Chapter Text
Oh well – fuck.
He should have known it would end this way. After all, he came from the Underground where everything ended up like this – in blood and pain and misery.
Levi sighed. He did avoid the bullet, yes. But his ODM gear got fucked up by a shard and there was no way he could get back in air. And his leg, well… He looked at the bloody mess that used to be his knee. Considering the fall, multiple fracture of just one leg was grizzly but not as bad as it could have been. Nevertheless, his luck really didn’t matter at this point. He could not walk. He could not get in the air. And he was one of the last soldiers on the ground so there was no one coming back for him. The airship was leaving and all he could do was just watch it from the rubble that was left of Marley’s intermittent zone and hope they all got into safety.
Well, at least I finished the mission, he thought to himself. Zeke was safely onboard of that airship and Eren seemed ok and was accompanied by Mikasa the last time Levi saw him – and that brat will take care of him for sure. The future of Paradis was safe, at least for now.
Hange will take care of the rest.
That thought made his heart sink.
Hange.
She’s not gonna like this.
Hell, she’s gonna be furious.
Yes, furious. Nothing else. She would not be sad because I got stuck here. She would not shed a tear for a person who commanded everyone not go get killed only to end up pinned down in an enemy territory, no. Furious. Just furious.
He heard frantic footsteps coming his way and sighed. He prepared his blades and made himself somewhat stand. Maybe he cannot fight properly, maybe he cannot move properly now but he’s not gonna let anybody go through him.
He looked ahead with a grim look at his face.
You are not getting me alive.
The footsteps got closer and a figure appeared from behind a torn down wall.
And Levi hesitated.
A child.
It was a child.
With a shotgun.
Yes. He should have known it would end this way. In blood and pain and misery…
*
The drunken victorious celebrations quickly turned to silence as Connie asked the painfully poignant question: “Has anyone seem captain Levi?”
Cheers and laughter quickly died out.
“I’m sure I saw him ok when we took down Pieck,” Sasha said. “And he took Zeke up here.”
“Yes, but he returned down after Zeke to make sure Eren got to safety and that we…” Jean’s face got more and more serious as he realized the humanity’s strongest was most likely left behind.
Everyone looked to the entrance to the airship. The back rear was still in the air, maybe…
The screeching sounds made everyone faces turn as they expected to see the captain crawl onto the ship.
Instead, they were looking into captain Lobov’s face who got puzzled by the sudden silence of everybody. “What?”
Jean swallowed. “Who’s going to tell the commander?”
*
Oh well – FUCK.
They got him alive.
And Levi did not like not, not a bit.
He managed to dodge the bullet despite the initial shock of the child shooting at him. His reflexes were always on his side and managed to save him and this time they did again just that. The one bullet only grazed his side, didn’t even break his skin just torn the fabric of his clothes.
But then the girl quickly reloaded and shot again. She was skilled and went for a killshot and she would have gotten it if not for a man who yanked her weapon for a last second.
The man was the same guy Levi saw earlier with the kids when he took down Zeke – a short-cut guy with deep piercing eyes and a calm way of acting. A soldier, commander without a doubt.
“Gabi, don’t!” The soldier said with a deep voice and took the shotgun away from her.
The girl was clawing for the gun, angry and not ready to give up yet.
“They killed Udo! And Zofia! He’s the devil! He’s one of them! He killed them! He killed them!!” The girl yelled in high-pitched voice on a verge of breaking and that made Levi flinch. This was a voice od desperation, of someone who wanted a revenge so so badly. She looked at him and for a moment he felt all the rage and murderous intents and despite his situation he felt sorry for her.
She was a child. And he apparently just caused death of someone close to her.
Fucking war.
Fucking war and fucking Eren and his fucking plan in this fucking world…
At some point of Gabi fighting with the soldier for the shotgun a gunshot happened and all that Levi remembered was a sharp pain in his already wounded leg. Everything went to black after that.
And now he woke up here.
In a cell.
Patched up.
Alive.
And apparently captured.
Oh well. FUCK.
