Angel With A Shotgun [Levi Ackerman x OC] / Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin

Code XXVIII: Alleviating the Pain

Xora—being the stubborn fool that she was—threw off the heavy blankets and scrambled out of bed, falling straight forward onto the floor, as she still could not stand on her injured leg. She cursed, but was frantic; she had to get to the fitness room immediately. Did anyone even realize how many days of training she'd missed? All because she was laying in bed and moping around about a few measly bullets?

Several muffled groans sneaked past her pursed lips as she dragged herself to the door and out of her bedroom. Her shoulders ached horribly and her side was throbbing and her leg was in a pain so bad it was nearly numb—but she could not give up. Not now. Using her elbows to pull her along, she crawled her way over to where the staircase descended into the lobby.

"I didn't think this far," Xora panted to herself, cursing the fact that she did not see the entire plan through. Swiveling her feet around, she positioned herself to sit upright at the top of the long staircase, both hands gripping tightly onto the banister. Left leg first, she slid it tentatively forward and placed it gingerly on the cold tile of the next step, sliding her bottom forward until she fell onto the next step.

Xora repeated the process until she approached the last several steps, beads of sweat rolling down her chin, hands slick with perspiration. Why in the world did this staircase have to be so tall?

"I can make it," she muttered to herself through clenched teeth, though her wounds had already seeped through the fresh bandages with moist red stains. Breathing in deeply, she went straight for the next step, her left foot landing against the surface warily as she lowered herself down slowly.

But her slick palms and failing shoulders gave way and she lost her footing, careening forward with a "Whoa—oh—oah—ooh—oof!" Tumbling down the last several steps, she plummeted straight into the floor of the lobby, landing on her side. Laying sprawled, she curled inward, her arms limp. She was left stifling groans, and glanced over with blurring vision to see small puddles of her blood on the last few stairs. Her head was gyrating at inconceivable speeds, unbearable throbbing aching throughout her entire body. Most particularly, her shoulders and hips hurt, as they took the brunt of her fall.

A silent sigh of defeat resonated in her head when a few dashing pairs of footsteps came running in her direction, exclamations of "Archangel!" and "XX!" reaching her ears.

"So close," she sulked under her breath as several figures appeared before her.

"What the hell are you doing?!" came —unsurprisingly—Levi's voice, filled with disbelief.

"XX," Armin cried, a hand placed over his mouth in horror. "Oh, XX."

"You're still not right in the head, are you?" Hange sighed. "Do you have any idea how long bullet wounds are supposed to take to heal?! Especially when you took four of them?! Like, point-blank?!" The woman sighed exasperatedly again. "Seriously, are you still alive...?"

"Well, since you're here now," Xora wheezed, "do you think you could assist me over to the exercise room? I've lost so much time to laying in bed. I'll go insane if I don't return to my regimen."

"You're clearly already insane as it is," Levi grunted, heaving Xora gently into his arms. She flinched—hard—and cried out loudly when her shoulder scuffed against Levi's. "Ah, I'm sorry." He shifted her position in his arms.

"You still feel pain?" Hange questioned as they began to trek down the main hallway in the direction of the data room —although Xora had a feeling that was not their destination.

"A lot of it," Xora responded in a few short puffs of breath. "But not so much that it's completely unbearable."

"But why is she still cognitive?" Armin asked Hange, his face wrought with concern. His hands fidgeted nervously with the hem of his sweater vest. "I thought you've been keeping her on painkillers this entire time. With the dosages we've been giving her so far, she definitely should not be so cognizant."

Xora paled.

"I have," Hange answered slowly, her voice laced with wonder. "I've been thinking about that, too. We're heading over to the clinic right now. I'll give you another dose and we'll see how that helps."

"No," Xora refused when Levi turned into a white room with a bed, shelves of medicine, and machines everywhere. "Don't. I'll be fine without it. Besides, I've hated having this cloudy feeling in my head. If anything, I will put up with the pain with my own mental durability."

"Are you sure about this?" Levi laid Xora on a thin bed. "You were shot four times. You're still only human."

"I'm certain."

"Alright, then," Hange agreed reluctantly, tucking a thin white sheet over her legs. "But I'm going to have to put you under to entirely flush it out of your system without any gradual effects. Even now I think about how lucky it is that none of the bullets hit a major artery. Your will to survive is incredible. I don't agree with this decision you're making, but I won't do anything against your will. Just... don't make me regret this later, alright?"

"I can't guarantee that, but... I hope you won't."

Hange  scoffed, a pained smile coming upon the eccentric woman's lips. "You could at least lie to me, you know." After getting rid of the air bubbles in the thin needle with the drugs that would lull her into a dreamless sleep, Hange poked it into Xora's skin. Only minutes later, the drowsiness began to take effect, Hange carefully placing a new IV drip into the inner side of Xora's left elbow.

"Hey, Levi?" Xora whispered feebly, her eyes swimming around the room.

"What is it?" he asked in a low voice, taking her right hand into both of his tightly. "What is it, Agent XX?"

"Do you think... do you think the others died in fear? Do you think I—I failed in protecting them, too...?"

"I think you did everything you could." Levi tightened his hold around her hand, pursing his lips with a pained expression. "I think they died valiantly because we are going to succeed in our efforts to get pack the Mona Lisa, and we're going to capture Eagle I swear it. We will defeat the Titans."

Xora seemed too distracted to register his words before her lips curled into a smile as her eyes finally drooped closed. "...That's nice." And she fell into slumber once again.

---

[Night]

"It's been a rough day," Levi sighed as he set down his drink, sitting hunched over at the bar in their dining area. He was only halfway through his glass, but the others had already downed an entire bottle, excluding Armin. He only had himself a soft cider drink. It was long past midnight

Hange—as expected—was more deranged than her usual self, laughing at seemingly nothing. Mikasa kept to herself; she only ever really moved when Eren nearly fell over. He was spewing nonsense, wondering aloud about the color orange and the fruit orange, and why there was no other word to rhyme with "orange."

"Shouldn't we be getting to bed?" Armin suggested with a yawn, setting down his finished glass. "It's getting late."

"I'll bring Eren to his room," Mikasa said, standing as she picked up Eren's arm, draping it around her shoulders. She hooked an arm around his side and leaned his weight against her, already heading to the lobby.

"Armin, can you lead Hange to her room?" Levi asked the boy, leaving his half-full glass in the sink of the bar. "I'm going to check on XX's condition."

"Uh, yes," Armin responded, placing his drink beside Levi's. He shuffled over to Hange and took her arm, supporting her as they turned to the exit. "I've got her."

"Thank you." Now sure that his comrades would—well, hopefully—make it to bed safely, he started straight for the clinic, leaving the dining room with an air of muddiness. Thankfully, he was the type of person to handle alcohol well; the others would never catch him in a drunken stupor.

"Oh, Xora," he whispered to no one in particular, shaking his head. "What has become of us now?"

But his lamentations were disrupted with the small, shrill scream the came from the clinic, forcing Levi into an instant run.