Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sunlight shone brightly down on the dappled green leaves of a great oak tree. Gabi grinned up at it as she adjusted her ODM gear. At over fifty feet tall, the tree wasn't as tall as the giants that resided on Paradis, but it was probably still big enough to suit her needs.

Beside her, Falco shuffled nervously. "Are you sure about-"

"Are you really going to ask if I'm sure about this?" Gabi cut in. "Really? We've been training for weeks, and you really aren't sure I can handle this?"

Those weeks could have been longer if Levi wasn't so stubborn. The old man in question was sitting next to Onyankopon on a bench a few feet away. Gabi shot him a wary glance, as if Falco's nervousness might spontaneously make him backtrack and drag her away. He relieved her concerns with a roll of his eyes.

"I know," Falco said, drawing her attention back to him. Despite the worry in his eyes, he was offering her a warm smile. "You've gotten really good, too. But... can you blame me for not wanting to see my girlfriend get hurt?"

Gabi snorted and turned around to take a few steps toward the tree. "I can when your girlfriend is me." After all of Levi's grumbling and warnings that the ODM gear was difficult, she'd proven to be a natural with it. Falco had struggled, but his determination to keep up with her meant that he was never too far behind.

Once she was only a few feet away from the tree, Gabi shot Falco a grin from over her shoulder. "You'll be right behind me, right?"

Just as she expected, the worry in Falco's eyes faded away into an excited gleam at her invitation. Challenge. "Of course," he said.

"Be careful!" Onyankopon called out.

Gabi turned around to grin at Onyankopon and Levi. The former returned her smile with a shaky one of his own, while the latter looked decidedly unimpressed.

"Don't worry about me. I have skill on my side," Gabi declared.

Levi scoffed. "Good, because I'm not going to catch you if you fall."

Onyankopon grimaced. "I… actually meant that you should be careful not to be arrested," he admitted. "I'm not sure we should be doing this in a park."

"Oh." Falco looked around nervously, as if it hadn't occurred to him that they could possibly get into trouble for doing this in one of Marley's nicer parks. It probably hadn't. He liked to play at being all mindful, but Gabi knew that he was just as excited to try their ODM gear in a larger environment as she was. "Could we get arrested for this?"

Levi waved a hand dismissively. "This is a public park, isn't it? We're part of the public."

"Exactly!" Gabi exclaimed. "Besides, we're here with Levi Ackerman! Even if someone tries to arrest us, they'll stop as soon as they realize who we are."

Falco pursed his lips. "That's..."

"It's true," Levi cut in. "Now get this shit out of your system so we can go back to the shop."

Gabi laughed and turned back to face the tree. "Are you watching, old man?"

Levi sighed. "I let you drag me out here, didn't I?"

Gabi aimed her grappling hooks toward the top of the tree. "Falco?"

"I'm ready," her boyfriend confirmed, excitement weaving its way through his voice.

"Then let's go."

Gabi fired off the grappling hooks, felt the engine of her ODM gear roar to life, and took flight.

*

Gabi blinks as she takes in her surroundings. She is in what seems to be a back alleyway. Small piles of rubbish are piled against the sides of buildings tall enough to blot out the sun and cast her in shadow. It is familiar only in the vaguest sense that all back alleyways are similar enough to be somewhat familiar, unremarkable in all the ways that go with that, and strange in every way that counts.

She isn't supposed to be here, out in some back alley in...

Where am I? The question sneaks up on her quietly, wrapped up in cold and dread. She doesn't know how to even begin to answer it, but she does know that she can't expect to find answers if she just stands around waiting for something to happen. So she walks forward, one unsteady footstep after the other, toward the mouth of the alleyway, and into the light of day.

Gabi is met with an unfamiliar city street. It is filled to bursting with people, all bustling about in the warm afternoon light as they go about their lives. A woman is dragging a pouty girl after her a few yards down from where she is standing. Up the street from her, a trio of men stand clustered around what looks like a news stall, arguing over something or other. Across the street filled with horses and carriages, there is another stall, this one filled to the brim with oranges. A man with a winning smile is standing next to it. He meets Gabi's gaze and grins a little wider and gestures for her to come over to him.

All of this is noticed within a span of heartbeats and dismissed just as quickly, for none of it is the thing that takes her breath away and threatens to make her heart stop beating. That honor goes to the phantom looming on the horizon, the thing that she has only seen once before in her life, three long years ago. To the symbol proudly emblazoned on its side.

The walls of Paradis are long gone, destroyed during the Rumbling.

So how can she be looking at Wall Rose?

*

"What were the walls like?"

Reiner chuckled uncomfortably. "That's… a loaded question."

"I don't mean what was it like to live there," Gabi clarified.

It was half a lie. She did want to know what those days were like for him. While it was true that she knew more than she did when she was younger and assumed that it had been a living hell, she wanted to know more. She wanted to know everything. He had been happy there, but what were the things that made him happy? When did he start to realize that the islanders weren't devils after all? What were the exact moments that made him start to care for them, that made his duty hurt so badly?

The past didn't weigh on Reiner quite as much as it used to, but it still held him back. It held all of the former members of the 104th back to a degree. Sometimes one of them would make a passing reference to something from their trainee days, but they never spoke of them or the events that followed in any depth. The ones who were the most open about the past with her was probably Annie, and even that was mostly just her talking about her past with Armin. Reiner, on the other hand, barely spoke of it at all.

Gabi hoped that her cousin would truly open up to her one day. And after three years, she suspected that they were getting closer to that day. But not yet. For now, she contented herself by watching his interactions with his Paradisian friends, whose companionship and forgiveness she knew he considered himself lucky to have. She tried to glean what she could from their moments of friendship and wondered what they all might have been like before they all had their various scars to weigh on them.

And sometimes, like now, she asked questions. Not especially pointed questions, nothing that would push him too far out of his comfort zone, but questions. Little things that made it easier to paint the picture of what had been.

Reiner peered down at her with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean, then?"

"What were the walls like," Gabi repeated. "You know, the giant titan-filled things that surrounded the island."

"Oh." Reiner leaned back into his chair and shrugged. "Well, you said it. They were giant. Filled with titans. I mean, you saw them."

Gabi leaned in closer until her stomach pressed against the table. "There has to be more than that!" she exclaimed. "Seeing them for a moment can't compare to actually living there."

Okay, so maybe she pushed a little bit. Only on good days, when she was sure that Reiner could handle it. Like today.

Reiner sighed heavily. "They were..." He raised a hand to rub at his chin, only to drop it a moment later. When he started speaking again, his voice had lowered into something almost reverent. "...Awesome. They were so tall, even having a titan wasn't enough to keep me from being at least a little scared when I used my ODM gear on them. But it also felt like flying. There was a sense of power to them, and when you stood on top of one, it felt like you could see the entire world, even though you knew you couldn't."

"Do you think there's anything else out there like them?" Gabi paused, pursing her lips. "Or there might have been, before..."

"No. They were three of a kind."