*
Hange was uncharacteristically quiet as Jean named all of the fallen or lost comrades. She stared in the distance behind his ear as if not present in the moment but she was nodding to everything he said. When he finished, she looked directly in his eyes, face blank and expressionless. “Thank you. You all did a great job, please pass along my praise to everyone.”
Jean hesitated. He was sure she has heard the first name – the light in her eyes died the moment he said it. He was also sure she didn’t want to talk about it – that’s why she didn’t say a word. Despite all that he felt he needed to say something. He swallowed nervously. “I’m really sorry, commander. About captain,” he whispered. “But maybe he isn’t dead you know. Noone had seen him fall, maybe he survived…”
Once again, she didn’t look in his face, just a little bit above his head but he saw the quick change in her gaze – the pain in the corner of her eyes that disappeared as the rapidly blinked.
“Oh, please tell captain Lobov to fill the paperwork,” she blabbed all of the sudden. “Someone needs to do it now, you know. Thanks.”
With that, she turned on her heels and went back to the pilot cabin.
Jean sighed and was about to leave as well as when he suddenly heard a hard chuckle.
He looked across the cabin in the corner. There crawled on the ground was lying Zeke – his glasses crooked, limbs all cut down, blood all over his shirt.
“What are you laughing at?” Jean gritted through his teeth.
“Your naivety,” Zeke said with a smirk. “If your heichou survived, do you really think it would be for long?”
“He’s resourceful. And Eren was living in Marley for a long time undetected.”
“Sure, sure,” Zeke nodded. “But after what you’ve just pulled off noone is going to do the same mistake twice. And Marleyans can be resourceful as well you know. Very, very resourceful.”
Jean wasn’t sure exactly about what in that sentence felt like a threat, but he could feel the hair on his neck rising.
Zeke’s smile grew wider. “Instead of feeding on false hopes you should really wish for your captain to be buried under some pile of debris right now. That way your lovely commander will not have to face anything ugly.”
“Shut up,” Jean mumbled and exited the cabin. Despite their huge victory he couldn’t feel but bitterness. Yes, they pulled off a huge successful mission. But to what end?
To what end…
*
Hange sat down, hand down on her knees, eyes glued to the ground.
She wasn’t trembling. She wasn’t choking on her feelings, wasn’t crying, wasn’t hurting, wasn’t pacing there and back again in panic. She was a the commander of the Survey Corps and the commander of the Survey Corps couldn’t be any of that because the commander of the Survey Corps dedicated their heart to their fight fully and willingly and that meant being ready to sacrifice everything.
And so the commander of the Survey Corps just sat there quietly and calmly.
“Are you ok?” Onyankopon glanced her way from the control panel.
She shook her head. “No,” she whispered.
“Where is Levi?”
“He’s not here.”
“I know, but where…”
“Missing.”
Onyankopon stopped in the midsentence. “I’m sorry,” he whispered and turned his focus back to the control panel.
Hange said nothing. She just looked ahead to the ground as a memory flashed her mind.
“Oi, Hange! Once we get back from that hellhole I have some shit I need to tell you, yes?”
She clenched her jaw. It was just a moment before he went down there, that was his goodbye to her. He never said what was it that he wanted to tell her.
And now he never will.
She clenched her fists as well.
Missing.
She knew what that word meant, she had spent way too long in Survey Corps to know that it’s a hollow hope, a cruel way to punish those who were too filled with love to let go. There was no such thing as missing. There was only one word that was hiding behind it.
Dead.
The proper word was dead.
But for some reason she was not able to think that word, not yet.
Maybe it was the grim immutability of it.
Maybe it was the finality of it.
Or maybe it’s just because it’s you. Because I never thought I’d live the day to have to connect that word to you.
She closed her eyes for a moment.
For four years he was a constant, her support, her silent shadow, her rock. Always by her side. Always grumpy and borderline angry, ready to snap at anyone who annoyed her or who annoyed him which, often time, was her.
For four years he was there.
And now he wasn’t.
And now she had to face the horrifying prospects of a world with only one constant and that of Jägger being an unpredictable dick.
