The Path Back to You | Levi x OC

Chapter 62 - Pieces

Anastasya

Anastasya couldn't watch Erwin's suicide charge for if she did, she knew she'd be no good to anyone anymore. She prayed that Levi would make it back to her and headed up to the top of the wall. As soon as she arrived, she fought the urge to turn and run. The Colossal Titan was still at large in the town on its horrifying rampage, igniting everything around it, and Eren was still out cold. Reiner also seemed to have woken up, much to her irritation. Off in the distance, she caught the faintest flicker of movement and raced towards it.
"Captain Anya!" Jean cried.
She had already wiped her tears away by the time she reached them. She couldn't let them see how wretched she felt, how utterly destroyed her heart was. As it was they all looked exhausted but her presence, she hoped, brought some comfort.
"Is everyone okay?" she asked, flicking her gaze over them all.
"We are, but... We don't know where Hange and the others are. They got caught in the explosion," said Armin. "How is it out there?"
"Oh, we're still fighting," she replied, even as she felt fresh dread threaten to snatch away whatever resolve she had left. "Which is why I find myself having to be everywhere at once. Listen, what happened to Reiner?"
"He's come back! We thought we'd killed him, but...it wasn't enough."
"Okay. Armin, any ideas?"
"Uh...I... I thought we could retreat to the Commander, regroup and-"
"No time," she interrupted; if she didn't, mere mention of Erwin would make her cry again. "Is Eren down for the count or do you think there's still some life left in that big Titan body of his?"
"I think he might have a concussion, but nothing worse."
"Good. All right, in theory, the Colossal Titan is going to get tired soon. He can't keep expending his energy like that. How many Thunder Spears are left?"
"Four."
"Here."
She unstrapped one that she'd been carrying and gave it to Jean.
"You're not staying?" he asked. "Don't you need both?"
"I... I'll stay as long as I can," she replied.
She was desperate to get back to Levi and to see if there was any way in hell that Erwin had somehow survived, but she couldn't abandon her squad. Not just yet, anyway. They needed her.
"We need to split up," she said. "We need to provoke Bertholdt into tiring himself out some more so that we can get close enough to tear him out, and we need to incapacitate Reiner. Preferably, we need to kill him. If we can get a Thunder Spear into both sides of his mouth, that should shoot the bastard right out for the taking." She frowned and glanced at the Colossal Titan. "Bertholdt is going to be trickier."
"I think I've thought of something," said Armin.
"I'm all ears."
Armin beckoned her to follow him so that they were out of earshot of the others and ran his plan by her. It was going to be risky. Incredibly risky. Her eyes widened as she processed it all.
"Armin...You might be scorched to death. If your timing is wrong, you...you might die."
"I'll be fine. I'm going to duck behind the wall as soon as I can, out of range. I just need to hold on long enough for Eren to make a decoy Titan using his hardening ability, recover, and then attack Bertholdt and cut him out."
Anya nibbled her thumb. Could she really let the bright young recruit risk himself in such a way? No, she didn't have a choice. If she was to honour Erwin, it meant making sacrifices of her own or ordering others to do so. She ignored the guilt when she realised she would gladly do either for him.
"Don't you dare die, Arlelt. That's an order. Understood?"
"Roger!" he replied with a salute.
"In that case, get up to the wall and see if you can rouse Eren. Any chance it's not going to work... Come report to me."
He nodded and zipped away to get to Eren. Anya turned back to the others.
"Let's go take down Reiner once and for all. Don't forget that he's one of the two arseholes that caused all this mess, huh? No hesitation, no getting sentimental about old times. He sure as hell isn't."
They nodded and saluted, and then Anya led the charge. Reiner had apparently spotted Armin racing to Eren and had changed his course to intercept. They had to stop him at all costs.
"LET'S GO!"
She rushed through the town, keeping just behind the Armoured Titan while the recruits stayed in front trying to distract him. However it wasn't working. He didn't slow down at all, so she readied her spear. She got as close as possible before hurling it into the back of Reiner's knee, pulling the trigger immediately to avoid it becoming dislodged. Shrapnel from the explosion sliced into her face, but she ignored the sharp bite of pain and watched as Reiner went tumbling down onto the cobblestones, unable to move. Jean was by her side in an instant as Mikasa deployed a Thunder Spear in the Titan's other knee.
"Captain! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she said, not even bothering to wipe off the blood. "We need to wait for him. He's already moving. As soon as he's in a kneeling position, we-"
She was cut off by a roar from the other side of the wall. If she had to hazard a guess, she'd say it had come from the Beast Titan. If he was calling for reinforcements... Her breath hitched. Levi would be totally on his own, with no way of getting back to the wall and certainly no horse on which to ride to safety.
"I have to go! I'll be back once you've finished off Reiner. Can you do it without me?"
"No problem!" Jean replied.
"I believe in you. All of you," she told them, meeting their gazes. "Get it done!"
Before they could reply she was gone, speeding towards the wall. The scene that greeted her wasn't quite as she'd expected. Levi had killed all of the Titans to the left and was slicing apart the Beast Titan so fast that he was nothing more than a blur. However the grotesque quadrupedal, who had presumably disappeared to gather more boulders, had just noticed what was happening. It galloped down from the forest to the north of Shiganshina, desperate to save its comrade. Levi was totally oblivious. Hoping against hope, Anya whistled for Nightmare. She fully expected her beautiful horse to have been shot to bits with rocks but seconds later, the glorious sound of thundering hooves greeted her. She used her ODM gear to manoeuvre herself from the wall and then jumped into the saddle, urging the huge black horse to go faster than ever before. She did her best to ignore the corpses littering her route, her sole purpose now to save the man she loved. Up ahead, the Beast Titan had fallen and the steam from its butchered body would be clouding Levi's vision. He would never see the other Titan coming.

