Yesterday's Enemy [AoT]

FOURTEEN

'As much as I respect the ideology of the Survey Corps... I cannot support them. There is no point, no sense, in running out of the Walls, unprepared, and allowing your soldiers to be slaughtered, just for the sake of some far-off grasp at freedom. Well, I know one thing for certain: you'll find no freedom within the walls of a coffin.'

-An extract from the newspaper article that caused the Survey Corps to lose half of their funding in one day, written by scholar and journalist Aksel Briggs.

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FOURTEEN

Wall Maria, South Region, Noaks Survey Corps Base of Operations

"You're absolute shit at this,"

It was 0500 hours, and Lorelai had been in the Survey Corps for almost three weeks. Three gruelling, headache-inducing weeks. And it was safe to say that she harboured an almost astounding lack of talent for the ODM gear. Levi had been spending most of his time training her, and still, she was eating dirt whenever she put it on.

Lorelai picked herself up from the ground, sending a glare his way.

"I mean, it's almost impressive how bad you are," Levi continued, as relentless as always with his criticism.

"I heard you the first ten times, Levi."

"...Pardon?" he replied, a clear warning in his voice.

Lorelai forcefully composed herself. "Excuse me, Captain. Put me up again."

"You can't give me orders, Bervik."

As much as Lorelai was failing with the ODM gear, Levi was failing his job too. Erwin had asked him to break Lorelai into the Survey Corps, meaning she had to accept him as her superior. That goal was dauntingly far away.

It had been three weeks, three, and Lorelai had made it painfully clear to him that he did not have her respect. Hell, she gave him more orders than he gave her. Levi didn't even know how to go about the job. In the past, his squad's respect was won through his title as 'Humanity's Strongest Soldier', but Lorelai had made it clear that such a thing was meaningless to her.

The pair of them were stumped.

"Captain?" Lorelai prompted him, waving a hand in his face furiously. "Were you even listening?"

"No. What did you say?"

She sighed exasperatedly, hooking herself back onto the gear. By now, Lorelai had gotten used to Levi tuning her out. "Any helpful advice?"

She always asked the same question whenever she tried this, and he always gave the same answer:

"Balance."

Humanity's Strongest Soldier was clearly not a very competent teacher.

Once again, Lorelai felt the ground disappear slowly from her feet. This contraption was designed to simulate the act of balancing with ODM gear. Concentration was key, but spatial awareness was even more important. You had to get the balance just right, or you'd be eating dirt in seconds. That, Lorelai knew all too well.

So far, so good; she kept a tenuous hand on her balance as Lorelai tried to stay upright. But she soon began to wobble.

"Hold it, Bervik," said Levi. "Stop flailing around. You look like a fish out of water."