Thousands of people. Laughing, shouting, chattering, drinking alcohol and eating delicious smelling greasy things. Like it was a holiday and not a curfew.
"Impressive," Erwin remarked, taking a good look around the natural arena made from stone that was getting fuller by the second, with ever more people pressing in through the entrance behind them. Far above, a hole in the roof of the gigantic cave even provided some natural light, the golden glow of a long day that was about to end shining briefly on its forgotten children underground.
"They're insane," Mike sounded in awe. "Look at the women and children! Don't they care at all about breaking the law so blatantly?"
Zoë wasn't sure he had addressed the question to her. But she sure had an answer.
"Not crazy," she said quietly, the memory of how the underground had burst into song when the curfew had gone into effect bringing a strange feeling of pride, "... a cage is not a cage if you choose to ignore the bars; a man will not be kept below if he reaches for the stars."
"Okay," Mike said with a grimace, "Erwin, I think we need to put Zoë in bed. She is beginning to babble incoherent things again."
"It's a song," she smiled up at him. "They sang it when the curfew went into effect. 'Ye who come to press us down will be the ones to fail - the stairs will not forget your sins and we will countervail...'. The people down here are people too. All they want is to live."
Erwin nodded and made a sweeping gesture at the bustling scene before them. "I warned Nile Dok months ago. You cannot keep putting pressure on something and not expect it to explode."
"Good call to change into civilian clothing," Mike nodded, looking down at the trousers he was wearing - they were much too short, revealing a good part of his impressive calves. "Can we trust whoever is in command down here not to do something stupid?"
Erwin threw him a look that clearly answered that question in the negative.
Zoë shuddered. If the MP moved in... A civilian bloodbath. Escaping from this place was almost impossible: There were two entrances that you reached by climbing up on the outside, which were also the only exits. Even though she had never seen it in action herself, she knew the MP trained with riot gear and didn't doubt for a second that they would use it with little hesitation.
Erwin seemed to consider options. "I'll send someone to the Commanding Officer with an urgent message. They will get what they're after but they need to hold off. What e..."
He froze in mid-sentence. Zoë followed the direction of his eyes and gasped. Hange livery in the crowd below them!
"Your father," Erwin stated the obvious. The Hange house guards moved through the tightly packed crowd like an arrow, forcing spectators to make way for Council Hange who walked behind his soldiers leisurely like it was a natural thing that he would come to an illegal fight in the underground during a curfew.
"Interesting," Erwin added.
Interesting!? Cold sweat had broken out on Zoë's face at the sight of the black guards. She quickly wiped it away with her sleeve, feeling ashamed that the sight of her father could scare her that much. Then, she saw Oliver.
"Goddammit," she gasped. "That traitor!"
Oliver was obviously waiting for her father at the front, in an area currently empty of spectators before the rope that seperated the crowd from the ring, pulling nervously at his white, unruly hair.
"That's a guy called Oliver there," she told Erwin, pointing at the old man in outrage, "he's a poison specialist and he stole an important document from me! I suspect he sold it to my father."
"What kind of document?" Erwin asked.
"The one signed by the Panther."
"I see," Erwin nodded slowly, an excited gleam entering his eyes that made Zoë even more uneasy. "Well. Aren't we glad we joined the party after all, hm, Zacharias?"
Mike murmured something about preferring Titans to this, but Zoë wasn't paying much attention to anything else than what was unfolding below her. She watched how her father took a front row seat while a servile Oliver weaseled around him. Her eyes searched the crowd in his vicinity. Nobody seemed to object to his presence as he took the seat of honor.
And then, she suddenly spotted someone else she knew, sitting a distance apart from where her father was settling down, on the right side of the ring. Her heart sped up instantly.
It was Xandra, looking fabulous in a dark, blue dress with ornaments that twinkled like stars - sitting next to Benjamin. And right at her brother's elbow... halfway hidden behind him...
"Levi," she whispered.
Erwin's head snapped around.
