Flying on Her Wings (Attack on Titan)

Her Past

Narrator

   Hanji's words shock everyone as she brushes a strand of Rachel's hair out of the girl's face.  The tears streaking down Hanji's face have lessened in numbers, but the sadness in her eyes never vanishes.  She looks up at both Levi and Erwin.

   "It was so terrible..."  The brunette's words have a horrified ring to them– almost as if she had experienced whatever terrors that plague Rachel's past herself.  "She's been through so many terrible things."  Silence answers her words, since no one really knows what to say.  The usually-energetic woman has immobilized everyone with her seriousness.

   A pained whimper cuts through the air, and Armin glances down at Rachel, whose eyes are half-lidded.

   "Rachel?"  Said girl looks up at Armin, eyes unfocused and glassy. The girl tilts her head to the side, studying his face carefully with furrowed eyebrows before dawning a confused look.

"Who are you?"

~~~~

"Come on!" Armin paces back and forth at one end of the clearing, hands behind his back and eyes closed in thought. "How can she not remember us?" He glances over at the winged girl, who is being carefully nurtured by Hanji. Rachel only seems to remember the brunette woman, who claims it is because they had shared their memories. Armin also notices a dimming in Rachel's wings– once they had been a pure white, but now they are a dull grey. Armin suspects that the girl can still fly, but only with some sort of... condition now, he theorizes.

Erwin is interrogating her as Levi stands off to one side, looking at the teen with what seems to be regret. To any one else, his face is blank and emotionless, but Armin notes the tightness of his shoulders and the deepened furrow in his brow.  Eren and Mikasa stand near Armin, thoroughly as worried and confused as the blond himself.

"Well, Armin."  The boy's head snaps up as Erwin strides towards the group, "Rachel doesn't recall anything about our time spent together– in fact, it seems as though she has withdrawn into herself, for she is afraid of our race."  Armin becomes confused and remains silent as Eren poses the question,

   "What do you mean, 'our race'?  Does she mean humans?"  Levi shakes his head.

   "Seems so." Levi glances in Rachel's direction again.  "Healing Hanji must have taken a real toll on her body– she's having trouble raising her voice to anything above a whisper right now."  Eren's eyes fill with worry, sadness, and nostalgia as the memory of when he first met Rachel runs through his mind.

Flashback

"Get away from him you– ... angel?"  The girl chuckles, amused at my surprise. I send a heated glare at her, but I do have to admit...

She really is an angel.

Fluffy, white, feathery wings sprout from her back, so big that I can't even comprehend how they don't drag across the ground when she walks. Or maybe they do?  I notice that one of them seems to be tucked loosely by her side.  Slightly messy blonde hair falls down past her shoulders and light, green eyes stare back down at me. I snap back to my senses.

"Whatever you are, get away from Armin!" She sighs in annoyance and glares fiercely down at me, and I can't help but shrink back, but only the tiniest of fractions.

   "Or what?"  She questions, lowering her good wing a little bit.

   "Eren!  Stop!  She's a friend!"  Armin suddenly cries.  The girl looks at him and asks,