*

No. That can't be Wall Rose that she's looking at. There has to be some sort of explanation - any sort of explanation. Something weird is going on, but it isn't what it looks like.

Unless...

Gabi crushes the thought before it can ever take root. She turns on her heel and, with a sense of determination that edges in on desperation, stomps her way over to the men gathered around the news stall. The stall is spotted with papers. Her gaze flickers over to them, but she doesn't allow herself to actually read the characters covering them, doesn't dare entertain the wild notion building in the back of her mind for even a second.

If she seriously considers that ridiculous idea, then that means she's acknowledging that there's a chance that it's real. And it isn't real. It can't be.

Gabi's attention turns toward the gathered men instead. One or two of them glance at her, but none of them pay her any real attention, engrossed in their argument. Gabi watches them for a moment, waiting for an opening, before giving up, putting on a sweet, polite voice, and cutting in, "Excuse me, but I think I'm lost. Can you tell me where I am?"

"Two blocks east of the market," one man dismissively says. 

Gabi frowns. "No, I mean… What district is this?" 

Suddenly all eyes are on her. One man, red-haired and sporting a green-checkered hat, raises an eyebrow and makes a disbelieving noise. "How in god's name could anyone get that lost?" he asks.

Gabi wishes she had an answer. An answer that doesn't involve impossible notions and terrifying things that she refuses to believe quite yet, for those are even worse than nothing. She can't tell any of that to the men though, and if she wants to get any real information, she needs to tell them something. So she forces her straining smile a little wider and says, "I think I hit my head."

The redhead exchanges a look with one of his companions, a composed-looking brunette in a teal shirt and black pants. The third man is by far the least composed. His black hair is disheveled and everything from his dusty brown slacks to his black shirt and well-worn boots look tattered. However, he is the one to step toward Gabi, concern glimmering in his blue eyes. The sight makes Gabi's heart clench and her mind flicker through a flurry of images and thoughts. Reiner, Levi, Falco; where are they now, what were they doing, when will she se-

Stupid. She'll see them soon, there's no need to get worked up or emotional. She just needs to figure out where she is, then she'll be heading right home.

"Hit your head?" the man asks. "Do you need to see a doctor?"

The brunette snickers. "Maybe she can be your new charity case, Martin. If she's that confused, she must be another of those refugees.

The kind man - Martin - glares at the brunette while the redhead grumbles, "You'd think the refugees would have their shit together by now."

"I'm not a refugee," Gabi quickly says. "And I don't need a doctor. I just need to know where I am."

"You're in Trost," Martin says, turning his increasingly worried gaze back to Gabi. "Are you sure that you-"

"Trost," Gabi breathes. "I'm in..." she glances at the wall - at Wall Rose - and fists her hands in the yellow-checkered skirt of her dress. "Right. I'm in Trost."

She swallows heavily and fights down the nervous laugh that tries to force its way out of her throat. There is no reason to break down. It would be stupid to break down. She had been in worse situations than this before. If she hasn't, if this really is exactly what it looks like, then she's still been in worse situations, because if it really is what it looks like, then it can't be real. Simple! She just has to stay calm and get more information.

All three of the men are exchanging wary looks now. Gabi takes that as a sign to hurry it up and get out of here before she starts getting questions that she really doesn't know how to deal with. She forces her voice to remain steady as she says, "If you don't mind, I have one more question."

"Of course," Martin says, shifting his gaze back to her. The concern on his face is building, and she has no doubt that it will only get worse with what she asks next. She can't help that though. She has to ask the question, has to figure out just how bad it really is.

"What year is it?"

Silence falls upon the group. The redhead is eyeing her in blatant distrust and the brunette takes a shuffling step away. Martin looks sad, doubtlessly thinking that he's talking to some sort of addled girl who has completely lost her wits. Which, in a way, she supposes that he is. If she isn't dreaming, then she must be going mad to be seeing what she thinks she is right now.

Martin speaks, and for the first time in her life, Gabi hopes that she's going mad.

"It's 850."

Gabi nods, and the motion feels hollow and empty, like her soul has been yanked out of her body and set adrift somewhere else. "Right. Thank you."

She turns around and takes off down the street without giving him a chance to say anything else. Martin shouts something after her, but she doesn't hear it, can't bring herself to care to listen. Her head is filled with impossibilities and panic, the impossibility laid out before her.

It doesn't long for her to reach the alley that this nightmare started in. She turns into it, looking for answers, for a way out. Yet nothing happens as she runs deeper into it. She doesn't suddenly come to her senses, she doesn't turn around and find herself back home. Eventually, she is forced to come to a stop when she reaches the end of the alley. The end of the alley, which is exactly that, a dank back alley in the Trost District, year 850.

"I've lost my mind," Gabi whispers.

Except there were no signs that she was losing her mind. There were no hints or clues, nothing to make her suspect that anything dark was coming. And for all that she is confused, she doesn't feel confused, blurry, or any less sharp than she usually does. She always imagined that being insane must be like having a head filled with cotton, that the world wouldn't make sense beyond the delusions that the mentally ill person latched onto. This doesn't make sense and the situation is insane, but... she doesn't feel insane.

So she tries again.

"I'm dreaming."

The trouble is, when she reaches a hand out to touch the red bricks of the wall before her, she can clearly feel the roughness of their texture and the warmth that has absorbed into the stone. When has she ever had such a detailed dream? She can't remember. But it has to be a dream, because if it isn't - if it isn't-

It has to be a dream. Never mind how she can feel the bumps and grooves of the stone poke at her back as she turns around to slump against the wall. Forget how the rough surface tugs at her dress as she slowly slinks downward, how the pavement below is so much cooler than the wall behind her when she collapses into a heap. She can ignore the pain that resounds in her chest as a sob builds, the sharpness with which her fingers dig into her arms as she grabs her shoulders.

None of it means anything. This is a dream. It has to be a dream.

Yet no matter how long she waits, she doesn't wake up.

This is a dream. It has to be a dream. 

That isn't enough to stop the tears from falling when Gabi finally forces herself to look back up, toward the mouth of the alley, and sees Wall Rose looming on the horizon.

*

Gabi hummed, eyeing Reiner thoughtfully. She really didn't want to push too far or make him uncomfortable, but... it did look like it was a good day for him, and she really did want to know about more than just the walls themselves. Maybe, if she was very careful, she could learn something meaningful. Maybe, just maybe...

"What are you thinking?" Reiner asked.

"What makes you think that I'm thinking anything?" Gabi challenged, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I know you better than to think that you aren't."

"I'm not always thinking!"

Reiner grinned, his eyes glimmering with a hint of playfulness that she would never have seen in him three years ago. It was a change that she was still getting used to, but it was a good one. "Alright then. I concede; your head is completely empty."

Gabi squawked and pointed at her cousin accusingly. "You know that isn't what I meant!"

"Prove it, then.”

