Lara (Long-Fic Levihan | Armin Arlert X OC)

Chapter 40 - Judgment

Hange and Levi analyzed Sannes in front of them. In a dark room, lit only by a candle, he was sitting on a chair, tied with ropes across his chest, hands, and feet. On a tray, there were ten fingernails, torn out in cold blood by Hange and Levi. Sannes's nose was also strangely crooked and was bleeding all the way to his mouth.

Hange felt a strange sensation in her throat and Levi felt a certain tingling, which he only remembered feeling when he was a teenager and a criminal on the Underground streets.

They had tried everything to make Sannes say everything he knew about the real royal family and the heirs to the throne. But Sannes remained obstinate.

"I've never seen people who took such delight in torturing..." said Sannes, at one point. "But, I confess... I've already been in your place..."

Indeed, Sannes had been the cause of much suffering for several people, claiming that everything he did, was to keep the peace within the Walls, shutting the mouths of those who knew too much.

"You two..." continued Sannes, spitting out some blood. "You... Have a... Daughter, don't you? What's she called? Lara? One of humanity's strongest soldiers, even competing with her own father, the indestructible Captain Levi?"

Levi and Hange looked at each other, their eyes slightly wide.

"Don't say another word about our daughter," threatened Levi.

"Or what?" replied Sannes, coughing. "Are you gonna cut off my balls?"

Levi's chin quivered and he took a step forward, being stopped by Hange. Sannes laughed.

"Go on... Cut off another piece of me... I deserve every pain I'm going through... But, I wonder... What's your little daughter thinking right now? It sure isn't a big moment for her, seeing her heroes do something like this. From what little I've heard of her, she seems to be a girl of pure integrity, am I right?"

"Stop it..." said Hange, clasping her hands at her sides.

"Just imagine her here, in this room right now... Do you think she would be helping you to hold the pliers, or getting in front of me to stop your actions? Could she be able to see how filthy you are?"

Hange and Levi knew very well the answers to those questions. To this day, they still wondered how a little girl, who had gone through so many horrible things in her life - even an assassination attempt, being thrown with the utmost cruelty outside the Walls, to slowly die at the hands of the Titans - managed to remain so pure and always saw the best in people.

Levi wondered why she had chosen him to be her father. There were many good-hearted soldiers in the Survey Corps. But, she had chosen him, Levi Ackerman, as her father. When he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that she had chosen him from the moment she met him, in that room at the Forest of Giant Trees camp, after having told her story. Of all people, him. Who had done nothing in his life to receive so much love from someone so small.

Hange also wondered the same thing. She asked herself why she had been chosen to be Lara's mother, and just like Levi, she came to the conclusion that she had been chosen from the moment they met. Lara had saved her life, and not only her physical one, in that Forest, while Hange sank into the quicksand. From the first night they slept in the company of each other, after Lara had a nightmare, Hange felt that the way that little girl snuggled against her chest to sleep was unlike anything she had ever felt.

"I believe that the things I did, the torturings and everything else," continued Sannes, crestfallen, "were to bring peace to the Walls. I believe the things I did were fair. But I had no idea it would hurt this much. Hurry up and torture me to death. It would be a fitting end to a damned life like mine."