After I died

52

Anastasia

Jean appeared in the the doorway between our room and the back short later. "Sasha.... was shot." Everyone froze in their tracks. Mikasa and Arkin were the first to kove, running past us towards Sasha laying on the ground. "By who?", managed to mumbled. A few soldiers pulled two children towards us. Gabi? Falco? "They snuck on the zeppelin with Lobov's 3 dmg.", one of the soldiers explained. The two children stared at me, then Zeke behind us. "Commander Ana?! Wsrchief Zeke?!", Gabi exclaimed, staring between us.

"Put them under my protection.", I mumbled. "They out be harmed." "But Ana, they killed Sasha.", Floch threw in. "They're children. I don't wanna know how many Sashas I killed when I was their age." Floch still wouldn't move so Levi spoke up. "You heard her. Hand the brats over." Floch nodded at the soldiers holding Gabi and Falco so the followed me down to a separate room where we could lock them up. I took the first aid kit off the wall and gave some of the things inside to Falco, because Gabi wouldn't let me near herself.

"How can you and Zeke work with these devils? They are the cause of everything  that's bad in the world!" "Gabi, I'm really trying to not slap you two right now. One of my best friends is dead, the least I'd ask of you is to just shut up for one damn second, will you?" She stared at me for a second and was about to open her mouth again but Falco cut her off, speaking softly. "That husband you told me about, from that country everyone hates... its this captain Levi, right? The one Zeke told us about."

I nodded. "I'm not exactly good with Zeke, he killed about 250 of our soldiers while acting as if this was just a game. I am very sorry about the destruction of Rebellio. You must understand, 9 years ago, Marleyans destroyed our home too, again and again. And now they're trying to save what's left of it from an inevitable war." Falco slowly nodded while Gabi was taking a deep breath again about to start yelling, this time, I was the one to interrupt her. "I'm trying to protect you here. If you keep yelling and bragging about killing 'a devil' which, by the waybwas ine if the sweetest, kindest people I knew, those soldiers will come down and they wkll beat you to death. So for everyone's sake just shut up."

I locked the door to their cell and went back up to the others. "And?" Levi shook his head. "Damnit." I went over to where Sasha was still laying Connie and Jean were standing by the wall, just staring while Armin and Mikasa still cried, trying trying wake her up. I just sat there, on the cold floor, holding Sasha's hand so tight I was sure it would've left a bruise.

I didn't have the time to process all the things that happened when we arrived, the joy over seeing Maggie again completely took my mind off the grief for Sasha. Historia had brought her to the landing place of the zeppelin so she was runnig towards us the second Levi and I got off it. I barely had time to lean down when she was already there to pull herself against me tightly. Her little bands shaking slightly as she did a mix of laughing and happy crying. "Mama! You're back!" She burried her little face in my shoulder as I picked her up to stand straight again.

Levi arrived next to us, ruffling Maggies hair. "Hey there brat." "Papa!" She replied, laughing and trying to push his hand away from her hair. One of the officers came over to us with Gabi and Falco. "What do we do with them?" "The same as the other prisoners of war. But remember they are children and they're under my protection. If someone hurts them or worse, they will answer directly to me." The officer nodded and left with the two.

That evening, I stood in the shower for a long time before coming into Levi and my bedroom. "I wanna talk to Falco and Gabi tomorrow or a few days later, they're good kids. This thing with Sasha... is the result of a lot of propaganda and a little girl that just lost her home." "How do you know the girl shot?", Levi asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Knowing these two, Gabi probably ran head first unto danger and Falco ran after trying to keep her from doing something stupid."

Levi nodded, finally laying down as well. "I'm so glad you're back, did I tell you that?" "Only about 5 times.", I replied and he rolled his eyes. "Idiot."  But he pulled me close anyway. Holding me to his chest. "Didn't sleep well without you.", Levi then mumbled. "Me neither.", I replied. "Could've also been the bombs raining down on us, tho." "How bad was it?" It was silent for a but as I tried to find words.

"Well. I've been in life or death situations a lot, I've done terrible things a lot, so it wasn't not a complete shocker but still... this constant rain of bombs, gunshots and people's screams... I don't think I'll forget it any time soon." He nodded slowly, tugging me a bit closer, probably subconsciously. We had some kind of normal life for just a few days before being torn apart again. This time it was Levi who had to go. He would stay hidden with Zeke and a troop from the survey corps.
A few days later, Floch wanted to talk to me privatekt, which I thought was weird but didn't pay much attention to it and just went to the meeting.