After I died

41

Anastasia

Things had been weird when we cale back, the halls of the headquarters seemed eempty, as was Erwins office. At least until Hanji moved in as the new commanrer. She said I could have her office now since, if we were able to rebuild the survey corps, she'd need me to put together a team for the fight against people. "Those people outside the wall declared war on us when breaking the wall six years ago, now it's our turn.", she'd said to me.

I was woken by Levi quietly calling my name, moving like he was looking around for something. "I'm here.", I mumbled, still half asleep as I turned over to reach for him, landing my arm somewhere over his torso. "You're there. God, you're there. Alive." He pulled me to his chest, hands shaking as he held me as close as possible. "Of course, why wouldn't I-... bad dream?" He nodded slowly. "Yes, just a bad dream." Levi's voice wasn't as shaky as his hands but still not stable. It was a vulnerability he rarely showed.

"I'm here, don't worry.", I said now more awake as I slightly stroke his hair. "Don't ever leave." "I won't. I promise. Not ever." Levi didn't let go of me for the rest of the night. Or the rest of any other night after that. Hanji had told me that for at least a few minutes, he thought I was dead. It must've left a scar, because he started having nightmares again. Waking up in cold sweat lookig around for me, making sure I was alive and well. Everytime I reassured him. Hoping it would get better somehow. I wished I could help him, but as long as he was forced to keep fighting, it wouldn't stop. Maybe now that we got the wall back and found these books about the titans, we could finally win. Finally stop fighting, stop loosing people we cared about. But something still told me, there was an even bigger fight coming.

.

We went to the capital Mitras for a big court hearing a few days later. "Do I really have to speak there? I really don't like talking in front of strangers. Last time I did that was for a presentation in 6th grade about Mary Shelly.", I said, looking at Hanji who was sitting across from me in the carriage on our way to the hearing. "Who's that?", she asked, looking through some documents. "An author, you'd love her book 'Frankenstein', but that's not the point. Do I really have to speak?" "Yes, you do. It's important that we give yours and also a few of our perspectives on the events. Because you must understand, finding you inside of a titan without having you listed as a titan shifter is highly suspicious, especially looking at the fact that you and your skills just came out of nowhere and we have no way of proving your background or providing a believable backstory. We finally have the trust of the people so we can't loose it now. I'm sorry, Ana."

I sighed a bit, looking out the window. "It's fine, I understand." Levi, who was sitting next to me, gave my hand a soft squeeze, which was his form of reassuring me. The whole thing started with Zachary explaining the reason why we were here. "After the regaining of the wall Rose this court hearing will  now collect all the informations we have about the walls, the titans and our world. Everything discussed in here will stay among the present people. Commander of the survey corps Hanji Zoe,you have the word."

Hanji began summoning up all the things that we had found out, including the information about Grisha Yeager, Eren's father. I had never seen her this serious before, in general, she'd been very serious these past few days. Looking at all the things that had just taken place, I could understand her change in demeanor but it still pained me to see my best friend like this, when before, her constant jokes and lighthearted attitude had always made my day better.

My brain jumped back into focus when I heard my name. "I do not know everything that went down as I did not realise she had been in there myself so I cannot make a formal statement about the events.", Hanji explained, probably talking about the situation with Reiner. Zachary looked over at me before adjusting his glasses. "Then I will have to ask you Miss.... Srijokowitsc. How were you able to enter and ssurvive inside of a titans body if it really was not your own?" I looked over at Hanji for a second who gave me a nod, signaling me to start talking.

"Well, we had almost defeated the armoured titan and he was on the ground unmoving as the collosal titan transformed. In order to survive the explosion, I blew a whole into the side of the armoured titans body and hid in that hole. But he regenrated before it was safe for me to get back out, which meant that he basically regenrated around me and I was stuck. My memory of everything between that and coming back out is blurry, but I had access to his memories and thoughts, I think he had connected me to his nervous system which made us able to communicate."

"And you were using that to give the other an advantage whike fightig him?", Zachary asked, he seemed interested in what I was telling. "Yes." "Can you somehow prove that?" I took a deep breath and shook my head. "I don't remember enough to give a certain instance and therefor no one can prove that these isntances happened." "In that case I'm sorry but we can't-" Zachary was interrupted by a chair scraping the floor. "We can bear witness to it." Was that Jean? I turned my head to look back at him.

"Go on.", Zachary said. "While we were fighting Reiner, there was a moment where we thought we'd lost, but then he just stopped. Reiner stood frozen in place for several moments and we had time to defeat him." Connie suddenly stood up too. "Yes. Reiner was just staring off into space. I'm sure Ana had ssomething to do with that." Mikasa was suddenly up too. "That is correct, I remember that too."

Zachary looked between them and then back at me. "Can you recall an event like that happening." "I don't, sir. But the reaction they are describing is exactly what I had planned to cause." "Fine, moving on, who was the one who found Miss Srijokowitsc, again?" "Me.", Levi said, slightly lifting his arm. "And, anything you recall?" "Well, the titan was already evaporating while she was still in there, if Ana had been the shifter inside, this wouldn't have happened." Levi knew we couldn't be 100% sure of that since we've seen the colossal titan evaporate while still standing, but he chose to leave the word 'probably' out in order to not draw this out even longer.

Zachary soon finished the court meeting and let all of us out. "You're head is hurting again, isn't it?", Levi asked as soon as we stepped out of the court room. "Only a bit. I just can't seem to grasp any clear memory of that fight and it's driving me nuts." "Stop thinking about that, we'll manage without those information, I don't want you hurting that head of yours even more.", he said, slightly poking my temple. "We'll get this award ceremony thing over with an then you're getting some good rest. Got it?" "Sounds good."

I just realised that there has never been a chapter 42, y'all. Somehow after 41, I just went on with 43. This mistake is now corrected so all of you can trust the chapter numbers now. I hope this doesn't happen again.
Love y'all <3