The Path Back to You | Levi x OC

Chapter 71 - Ripple

Anastasya

Anya blinked back tears as she stood before the mirror in her room. It was the first time she'd really looked at herself since Shiganshina, and the hollowness of her cheeks and the shadow in her eyes came as a shock. She pulled on her Scout Regiment overcoat, the first hint of colour she'd worn in days, and fastened the belt to the tightest notch. She wiped the tears away and made herself look more presentable, makeup serving as her mask. As she set her lipstick down on the shelf, Levi appeared in the doorway.
"You ready?"
"Yes."
She tried to walk past, but Levi grabbed her upper arm, steely-blue eyes searching hers. She was going to see Eren, Armin and Mikasa again, and he was worried how she'd react. He was probably justified. She glanced away.
"I'll be fine."
"Hey."
The tone of his voice brought her gaze back to him.
"You don't have to be fine. You just have to pretend until we're alone again."
She nodded, and he let go. As they stepped from the room, Anya became the person people needed her to be. However when she spotted Armin up ahead, her resolve immediately threatened to crumble. She looked past him to Hange, who struggled to hide her frown.
"We have to go and collect Eren and Mikasa," she announced.
Anya was on the verge of making an excuse and leaving, but one look from Levi kept her in place. The four of them walked, in a silence charged with awkwardness, down to the stocks. They passed Mikasa and went to the last cell, where they found Eren standing by the wall near the bars, gripping his wrist and staring into space.
"The Attack Titan..." he murmured.
Hange tilted her head to the side.
"What are you doing?"
Eren blinked at them all, making no effort to explain. Hange imitated his pose.
"'The Attack Titan...'" she repeated in a similar, dreary voice. She snapped back to herself. "Didn't you just do that?"
Anya frowned, and Levi moved to unlock the door.
"No," said Eren.
"Huh?! He did that, right? Didn't you three see it just now?"
"Yeah, but that was..." said Armin, trailing off.
"See!? What was that all about, Eren?" Hange insisted.
Anya studied him. There was a haunted look to him that went beyond what had occurred in Shiganshina. Something else had happened since then. He'd changed, and yet he'd been confined to his cell since their return to Trost.
"No, it's nothing..." he said, void of emotion.
Hange wouldn't let it go, and she pushed her face closer to the bars.
"It's the name of your Titan, isn't it?! What were you doing, talking to yourself?"
"Enough, Hange," Levi snapped. "He's 15 years old. Everyone goes through a phase."
"Huh? What kind of phase are we talking about?"
"Hange, I'll explain it to you later. It's not right with him here," Armin said, keeping his voice quiet.
"Huh?! What do you mean by that?"
"What the hell did you come for?!" Eren demanded, losing his patience.
Levi opened the door.
"Get out."
"I'm supposed to be disciplined for ten more days."
"It's over. Hange just now was punishment enough," Levi said dryly.
"We had a talk with Premier Zachary, so don't worry about it," Hange explained. "If we jail the heroes who toppled the Armoured and Colossal Titans, it kind of sends a bad message, you know? Plus, you were defying us morons who let the Beast and Armoured Titans get away."
"That's not..." Eren mumbled.
Armin had gone over to unlock Mikasa's cell. Levi and Anya walked straight past it as she emerged and went to Eren.
"Let's go," said Levi. "You need to get dressed quickly."
"Where are we going?" Eren asked.
"To an audience with the Queen. Her majesty has come to Trost."
They climbed the stairs out of the stocks and paused in the corridor.
"I have to go and meet with Queen Historia," Hange announced. "I'll see you all in a bit."
"I'll come with you," said Anya.
She shot an apologetic glance at Levi as she left him with the trio, not wanting to be around them any longer than necessary. When she and Hange were out of earshot, Hange stopped and turned to her.
"Are you all right?"
"I don't know." She squeezed her eyes shut, taking a moment. "I know it's not their fault. I actually feel sorry for them. I just don't know how they could've begged for Armin's life without so much as a single thought for Erwin. Mikasa even seemed ready to kill Levi for the serum."
"The problem was, they weren't thinking," said Hange. "They were just acting out of desperation. If you'd been in their situation, and at that age... You'd have done the same, Anya."
She hadn't considered that. As ridiculous at it was, she'd never once entertained the idea of what she'd have done were it her and any one of Levi, Hange or Erwin fighting for the life of their friend over their superior. She sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, I can't argue that."
Hange gave her a small smile and they stopped outside the room Historia was waiting in. Jean joined them and the guards let them through. The young queen was standing by the window. Her golden hair was knotted into an updo, and her bright blue eyes were full of sorrow. She first looked at Jean, then Hange, and then Anya. She wasn't quite sure how, but Anya knew that Historia understood. The girl walked over and hugged her tightly.
"I'm so sorry for your loss," she said.
Anya hugged her back.
"Thank you," she whispered, before stepping away. "I believe we have a letter for you from Ymir."
Hange had already analysed the letter that Reiner had given them in Shiganshina, though she hadn't been able to glean much from it. Historia took it with trembling fingers before addressing them all.
"Please, take a seat."
They went over to the two couches in the room and Hange checked her reports, while Historia took a seat at the table by the window. As she reached the end of the letter her eyes widened with shock, and she muttered to herself.
"What...was that?"
She tilted the pages, holding each up to the light.
"Something wrong?" Hange asked.
"Uh, no... Is that all there was?"
"Yes. Of course, I doubt she was able to write anything beneficial for us."
"Was there any secret message that only you would know?" Jean wondered. "Like a code?"
