The Path Back to You | Levi x OC

Chapter 74 - The Nightingale

Levi

Anya sat forward and raised her glass.
"To Erwin, and Moblit, and all the other devils who gave their hearts," she said.
Levi clinked his glass against hers and Hange's and the three of them drank. The funeral had finished hours ago, but they'd spent the evening in Hange's newly-acquired office reminiscing about their fallen comrades and it felt...good. Necessary, even, for them all to be able to move on. Levi sighed and took another swig.
"Ah, do you remember when Erwin tried to cook for us?" Hange asked.
"I don't think I'd even have fed that shit to a Titan," Levi replied. He narrowed his eyes as Anya shifted in her seat, sinking down into the cushions.
"Hey... It was you, wasn't it?"
"I was just trying to help!" she exclaimed. "And then... Well, you know maths isn't my strong point. I got the quantities wrong and it was too late to start again so we just...served it."
"Tried to poison us, you mean."
"It wasn't that bad." She huffed out a laugh. "Didn't you ever wonder why I never got kitchen duty? He knew how awful I was. He took all the blame and never once got mad at me for it."
"I'd have locked you in the stocks, had I known," Levi replied, shaking his head.
Hange chuckled.
"Do you remember that one time in particular that Levi took him drinking?"
"Oh god, I'd never seen him so wasted before," Anya replied. "He was singing. To this day, I still don't know how you managed to get him so damn drunk. It was hilarious."
"There was nothing hilarious about trying to carry the big idiot all the way back to HQ," Levi said, though he smirked at the memory of Erwin letting loose for once.
They continued going through their memories, both good and bad, until the candles burned low and they grew pleasantly tired. Hange left for her room, while Anya got up and went to what had been Erwin's desk.
"I wish he'd listened to us," she said quietly.
"Yeah," he replied, going over to stand beside her. "But without him being the stubborn bastard he was, maybe you and I wouldn't be here right now."
"Maybe."
"Have you been to see him?"
She shook her head.
"Not yet, but I will."

***

Anastasya

Anya drifted into the mist-cloaked cemetery, a white-haired wraith wandering amongst the graves until she found Erwin. She brushed her fingers across the polished marble tombstone, choking at the emotion it released within her. It was the closest she'd felt to him since she'd left his body at the funeral parlour, and she dropped to her knees and buried her face in her hands.
"What am I going to do without you? What are any of us going to do?" she wept into the dusk.
She bowed her head and shut her eyes, breathing in deep and listening to the lonely song of a nearby nightingale. For the first time since Shiganshina, she was at peace and beginning to accept that he was gone. After a few hours some of the light had returned to her heart, though her thoughts were as dark as the night.
"I have something to do, now," she said softly, "but I'll be back. I promise."
Anya pressed her lips to the marble and got to her feet. She glanced up at the few glittering stars still valiantly attempting to penetrate the black clouds amassing above, and then drew her hood over her hair.