She opened her eyes as she almost heard Levi’s dry chuckle following that terrible joke. She could almost hear his voice saying something along the lines of: “Yeah, Jägger is a dick but at least you had never seen his dick, Four-Eyes. I mean, common showers, whose stupid idea was that…”
Except she didn’t hear it because he wasn’t there.
He will never be there.
Because he’s missing.
“Come on, Four Eyes, just say it,” his voice whispered in her ear.
She swallowed. She opened her mouth but nothing came out of it.
I can’t, Levi. I can’t. Not yet.
Not yet.
Please.
For now, you’re missing.
“As you wish. But it doesn’t change a shit, Four-Eyes.”
I know.
*
Reiner was tired. It was not surprising – he felt tired all the time. This time the reason was clear. He woke up in a hospital bed which meant he must he must have fucked up really badly.
His memories were hazy and so he brushed his forehead to help himself remember. He went with Falco to see the show and…
… and Falco said something about an old friend wanting to meet him and…
… and they went down the stairs and…
Reiner swiftly opened his eyes as he felt the memories flooding his brain.
Oh no, did he…?
Did he really…?!
Eren, oh no, Eren did…
Did he…?
Reiner swallowed hard and sat up on the bed.
“Ah, rise and shine sleepy head, I was wondering what took you so long.”
He looked down at the source of the cheerful voice.
Pieck was on all four and she was looking at him with her deep brown eyes.
“What happened?” Reiner whispered.
Pieck shrug. “They got us good those island devils,” she said.
“Yeah, but at least we got back at them a bit.” This was Porco and when Reiner looked up he saw his smug face and his eyes darkened with some sense of satisfaction.
“We did?” Reiner asked, puzzled.
The grin on Porco’s face was suddenly wider and eviler than before. “Oh yes, we did,” he almost sang in delight. “We captured one of theirs.”
Reiner’s heart suddenly stopped a beat. “We captured Eren?!”
Porco’s smile wavered. “No, not him, sadly. Bastard, he ate Hammer,” he almost spat out his name. “But we got the other one. The strong one. Their favorite one. What are they calling him over there, Pieck?”
“Killed in action?” she said, giving him a clear indicator she’s not playing the game with him.
Porco made an annoyed noise. “No. No, they have a cue little nickname for him. What was it, what… Ha! The humanity’s strongest, that’s it!”
Reiner felt the color draining down his face. “You killed Levi Ackerman?” he whispered, chill in his spine as he remembered the face of the small captain filled with rage and determination as his blades pierced Reiner’s neck and chest.
Porco’s smile grew wider once again. “Oh no,” he whispered. “We didn’t kill him. Yet.”
*
There was a tall bald man staring at him through the bars.
“Levi Ackerman in the flesh himself. What an honor,” the man said.
Levi didn’t feel the need to give an answer to that. He had no intension of giving answer to anything.
The man kept staring and so Levi turned his gaze to the second visitor in his cell. This one was slightly shorter with yellow hair. He didn’t just stare – his eyes were throwing daggers.
So, the good one and the bad one. Great.
“I was hoping we could talk.” The bald man kept talking as the other one opened the door of the cell.
Here we go.
“I hope the chains are not too much of inconvenience,” the man said as his companion closed the bars behind them.
Levi again said nothing.
The bald man turned his head to the side. “You and your people killed a lot of folks in Liberio,” he said and his voice changed ever so slightly. “A lot of civilians. Women. Children.”
Levi blinked.
The angry blonde shifted to his left.
The chatty man continued, but his friendly tone was gone? “A lot of people is angry, you know. And even more would be angry knowing that we took care of the wounds of our enemy.”
Once again, Levi didn’t say a word but braced himself.
“We know you can talk. There was nothing wrong with your voice and since we patched you up it would be polite if you talked. But maybe we should check.”
The punch in the jaw was expected. It was swift and hard but Levi grew up in the Underground. He knew how to take his punches.
“Nothing? Interesting. I would have sworn you could talk. But I’m sure that one way or another we will find a common speech.”
Levi closed his eyes.
He should have known it would end this way – in blood and pain and misery.
Oh well - FUCK.