Levi looked calm and collected and he was wearing a black kind of outfit that reminded Zoë of... her eyes travelled back to the left. And back to the right. What the...? He wasn't wearing a Hange livery, was he?!
Oh no.
The one thing he'd do anything for? The Survey Corps. Had he...? He made a deal with my father, Zoë knew with cold certainty. And that was bad. Very bad.
"I need to talk to him," Erwin said and was already beginning to move. "Zacharias, make the Military Police understand that they need to stand by at any cost. This is urgent."
"Yes, sir," Mike saluted.
"I need to talk to Levi too," Zoë exclaimed and moved after Erwin who behaved like he hadn't heard her. He veered to the left, which confused her. Had he not meant Levi?
Getting anywhere was easier said than done. The crowd was getting bigger by the second and the area was even more packed further down. She focused on Erwin's blond head in front of her but lost sight of him when a group of very tall people moved in and blocked her descent.
"Can you let me pass through, please," she said to men and women, "I need to..."
"Don't push!" someone admonished her sharply. "We want to see too!"
"But I'm his wife," she claimed, a sudden desperation seizing her, pointing in the general direction of where she had last seen Levi. "Levi's wife."
"So am I," a pretty and busty blond woman laughed.
"All of us are!" her friend giggled. "He's so fine!"
The flash of jealousy she felt was ridiculous, but Zoë shoved passed them with a bit more force than necessary and continued with mounting desperation. The stone slope was uneven underneath her feet, forcing her to pay attention to where she stepped. Where the fuck was Erwin?
When she next got a good look at the area around the ring, Levi was no longer there. But she got a better look at her brother instead.
He looked bad. Pale, tense, with his hands knotted between his knees, his eyes fixed on a spot on the floor. Xandra, you shit, Zoë thought viciously. It looked like Xandra had Benjamin by the balls, deliberately flaunting him in his distress. Would their father not intervene? Zoë craned her neck, but she could not see her father's position from where she currently stood. Instead, she noticed that Renzo had arrived, taking the seat opposite of Xandra. Standing behind him: his champion, Annika.
Did Renzo know about her recent meet-up with Erwin? There was no telling. He looked elegant in a dark suit, his sandy hair combed back, his eyes alert, his lips adorned by a faint smile befitting an underground crime boss at an event like this.
Her father below her, Xandra to the right, Renzo to the left... Zoë's eyes moved to the opposite side of the ring. Who had that seat of honor?
Nobody.
The area was conspicuously empty.
Suddenly, someone bumped into her hard from the right, throwing her off balance. She staggered, bumped into someone to her left, was pushed back hard with a curse and finally regained her balance when someone's hands steadied her.
"Please excuse me, Miss," a cultured female voice said.
The voice belonged to a tall girl in a simple white dress with long, smooth, dark hair and - very strange eyes. Zoë blinked and stared. They were almost purple, but extremely light around the pupils, almost like exploding stars. Scary as shit.
"Oh," the girl said, taking a hasty step back, blinking rapidly.
Zoë felt like she should know this girl, as if she had seen her... or someone like her before - but before she could make the connection, a slightly bedraggled looking tall man with shoulder-length brown hair pushed himself between her and the girl.
"Nothing to see here," he drawled, his piercing gray eyes boring into Zoë's under his fedora hat. "Huh," he added, squinting hard, "look at that. This place is crawling with upstairs maggots today."
He stroked the thin beard along his jawline and laughed briefly before he swiveled around to the girl.
"Gotta go, your Ma... madam," he grumbled. "Let's be quick about it."
"Yes," the girl said. "Goodbye, Zoë Hange. I admire your courage, always have."
Excuse me, what?
"How do you know my n...," Zoë called after them but they paid her no attention. Some rich family's daughter and her strange bodyguard, maybe? Dammit. They were leaving, making their way towards the entrance, the tall man ruthlessly shouldering his way through the crowd so the girl could more easily pass.
