The walls weren't supposed to fall. The titans weren't supposed to invade. She wasn't supposed to be a soldier. Yet, all the above happened.
Eliora Smith wasn't set to follow her father's footpath as a soldier, content to being a midwife like her mo...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
In the downpour from whatever Gods we angered, it takes me a while to find his body near the stream.
"No, no, no," I repeat, kneeling down beside my husband's crumpled body, scared to turn him over for fear of what I'll find. My fingers find a weak pulse along his neck and I cry out in relief. A moment later, it turns into unbridled fury. "Zeke, you fucking bastard!" I scream, tears flowing down my cheeks. Taking a deep breath, I turn Levi over, gagging from the extend of his injuries.
"Someone's there!" I hear the familiar voice of my Godmother. "Eliora?"
"Hange! It's bad!" I press ripped cloth from my jacket to the worst wounds, feeling hopeless.
She takes Levi into her arms. "Hey, are you alive? Levi?"
I notice an audience surrounding us, guns pointed at the already wounded man. "I'll send a shot through the head."
"He's dead," Hange says quickly before I can say anything. I look at her and she gives a slight shake of her head. "I saw something similar in a training accident. His organs are in even worse condition than they look. He died immediately."
"I know how to take a pulse, let me check," Floch says, taking a step towards us. I glare at him, readying my knife from my boot to kill whoever attempts to take my husband away from me.
"Floch!" another soldier gets his attention. "There's something strange about that titan!"
We watch as it disappears into itself, revealing a very naked Zeke Jaeger. My hands clench at the fury I feel for the man, looking completely unharmed, standing in front of me.
"Let's go," Hange whispers to me, and together we Levi onto a horse, taking off. I glance back, my eyes connecting with Zeke's. We may be related but one day, I'll get my revenge for all the misery he caused me.
"We should take him back to the farmhouse! I need to know Furlan is okay!" I yell to Hange.
She shakes her head at me. "He won't make it. Do what you can while we're riding, kiddo."
Nodding, I decimate my jacket into strips. The worst of the injuries are on his face, hand, and leg. I can tell he's lost too much blood. I can't give up on him, though.
We head back into the forest that the battle with Zeke happened in. Hange tends to Levi's face while I built a fire to cauterize his limb injuries.
"There's no one pursuing us now, Levi," Hange talks to him as she sews up the left half of his face. "Everyone got turned into Titans but only you survived. It must be the same reason you're able to survive these injuries because you're an Ackerman."
We make him as comfortable as we can before sitting down nearby. My eyes stay glued to the gentle rise and fall of his chest, worried that at some point it'll just stop.
"Well, what do we do? We can't stop Zeke on our own. We just have to count on Armin and Commander Pyxis," Hange says, defeatedly putting her head into her hands.
I rest a hand on her shoulder. "It has to work out. Maybe Eren will pull through for us."
"Even if Eren betrayed Zeke, the Jaegerists would use the spinal fluid to control the island. We'll be on the run for the rest of our lives. It must be that our time has come. You might feel like you're doing the right thing but times change and you find yourself in a cell."
"Hange, don't give up on me," I plead, taking her bloodied hand into my own.
"Maybe we should just stay and live here together." She looks back at the injured man. "Right Levi?"
I take the first guard as Hange works on fixing up a wagon to put Levi on when we decide to transport him. We decided our next mission would be to get Furlan and make sure he's safe.
Light burst into the sky in front of me and I fall to my knees, my head pounding. My stomach rolls and I feel as if I'm going to be sick.
"Hear me, all subjects of Ymir. My name is Eren Yeager. I now speak to all subjects of Ymir by way of the Founding Titan's power. Every wall on the island has been unhardened. All the Titans buried within them have begun to walk. My goal is to protect the People of Paradis, who bore me and raised me. But the world desires the extinction of the People of Paradis. Over the years, their hatred has grown beyond the island. They surely will not stop until they kill every one of the subjects of Ymir. I reject their desire."
Hange and I look at each other, experiencing the same thing as Eren continues to speak inside our heads.
"The Titans of the walls will trample and rumble all the lands beyond this island until the lives there are eliminated."
"Hange—"
"Levi!" she interrupts me, running to his side after noticing that he's sitting up.
"The beast...that piece of shit...where is he?" Levi mutters out, his voice slightly muffled from the bandages around his face.
I push him back into bed. "Take it easy. You took a thunder spear to the face, Captain."
"Zeke went to the Shiganshina District with the Jaegerists. Half a day has passed since then," Hange fills him in. Myself, I can't get over the fact that he's alive and actually speaking to us. I thought I had lost him forever.
"I screwed up. I let him get away again," he says, looking at his hand that's now missing a few fingers. I place a comforting hand on him.
"I'm sure you want revenge, but for now—"
"If we keep running and hiding, what will that get us?" he groans out. "You're making that to pull me by horse? I know you're not able to stay out of the action." he points with his ring finger from his bad hand. I push it back down, trying to get him to rest his hand and not cause more bleeding. He's always so stubborn.
"Yeah, that's right. I can't," Hange responds.
"Me neither. I'm ready if you are. Till Death, right?" I ask and he nods painfully.
