Hand in Hand

23. Selfish

"Captain Levi, behind you!"

The members of his squad watched fearfully as he spun around like the old top toys they played with as kids and sliced through the torso of one of Kenny's men. It all happened within ten seconds of Armin's warning. Sometimes, Captain Levi didn't quite seem human.

Mikasa had heard Kenny's shots and rounded them up, just as she was told to. She knew it was a race between them and the enemy to Eren and Historia.

It was easy to find Levi after the gunshots. The squad just followed the long trail of loud men with guns pointed at him. It was a new type of gear they had never seen before. Instead of two long blades connected to the ODM gear, it was two short silver pistols. Just another reminder that titans were not their only enemy anymore.

Jean looked to the severed body, now on the ground in a bloody broken puddle. "He just killed that man..."

As they followed their captain, he looked behind him at Connie and Sasha. His two closest friends seemed unfazed by the fact that their own captain had human blood on his hands. Would they do the same? Was Eren worth all of this unnecessary death?

"Up ahead!" Sasha yelled. "I can see the carriage!"

Connie cupped his hands around his eyes and narrowed his vision to the wagon to the ground. "It looks like Eren and Historia are knocked out in the back!"

Levi gave direction from midair. "Listen up! Sasha and Connie, get in front of the wagon and try block it before it passes through that gate to the next city. Armin and Jean secure the wagon. Mikasa, I want no casualties!"

"Sir!"

While Connie flew high to the right of the front of the carriage, Sasha flew low to the left, both of them in front ready to stop it and any other enemy. All of Levi's squads was still clueless to the fact that their enemy had a personal connection to him, but they trusted their captain to lead them.

There was a woman driving the carriage at full speed towards the wall's exit. A large man sat in the back on guard with Eren and Historia. The shiny new guns of his gear were pointed upwards at Levi.

Landing in the back of the carriage, Jean unsheathed both his blades and brought them to the man's head. He paused as the blade touched the man's ear, unable to take the next step that Levi took. Does a person ever come back from killing another? Even if the answer were yes, Jean didn't think taking the risk was the right decision.

Unfazed by the blade digging into his ear, the man sneered, exposing scanty rotten teeth, and slowly raised his gun to Jean's head. The image of the black hollow barrel would haunt Jean's dream for the rest of his life, a bottomless pit into the dark reality he had been thrown into.

His life flashed before his eyes. From his right, Levi soared down and grabbed the man before a bullet was released. He launched him off the wagon, sending him rolling down the gravel road at full speed. Then, he was gone.

At the front of the wagon, Mikasa shot down in a spiral, using her shoulder to shove the woman, driving her into the back. Armin took the opportunity to take the reins of the wagon.

"Armin, slow down the wagon," Levi shouted trepidatiously from above. "I don't want it leaving Trost!"

Jean looked up at the sky towards his captain fending off more bullets. Mikasa and Levi, they so easily hurt these people in a way he couldn't comprehend. The woman at his feet tossed and groaned. She looked only a few years older than him, with short blonde hair and everything.

'Am I supposed to kill you?' He thought in a panic. 'Is that what Captain Levi wants me to do?'

Their eyes met, and in a wink, the woman was up and kneeling on a knee, Eren and Historia on their backs beside her. They would have no idea the danger he was in now.