Gabi sighed, all of the wind pouring out of her sails as easily as it had settled there. She'd wanted to worm information out of Reiner a little more subtly, but if he was asking... well, maybe that was a good sign. Maybe she would be able to get something solid out of him this time after all.

"I was wondering about what everyone was like back when you first knew them," she said.

When you first knew them. Back before they knew who Reiner was. She didn't say the words outright, but she could tell from the shift in Reiner's eyes that he knew what she meant. "I see," he murmured, crossing his arms.

"You don't actually need to say anything, if you don't want to," Gabi hurried to say, even as the curious part of her nagged for her not to.

Reiner shook his head. "No; I don't mind you asking. It's just..." She knew immediately that he wouldn't tell the truth - that he didn't know what to say, that he didn't know how to say it, that even after three years, the important parts still hurt too much to talk about. Indeed, the side of Reiner's lips twitched up and he shook his head slightly. "At least I don't need to pretend that they were devils anymore."

"You didn't do a very good job of making them sound devilish," Gabi murmured, her mind wandering toward the girl who Reiner had spoken about the most on that evening. The potato thief, the woman Gabi had shot. She had been one of his friends. Was there a chance that he would tell her about her?

"No, I suppose I didn't."

Reiner sighed and uncrossed his arms in order to run a hand through his hair. "Everyone's changed a lot since then. Some of them are less obvious than others, but some of them..." A spark of fondness broke through the heavy cloud that had fallen upon him. "Jean's barely recognizable from when he first joined the training corps."

"Jean?" Gabi asked, intrigued.

"Kirstein used to be a blowhard utterly set on joining the Military Police and living a cozy life in the interior. Bit of a coward, too."

Gabi shook her head. "No way. That's... there's no way!"

Reiner grinned. "It's true. Connie also wanted to join the MPs, but he was never as obnoxious about it. He also used to be, well, a lot less mature."

"Was he annoying?"

"I didn't think so. Honestly, he was a lot of fun. Still is, but back when it was him and..."

Reiner trailed off, gaze growing distant and pained. Gabi immediately knew that she wouldn't be getting anything more from this line of questioning and scrambled to find a new topic to divert to. The first thing that came to mind was to ask what made them decide to join the Survey Corps, but she dismissed it as soon as she thought of it. She may not have known a lot about what happened back then, but she knew that the 104th had been through a lot. Connie probably could have been convinced by something else, but knowing Jean, it was probably one of the big, terrible things that made him decide to risk his life and devote his heart. Something that made him feel responsible and aim for a higher purpose. If it was one of the big things, then pushing the envelope and asking Reiner about it would just risk him clamming up completely.

Instead, Gabi redirected the topic towards something that felt safe. "What about Armin?" she asked. "Has he changed much?"

"Yes and no," Reiner said. His tone of voice sent a wave of displeasure through Gabi. He was talking, but he sounded disconnected, all caught up in something she couldn't see. She was losing him. But he was talking, so for the time being, Gabi remained silent and hoped that he would snap out of it. "Armin has always been Armin. He's gotten more confident and quicker to share his ideas, but at his core, he's still the same person he was back then. The biggest difference is who he hangs out with."

An extra note of strain had entered Reiner's voice. It made Gabi want to back off, but at the same time, something that he had said made her too curious to stay quiet.

One more question. She would let herself ask one more question, then she would back off. "He and Annie weren't close back then?" she asked.

"Annie was as close to him as she was to anyone. Probably a bit closer, looking back. But what I meant was that Armin was friendly with everyone, but he was inseparable from Mikasa and..."

Eren.

Both of them fell silent, Reiner staring down at the table and Gabi staring at Reiner. Unbidden, a question came to her mind.

Were you and Eren close?

Gabi didn't ask it. She never would, didn't think that she wanted it answered. Even so, Reiner sighed and lifted his gaze back up to meet Gabi's, where he offered her a joyless smile. "You know... Eren and I were the same in a lot of ways."

"That's not true!" Gabi exclaimed, a scowl forming on her face. "You're not..." She shook her head. "Don't talk about yourself like that."

Reiner cast her a long look. For a moment, it looked like he wanted to say something. The look vanished a heartbeat later. "Sorry. Didn't mean to upset you."

"You're upsetting yourself," Gabi sniffed. "Tell me more about how insufferable Jean was."

So he did. He told her about Jean's arrogance and braggart tendencies, about Connie's immaturity, about how Armin was insightful from the very beginning, and how Annie cared more for her comrades than she let on. But he didn't say anything about anyone who Gabi didn't already know.

And he didn't say a word about how they became the people they were today.

*

Two days pass. Gabi spends them wandering the streets of Trost, her once-nice dress growing dirty and tattered as gunk finds its way onto her skin and bags under her eyes. On the first day, she doesn’t drink. On the second day, she finds a public well and drinks her fill of what is almost certainly dubious water. She takes note of its location and takes care not to wander too far away from it.

Hunger is another problem. It gnaws at her stomach with ever-increasing ferocity. She often finds herself staring longingly at the stores and stalls that line the streets of Trost, but although her head fills itself with all the ways she could snag herself something to eat, she never acts on her fantasies. Too many people would be disappointed in her if she stooped to that level. She would be disappointed in herself.

Besides, there's no need. There's no way that she could have gone back in time. It's just a dream. She will drink from an imagined well to stave off the illusion of thirst, but she will not let herself be driven to theft. If her hunger is reaching the point of physical pain, it must just be because she has an active imagination. She curls up in drafty little corners of the district and drifts off into something resembling sleep in the latest hours of the night, but she does not dream, which is surely a sign that this is not real.

This is a dream. Even so, it would be nice if the people around her reacted a little less realistically. The more disheveled she grows, the dirtier looks she receives from the people around her. It's like they expect her to turn around and start stealing. Which, if they were real, is probably exactly what they would expect from a random girl on the streets. But even if this were real and she did decide to steal, it isn't as if it would be for no reason. She doesn't have any money, and it isn't like there are many other ways to get food without it.

Some people seem to realize this though. They are the ones who give her soft, sad looks when they pass her by. Gabi is grateful for them on the first day. For the reminder that even in this warped dream world, not all humans are heartless. That gratitude does not last long. On the second day, the pity begins to get under her skin. Of the people who have given her those looks, only a few have stopped to toss a coin at her feet, and none of them have offered any meaningful help. It isn't as if she would have accepted their help, but their refusal to even try to make a real difference grates all the same.

For two days, Gabi wanders the streets of Trost and tells herself that it's all a dream. The third night is what changes things. She does not sleep at all, her hunger reaching new heights and keeping her awake as it claws at her insides.

On the morning of the third day, she watches as the sun crawls over Wall Rose and paints the world in hues of rose-gold light. It is then that a realization sets upon her, gradual enough for her to mourn its arrival and sharp enough to rent her in half.

If this is a dream, then it is one that she isn't waking up from. A nightmare without end.

And that makes it reality.

That means that she needs to...

