He Told Me to Live

42 | Devote Your Hearts

"How much time do you need for that fuel tank?" Hange questioned as tools began to shake in their place and the ground trembled.

"Maybe an hour...?"

"An hour?" I combed a hand through my hair, trying to calm my mind. "An hour..." The repetition came in a whisper, a disbelieving whisper.

Why doesn't the universe like us?

I stared into the distance. "We have about forty minutes until they make their way here... unless they can run."

"Don't make that a possibility." Levi said.

"I'll stay and try to slow them down." Armin began running off but I grabbed him. "No, you're one of the only chances of stopping Eren."

"I'll do this." Reiner now offered.

I started to protest but I heard Hange do it first.

"You really think I'd let you?! We can't lose anymore of our titans' powers!" She held two thunder spears in her hand. "I'm the one who led us here. I pressed on, even at the cost of so many lives."

I grabbed her shoulders, feeling the same dread I felt years ago when we were cornered by the Beast Titan with boulders bulleting in our direction. That same dread, caused by the fear that someone close to me was going to die.

Someone I considered family.

"You can't be serious."

She gave me a look that proved to me that she was. Hange's eyes aren't often filled with fear, but these eyes, they held fear, uncertainty, but also tranquility.

"Hange, we already lost hundreds of our own, billions of theirs, you cannot lower the number of those remaining."

I felt her trembling beneath my hands but I didn't let her go. She needed to hear me first.

"I don't know how many titans you'll kill, how cool this whole thing may look to us, but we cannot lose you."

After she heard me say this, she smiled. The soft kind of smile that I'd see almost everyday before, but never really saw now.

My grip on her shoulders loosened and she put her hands over mine, maintaining that smile. "I've made my wave of sacrifices. It's time for me to face the music."

I remember going quiet and letting my hands drag from her shoulders to my sides.

"Y/N, you know how it is better than anyone." She put her arms around me, bringing me into a hug. "Sacrifices must be made sometimes."

When she pulled away, I didn't know what to say in response.

Hange turned to Armin, the boy with eyes like the ocean rather than the sky; wisdom like Erwin; desire like Erwin; yet, he didn't have hope like Erwin.

"Armin Arlert, I hereby appoint you the fifteenth commander of the Survey Corps. The quality required of a Survey Corps commander is the unyielding desire for a broader understanding. There are none more suited for this duty than you. The Corps is in your hands."

She dropped the serious app and smiled again. "Speech over. Bye everybody." As she walked away, she added, "Oh, right, this means Levi reports to you now. Work him to the bone for me, okay? And make sure to listen to Y/N; she's too rational for her own good."

I watched her walk away as Levi stepped onto the dock.

The trembling she couldn't hide from me was more evident as ever, especially as she gazed upon one of her closest friends.

I saw his face. His face was blank for a moment, then he closed his eyes, allowing everything to process. Then they opened again, in acceptance.

Levi put his fist over her chest. "Dedicate your heart."