explain. M-Make me understand. What did you mean? That you can't ask her to… t-to…"

"We'll know more when she wakes up, when we can actually talk to her about all this, about her condition, about what she felt and saw inside the Titan… But right now, I just can't pretend that this is my choice."

Keza looked terrified.

He continued. "I want her to stay, of course. I need her to as well. But this is Robyn's life, her task, her… her endurance. So as much as I want and need her to fight this and beat it? I won't ask it of her if she's finally run out of b-breath." His voice wavered at the last word, recalling how he had spoken to Hanji about Robyn finally running out of breath when discussing her phrasing taking hold. He shivered and looked to Keza again, slightly hating how much understanding he found there. "Does that make sense?"

"Horribly so." She put her head to his chest and evened out her breathing. "You really love her… In a far less selfish sense than even I can claim."

"The last thing you are is selfish, Keza." He murmured, almost pulling away but then pressing a kiss to her hair. It was like having a sister again, like having Isabel nearby. Only Robyn wasn't a bird with a broken wing… "There's nothing wrong with wanting her to stay. In fact, I need that hope of yours, can't go doing it all by myself, can I?"

Keza laughed brokenly against him. "Guess not."

"Thank you, Keza. Truly."

"Likewise, Levi."

"Mm, not fuckface, now?"

"No. Not right now."

ROBYN POV

He's won. My god he's won.

The laughter bore into my mind, it sunk into my veins and lit a vicious fire in me, burning through everything, every tiny part of myself that I had managed to claw back from his control. His. Vincent's. A Sanshi. Burn. The darkness swamped around me, my eyes latched onto by stringy sinew, connecting me to their huge thing, that other body, that new part of the puppet show. Dance. His laughter got louder and I gasped, panicked, like he was still there, running around somewhere in the darkness with me. Waiting to strike me. Or to make me strike them. No. Please. My family had suffered enough.

Little Bird…

It was so small now, so diminished under all that noise and mania. How could any of it break through? How could I hold onto something so delicate, like a frozen spider web waiting to be smashed. And yet I knew I had to get back there. Back to where I had felt safe. Yes, it was also where I had been caged, where this horrible hot damp darkness had been stone walls and a cackling fireplace. Where needles and scalpels had lived, where my blood had splattered against the stonework and fed the greedy earth beneath. Where he used me. Where he showed me snippets of his madness and turned me into this thing, this intended weapon of destruction. This wasn't right. This wasn't anything like Eren's or Armin's, this wasn't capable of anything but wrong. Like me? No. Not me, not my life. Not my choice. Damn it, stop!

And in that moment I had seen it.

Somehow I was beside the wall to Shiganshina, somehow I had made it back towards my home.

Except it wasn't my home anymore…

But he was.

In that moment of clarity, with the darkness peeling back for a moment, I saw him by a thicket of trees, mounted on a horse, ready to take action. But also watching. Levi? He had looked so scared, so unsure. My Captain. I made you look so small, and I am so sorry for it. Make it stop. Help me. I tried to be small, I tried to beg for forgiveness, and I forced the madness and heat to stay still. Let them come. Let them rip me from this husk of Vincent's doing and make it right. I do all I can to give them an opening. To fight the nature of destruction and give my family the opening they need. Please. I'm doing all I can.

Stop me…

Please…

After all that, I don't know where I ended up, how I got there, who I was with. Am I free? Did they get me out? Have I been lost to the beast entirely?

No. Not quite.

Keza?

Their voices were so close, yet so far away. Keza? Levi? Colours, shapes, the dappled light of sunshine through the canopy. Where am I? What's going on? My body ached all over and yet there's a weird numbness to it all as well. Like I'm still only partially attached. Oh gods. Attached. Sinew gripping my body like thick rope, caging me, strangling me, suffocating me in that maddening heat. I shifted. That's right, I was on the compound, walking towards the stables when Danston attached the strings, and he made me shift. So much light, noise, heat, confusion. I had to find the way out, but there was only trees, trees and so many scouts around about. No. Don't come near me, don't let me hurt you. Let me? Like it's their fault? Fuck. No. I don't want to hurt any of you. Run. That's it. Do what Sanshi's do best, run, you idiot. But to where? Shiganshina. Right. Then I could get to the plains, to where there's no people, to where someone can come and slice me down.

My eyes opened to the sound of unsheathed blades.

Stillness.

I stared up at the darkened canopy of me and Levi's bed.

All was quiet.

Had I imagined the sound? Or remembered it? Was someone in the room about to slice me open? Maybe. Lashing out at the beast they had seen in the compound, fed up of more shifters infiltrating their ranks. No. Stop that. No other movement was in the room, no other sign of company. I was alone. The pale light of dawn crept under the curtains, and a fire crackled in the grate at the foot of the bed. I was alone, but not abandoned. And not in the cells. I couldn't move yet, but my limbs weren't tied down, just that numbness holding me in place.

One breath.

…

Two breath.

…

Rumbling came from somewhere nearby, but as I focused, I realised it was voices. Familiar voices. Keza. And Levi. They were just in the next room, staying close, looking after me. Yes. Of course. Keza had brought me back from that fog, from that dissociative state. And Levi. He had looked at me so worried, so scared. No doubt he could only think of falling shoes. Damn it. I'd gone and scared him again.

Thanks for reading, cya next time!