***

"Anya. I'm so glad you decided to come."
Dhalis Zachary greeted her with a warm smile, utterly at odds with the unsavoury reason she was there. She dipped her head in grim greeting, adjusting her black leather gloves and briefly wondering if she was right to take him up on his offer.
"I realised, after the funeral, that we have unfinished business," she said. "I'm afraid if he cooperates, there won't be much entertainment in it for you."
"I suppose as long as you get what you came here for, it doesn't matter. Torturing the nobles is giving me satisfaction enough. I've had him moved into a private cell; you won't be overheard. I assume you won't need guards?"
"No, it's fine."
"Very well. I'll make sure you're not disturbed."
They went inside and Zachary led the way to a large underground cell. He stopped outside the bars and unlocked it.
"You've got a visitor," he announced.
A thin, miserable and bleary-eyed Djel Sannes peered up from where he sat slumped against the uncomfortable-looking bed.
"Who are you?" he rasped.
Anya stepped into the cell, which Zachary closed behind her, and lowered her hood. Sannes immediately scrambled back against the wall, eyes wild and desperate.
"No! NO! Don't leave me alone with this demon!" he begged.
Anya turned back to Zachary, who slipped the key to the cell through the bars. He regarded her with raised eyebrows.
"I wish I'd been there to see what you did the first time around," he said.
"I'll fill you in at some point, if you like."
Once Zachary was gone, Anya pulled the only chair in the room over to where Sannes cowered and then sat on it so that she could rest her forearms and chin on its back.
"I'd say it's good to see you again," she drawled, "but it's really not."
"W-why are you here?"
"I thought we could have a little chat. Do you get told much of what's going on, outside?"
"N-No."
"Erwin is dead."
To his credit, Sannes looked genuinely shocked.
"What...How?"
"He died trying to fulfil the dream he and I had. The dream to learn the truth of our world: that humanity exists beyond the walls. Do you know who else died because of that theory?"
Sannes shook his head.
"That teacher who knew too much, the one you killed years and years ago...it was Erwin's father. Erwin was a child when he spotted the inconsistencies in the history books the government made. He was just 12 years old when he excitedly shared his and his father's theory with his friends. He didn't know any better but someone else got wind of it and you, like some dog, faithfully carried out your master's orders to torture and murder Mr Smith, leaving Erwin without a father."
Sannes gasped. He was about to say something when Anya continued.
"A few years before that, you murdered a member of the Military Police because he'd realised that corruption in the regiment, and in the government, was rife. He knew something major was being concealed, and he was determined to stop the senseless killings committed by the First Interior Squad and discover the truth. That man was Dmitri Morozov. My father. The next day, you tortured my mother for information, to see if my father had told her anything. You all but killed her."
Sannes looked as though he wanted to vomit.
"So you've come to avenge them," he concluded, tears in his eyes.
"Maybe," she replied, shrugging. "I haven't quite decided yet. No-one would miss you, let's be honest. Anyway thanks to Erwin and the Scouts, your King is dead, Eren Jaeger has the Founding Titan's power, and we know all about humanity beyond the walls. I suppose I should thank you. If you hadn't killed our fathers, maybe our dream would never have materialised. Maybe the best punishment for you is to watch how everything you believed in, everything you used to justify the atrocities you carried out, crumbles into dust."
Sannes was openly weeping now, and Anya took sombre satisfaction from it.
"I think, though, that there are still some truths that need to be exposed," she said. "This is where things might get a bit messy, depending on how well you co-operate."
"W-what do you want to know?"
"I was left outside the walls for over half a year," she said. "Within two days of returning, someone tried to assassinate me."
It was brief, but she saw the recognition in his eyes.
"I-I don't know anything about that."
She sighed.
"Oh."
She stood up abruptly and kicked the chair away, before reaching into her cloak and pulling out a whip. She flexed her fingers inside her gloves and snapped the weapon on the ground in front of her.
"I haven't used one of these for a long time," she said. "Have you?"
Sannes shook his head, casting a truly pathetic figure.
"All right then. I apologise if I'm a bit sloppy at first. Now, I must remember to ask a question before I start this time. So, who tried to assassinate me?"
"I don't know!"
She smacked her lips and struck the whip across his cheek with perfect accuracy, leaving a deep gash in his skin. Sannes cried out and she smiled.
"Maybe I remember how to wield one of these after all."
Without warning, she lashed out again, and the whip wrapped itself around Sannes' wrist. She dragged him across the floor towards her and crouched down.
"Who was it, hmm? There's not much point protecting them anymore."
He glared up at her.
"It's not about protecting them! It's about protecting the royal family!"
"Oh?"
Sannes clamped his mouth shut and she trod on his fingers, twisting her foot until she heard bone crack. He yelled, and she applied more pressure.
"I really recommend you start talking," she said. "I'm losing my patience."
"The nobles...wanted you dead," he cried.
Her eyes widened and she removed her foot.
"Why?"
He laughed, then. It was a desperate, hateful sound.
"Because you're...the last one," he gasped.
"The last what?" she demanded.
He stopped talking again, and rage bubbled within her.
"TELL ME!"
She struck the whip twice, thrice, and watched as blood sprayed from his back.
"Please stop!" he sobbed.
"There's a simple way to make all this stop," she said. "Tell me what you know. Tell me everything."
Someone ran down the stairs, but she kept her focus on Sannes.
"Anya, what the hell are you doing?"
She briefly shut her eyes at the sound of Levi's voice. She'd taken the utmost caution in ensuring she wasn't followed and yet somehow, he'd found her. She turned to look at him.
"I'm finding out who tried to assassinate me a few months ago," she said.
"And you think this bastard knows something?"
"I do, actually."
Sannes decided to take his chances and went for her. However, with impossible speed, she delivered a roundhouse kick to his face. One of his teeth clattered onto the floor, and he slammed hard against the stone wall. Anya looked down at him and shook her head.
"Naughty, naughty. You should know better than that."
"Anya," Levi warned.
She ignored him and hauled Sannes up, shaking him as her temper frayed at the prospect, after everything they'd suffered through, of yet more secrets and lies.
"What do you KNOW?!" she screamed.
"It's because...of who you are," he coughed, blood dribbling from his mouth.
"Who I am?" She released him and shook her head, scoffing. "I'm just an orphan from Wall Rose."
"No," he said. "You...You are the last royal of Marley."