Hand in Hand

0. Prologue

Fiery shadows danced on the bodies of hundreds of graduated trainees as they stood before Commander Erwin Smith in the dead of night. They would be deciding their future in a matter of minutes. Those who looked down at their boots in shame had already made up their minds a long time ago. Erwin's fervid speech was merely the first time of many where they would look back and question if they made the right decision, comfort and their pride intact over faith and trust in themselves and their comrades.

The small few whose heads were hanged high, brows furrowed, and eyes fixated with dread, had this moment on their minds from the moment they signed up for their training; faith and trust was not something they had learned in their three years of training, but it was something they would become all too familiar in the Survey Corps.

"Those of you who will join us will participate in an expedition a month from now," Erwin's voice echoed in the night. "In which the predicted mortality rate is thirty percent."

Another pair of eyes dropped, looking for solace in their boots.

Zoë Hanji, Miche Zacharias, and Moblit Berner, all senior cadets, along with scattered members of the Levi and Hanji squads stood off to the side of Erwin. Intimidating as they were, their hearts were beating fast in anticipation to see who they would be left fighting aside, whose faces could be the last they ever see on the battlefield.

"If you are still willing to endanger your lives with us, remain here. Are you capable of offering your lives for mankind?"

The Commander's last words hung in the air, ringing in everyone's ears, as over half of those listening walked away. Some cried as they pleaded with their friends to leave with them, others walked away so fast as if they were mad but didn't know who at. No matter where they went now, Erwin's words would live with them. Hundreds of lives would be spared but were it that much better? Does fear have that much power over the mind to where people would give up their freedom for comfort and status from higher-ups that couldn't care less if they were dead?

Only twenty-four new Survey Corps cadets out of hundreds would find out what it meant to conquer fear. As a start, they were all looking Death in the eyes tonight, daring him to catch up to them before they were able to find out the truth of what was beyond the walls.

"This is pathetic," (y/n) whispered to herself, walking away from her captain before she could hear Erwin congratulate the new cadets. "Only twenty four and half of them will be dead before they know it."

If she couldn't protect the one person she cared about most, how was she supposed to watch over these new recruits? How was she supposed to convince them that their, and their comrade's death, death had meaning? Anxiety gnawed at her stomach just thinking about it.

"Where do you think you're going?"

(Y/n) turned to the hand gripping her arm to find Captain Levi Ackerman.

She had joined the Survey Corps four years ago, a year after when the Armored and Colossal Titans breached Wall Maria, but never got too close to Levi. It wasn't just because she was in Hanji's squad and not his, but because she hated the way he was so good at what he did, and he never once regretted being in the Survey Corps. He hated people who couldn't clean or those who couldn't make decisions in a matter of seconds but he never hated his job, or at least to her knowledge he didn't. He embodied all the right qualities of a soldier that she just couldn't bring herself to be lately. Except the one the mattered most.

"The reaping is over, I'm going back now. Hanji doesn't need me and neither do the new cadets. Goodnight Captain Levi, sir." Levi's grip didn't let up.

"Reaping?" He questioned, grip getting tighter.

"Captain, could you let go?"

"If that's how you feel about the Survey Corps, that we gather up kids like cattle just to slaughter them, then why the hell are you here?"