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“You’re a real Goddess Krista!” said Old Man Grey from his hospital bed, chewing on a hot loaf of bread that was as delicious as it was fresh.
“Oh no, I’m really not,” she said, hiding her face within her blond hair. “I’m just here to help you all, it’s not that much really.”
“Well we appreciate it very much so,” said Sarah off towards the side, yelping from pain of the bandages wrapped around her leg. “Without you tending us, we’ll be dead twice over.”
“Make that thrice over!” Old Man Grey hollered out, laughing loudly as he gorged himself on the loaf of bread.
She didn’t say anything, her face had a slight coating of pink on her cheeks as she continued to do checks on the other patients littered around the sick bay.
“Excuse me,” a voice called out to her.
She turned around, and began to approach a bed that was tucked in the far back reaches of the sick bay. It was nestled in between two more patients, who were currently deep in
the land of Morpheus.
However, as she soon found out. The person in the middle was the most injured out of everyone in the sick bay.
“How can I help you, Mister?” she asked, bringing him a glass of water to drink.
The sick person coughed slightly, wiping away the blood that came out with a handkerchief. “Nothing really, can I talk to you for a minute.”
“If you want to,” she said, taking a seat besides him. Being closer, she could fully see the person laying stationary on the hospital bed.
Covered with enough bandages to fully bind an elephant, the person laying in front of her was by no means well. From where she was sitting, she could see both of his legs were broken, the bones that held them together completely shattered beyond all repair.
Along with his legs, most of his right arm was downright twisted out of its socket. Just looking at him made her almost cry, but she held in it.
Once she was seated, the man strained his head to look towards her. Her blue eyes met his own grey ones and they looked at each other, the both of them unsure of what to do next.
Thankfully for her, he was the one who initiated the conversation.
“I saw you out there,” he said bluntly, stuffing his handkerchief down his pocket.
“Pardon?” she asked.
“During the attack,” he said. “You were out there, fighting those….those ‘things’.”
She didn’t know how to reply to him, insisting instead to just nod her head to whatever he was saying.
“I saw you, you were, flying.” He tried to raise his hands to pantomime what he had saw but scowled in pain as his bandages came loose. She rushed towards him, tightening the bandages as gently as she could without harming him.
“You’re a part of the Survey Corps, right?” he asked. “I saw you there with that green coat they wear. It looks really good on you.”
“Um, thanks,” she said, blushing. “Yes, I am a part of the Survey Corps.”
“Wicked.” A smile was on his face, a smile so wide that she couldn’t see the end of it. “May I know your name? I want to know the name of the person I’m going to yell out when someone ask me who’s my favorite member of the Survey Corps is.”
“It’s His-K-Krista.” She caught herself before she said something dangerous about herself. “Krista Lenz.”
“Hello Krista,” he said, looking downwards in a sort of bowing gesture. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too I guess.” They sat in silence, with only the sounds of the other nurses in the background as noise.
This time, it was her who initiated the conversation.
“Does it hurt, your legs?” she asked him.
He glanced down, at least, as much as he could with his injuries. He tried moving the stubs that were once fully functional, now, as much of use to him as a pair of shoes.
“A bit, not that much anymore,” he said sadly. “The doctor said that it’ll take about a month before I can fully move again. With the help of a wheelchair, of course,” he added that part at the end, chuckling to himself.
“And you’re okay with that?” She asked. “With not moving ever again?”
“Well, even though I can’t move, I’m still living right?” he said. “And that’s all that matters to me.”
He looked into her eyes, and she knew he had truly meant what he had said. “Even if my whole body was destroyed or eaten by those ‘things’, if I’m still alive, then that means it must mean something.”
“I had a family, they died during the attack.” She put a hand on his shaky forehead as he remembered what happened. “They were eaten in front of me and I…I panicked.”
“Ran away because I was a coward.” Tears were falling from his eyes. “And I ended up being crushed by boulders, got my legs stuck in the debris.”
“I don’t know why I’m the one who was left alive. My mom, my dad, my little sisters, they should’ve survived instead of me.”
“Why me? I thought to myself. There must be some reason why I was the one who was chosen to live, when they all died.”
“Don’t you think so, Krista?” he looked into her eyes once more, however this time around, she could see a deep sadness within him.