She needs to eat. There are people who would be disappointed in her if she stole, but she also knows for a fact that those very same people would rather she steal than starve. She also knows that they'd want her to come up with a plan. Her hunger has also reached a point where it is making her mind sluggish and slow, which would force food to be her first priority even if the suddenly very real risk of starvation weren't already enough to do that.

Gabi stakes out her target first. When it's time to act, she moves quickly and carefully, swiping a good-sized pastry and escaping the scene of the crime before the vendor catches so much as a glimpse of her. She ducks into an alleyway and scarfs it down without taking the time to actually taste it. It is warm though, and that warmth provides some scant measure of comfort as it slips down her throat to rest in her empty stomach.

She slumps down against the ground and allows herself to bask in the feeling of not starving for a moment. Just a moment, for that is all that her situation will allow. It's all that the barbed web of emotions writhing within her will let her have, for as her mind begins to clear back up, they reassert themselves with a previously unseen clarity, pressing their thorns up against her and tearing holes into her very soul.

Gabi has been thrown back into the past. Except she isn't just in the past; she is on Paradis, in the walls, in Trost, in the very year that Reiner will launch his attack on the district. It's coming. She knows it's coming, and...

And what? What will happen if she changes things? Gabi wants to get home, but she doesn't have the faintest clue as to how. No matter how much she rakes her mind, the only thing that comes to her is to wait for time to pass. She can hide away from everything, keep to herself, and let events play out. Then, once the Alliance of this era has grown up and become her Alliance, she can find them.

Except that won't work, will it? This Alliance will have their own Gabi, a young girl who fought with them. She'll be older, a stranger, and even if she's able to convince them that she is who she says she is, things will never be the same. It would also mean...

It would mean standing by and letting the Rumbling happen.

If she wants to get anywhere close to going home, she needs to allow Eren Yeager to destroy 80% of the world.

Suddenly, Gabi knows what she needs to do. The realization crashes down on her with the weight of multiple lifetimes and nearly draws a sob out of her lips. She bites it back and slaps a hand over her mouth, fiercely blinking her eyes to keep tears from welling up. There can be no breaking down right now. She has to keep thinking, to keep planning, to force herself to actually do what she knows that she needs to.

Getting involved means changing the specific order of events that made everything work out the way it did. It means accepting the fact that she will never be able to go home. Except... no matter what she does, she will never be able to go back to the home that she remembers.

Reiner may have told her next to nothing about his time on Paradis, but she knows that he wanted to go home. She knows that he did horrible things in his desperation to go home. He did things that he would regret for the rest of his life, and when he finally returned to Marley, it wasn't what he had hoped for. Gabi cannot allow herself to repeat his mistakes.

If she's very careful, she might be able to keep him from making those same mistakes as well.

Not just him either. Mikasa. Jean. Connie. Armin. Annie. Levi. They all have terrible regrets, and if she plays her cards right, she may be able to save them from them.

No, more than that. She can... she can...

She can save Trost District.

She can save the world.

...She can save Marco Bodt, remove one more regret from both Jean and Reiner's hearts. He won't die if the attack on Trost never happens. After that, if Reiner never returns to Marley...

...If Reiner never returns to Marley, then there's a very real chance that his family will be condemned. Her family. They and some other Gabi will be turned into mindless titans and sent away to Paradis. The thought makes her stomach churn and her heart waver. She mitigates both by thinking of everyone who was crushed underfoot during the Rumbling, all of the lives that must have been lost in the battle of Trost. Her family is not worth all that destruction. She is not worth all of the pain that Reiner will cause if left on his current path. If her other self dies... If her other self dies...

...If her other self dies, then Sasha Braus will live.

If her other self dies, then Falco will have no reason to stay in the warrior program. He can drop out and live a normal childhood. He can be safe.

The thought brings a broken smile to Gabi's lips. If Reiner were here, he knows that he would tell her to stay safe and take care of herself. Falco, too. Jean. Connie. Mikasa. Annie. Armin. All of them would balk at the idea of her getting involved in what she knows is to come. They would be hypocrites, because she knows that they wouldn't hesitate to thrust themselves into the heat of danger if they thought that there was even a fraction of a chance to change the past.

They always carried the memories of the loved ones they had lost and tried to save the ones they could still reach. Now Gabi will do the same.

...Levi would support her. He wouldn't be happy about it, but he would understand what she is doing and why she has to do it. He would tell her to take her chance to fly.

But how?

She knows that if she wants to have a shot at changing things in time, she needs to get in with the 104th. In order to do that without having gone through any military training, she will need to catch the eye of someone very important. But how can she hope to do that?

...She knows how. After all, she's already heard this story.

*

Gabi eyed Levi with a frown. He was sitting at his work table sorting piles of tea into little baggies. She knew from experience that sorting tea leaves was monotonous work, but his good eye was focused on his task with such intensity that it could be mistaken for a delicate part of a high-stakes mission. Except he hadn't looked anything like that during the Rumbling, when he was active and doing something important. The Levi from back then radiated with power, fury, and a solemn duty unlike anything that she had seen before or would ever see again. What she saw before her was simply a man who got too worked up about his tea.

Got too worked up about his tea and stayed too worked up about his tea. Gabi's frown when she glanced at the clock on the wall. It was ten in the evening. It was ten in the evening, the shop had been closed down for three hours, and Levi was still locked away in the back fretting over his leaves.

Of course, Gabi thought, glancing down at the broom in her hands, I can't say that I'm any better. Falco had gone home two hours ago, but she'd been cleaning ever since closing. He had tried to get her and Levi to go with him, but Gabi had called him a slacker and argued that there was nothing wrong with doing a little extra work. Now, however...

They had done extra work. The extra work had been done. If Levi wouldn't realize that and snap out of his leaf-based hypnotism, then she'd just have to lead by example.

She set the broom down in the corner and flopped down in the chair across from Levi. Immediately, his gaze snapped up, boring into her for a second before flickering over to the abandoned broom. Eyes narrowing, he warned, "You'd better put that broom back where it belongs."

Gabi waved her hand dismissively. "I will when you stop sorting tea leaves."

Levi gave her a disapproving glance. "I'll stop when they're done."

"Then I guess it'll stay there until you're done," Gabi retorted, crossing her arms.

There was no immediate reaction from Levi. The stubborn old man went right back to sorting his tea. It was as he was carefully placing a fresh pinch of tea into a new bag that he asked, "Are you going to sit there until I'm done as well?"

"Yep."

"You know I don't have that chair there for you to lounge around in it."

"Oh? So Falco and Onyakopon get to lounge around, but not me? Is that it?"

"It was part of the table set."

"You still could have broken it up if you didn't want anyone else to be able to sit down."

"That would have defeated the point of getting a set."

Gabi huffed and leaned back in her chair, the front legs rising a few inches off the ground. Levi's gaze snapped up to glare at her. She met it head-on, challenging, only to ease her chair back down to the ground a few seconds later.

"You know, I can do more than just sit here," Gabi declared. "I can talk as well."

"You are talking."

"I could talk more. Or..." Gabi paused, the image of Levi as he was during the Rumbling flashing through her mind. "Maybe you could do the talking."

