The Fight for Mankind

All the Kings Horses and All the Kings Men, Couldn't Put Them Back Together

LEVI

The bells rang through the city of Karanes, stopping me mid-sentence as I wrote my report because the only reason the bells rang in an outlier district like this was for one of two things, either the gate had fallen, or the Scouts were returning.

If the gate had fallen, surely I would have heard it, this has to be them...

Pushing back from the desk, report entirely forgotten, I ran from towards the courtyard just as the scouts who had been left behind on Wall Rose all came out of the woodwork, having arrived themselves a few hours early, and the sound of horse hooves echoed outside making my heart leap as I pushed out into the open air in search of red hair and mismatched grey and green eyes.

Come on, Aurora, where are you?

The first thing that struck me was how few had returned, when leaving Erwin had over a hundred men at his back but now, eyes darting over the forlorn and wounded faces there wasn't even half that number remaining, and as I began to search more frantically, I felt my sanity beginning to slip as every face that past me wasn't the face I so desperately needed to see.

Don't do this to me, you said you would fight like hell to get back to me, don't do this to me!

Twisting and weaving my way through the horses and broken men, a shot of ice ran down my spine as I spotted Armin, the smallest of Aurora's brats, openly sobbing as he helped his half-awake comrade, Jean, down from his horse and picking up my pace to demand the whereabouts of his cousin, I froze dead in my tracks as two scouts carried a half-dead Erwin, missing an arm, between them into Headquarters and my mind clouded with a hundred questions.

What the fuck happened?! Did we lose?! Where is Aurora?! Where is Eren?! Did we lose our -

"Someone help me!" A voice rang out in fear and frantically searching for the source of the sound, a broken cry escaped my lips as a boy Scout, still astride his horse, struggled with the bloody redheaded woman in his arms as she spasmed violently. 

No, no, no! 

"Aurora!" I cried as I ran towards her and pulled her from the boy's grip only to fall to the floor as her entire body seized and jerked, eyes that I longed to see since she had left that fateful day rolling into the back of her head as a bloody froth formed at her lips.

Please no...

"She's convulsing!" someone shouted but who I did not see for my eyes were fixed on the woman in my arms as I wrestled to keep hold of her body, "We need a medic!"

How do I stop this?! How the fuck do I stop this?!

"What the hell happened?!" I demanded, never once taken my eyes off Aurora and I screamed internally when fresh blood rolled down her face from her nose, adding to the already alarming amount covering her face and shirt. 

I can see a deep cut across her jawline, but that couldn't have bled this much, even with the nosebleeds- wait... she was having nose bleeds before she left for HQ... What the hell was happening to her?!

"I dunno!" the boy, Connie, fretted as his face took on a sickly pallor, "She was falling in and out of consciousness the entire ride back, mumbling about Rian and saving a child, the blood was pouring from her nose and ears long before Eren told me to take her!"

Nose and ears?!

Hearing news on Eren survival didn't alleviate any of my stress, in fact, it only added to my growing frustration because right now either he or his idiot brother should be here helping me save their goddamn sister!