It reminded her of herself, the look in his eyes. She had felt the same during her first exposition as a member of the Survey Corps.
Death, was something she couldn’t get used to, no matter how many times she had experienced it over the past few days. Her friends, gone in an instant, the pain never left her,
no matter how hard she tried to forget.
“Yes,” she said simply.
“Thought so.” He looked out of the window, out into the grassy planes where the Survey Corps were stationed at. From where she was sitting, she could hear the playful banter of
some of her friends as they guarded the sick bay in case of another Titan attack happening. “How do you guys keep on fighting?”
“Pardon?” she asked.
“I’m sure that you guys see the Titans more than we do, you’ve seen what they can do. Yet, you still push on, fighting the good fight, to protect us civilians,” he said looking at her. “How, do you do that?”
“We have to show a good example to everyone,” she said. “The Survey Corps, is a symbol of freedom. To everyone stuck inside the walls, we must inspire freedom and hope for the
sake of humanity.” She repeated the sayings that she had learnt when training verbatim. “We are fighting for the people, to get rid of the Titans from this world at all costs.”
“And you?” He asked. “Who are you fighting for, Krista.”
Now, that was a hard question, one that left her almost lost in her own thoughts.
Who was she fighting for exactly? Herself? Her friends? The people she saw and tended for in the sick bay?
“I-I don’t know,” she stammered out.
“I can see that you’re a very selfless person, Krista,” he said with a smile. “And I can see that your time has been wasted, talking to a crippled guy like me.”
“No no, not at all!” she almost yelled out but kept it in as respect to the other sick people around her. “I’m glad to be able to talk to you.”
“You make it seem like you’re my therapist or something.” He laughed out. “Being stuck in a hospital bed all day makes you a bit starved for human interaction outside of sick old people.”
“And what you said before, about who I fight for,” she said. “I’m fighting for the people around me, and the people of this world.”
“So everyone then?” he said. “Fighting for the world, you’re such a Goddess.”
She blushed at that, to which the guy let out a loud laugh in return. “As I’ve said before, selfless.”
“I’m really not,” she said.
“Well then, maybe after this, can we go on a date?” he asked.
A slight gasp left her mouth. “Um..”
“Sorry sorry,” he said apologetically. “Shouldn’t have asked that.”
“No, it’s okay,” she said, smiling. “Maybe after you’ve recovered.”
“Is that a promise?” he asked.
“Yes.”
A large smile, rivaling the one made earlier, was on his face as it seemed like birthday came early for him. “I’m telling everyone about this.”
She didn’t say anything, instead giving him a slight rub around his head as she began to change the bandages around his body that were falling apart.
All this time, she had been fighting for herself. Everything that she did, she did for a reason.
The purpose of her coming to the sick bay was to reinforce the image of an angel to everyone’s head. To make sure that if she died later on in her life, she would be remembered for something other than a dead corpse amongst an ocean of dead corpses.
But something about him, was different.
The guy in front of her, reminded her of herself, but instead of being able to fight for his freedom, he had inevitably succumbed to defeat at the hands of a Titan.
Maybe, just maybe, this guy, could become the person she was fighting for. Someone to drive her, to push her, into becoming a better person.
To break free of the walls, and to save humanity from the threat that were the Titans.
It had been months since that day, and Historia Reiss was just about to be crowned as the Queen of the Walls.
Many things had happened since then, the most important of all, her new position and the future of the people she had to govern.
The Titans, once a feared threat, were driven out of the walls, allowing a sort of newfound peace that had long since been denied off for her people.
And it during that day of her coronation, that she saw him again.
He was waving at her from below, a mere speck in the amount of people that had come to her public coronation.
Instead of stubs for legs, Historia could see that he had now been outfitted a wheelchair, one that he used to walk in the first place.
He looked healthy, much more healthy than when she had seen him so many months ago.
“How are you?” she wanted to say, but she knew that her voice had no possible way of reaching that far and even if it did, it would ruin her reputation as Queen.
So the best thing she could do, was to smile and wave at her people, and more specifically towards him.
Historia still remembered the conversation she had with him long ago, and remembered her giving out a promise that she knew she had not fulfilled yet.
As Queen, it was within her duty to fulfil the wishes of her people.
She only hoped that she could sneak away after this to go on a date.