***

Levi

Levi had made short work of the Titans he'd used as steppingstones to reach the Beast Titan. He felt sick to the stomach as he listened to the bastard laughing and joking about how he was killing his Scout comrades. Even though Erwin had fallen soon after beginning the charge the remaining recruits carried on, firing their signals as directed, brave even in the face of certain death. However, the Beast Titan threw again.
"Yeah! Game over!" he roared. "You like that? I changed how I threw the pitch! Now you're done for!" He paused. "Huh?"
The final few soldiers fired their signals and he scowled.
"Like I said...how is firing those things going to help you? All that screaming... What good is it going to do you?!"
Enraged at what he couldn't understand, the Titan threw his final volley. The dust cleared. A hundred or so soldiers lay dead and broken upon the ground.
"Aww, you poor things... Now, where is she...?"
That was when Levi made his move. Using the remnants of the green smoke signals, he barrelled from the Titan he'd just despatched and went straight for the Beast Titan, yelling out his hatred. The Beast Titan roared and reached up to try and stop him, but Levi was simply too fast. He sliced along its impossibly gangly arm in a spiralling motion. Seconds later, the Titan's hand and arm fell to pieces. Levi used its surprise to his advantage and aimed for the neck, but it covered it with its remaining hand right at the last moment. Loath to waste a manoeuvre, he slashed out its eyes before diving down and severing the tendons in both its ankles. He narrowly escaped being flattened as the atrocious abomination fell. Levi leapt high into the air, readying to go for the nape in an all-out frenzy attack.
"What happened to all that fun you were having?!" he demanded. "Come on! Let's try to enjoy this!"
He landed on the Titan and then jabbed and cut and ripped and tore through its flesh so fast that his blades were a blur even to him. It didn't take long before the person inside flew out. He landed and turned to glare at Levi, but he'd already thrust his blade into the enemy's mouth and lain him flat on his back. He sneered down at the young, wide-eyed man in his mid-twenties. He had thick blonde hair and a beard, and thanks to his bare torso, it was clear that he was extremely well-muscled, as though he'd been training for combat for a long time. He now also lacked both his arms, much to Levi's grim delight.
"After transforming, if your body's severely damaged, it's too busy healing to let you transform again. Isn't that right?" He narrowed his eyes and thrust his blade deeper, feeling as some teeth and the man's upper palate gave way. "Hey, answer me. Learn some manners."
He was buying time as he debated what to do. He couldn't kill him yet, he knew that much. If anyone was still alive out there, he could use the serum on them to bring them back and make them a Titan. Then, whoever it was could eat this bastard and steal his power. An image of Erwin's face flashed into his mind, and it only confirmed his reasoning. He had to wait, he-
Anya rocketed through the steam and barrelled straight into him, shoving him off of the enemy, just as the quadrupedal Titan seemingly materialised from nowhere, its impossibly wide jaws gaping open to snatch up the man and flee. Levi stumbled to his feet and watched as it transported him to the wall.
"Hey... Where are you going? Stop..." he said numbly, eyes wide. "Wait..."
He bowed his head, unable to stop the horror and disappointment from coursing through him.
"I made a promise to him...that I'd kill you no matter what. I PROMISED!"
He was vaguely aware of four enormous Titans running towards them, sent by whoever that blonde son of a bitch was. He glanced at Anya and realised that her face was covered with blood, though her eyes shone brightly with defiance. She nodded to him and readied her weapons and, together, they prepared to fight for their lives once again.