The Elite: Wings of Freedom (Levi x OC)

Chapter 23: Recovery

Present - Elena 

"You wanted to see me, Commander?" I spoke, stopping at the doorway to his office.

Erwin looked up at me, "Ah yes, Elena come on in."

I smiled softly at him and walked in, closing the door behind me and taking a seat opposite of him. "What's up?"

He returned my smile, setting aside the paperwork he was working on and turning his full attention to me. "I wanted to quickly go over the results of the mission with you."

Nodding, I pulled one of my legs up underneath me, getting comfortable. Erwin has a tendency to be long winded, so I could be here for a while. I watched as he sorted through some paperwork on his desk, before finding what he was looking for and passing it over to me.

"This is the estimated number of casualties. There could be more or less, they are still confirming everything."

I took the paper from him, looking down at it and scanning the pages. "What?" I breathed, my eyes widening at the number at the end. "How did this many people die? We evacuated the area, the only deaths should be scouts and the small amount of civilians from when they went out of the evacuation area."

A sigh escaped his lips and he leaned backwards in his chair. "That's what I thought too. So, I looked into it. Apparently, part of the evacuation zone had the Church of the Walls in it. They were notified of the evacuation, and the scouts tried their best to get them to leave, but they refused. Their building was one of the ones that were destroyed during the fight."

I closed my eyes in disbelief, letting out a breath. I had fought hard to get the evacuation zone expanded, and yet we still had so many causalities because of these people.

"We couldn't do anything to prevent it Elena, so don't fault yourself," Erwin spoke softly, pulling me out of my thoughts.

Nodding, I set the paper down on his desk. That doesn't really make me feel any better. I didn't say anything, not wanting to show how this had affected me. What is there to even say in this situation?

"Also, as I'm sure you know," he continued, not taking too much notice to my silence. "Annie has been secured in the dungeon, with around the clock supervision. We are hoping to find a way to get her out of the crystal, but as of right now, nothing has worked."

"Damn," I grumbled. Not only did we have more destruction and casualties than we had hoped for, but on top of that, we still don't have the answers we were looking for.

"I'll keep you updated. For now, get some rest. I am putting you on light duty until your shoulder fully heals," he raised an eyebrow at me, making me shift uncomfortably in the chair.

I'm not normally one to take it easy when I have an injury. My arm was still in a sling, and Carine and Irina have had to help me get dressed due to my shoulder still being fairly painful.

"I have told your squad that you are on light duty, and they will be reporting to me if they see you working too hard. You will not be able to get away with it this time," he explained, giving me a stern look.

I sighed, "Yes sir."

"Alright. I don't have anything else, so if you don't have anything you want to talk about, you're dismissed."

Nodding, I stood up, saluting with one hand. Erwin chuckled, taking on an amused smile. Rolling my eyes playfully at him, I turned and walked out of his office.

Instead of going back to my office, I decided to stop by medical. Eren should still be in there, he was pretty beat up and it's only been a day since he fought Annie.