Remember Your Promise - Levi Ackerman

Chapter 7

Dedicated Chapter Song: Dear Sister - The Pretty Reckless

Dear sister can you help me lie
I've told the truth so many years
No one seems to want to hear that
I'm not someone else inside
I've been alone this lonely road
Looks like I'm not coming home
But I don't mind
Please don't cry
(Rose)

      "I'd considered it," Rose was telling a story when Anna had returned to the mess hall. "My father was a member of the Survey Corps many years ago. I wanted to grow up in his footsteps, but when my mother found out she was pregnant with Ruby she forced us to go underground. She had Ruby then raised us until I was old enough to comprehend basic social and fighting skills and then abandoned us." she sighed, leaning her arms on her knees. "The only thing I ever wanted when I was younger was to take care of my sister. In fact, I once worked alongside Levi under an alias before my hair turned pink." she giggled.

      "You what?" Anna stared at her. "And you don't think it might've been important to tell me?" Rose dismissively waved her off. "You were two busy with Cullen to even notice I was gone half the time."

      "That's not true!" Anna stomped her foot onto the ground in anger. "You could've told me you and Levi are a thing!" she said, just as Levi had walked back in. "Oi, what's going on here?"

      Rose laughed. "We were never a thing! We weren't even friends. He despised me!" she glanced over at the Captain. "Isn't that right? Don't you remember Angel?" she bat her lashes at him. His eyes flashed. Rose only smirked. "Yep. That's me. Rosaline Angelica Lariviere.  Angel was my other moniker only Boss called me. Oh, and Lobov."

      Levi said nothing to her and had a seat. Anna only groaned at the empty bottles of alcohol. "By now I'm usually drunk off my ass. What's taking so long?" Hanji smirked, giving both Levi and Rosaline a look. "Grr... Nanaba!" Anna called, holding out an empty bottle. "I request a full bottle!"

      Nanaba scoffed at her. "I'm not your personal maid, Kasahara. Get it yourself." the older woman retorted. "But, Nana, I'm having a bad daaaay!" Anna whined. "You've been saying that every day for the past week." Nanaba replied. "I'm... having a bad week?" Anna innocently shrugged. Moblit snorted. "More like a bad life." he mumbled.

      "Can it, Moby Dick," Anna motioned to him. "Or you're not going to have one anymore." she threatened. Rose waved her hands about, drawing the attention back to her. "Anyways, as I was saying I... I've honestly been considering joining the Survey Corps and following in my father's footsteps."

      "You should!" Eren insisted. "We'd be lucky to have a tactical fighter like you." Rose laughed, a blush appearing on her cheeks. "Yes, that's where Anna and I differ. Though she is strong, Anna acts solely on impulse and adrenaline, whilst I survey an area and calculate escape route, infiltration points, weak spots, strengths, all that and use it to my advantage. I prefer to be more of a proper lady in a fight."

     "Fuck you Frenchies." Anna rolled her eyes. "Always with your manners." Rose slammed her hands on the table. "Well I'm sorry you Brits are such arseholes!"

     "I'm only half-British, dumbass!" Anna replied. "Is the other half just sarcasm and bitchiness?" Rose ran her finger along the rim of her glass. "You know what, fuck you!" Anna stood up. "Fuck you!" Rose retorted.

"Fuck you!"

"Fuck you!"

"Fuck you!"

"No, fuck you!"

"Fuck you!"

"Fuck him," Rose winked, pointing at Levi, who nearly spit out his tea.

"Fuck him?!" Anna motioned to Levi, who groaned in annoyance. "How about you fuck each other and leave me out of this?" he replied in his usual stoic and emotionless tone. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Anna teased, sticking out her tongue.

     "Again, before I was so rudely interrupted," Rose sighed. "I'd need to find someone capable of running the Underground Regiment even if I were willing to switch. Even if it were allowed." she rubbed the back of her neck. "I was in the Cadet Corps almost a decade ago. When they told me to pick a regiment, I fled back underground out of fear from what I'd seen the Titans were capable of. Even with my wits, hearing of my sister's death nearly drove me to the brink of insanity." Rose nervously tapped her fingers against the wooden table. "Then I thought... maybe there's redemption for those innocent kids Fritz and Lobov tortured. So I recruited my own Regiment unofficially and worked with those I trusted in the VM to gather intel to send back to the surface. Using the sewers and tunnel ducts as our main connecting route we were able to keep a secure and undetectable base nearby." Rose said in her typical plummy tone of voice.

      "Then what happened?" Armin eagerly asked. Rose leaned back on her stool. "Then word came to me of Anna's arrest. Both of them. Believe me, I've seen Anna before and after Boss turned her into a hysteric monster. For a time we only referred to her as Hysteria because of how terrifying she was."

     Anna only stared at Rose in horror, her face growing paler by the second. "She was vicious and violent but none of it was ever her fault. None of the murders or heists or happenings were ever truly her fault." But Anna had heard enough, standing up from her seat. "I need to go throw this up again..." she said hastily and scrambled out of the building.

     Rose stared at the stool Anna had just been in. "Was it something I said?" she turned back to everyone.

      Anna was found an hour later, holding herself outside of the Captain's office. "I didn't expect to find you here." Levi remarked. Anna wiped her tired eyes and sniveled. "When... when Rose said all that... I... I saw..." she blubbered, trying to mouth the right words to say. "Death... so much death... and blood and...  so many beautiful faces stained with their own innards."

      "You're beginning to remember." he noted aloud, to which Anna pulled her knees even closer to her chest. "What if I didn't want to remember? What if I wanted to kill that part of me and bury it away forever?"

     Levi squatted down in front of her. "Anna," he said slowly. "You cannot kill your past. No matter how hard you try. If you do try it will only come back stronger and hurt even more. You must abandon it and move on. Otherwise you'll always be stuck regretting the things you did or didn't do."

      "'And once you begin to regret...'" Anna lifted her head, looking at him in the eyes. "'You'll dull your future decisions and let others make your decisions for you." she mumbled, remembering a lesson the late commander Erwin Smith had taught her. "'All that's left for you then,'" Levi slowly stood up and Anna let her eyes follow him. "'...is to die.'"