Levi's hands, which had been in the process of tying off a teabag, paused. He stared down at it for a moment before meeting Gabi's gaze with a sigh. "What is it that you want to know about?" he asked, voice even and measured.

Gabi faltered. She hadn't really been thinking about it when she spoke. It just happened, an impulse that she wasn't able to catch in time. If she had taken the time to think about it, she probably would have expected Levi to ignore her or brush it off. But instead, this was happening. He had responded, and if she played her cards right, she might actually have the opportunity to learn about his life on Paradis.

"Well," she carefully began, "you were humanity's strongest soldier for a long time. So you probably have a lot of-"

"-I'm not telling you about the Survey Corps," Levi interrupted. "Not tonight."

Gabi felt her shoulders start to droop and immediately straightened them back up. There was no point in being disappointed; she should have known better than to expect Levi to talk about his past. She had to choose her words more carefully, make sure that she didn't touch on anything too sensitive and personal. She had to-

Levi snorted. "Careful. Try thinking any harder and your head's going to explode." A ghost of a smile flickered across his lips. "You know, I really thought you'd stop reminding me of her by now. Then you go making faces like that."

Gabi blinked. "Remind you of who?"

The smile faded. A distant look crossed Levi's face, just for a moment, before he shook his head and anchored himself back in reality. "You wouldn't know her. She died a long time ago."

"Oh," Gabi whispered. Of course she was dead; most of the people Levi cared about were. And he only got that look on his face when he was thinking of someone he cared about.

"Her name was Isabel Magnolia." The words came suddenly, an undercurrent of something raw beneath Levi's level voice making them almost hurt to hear. "She died in 844, along with Farlan Church. I haven't told anyone about them since."

An undeniable heaviness had made its way into the room. It made it hard to even move, let alone think or speak. But she couldn't just sit there and do nothing, not if Levi was really saying what she thought she was. Or making the offer that she thought she was. If he was... oh, Gabi wanted to know what he was going to say. What could have been so very important that Levi Ackerman, one of the strongest people she knew, couldn't stand to talk about it for years.

But Levi was a lot like Reiner in some ways. That meant that she had to be careful, that she couldn't push him too far or let him think that he had to go too far out of her comfort zone. So even with the curiosity gnawing away at her, she forced herself to open her mouth and say, "You don't have to if I don't want to."

Levi shot her an unimpressed look. "Do you think I would have brought it up if I didn't want to talk about it?"

It was a simple question - too simple a question. A trick question. People brought up things that they didn't actually want to talk about all the time, for all sorts of convoluted reasons. Sometimes it was because they needed to talk about something even if they didn't want to, but only sometimes. Gabi knew that, and she knew that Levi knew that as well. That was why, instead of giving him a proper answer, she offered him a searching look.

She got her response in the form of a long, tired sigh. "Damn brat," Levi muttered. "It's not that complicated. After how far we've come, I figured it's about time that I entrust their memory to someone. If you listen, you'll get to find out how I joined the Survey Corps."

Gabi nodded. Suddenly, the air didn't feel tense, but fragile. Like a precious memory. It gave her the sense that joining the Survey Corps was the least important part of what she was going to hear about them. "Alright. So tell me about them."

It took a moment for Levi to find his words. When he did, he warned, "I don't know if I can get right to them. And it's not a pretty story."

"That's alright," Gabi said. "None of us have pretty stories. Just say whatever you need to."

Levi nodded slowly, something sad and distant sparkling in his eye. Words that had gone unspoken for a long time and needed to get out. "There was an underground city beneath Sina," he finally began. "It was filled with scum, lowlifes, and all of society's other castoffs. That's where I was born."

*

Gabi spends a week living as a thief. Although the pitying people of Trost have given her a handful of coins, they are not enough to buy anything substantial. As such, she tucks them away beneath a pile of loose bricks behind a store before setting off.

The first thing that she stole was the pastry, but the second thing she steals is a change of clothes. It's just a loose shirt and pants nabbed from a clothesline, but they're more practical than her dress, which she reluctantly discards in a dumpster. She repeats the process a few more times until she has a small handful of mismatched outfits.

It is only after she's acquired her clothing that she realizes that she has nowhere to keep it. As such, she tucks it all behind a dumpster before setting off to find a bag. That means staking out a shop, staying out of sight to avoid suspicion, and striking quickly and carefully. It takes her the better part of a day, but in the end, she makes it out with a large leather knapsack. She snags some more food from a particularly inattentive street vendor before doubling back to collect her clothes and money. It's a relief to find that no one found her coins while she was away, and an even bigger one when she sees that her clothes are still there.

With that taken care of, she spends the rest of the week familiarizing herself with Trost. She never dares to wander too far away from the public well, but she learns all of the stores in the area and landmarks in the area. To a degree, she also learns about the people. She starts to recognize the people who live in the nearby houses, the ones who offer her kindly smiles and the ones that look at her like she's dirt on the bottom of their shoe. She learns which shops are easy to steal from and which have shrewd owners that are better avoided. The ones that she suspects would be especially harsh on her if they caught her. The ones that seem like they might let her go if they caught her. Contradictory though it may be, she tries to avoid stealing from those ones.

Over the course of a week, Gabi gets to know the district that will be devastated if she doesn't change the future.

Most importantly, she figures out which bars are frequented by members of the Garrison Regiment.

It didn't happen often, but there were times when the former members of the Survey Corps couldn't quite resist smack-talking the other regiments. Even Reiner's mentioned the corruption of the Military Police and the Garrison's reputation of drunken layabouts. Armin always defended them, said that they got better in time, but it quickly becomes apparent to Gabi that there was at least some truth to those claims, and even if the Garrison Regiment of 850 is better than they were when Shiganshina fell, they still aren't at the top of their game. Not all of them. Not enough for them to be prepared to handle a disaster on Trost's scale.

But that won't be a problem if she succeeds in what she's set out to do. For now, the failings of the Garrison work in her favor.

Gabi makes her move on her tenth day in the past.

It's easier than she expected it to be. The trio of Garrison soldiers, clad in their ODM gear, are already visibly drunk by the time they stumble into the tavern. Gabi is tucked away in a shadowy corner, having spent a portion of her meager coinage on some disgusting drink that gives her an excuse to loiter. She watches with sharp eyes as the soldiers indulge in two pitchers of ale, growing more and more sloppy by the minute. Her heart starts to speed up when the soldier in the middle starts to fidget uncomfortably and pick at his ODM gear.

Gabi doesn't immediately strike when he pulls his gear off and drops it on the table behind him. Her heart is pounding in her chest and her muscles scream for her to move, to do something, but she forces herself to wait. To watch.

The soldiers are getting louder and louder as they grow drunker. A round of cheers goes up when a disgruntled-looking bartender brings out a third pitcher of ale. The bartender turns his back and hurries away as soon as the pitcher is handed off. The soldiers, loud and careless, appear utterly lost to their surroundings.

