Head empty, Y/N let her instincts and emotions take over her actions, her conscious mind floating down into the black eternal pit of numbness. She sped, almost as if in a dream, to the armory, and grabbed her repaired and polished ODM Maneuver Gear. Putting it on was second nature to her, even in the state she was currently enveloped in. She was focused on nothing but escape, and before she had any time at all to process it, she was on her horse, galloping away into the empty desert between the walls and the sea.
She had no destination, no thoughts whatsoever, only an intention to get away. The chocolate brown steed panted as the harbor got farther and farther away, the town finally becoming nothing more than a dot in the distance. The sun rose ever higher in the sky, and the more the H/C rode on, the more the landscape changed. Sandy dunes and barren brown ground changed to flat green grasslands the faster and farther Y/N rode. She had no idea how much time had passed, but it didn't seem to matter until her horse nearly collapsed from exhaustion.
She stopped sometime in the mid-afternoon by a natural stream to let her steed drink and rest. It was the first time on her journey that her conscious mind had been made aware of anything, including the fact that her hair was plastered to her sweaty face and her lips were chapped and bleeding. She dipped her hands in the cool water, the temperature and rhythm waking her up, making her fully conscious again. She splashed a little bit onto her face to assure that she was indeed awake and aware. It felt refreshing, and after a deep breath, Y/N finally decided to find out what the hell she was doing.
Altogether, she had no idea where she was, only a general idea. As far as she could tell, she had been subconsciously headed for a small forest she didn't even know existed until now. If she had to guess, she suspected that she was about three days southwest of the walls. She had no idea why she had been headed this way, the woods had no particular meaning to her, but seeing as she had no other place to run to in mind, she mounted her horse once again and sprinted toward the conjunction of trees in the distance.
By the end of the afternoon, the emerald trees were within Y/N's sight. The wooden giants stood about thirty meters high, dark flaking bark and wide needles sticking out on all sides. It was a perfect environment for her to practice using her ODM gear and to forget all of her problems. Upon arrival, she tied her horse to one of the outermost trees with one of her waterskins, allowing it to recover from the overwork. Y/N knew that the sun was setting quickly, but it didn't matter. Her gear shot out a hook and attached itself to a particularly thick branch, and wordlessly, she flew the air up into the canopy of trees.
Inside the dark woods, the plants and creatures had obviously adapted to living in the darkness, for nothing seemed to react to her presence as she whisked by every tree. It was calm, serene almost, a creepy kind of quiet, everything Y/N needed to calm down.
Slowly, the light began to disappear in the spaces between the leaves in the natural roof, and soon, the cool of night began spreading through the woods like a plague. She gaped, when had it gotten so late? She sped back the way she had come from, her mind focused on one thing; getting back to her horse and setting up camp. It wasn't until she got about halfway back that she started to hear it.
Something following behind her.
At first, it was just a dull thud, but whatever it was was quick, gaining ground on its target. Finally, she couldn't take the anticipation anymore, and looked behind at her pursuer. What she saw made her entire body fill with utter fear.
Three Titans, each ranging about twenty meters, were awkwardly bounding right towards her. Their twisted faces and disproportionate eyes positively gleamed with a primal hunger, their black and lifeless pupils focused only on their prey. Monstrous teeth and spines twisted, they looked like something straight out of a nightmare. She could hear their shaking breaths, the low hums of their uncontrollable voices, and the crack of their giant muscle fibers as they ran. It had been years since Y/N had been on the field; it had been years since she had seen a real titan, and she was so completely unprepared to meet them again.
Getting back to her means of escape suddenly took on a greater and higher urgency, and as quickly as she could, Y/N beamed her gear towards the edge of the forest. The trio of man-eating monsters was still a distance away but was gaining ground rapidly. No matter what, Y/N couldn't stop. Her loose hairs clung to her sweaty face, her breathing and self-control becoming more and more limited. She swung furiously with her gear, a frantic and pitiful escape plan as her impending doom got closer and closer. Why now, out of all the days, had she forgotten her blades back on her saddle? Why, now out of all days, had Titans decided to appear and come for her? She began to silently shed tears amongst her panic, for she knew that if she made one mistake, she was as good as dead.
She got ever closer until she could see the edge of the forest. She reached out her hand, reaching towards whatever light the day had left... only for her gas tank to sputter and die.
Suddenly, instead of moving forward, Y/N was falling, and her whole world changed from bad to catastrophically worse. She felt the wind whip past her head as her harness got caught by the rope, pulling her right back from whence she came. It felt like only half a second before she cascaded into the trunk of a particularly thick tree. She felt her body splinter the rough bark, heard her ribs, arms, legs, and neck crack like gunshots. She heard herself scream so loudly the entire forest seemed to shake. She could do nothing other than hang from the rope, limp, mouth pooling with blood and ears ringing like whistles.
The Titans were on top of her within mere moments. One of them grabbed her body, more cracks resounding one after the other. The monster's fingers tightened around her abdomen, her vision completely blurring as more blood spilled from her lips. She couldn't move.
Despite how much she wished this wasn't happening, however badly she wanted it to be a dream, a lie, she knew it wasn't. This was it. This was where she was going to die.
Y/N wished that she could've said goodbye to Hange, to thank her. She wished that maybe, just maybe, she could have gone by Erwin's grave one last time. But she knew. She wasn't living past this. What a fitting end to her life.
Y/N felt the titan's stinking breath on her face, a hot, toxic fume. Right then, she accepted it.
She would be meeting her brother again soon, just in a different way than she had expected.
She closed her eyes, and then the whole world bloomed into black.
A/n: That's rough, buddy.
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A Heart's Dedication
Fanfiction[Levi Ackerman x Reader] They were separated by loss and were brought back together by fate. One a wounded girl with a hardened heart; the other a man with a ruthless reputation and a vortex of hidden feelings. What will happen when they come back i...
