COMRADES • Eren Jaeger

CHAPTER 40: Punishment

"I'm doing this because I trust Eren," you lied.

"Another lie," he said matter-of-factly. "Would you really prioritize Eren over Paradis Island?"

A spurt of anger flared inside of you. Who was he to make assumptions about you? Yet it was hard to be angry at him, because you had failed yourself. Levi was too rational to believe the words coming out of your mouth.

You groaned in frustration. "Levi, you'll understand someday," you said. "When the time comes, you'll see why I did it. You've always been better than me anyway."

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean—?"

"I didn't steal anything," interrupted Zeke. He was breathing heavily now, pathetic and injured beside you. "I've always hated having Eldian blood — I didn't want — I didn't want to be —"

"Looks like you're growing another leg," said Levi, his lip curling down as he unsheathed his sword. "How about we change that?"

"Mister Ksaver! I hope you're watching over me!"

Everything seemed to become slower, quieter. Zeke then yanked his entire upper body backwards, pulling the pin that connected to the delicate thunderspear lodged in his bruised stomach. Your eyes widened in alarm just as Levi grabbed you by the shoulders and shielded your head with his arms. The thunderspear exploded.

The blast hauled you off the carriage and you were blown backward into the air. The impact with the hard-packed earth knocked the wind out of you, the mud doing little to soften the blow. A crisp crunching sound was faint on your eardrums as you and Levi slammed onto wet soil. It was a blessing and a punishment that your head had been placed within the crook of his elbow, sparing your skull from bursting in a single hit, but adding to the injuries on his arm.

Cold rain and dust mixed together as they splattered onto your eyes. There was something else, too. Blood from Levi's fresh wounds were leaking onto your hands as you both caught fire. Your calf began to burn as the attacking rain began a hard battle with weak licks of flames that engulfed your left leg.

The last thing you heard was the panicked neighing of the horses while you lay with Levi on the muddy ground. You abruptly turned yourself over and threw yourself over Levi, shielding his body as shattered bits of debris, some of it burning, rained down on you. His blood seeped onto your clothes, soaking you in the darkest shade of red, like you had been dipped deep into the chambers of a heart.

He choked out, and blood from his mouth splattered onto your face like the rain droplets above you. Internal bleeding, you realized. This was no ordinary blood from teeth being punched. This was a series of multiple fatal wounds from his internal organs, wounds that might never heal. You were a medic who could not treat him.

A thick, fetid smoke filled the air, which was not the best solution for two freshly-injured people desperately trying to regain the oxygen in their lungs. After a minute of the earth shaking, the world went still again. You rolled onto your side and allowed yourself to close your eyes. You had nearly forgotten just how powerful a single thunderspear could be.

"Captain," you croaked. You forced yourself to withstand the dizziness and opened your eyes again to look at your captain laying beside you, his mangled face to the ground.

Panic filled you. Was he dead? You brought a shaky hand to the side of his neck and felt a pulse. You weakly bowed your head in relief.

Other than the fact that you were bleeding yourself, you didn't dare turn him over in fear that it would only worsen the injuries of his internal organs. You reached for his palm, then retracted your hand in horror. Levi was missing his middle and index fingers.