Erwin Smith x OFC - Steel and Soul

Part 1, Chapter 1: The Frontlines of Hell

A man's soft, gravelly voice suddenly cuts through the haze of silence. A doctor wearing a tattered coat and an old bandana holds up a small bundle of flesh topped with cherry-red hair.
"Well won't you look at that? She's smiling, Mister and Missus Laurier."
The newborn baby girl, still covered in blood, looks up at the funny grinning man and begins laughing, the innocent and beautiful sound pealing and echoing around the room. The new mother, practically inches from death and panting, looks at her child in wonder. The new father does the same, wondering what is going through her little brain.

"Amara..."

"Our little miracle."

.........

A flash of steel. A spray of crimson. The looming, lanky ten meter Titan falls with her final squad mate in it's gaping maw. She zips down with her ODM, practically hyperventilating.
"Please be okay.... Please... Desari..."
Her stomach lurches at her friend Des, bitten almost in half and still as a stone resting in her own viscera and blood with dull tear stained eyes. Captain Amara Laurier lets out a strangled roar of fury at the sight from her throat, shooting her anchors to dig into the nearby ruin and landing heavily onto the roof to survey the damage around her while panting, mind racing, green eyes shifting around the remnants of her squad.

Their excursion to the territory of wall Maria had proven to be a great risk and cost a lethal toll, and worst of all it was a complete waste. The advantage they'd hardly gained paled in comparison to the amount of lives taken. The crest of the Scout Regiment shines on her shoulder to contrast the bleak scene around her as she casts her gaze down to her lost friend. As a lone salty drop sears down her cheek, her gaze slowly rakes over the pointless carnage, painfully watching the still bodies of those she had shared a meal with not two hours prior lying with the wreckage of titans they'd slaughtered together. Her breath coming out in shallow, painful raw gasps, she salutes them all one last time before zipping away to find her Commander and report the loss. Wiping tears away from her eyes with her forearm, Amara casts her gaze forward and doesn't look back.

"You gave your hearts, dear friends. I will make sure it wasn't for nothing..." She croaks as she flies through the region, fresh tears flying through the air behind her as she repeats each of their names like a mantra.
"Desari Vonde, Julene Wistera, Merik Delan, Koden Moria, Paulie Franco...
Desari Vonde, Julene Wistera, Merik Delan, Koden Moria, Paulie Franco..."

Fueled by her anguish-turned-rage at the sight of more Titans, she decimates them, three more 6-8m Titans falling to the ground on her way to find any sign of life from her faction. Amara is battling to keep herself together, loose red curls whipping around behind her as she moves forward, her mind flitting between the horrifying final images of her friends and her body growing weak from fighting. Zipping along an outcropping of tall trees, she gains air to avoid more Titans on the way to where she stashed her horse, and thankfully there were none of the monsters in the immediate vicinity of her destination. Once she finds her horse where she'd left him tethered between two large logs, she mounts the tall steed to save on gas in preparation for more battle.

Unfortunately for her, that battle comes quickly in the form of a 12 meter class Abnormal that is sprinting full tilt towards her with its small arms flapping in the wind. Clenching her jaw as a glint of rage passes through her eyes, she urges her horse full speed and jumps gracefully to stand atop the saddle on her toes, drawing her blades and wielding them. She waits, counting the seconds until the rate of speed of this Titan will overcome hers, and a chill comes over her as it suddenly leaps into the air toward her like a frog.

"Oh GODDAMMIT!" Amara yells as her eyes widen greatly and the redhead engages her ODM gear, grappling onto the nearest tree and yanking herself just out of the way, gasping as her horse is crushed by the Abnormal. She ricochets off of the bark, flipping through the air and attempting to pare the Titan's nape off while it's on the ground. However, the abomination springs into the air again just as she's about to make contact and she braces herself, just barely attaching her anchor to a tree and landing on a branch before she would have been crumpled against a rock.

"Fuck... No, I'm gonna die.." She trembles, green orbs stricken wide with horror. Amara watches the Titan open it's ugly mouth, roaring and doubling back to jump at her. Overcome by a burst of adrenaline, she leaps straight up into the air at the same time, getting higher up than the Titan and bearing down on it with a scream ripping its way from her throat.

"YOU'RE NOT KILLING ME, YOU MONSTER!!!" Her blades come down before her feet and she slashes while spinning her body, and two deep connecting gashes signal her death throe victory. Landing against it's body shoulder first, she rolls off with a groan of pain and stays down a moment before picking herself up. Attempting to stand as the Titan blood evaporates from her blades and skin, she sighs and collapses to her knees, panting heavily while watching the vile creature steam and break apart, a persistent hissing permeating the air around her.

When she finally happens upon someone about a half hour later on foot, the fields around her having been chill with silence as she stumbles, Levi slowly comes into focus, then also Erwin not too far away with Hange.
"Oh... Thank God.." She sighs and begins running toward them, limping a bit as her knee is very sore. Just getting out of a battle, they are perched upon a rooftop and see her striding toward them looking like the living dead as she's not only spattered in blood but also alone and limping, and they can only assume the worst so their stomachs all lurch. Erwin has a slightly different reaction to seeing her, the edges of his vision becoming fuzzy with her at the epicenter, surrounded by a halo of light as if to accentuate the joy of her survival. After everyone he'd seen just get killed he knows she must have lost everyone, and after getting over the initial shock he becomes uncharacteristically emotional to see her unharmed, quickly zipping to the ground with his ODM and running forward to meet her.

"AMARA! You're- you're alive!" He calls out to her with relief, joyful tears stinging his eyes, and after she gasps and cries his name he rushes to lift her into his arms. She clings to him, crying, shaking and relieved to see him unharmed. He holds her against him, his heart clenching with the relief of having her alive. Amara presses her ear to his chest, closing her eyes at the steady beat of his pounding heart as no other sound has filled her with such comfort.