"You look like someone who wants to make some money, young Miss! It's your last chance!" a freckled young man addressed her, holding a book in front of her nose and blocking her view. The vague memory she had tried to grasp retreated into a far away corner of her mind. "You may bet on a champion, on how long each round lasts, or how they're going to win. Fifty shillings minimum, Miss."
"Yes," Zoë nodded, distractedly remembering her earlier excitement about betting on this fight, "yes, I'll place a bet. How do I...?"
The young man explained the rules eagerly, handing her a pen to fill in the necessary columns in his book.
"Here is your receipt!" he declared after pocketing Zoë's money and carefully writing a number on a slip of paper. "The fight is about to begin! Enjoy!"
He turned away and Zoë frowned when she realized that she had absolutely no clue where to go and collect the winnings. She also realized with a bit of a shock that her days in the underground were numbered. After this, she'd go to prison.
"What a waste of money, you should have bet on Annika," Levi said right behind her, making her jump and squeal. "No, don't turn around."
"Lev.... ouch!," his booted foot kicked hard against her Achilles heel, the sudden pain driving water into her eyes.
"And don't say my name, you dummy," he growled.
Levi. Goddamn Levi was right behind her! How and why? Her heart beating very fast, she leaned back a little, feeling the heat of him at her back, wishing with sudden crazy longing that he'd put his arms around her, that he'd whisk her away somewhere where they could be alone, just to two of them, no Corps, no fight, no nothing. Fifteen days - they felt like the blink of an eye. Not enough time. It hadn't been enough.
"What did that man with the fedora hat want from you, Hanji?"
"Le... what are you doing here?" she asked urgently, ignoring his question, "isn't the fight about to start? Goddamn, where did you go this mor..."
"Just answer me, Hanji," he interrupted her. "I have no time for discussions."
His attitude gave her pause. But okay, he'd be a little stressed right now.
"What he wanted? N... nothing, really. The girl who was with him bumped into me by accident. Why?"
"What girl?"
"I don't know. I think I've seen her before, but I just can't... "
She suddenly remembered. Visitors when she had still lived at home, one man with similarly strange eyes, but always gentle and kind. Reiss. Uri Reiss.
"Oh, I think she's a Reiss!" she exclaimed. "I know a man who had eyes just like her."
"What the fuck is Kenny doing guarding a noble?" Levi sounded puzzled.
"Who is Kenny?"
"Someone I want you to never meet again." After a short pause during which her mind sorted through the information she desperately needed to convey to him, he sounded gentler. "Are you alright?"
Levi stepped a little closer and Zoë put her hand behind her, came to touch his leg. And a piece of very fine cloth around it.
"You talked to my father," she frowned. "You shouldn't have done that. What will he have you do?"
"Work for him," Levi answered just as quietly. "And convince you to leave the Survey Corps."
Zoë took a deep breath. About what she had expected.
"I'll do it," she said with some difficulty. "No need to convince me. I'll do it for the Corps, I told Erwin the same. But I'll make sure my father has no hold over you. This has nothing to do with you."
"No," Levi put his hand on her hip, his fingers digging into her flesh. "No, Hanji. Erwin needs you. The Survey Corps needs you. Humanity needs you."
"But it's you who..."
"No," he breathed against her neck, making her shiver in anticipation. "Promise me you will not bend to these people. You must live your life exactly like you want to. Researching Titans. It's your calling."
Very briefly she felt the entirety of him at her back, the hug that she craved, over much too quickly.
"I need you to promise me that you will help Erwin in the future. Now."
No! She wanted to scream. What are you saying?
"Promise me, Hanji," Levi urged. "And then, go down to your father and stay with him until this fight is over. He will let you go back to the Survey Corps afterwards. I made sure he has no other choice, do you hear?"
This made sense to her. "It's Xandra, right? She's blackmailing my brother and of course my father will always choose Benjamin over me."
Levi remained silent but his fingers slid between hers, hooking their hands together. Levi had probably called in a favor with Xandra, being her champion and all, Zoë mused. She didn't like that her brother would be the one to suffer but... well. Her brother would be alright, somehow.
