Rags and Riches ~ Levi x OC

14. Goodbye, Friends

 "Do you hear that?" Enyo hollered over the crack of hooves trumpeting across wet ground. She galloped a few paces behind Erwin, who finally slowed and turned around to look at Enyo and Mike. "That's a titan behind us, Section Commander!"

Erwin stared past Enyo as he growled, "Assist our comrades!" The rain made the world misty when they rode toward the faint screams and loud thumps riding the wind. No one could've predicted how rainy it would've been.

"Left!" Mike declared loudly with a tug of his reins. Luckily Enyo had grown used to him, because their horses barely managed to miss slamming into each other. Mike sniffed and ordered them another direction. Enyo would never get over his nose. He was a hound, even in the rain. The tree line pushed past them as they turned against it. "Another left!"

Enyo kicked her horse faster and tugged her feet out of her stirrups, pulling her feet up tight next to her. She was ready.

"Advance!" Erwin ordered.

Enyo freed her blades and launched off her horse. Her line hissed through the air and clonked into a tree, grappling tight. Enyo squinted her eyes and she pushed harshly against the murky air. Mike flew next to Enyo and they zipped through the trees.

"15 meter!" Enyo yelled.

Mike grappled higher and Enyo gripped her blades. He slashed his way through the titan's shoulder and Enyo pulled herself fast. She dropped. Almost like a bullet, Enyo lurched to the side and her blades slashed through the nape off the 15 meter just as Erwin, who remained unbothered on his horse, rode through the titan's legs.

"I don't smell any others."

Enyo sprinted across the ground after Erwin. She held her breaths quiet as she ran and they tapered out when her eyes landed on an arm. A human arm with a white muddy bone sticking out. Enyo shook her head with a heavy heart and continued much slower.

The rain finally eased. Enyo saw more ahead of her and her golden eyes stopped where they landed. She stared eye to giant eye. A titan's head. No body. Just the head, sprawled out in tendrils of steam before Enyo.

"Who could've...?" Enyo's question stopped in her throat as she continued forward, Erwin, standing on the ground in front of a ravaging Levi. The titan steam behind him cleared the rain and the sun shone on him. Ironic, Enyo had thought. The sun shining on such a moment. Isabel's body was completely gone. Her head laid at Levi's feet and Enyo's gaze surveyed the ground, eyes landing heavily on half the body of Farlan.

Could Levi have really annihilated the vaporizing titan behind him? Enyo's stomach churned at the thought and her gaze landed on Erwin. Was he somehow planning this from the beginning?

"You're the only survivor," Erwin said disappointedly.

Levi struck. His blade reached for Erwin, but the Section Commander caught the blunt metal. "I'm going to kill you! That's why I'm here! To kill you!"

Erwin shuffled under his cloak before he tossed a scroll on the ground. Levi's gaze followed it with a gritted jaw. "These documents revealing Lobov's crimes are a fake. The real ones have likely reached Daris Zackley by now. Lobov is finished."

Levi quaked against Erwin. "You knew everything from the start!" His voice was laced with venom of the likes of a black mamba. "You knew we were after you!"

"Mike," Enyo whispered quietly and the tall blond reacted. Mike wrapped his massive brutish arms around Levi and dragged him from Erwin. Mike waited for Levi's straining to cease.

When it did, Mike let Levi go.

The growing lump in Enyo's throat and Levi dropped to the ground. Enyo knew that moment. The moment when a horse was broken. Erwin broke the free spirited Levi.

"Don't," Erwin commanded when Levi's breathing came out patchy. "You'll regret it. If you begin to regret, you'll dull your future decisions and let others make your choices for you. All that's left for you is to die, then. Nobody can foretell the outcome. Each decision you make holds meaning only by affecting your next decision. We're going to continue the expedition. I expect you to come with me."

Erwin turned and he locked his ice eyes with the woman who had behaved oh, so well. He nodded and Enyo dropped to her knees in front of Levi. She tried to make eye contact with him, but Levi stared way too far off. So. Enyo wrapped her arm around him and pulled Levi tightly against her chest. He shuddered against her and Enyo held him firmly.

"Don't forget their stories," she whispered. "That's the only way they die. Remember them and walk on their bodies to become stronger."

Levi dropped his blades as his body fell limp against her. Mike stood nearby, his expert gaze on Levi as if expecting the broken vessel in front of them to lash out. Enyo knew better. Levi was no longer a citizen of the Underground. He was a Scout and would stand on the never ending growing line of Erwin's followers.

So, when Levi finally stopped shaking, Enyo tugged him to his feet and gave him her famous smile. In a world where blood muddied the ground and limbs left an awful stank in the air, the woman in front of Levi smiled. Her golden eyes and skin and hair burned in the sunlight.

In this world, everyone was a slave to something. And Enyo was a slave to stories. Where Erwin chose to forget the pain, Enyo swore the mountain he built would be remembered. Now, Isabel, Farlan, even Section Commander Flagon, and all the other soldiers who'd fallen here would be written as heroes in the legends she swore to tell.

Grand heroes who gave their life for the sake of humanity.

So, she smiled. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

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