Gabi runs. She snatches the ODM gear off of the table and is fleeing the scene before she can even truly process what just happens. A shout rises behind her, so she keeps running, ODM gear tucked tightly to her chest. She turns down one alley, then another, and another. It is only when she is confident that no one is following her that she stops to catch her breath.

The first thing Gabi thinks is that it's going to take her a while to find her way back to the well. Her second thought is that she doesn't care. She could be miserably lost and it wouldn't matter, because now she has ODM gear. A wild grin spreads across her face as she holds it up, fingers weaving tightly between the leather straps.

Gabi knows what she has to do, has known it for more than a week. But now that she’s stolen her wings, it suddenly seems so much more possible.

She is going to save Trost.

She is going to change Reiner’s mind, to save him from himself.

She is going to kill Eren Yeager, preferably before he even finds out that he’s a shifter.

She is going to save the world.

*

The Alliance had decided to pay a visit to Paradis. The Alliance, as in all of them, not just the ones who had gone on to become ambassadors. This was the second visit for the ones who had, but for Gabi, it was her first time setting foot on the island since the Rumbling.

She almost couldn't believe what she was hearing when she found out. It was no secret that most of the Alliance was reluctant to get her and Falco involved in political affairs - something about wanting to let them spend what remained of their childhood acting like actual children. There was a time when it would have grated beyond measure. Now, Gabi appreciated what they were trying to do and appreciated the gesture.

It still grated a little though.

No one had said it outright, but Gabi knew that Levi was the reason why she and Falco were allowed to tag along. His fighting days may have been behind him, but he wasn't so out of shape that he couldn't visit Paradis without caretakers. Even if he was, he could have easily found someone to fill in for her and Falco. He had pushed for them to be allowed to go with. Gabi wondered if it was because he had noticed that being left out still grated at her to some degree. Or maybe, possibly, it was something a little more sentimental than that. She knew better than to think that she would ever get to see the place where Levi grew up, but maybe he wanted them to see the island that he had fought for in a context other than war.

That being said, she hadn't actually seen much of the island yet. Just Shiganshina, where the Alliance was renting out a large cabin.

It both was and wasn't an odd choice of location. On one hand, it allowed Mikasa to visit them without having to travel that much. On the other...

Reiner was sitting by the kitchen window, sipping on a cup of tea as he watched the first rays of light peak over the horizon. Gabi frowned as she approached him. "What are you doing up so early?" she asked.

Her cousin lowered her drink onto the table. "I could say the same to you," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't count," Gabi said. "I've always been a morning person and I'm still in my pajamas. You're fully dressed, and..." She paused, squinting at Reiner. Even after three years, it still wasn't very unusual to see dark bags under his eyes, so that didn't tell her very much. But was it her imagination, or was he still wearing the same clothes from the night before? "...You didn't sleep at all, did you?"

Reiner shrugged. "It felt like a good idea for someone to keep watch."

"Right," Gabi murmured. She didn't bother asking if this was something that the group had discussed and decided upon or if Reiner had just taken it upon herself. She already knew the answer to that one, just like she knew that while the risk of a Yaegerist attack might have had something to do with it, there were doubtlessly other reasons why he couldn't sleep.

Gabi pulled a chair out and sat down at the table. Reiner eyed her for a moment before standing up. "Want some tea?" she asked.

"Sure."

"Fair warning, I'm not as good as Levi."

"I already knew that," Gabi said, grinning.

Reiner snorted. Despite everything, he seemed like he was in a good mood. Or as good of a mood as was possible while they were in Shiganshina.

Gabi's expression dropped into a frown. Rather than risk Reiner seeing it, she turned her head to stare out of the window.

Shiganshina. She knew better than to think that the others had elected to stay there because they didn't care that it bothered her cousin. No, he would have insisted that he was fine. She wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that he was one of the ones who insisted that they stay there. He wouldn't care that it kept him up at night. There was even a chance that he saw it as a good thing, or thought he deserved it, or however Reiner's mind worked to make him do things like this to himself.

Was Shiganshina the thing keeping him up at night? The constant reminder of his attack on Wall Maria? Or was there something else, some deeper thing that she wasn't allowed to know?

A few minutes passed before Reiner sat back down and slid a cup of tea over to her. Gabi accepted it with a smile and raised it to her lips to blow on it. Once she was sure that her tongue wouldn't be scorched off, she took a tentative sip.

Her tastebuds were immediately assaulted by a burnt, bitter taste that the generous servings of cream and sugar that had been added could only mildly mask. Gabi's face froze as she struggled not to grimace. Slowly, carefully, she lowered it back down to the table and forced her expression back into a smile.

Reiner chuckled. "I did warn you."

Just for that, Gabi picked the cup back up and forced herself to take another sip. "I don't know what you mean," she haughtily said, as if Levi wouldn't kill her if he ever caught her brewing a concoction like the one she was currently drinking.

Reiner chuckled again, but didn't say anything. He leaned back in his chair and allowed his gaze to wander back to the window. Gabi watched as his whispers of something pensive made their way into his expression, although it didn't shift into anything truly dark. Probably because he knew that she was watching.

Had it always been so hard to read him? Or was it different for the people who could remember him from before?

"Hey, Reiner?" she whispered.

"Yeah?"

Gabi swallowed as she prepared herself to test her luck, to force herself to reach out and brush against that topic they never touched. "Do you think you'll ever be ready to talk about what happened back then?"

Reiner looked away from the window. He stared at her for a long moment, then allowed his eyes to slide shut with a heavy sigh. "I don't know," he admitted.

Gabi nodded and looked down at her tea. She wouldn't find any answers in it, but it was easier than continuing to look at him. "Okay," she whispered.

It wasn't okay, not really. She understood Reiner better than she had years ago, but there was still so much that was a mystery to her, and she wanted it all to become clear. But for all that she wanted her answers, she didn't want to press. So she would keep waiting. After all, one of the big differences between now and three years ago was that she had time to wait now.

Someday. Someday she would have her answers.

*

There are no words to describe Gabi's relief when she checks the tank of her stolen ODM gear and finds it almost completely full. She knows that it doesn't give her a free pass to mess around as much as she'd like. Stealing extra fuel would doubtlessly prove harder than getting the gear itself was, and although she has proven a decent thief, she isn't so confident in her abilities that she's willing to take that gamble quite yet. That means that she has to make her fuel last, make every use of her ODM gear count.

She has to get herself noticed.

The next five days are a rush of carefully planned recklessness. She uses her ODM gear once a day, always in short bursts, at different times of day, and in different locations, but also always somewhere she'll be noticed. Her excursions are exhilarating for all that they are short, filled with as many flips and twists as she can fit without blatantly wasting her fuel. Every time, a crowd gathers. Some of them cheer her on and delight in her displays. Others shout at her as a hooligan and cuss when her grappling hooks scrape at one of the buildings she maneuvers around.