But other things might not be.
"You need to know that Erwin has some kind of deal with Annika," Zoë told Levi with urgency. "It's possible she will not fight you for real. And Erwin will try to buy your debt from Renzo. We sold the emerald necklace."
"I'm sure that's the fastest anyone ever got rid of a wedding present," Levi laughed mirthlessly. "Talking to Renzo is useless though. The debt has transformed. It's no longer just about money. One emerald necklace will not be enough."
"You should trust Erwin to have a plan," Zoë said, pressing Levi's fingers, "doesn't he always know what to do?"
"Maybe," Levi stroked his thumb over hers. "Maybe. But you haven't promised me yet, Hanji. I made sure the Survey Corps is in no danger. Your father has no hold over you, do you understand?"
"But Erwin will have me arrested after this fight is over," she blurted out and swallowed hard, sudden unease making it hard to think. Promise him? Why should she have to promise him this? The way his thumb moved over her hand distracted her.
"You're from the Hange family," Levi answered drily. "Your sentence will be light. Two weeks maximum."
"But what about you?" she asked breathlessly. "Erwin means to lie about your whereabouts to keep you out of the MP's hands."
"The MP is not the problem."
"Do you think the Panther is here?" she asked. "Is he the problem?"
"He's not here," Levi answered. "His seat remains empty."
Her eyes went to the empty seats across from her father again.
"Seems like he is a smart man," Levi sounded grim. "Your father came down here to force his hand. But this guy obviously doesn't like to be forced."
"That means you're safe from the panther at least, right?"
"Looks like it," Levi said. "But Hanji... er...," he cleared his throat. "It's... it's not likely that I can rejoin the Survey Corps after tonight and that's why I..."
"Le... Levi!"
She didn't care about not saying his name anymore. Zoë swiveled around to face the hooded figure at her back. His dark grey eyes that stared at her held more emotions than she was ready to see.
"Goddammit, what are you saying, you idiot?" she urged, grabbing his shoulders. No. No, snap out of this mood. Now.
"Let go," he snarled. "Don't make a goddamn scene, idiot!"
Let go? No, she wouldn't let go.
"Levi, what are you planning to do? You're not going to do something incredibly stupid and reckless, are you? You will win this fight against Annika! And then we'll whisk you away, lie to the MP about you having been on the mission with the others and all will be fine, right?"
She sounded desperate, she realized. Because she didn't believe it herself. Of course it wouldn't be this easy. Had she overlooked something...? Oh shit.
"Who... who does Renzo want you to kill?" she asked breathlessly.
"He... he hasn't said," Levi answered. An obvious lie, fuck. Who was it? Xandra? Did Levi feel he couldn't do it?
"Don't do this to me, Levi," Zoë felt her desperation rise, turn into a dread that seemed to paralyze her tongue. "Aren't we a team? I came down here with you because I wanted to help you. Let me help you! Tell me what's going on, please!"
He lifted his hand and cupped her cheek.
"Promise me," he urged. "Promise me first. And I'll let you help me."
"I promise, dammit," Zoë sputtered. "Of course, I promise. Anything. Why would I want to leave the Survey Corps if I don't have to? It's my family. All my friends are there. You... you are there."
A sudden smile transformed Levi's face half-hidden underneath the hood he had pulled over his head. That sight made her knees go weak and her breath go short. Oh god, I love you so much.
"Thank you," he said, still smiling at her. "Knowing you are safe and happy means a lot."
"Levi..."
"I... I wanted to say... I...," a blush spread on Levi's cheeks as he stepped backwards, the smile faltering, dying away until she could barely believe it had ever been there. He clamped his lips together and shook his head slightly.
"I'll not forgive you if you walk away from me like this, Levi," she exclaimed. Heads turned in their direction.
His face shut down completely until it only showed a bored blankness.
"That's fine. Don't ever forgive me. It's better that way. Goodbye, Hanji."