"I don't know. But I doubt she would do something like that. Ymir's such a dummy... Such a dummy. You'd play it off the second you're embarrassed. I just never know with you..." Historia said quietly.
She gazed out of the window, a few tears escaping down her cheeks. Levi's voice on the other side of the door broke the solemn atmosphere in the room.
"We're here."
Armin, Eren and Mikasa walked in and bowed to Historia, while Levi remained by the door.
"Your Majesty," they chorused.
"S-Stop it. It's not an official position yet," she said awkwardly as she approached them. "So much has happened, hasn't it? But all I did was stare at the southern sky from within the walls."
"It's an important duty of yours just to stay alive," said Armin.
"Yeah, that's right," Eren agreed.
If only they'd thought that way about Erwin, Anya thought, bowing her head.
"I'm glad to see you're all acting like usual," Historia told the trio.
"Well, that's... It just hasn't sunk in for us yet," said Eren.
Hange gathered her reports, satisfied everything was in place.
"Shall we get going?"
The group left for the audience hall, Levi lingering close to Anya. The room had been arranged so that Historia and Zachary sat on an elevated platform at the end, directly overlooking three rows of three, which was where the Scouts would sit. The officials from the Garrison and the Military Police lined the tables around the perimeter. As the Scouts strode to their seats, Nile Dok caught Anya's eye and nodded to her. She nodded back, wondering how much of an impact Erwin's death had had upon him. Hange handed Zachary the reports, along with the photograph and the journals, and the meeting began.
"The Early Life of Grisha Jaeger," said Zachary. "The Extent of Our Knowledge of Titans and their History and Information About the World Beyond the Walls. The only people who know about the existence of these books are those here in this very room. These were gained by the efforts of ten living Scouts, and the one hundred and ninety-nine others who are not here today."
Hearing the number of those they'd lost cut through Anya like a knife, but she kept her gaze on Zachary steady as he continued.
"Today, and in the Queen's presence, I would like to assess our situation and establish an agreement in terms of our course of action. Scout Regiment Commander Hange Zoe."
Hange stood up. If she was nervous she didn't show it, and pride bloomed within Anya.
"The Scouts have lost a great deal, including Erwin Smith," she said. "But in exchange for the many heroes that we lost, we have retaken Wall Maria and stolen the Colossal Titan's powers. However, humanity that lives within the wall remains in a precarious situation. It would be a relief were Titans the only monsters we had for enemies. However, the true identity of the enemies we've been fighting is humans. A civilisation. You could even say...the world."
She went on to explain everything that had been discovered, much to the horror of all.
"In order to wield the Founding Titan at full power, it must be in the possession of someone with royal blood," she continued. "However even if that person possesses the Founding Titan, they're enslaved by the King's ideals, which only leads them down the path to humanity's downfall. That is the vow renouncing war. However Eren was able to control Pure Titans in the past to escape a dire situation, so it may be possible, even without royal blood, for Eren to wield that power as well."
"It can't be!" Eren suddenly exclaimed, rocketing from his seat.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"You scared me," Hange murmured. "What was that about?"
"U-Uh... I-I..."
"Please continue, our Titan," said Zachary.
"It's...nothing."
Levi arched a brow as Eren returned to his seat.
"Huh?"
"Sorry for interrupting the meeting..."
"Oh? I see... Right..." said Hange, before turning back to the Premier. "It would seem that he is having a phase of sorts. One where he acts up and randomly yells things."
"Ah, I see. That's unfortunate. He's at that age, I guess," said Zachary.
The meeting continued, but Anya watched Eren like a hawk. He was hiding something.
"I now hand you over to Captain Anastasya Morozova, who will present our views and suggested course of action," said Hange.
Anya stood, ignoring the ripple of murmurs around the room. She knew they'd be about her and Erwin. She held her head high and began.
"As Commander Hange has said, our enemy appears to be the world itself. Not only do we have to contend with Pure Titans, but also Intelligent Titans such as the Beast Titan and Armoured Titan, and the nation of Marley. They have far superior technology to ours and what we have to assume is advanced weaponry," she stated. "The First King's ultimatum has fallen flat. They attacked, and yet the Titans in the walls were not released to flatten the earth as had been promised. We have, in total, three of the Nine Titan powers at our disposal, but we only know how to use two of them. The enemy, if we include Leonhart, has six. When we consider this alongside the fact that they know all about who we are, all about the way in which our three military regiments operate, all about what weapons we have at our disposal, we are at a terrifying disadvantage on virtually every front."
She paused and leant forward, placing her fingertips on the table as she met the gaze of every single person. The room was so quiet you could hear a feather land.
"They mean to destroy us," she said, voice low. "And mark my words; they will come. Perhaps not tomorrow, nor next month, nor even next year but sooner or later, we will be thrust into a war unlike anything any of us have ever seen before. This is a nation desperate to cling onto its power, with a deep, raw hatred towards us all. We need to be ready. We need to find out as much as we can about what and whom we are up against, and we need to start preparing immediately. I will draw up an official strategy of how to go about doing this in the coming weeks together with men and women from the other regiments, but it seems to me that one of the most obvious ways in which to be prepared...is to inform the public."
She took her seat amongst the ensuing wave of silence.