She never waits around to see the consequences of her actions. Whenever she sees a Garrison member, that means it's time to go, burning up some of her precious fuel to put on a burst of speed and escape the scene of her seemingly wanton crimes.

Do they realize that she's using stolen ODM gear? Probably. She certainly hopes that they do; it would make what she is trying to accomplish all the easier. Similarly, she hopes that they notice the other pattern in her performances.

Gabi has been moving closer to Wall Rose with each display. Finally, six days after she stole the gear - sixteen days after losing everything - she finds herself standing at the base of the wall. The sun is peeking over the horizon, just like it was on the day that she accepted that this was her new reality. Many of the residents of Trost are still snug in their beds. That's fine; this display isn't for them. It is for the man who she can only hope has heard of her exploits and found himself interested enough to track her path to this place, this moment. If he has, then it shouldn't matter that it is so early - he wouldn't sleep in and risk missing there. He'll be there, him and...

Breathe, she tells herself. She's come so far - she cannot afford to break down now, right as she stands on the precipice of destiny. If her plan fails, then she'll need to come up with a new one. And if it doesn't... if she's able to make history repeat...

They won't be the people she loved, not exactly. Not yet. But she'll get to see versions of them, to stop them from becoming more damaged versions of themselves. She'll slay their greatest monster so that they never need to.

She'll get to see them again.

Starting with the person who unwittingly told her how to get there.

Gabi feels her throat hurt and her eyes begin to sting. She grits her teeth, squeezes her eyes shut, and presses one hand against the wall as she tries to compose herself. "Don't cry," she hisses. There's no time for crying. If the Garrison notices anything at all, then they'll know to be on guard. It can't be the Garrison who catches her first. That would make her a boring, petty criminal. Forgettable. That is unacceptable. She has to be remarkable, unforgettable, unignorable. She can't...

If her plan is a success, she'll get to see everyone who was in the 104th. Not Falco or her aunt or parents or Pieck or Onyakapon, but Reiner and Jean and Mikasa and all of them. It won't fill the hole in her heart, but it's still incredible. She'll get to help make their stories happier. She'll get to help them be free. They just won't be her versions of them, and depending on what she changes, they may never be. She knows that's a good thing, even if she can never tell them exactly why it's a good thing. Even though they will never know how much they mean to her.

There is someone who might already be himself though, regardless of what Gabi does or doesn't do. She can't take the risk that he will be bored or unimpressed and pass her by. It's selfish and immature of her, but if there's even one piece of her world that she can hold onto, then she's going to. No matter what tricks she has to play.

It won't matter if you don't get a move on, says a dry voice in the back of her mind.

Gabi pulls away from the wall and opens her eyes. They are dry now, focused. Peering up and at her goal. She takes a few more steps back, taking the distance she will need to get a good initial fling, flips on her engine with a few deft movements. There are only a few tattered blades in her belt, and she hovers her hands over them for half a second before dropping them down to aim her grappling hooks.

Not too high or she'll lose control. That would be sloppy. She can't afford to look sloppy.

Not too low or she'll move slowly. She needs to be too fast for the Garrison to catch her before she can reach the top. Fast enough to be an asset.

There.

She shoots her grappling hooks at the perfect spot in the wall, and with a powerful burst of her engine, she's going up, the sound of the wind rushing past her drowned out by the thunderous beating of her heart. She's moving faster than she ever dared, a mad rush to the top. Her hooks tear loose when she flies toward them, and before gravity can take hold of her, she revs her engine and fires them at the next spot in the wall, pulling her further up. It is then that a wild laugh escapes her lips.

See that, Falco? she thinks, a bittersweet smile pulling at her lips. You aren't the only one who can fly.

Gabi doesn't know how long it takes her to reach the top of the wall. It is probably a few minutes, but it feels like a matter of seconds. She feels secure in her flight by the time she is preparing herself to stop. Even so, there is a jolt of fear deep in her chest when she dares to look back and see how far she's come. The feeling is not familiar, but it is expected - that bit of fear that she knows is always felt when you maneuver the walls, no matter how many times you do it. It is far from the scariest thing she's endured these past several days, and so it doesn't stop her from hooking her gear onto the tracks along the top of the wall.

She digs her heels in as her feet hit the wall. Momentum carries her forward a few feet, but the chords of her gear pull taught before she can come anywhere close to falling off the other side. Breathless, she is left staring forward over the edge of Wall Rose as she pulls herself together.

It feels like she could see the entire world, even though she knows that she can't. The horizon, streaked with red and pink, melts with green hills and treetops at the very edge of her vision.

That is the distance.

In the shadow of the wall itself sits a more harrowing scene. Ruined buildings are scattered throughout what used to be a city, concave roofs and shattered walls. Gabi is too far up to make out any details, yet she has an aching idea of what she might find if she were on the ground. Skeletons from corpses that had been left to rot rather than risking a living man for the dead. Abandoned belongings, the artifacts of lives left behind. Footprints from the giants that have ravaged the area.

Then there is the wall itself. Titans stand gathered around it, staring mindlessly up and forward. Most of them are still lethargic this early in the day, but a few of them have already begun to claw at it in a feeble attempt to reach the people within.

Reiner did this, some distant part of her registers. Whenever someone mentioned Wall Maria, all the land trampled, the people killed, this was what they were talking about.

Reiner did this, but now that she is here, Gabi will make sure that he never does anything like it again.

The sound of footsteps makes her tear her gaze away from the edge. She looks to the side to see a handful of soldiers rushing toward her. There aren't any familiar faces among them, nor are there any Survey Corps emblems. It's just a handful of Garrison soldiers. However, as she stares, she hears footsteps rushing from the other side, and allows herself to hope that maybe, just maybe this will not have all been for nothing.

There is no time to think or hesitate. Gabi needs to make a big impression, and she isn't going to take for granted that climbing the walls is enough to do that. She needs to look remarkable. Unforgettable. Fearless.

She has already flown. But there's one thing that grabs people's attention even more than flying.

Gabi takes a second to check that her gear is still firmly secured to the top of the wall. Then she steps back to the edge facing Trost, holds her arms out, looks up to the sky, and falls.

*

Gabi didn't know what it was that compelled her to do it. She couldn't fall back to sleep, but there were umpteen other things that she could have done as she waited to drift off. There was no real reason for her to leave the cabin. It didn't make sense for her to sneak out to the grave that she had made a point of avoiding until that very night.

But she woke up with tears in her eyes, nightmarish memories playing in the back of her mind, and fury in her heart. It demanded that she seek out the man responsible for all of the bloodshed and woe, or at least what remained of him. That she came as close as she could to finally confronting him face-to-face. It was senseless, but her feelings did not care about sense. All that mattered was that she get this weight off her chest and see if screaming at the man who had destroyed most of the world might provide her with some shred of resolution.

Gabi didn't just sneak out in her bedclothes. She didn't sneak out in the sort of clothes that people went sneaking around in later. Instead, she pulled on a yellow-checkered dress and a pair of strappy sandals. It felt like she was proving some sort of point by dressing nicely to visit Eren Yeager's grave. It was as if he would look up from the depths of hell and see that she had been able to pull herself together after the devastation he had wrought, as if it would grant her some sort of power over his ghost.