And with that, he turned away briskly and was soon no longer visible. She didn't even try to stop him. Goodbye? He meant it. He really meant it.
He might as well have rammed a knife into her heart. No. No, this cannot happen. Surely, Erwin would talk to him and convince him he could stay? Her eyes thought Renzo below her. He was a reasonable man - there had to be something he wanted that they could offer him. Zoë began to move.
We need Levi.
But maybe... maybe he didn't need them. A sob escaped from her throat. So stupid. So stupid of her to think that he would finally trust her after... after... it hurt to think of last night. A piercing, desperate pain of longing. Such a classic, she thought bitterly. Could she not have guarded her heart better? Men said things like Please stay by my side, please never leave me in the throws of passion often, didn't they? It wasn't their hearts speaking but their loins.
And yet, she had thought... she had thought...
When people stared at her she realized that tears were streaming down her face. She smiled at them provocatively as she wiped them away with her sleeve. Levi had come to say goodbye because he thought they would not see each other again.
"Let's see about that, you scumbag," she whispered and began shouldering past people faster to get closer to the ring.
She didn't get very far. Large hands grabbed her out of nowhere, ripped her arms behind her back and shackled her.
"Got you," someone drawled. "You little runaway."
###
Round six. The bell sounded, the sound pierced through his head like a red hot knife. Levi staggered to his feet.
Everything was a blur. An abundance of sweat kept dripping into his eyes however often he wiped it away. The blood pounding in his ears got so loud at times the crowd's constant roar seemed nothing but a distant murmur.
Levi lifted his head and focused his eyes on his opponent. A blur in black, grey and red dancing around him. Renzo had not expected a fight to happen tonight? Well, shit. This was a fight alright. One he was losing slowly but certainly.
Annika was having a good day. He on the other hand... Levi shook his head hoping to clear it, but the dizzying pressure behind his eyes persisted. He staggered again, almost fell, the sand underneath his feet shifting precariously. Embarrassing. In front of all these people.
Strangely, it didn't matter that much though. Fact was, he deserved to lose tonight. Annika was the superior fighter. Maybe she would kill him and end it all before he needed to put a knife to himself.
A coward's thoughts, what else - yes, part of him wished for it to be over already. How very sobering to discover you were a coward on a night like this.
To spot Kenny up near the entrance right before the start had been a shock like a fist to the gut out of nowhere, but Kenny had disappeared before he could get to him. Instead, Levi had bumped into Hanji, as if some unseen force had pulled him to her in a crowd of thousands. He should have walked away quietly of course. He shouldn't have become weak at the sight of her, shouldn't have hoped for... What a fool he was. Why had he talked to her, alarmed her? A sudden need to tell her how much the time with her had meant to him. But of course, he had botched even that.
She shouldn't be here, she shouldn't get to see him lose. At the very least... he would wish for her to keep some good memories of him. Erwin and the others... they shouldn't be here either. It was Underground business. His business.
Levi had sent a note to Council Hange before the three hours were up. "I will not work for you," he had scribbled on it, barely refraining from adding all the vile names he could think of, "and your daughter will not quit the Survey Corps. You will do everything in your power to ensure the Survey Corps prospers in the future instead. Come to the fight and you will see why."
Getting Xandra to put pressure on Council Hange in public had not been hard. If anything, the bawd was in a very strange mood tonight, almost as if her own regrets put a burden on her shoulders that was too heavy, making her teary eyed and pliant. And Zoë's brother played his miserable part well enough after a confrontation with his male lover who, no big surprise there, worked for Xandra and had no feelings whatsoever for poor Benjamin.
Served Council Hange right for thinking his political power would work in the Underground as it did in the Capital. Teaching a rich, arrogant bastard a lesson was the best thing about this wretched day.
Strange how everything was slipping away from him. Levi gripped his borrowed knife more tightly while thoughts scattered like nervous birds and strange, meaningless words chased themselves around in his head.