(What a fool she had been.)

The night air was crisp and cold around her. It wasn't enough to make her hesitate in her trek. She may have never visited the grave itself, but she had heard Mikasa and the others talk about it enough times to know where it would be. Her fingers and toes were numb by the time that she reached the tree on that hill. She wiggled her toes against her sandals just to get a little extra feeling in them.

When the grave came into view, she curled her hands into fists for a different reason entirely. She walked toward the grave, slow and steady, and came to a stop a few feet away from her. There, she allowed the memories to overcome her once more.

Udo. Zofia. A massive wall of titans descending upon a world of innocent people. Those desperate few moments where she was caught in a senseless, thoughtless hell. A cold man who didn't seem to care about any of it.

"...Are you happy?" Gabi finally whispered. "Are you happy about all the people you killed? The destruction you caused? Most of the world is a wasteland because of you. Aren't you proud of it?"

She took another step toward the grave. She continued speaking as she did, her voice growing louder and angrier with every word.

"This is what you wanted, right? You broke the curse. You got rid of the titans. That was your goal, right? They all said it was. To get rid of the titans, no matter what. You... You had the Attack Titan. You could see the future. You knew that this was coming, and you still let it happen. How... How could you? How could you choose to be a monster?"

It wasn't that Gabi wasn't happy that the titans were gone. She wouldn't trade Reiner and Falco's lives for just about anything, and even though she had only encountered mindless titans once, the memory still haunted her. But how could Eren have done it if he knew what the cost would be? How...

How could the people she loved still care about him? They may have stopped him in the end, but Gabi could see it in their eyes. Those who had known Eren Yeager, for all of their condemnation, still looked back at his memory with some fondness. How?

"Maybe you didn't choose it," Gabi spat, taking another step forward. "Maybe you were always a monster." Another step, leading her to stand right in front of the grave. She glared down at it for a long moment before crouching down, down to Eren's level, or as close to it as she would ever be able to be. "That's right, isn't it? You didn't care that you were hurting innocents. You never actually cared about anyone. You weren't capable of forgiveness or sympathy! People hurt you, so you decided to hurt them back. You would have done your worst even as a normal human, and instead... you probably wanted to do the Rumbling from the second you realized it was possible."

Gabi stared at the grave, at the words carved into it. At the love that the monster she was speaking to had never deserved. "Someone should have seen the signs. Eren Yeager..." Carefully, tenderly, she reached out to caress the grave. "Someone should have killed you before you had the chance to hurt anyone."

Crash! A harsh wind entwined with a sound like thunder splitting the air. Gabi jumped to her feet and looked around wildly, only for her eyes to catch on what had to be an apparition. A trick of her imagination. Something that wasn't really there. Couldn't be there.

For a moment, she thought she saw a long-haired young man staring at her with empty green eyes from behind the tree.

"What?" Gabi whispered. She took half a step back -

- and for a moment, she saw a starry sky stretched out over a sea of sand.

Then it was gone, and Gabi found herself standing in a back alley in the middle of the day.

*

Falling feels a lot like flying if you know that you won't hit the ground.

It occurs to Gabi that she doesn't know that she won't hit the ground. Her plan is absolutely riddled with things that could go wrong. Her hooks could come loose and send her crashing down to the ground before she can right herself. The recoil when she reaches the end of her wires could severely injure or even kill her. There is even the risk that she'll come out of it uninjured, but too shaken to escape the Garrison quickly enough and end up arrested and tossed aside into some corner to rot. There are so, so many things that could go wrong.

That's fine. If you want to make any real difference, you need to be willing to take a risk, and this is the risk that Gabi has chosen. Besides, she's already falling.

And then, suddenly, she's not.

He descends upon her in a blur, ODM gear propelling him faster than gravity is dragging her down. A gloved hand grabs onto her ankle at the same instant that he halts, heels digging into the wall.

His face is different, but as she dangles upside down and blinks up at his face, Gabi thinks that she'd know that scowl anywhere.

"You caught me," she breathes.

"You didn't make it hard," Levi says, voice dry and utterly unimpressed. His gaze wanders down to her belt, where he narrows his eyes. "I thought you were supposed to be good at this shit."

"I am," Gabi protests, even though her identity is truly a tiny thing compared to the warmth blossoming in her chest. She puts her hands on her belt, pulls the wires tight, and corrects herself. Levi lets go of her ankle as she swings herself around so that her feet are planted firmly against the wall. "See?"

"I see a reckless brat," Levi says. "But there's someone who wants to talk to you."

Gabi dares to glance up at the top of the wall. There, she feels a figure with blonde hair peering down at them. She's far enough away that she can't make out any details, but she knows deep in her heart that it has to be Commander Erwin Smith.

"Alright," Gabi says. "Take me to him."

Levi gives her a long, calculating look. She isn't too surprised when he grabs her upper arm and all but drags her up the wall with him, even if she does feel a pang of disappointment that he doesn't trust her to just follow him.

Maneuvering onto the top of the wall is far easier this time, even with Levi keeping a tight grip on her arm. What isn't easy is what comes next.

Gabi's first thought as Erwin Smith approaches her is that he's more handsome than she expected. His eyebrows are massive, but he's handsome. Her second thought is that his gaze seems to pierce right through her, and if she wants him to believe a word of what she says, she won't be able to let herself hesitate or waver for even a second.

No, more than that. Now that she's gotten this far, she won't be able to let herself falter in her mission for even an instant, or else it will all come crashing down. This is her last opportunity to back out. She might end up imprisoned for her stolen gear and the following stunts, but she won't have to face...

No, she won't get to see the people she owes everything to. She won't be able to make their memories proud.

I'm going to save the world, she thinks.

"That was quite a stunt you pulled," Erwin says.

Gabi grins. "It was fun," she says, the lie coming smooth and easy.

A wry smile tugs at the Commander's lips. "I see. You must be very brave, in that case." He pauses for a moment before asking, "What is your name?"

"Gabi Magnolia."

Another lie, and perhaps even a cruel one. She does not dare look at Levi, but she feels the way that his grip on her arm tightens ever-so-slightly. A pang of guilt threatens to rise in her chest before she crushes it down. She has to use that name. 'Gabi Braun' would make Reiner far too suspicious far too fast. 'Gabi Ackerman' might get Levi's attention, but it's far more likely to grab Mikasa's, and she isn't sure that she can handle that right off the bat. But 'Gabi Magnolia'...

It must be so easy to forget one single face within the Survey Corps, no matter how grand their entrance. But Levi already told her that she reminds him of Isabel. If she also bears her name, then there's no way that he'll be able to ignore her. And she can't risk Levi forgetting her. She can't.

Erwin nods at Levi, who lets go of Gabi's arm a second later.

"Gabi Magnolia," Erwin begins, "I have a proposition for you."