The strangest thing though? Annika was entirely silent. She had not spoken a single word to him ever since stepping into the sand on the opposite end of the ring. It was so entirely unlike her that Levi felt perturbed by it.
Erwin. What had Erwin discussed with her? A vow of silence? Gods, yes. All women talked too much. Foolishly, he had expected her to yield to him after Renzo's words. To end the fight quickly, for the Survey Corps to move him away and shield him from those who wanted to see him brought down, wanted him dead.
He would have has to resist that of course. What did Erwin think he could accomplish down here? He had no powerful friends, only powerful enemies. Arrogant bastard. Willpower alone moved nothing.
From the corners of his eyes he noticed strange shadows flitting around the ring now but they weren't there when he turned his head.
Annika's next attack came out of nowhere, the impact drove him back to the very edge of the fighting area. The taste of copper in his mouth increased. Her eyes looked so strange... almost... pink? Pink was not a color he liked. Or was it?
The world flipped on its head. Or... was he... he was lying on the ground. Okay, this wasn't normal.
"Fuck," he managed to say, coming to his knees with an effort. "You goddamn fucking assholes."
How had they managed? They had goddamn poisoned him.
Sound returned to the world with a sudden whoosh and it was deafening. He saw Oliver's face in the crowd, the expression on it one of fascination and horror at the same time.
"The knife! It's the knife! Levi, it's the knife!"
Had someone shouted this? No. It was himself speaking. In his head. The... knife? He looked at his hand. That, too, looked pink. The knife? The knife... the knife handle. Poison on the knife handle? He turned his head, looking for Xandra's pale, tense face. Why? To humiliate him? Was this a fucking joke? He did not understand.
His eyes searched the crowd, too blurry, he couldn't focus. Black uniforms, he hated them. Everybody looked pale, white, their eyes black, large orbs of shadows. Where was Erwin? Did he even exist? It was possible he had dreamt it all... a fool's dream of freedom. Nobody escaped this hellhole. Ever.
"It wasn't my idea," Annika smiled down at him, a halo of pink light bathing her face into a warm light, "believe me. This is not fun."
He kicked her legs out under her, feeling satisfaction at her pained grunt when she landed on her butt.
His plan had been simple. Committing suicide to get out of this debt - but not dying, that was the sum of it. Maria's old trick with a self-inflicted wound that bled like fuck but damaged nothing vital would fool enough people, with a bit of luck, even Renzo. But a dead man had to disappear. There were forests out there, with hunters in them. They traded meat and fur with farmers. He'd still be free... No. It wasn't the same. But he would see the sky everyday, feel the wind, the rain, breathe fresh air. With time, he would cherish that kind of life. Maybe.
But Annika had obviously decided to butcher him. Possible that Erwin had asked her to get rid of him, actually. Yes. He was a liability, trouble, never obedient enough anyway. Fine. But he wouldn't go down easily.
His counterattack took Annika by surprise. Her eyes were so strange. For a dangerous moment, he got lost in them, dodged her downward strike with too much delay. Did she cut him? It didn't even hurt.
Round seven.
Round eight.
The crowd was frantic. A new presence created strange ripples in Levi's awareness. The man's eyes were grey, the hair blond. He watched him with unsettling intensity. A predator. A hungry smile curled lips that were thin and bloodless.
Levi stumbled. He was bleeding too much, he realized. The dizziness... poison and blood loss.
"How are you still standing," Annika hissed into his ear, the both of them holding onto each other's limbs in a grotesque embrace.
"Has Erwin promised to let you join the Survey Corps after you kill me?" Levi asked her. Her body next to his was so hot it burned him.
"Anything for freedom, right?" she grinned, pressing a kiss to his lips. She tasted like fire and death.
Death, so a saying in the Underground, had a seat at every table. Death hovered over them now, ever patient.
Die?
There was freedom in death too. And he was so fucking tired.
But... he looked for her in the crowd, his Hanji. She would be alright without him, right? She had been alright long before their paths had crossed. He needed her, but she did not need him. Where was she? It was good after all that he had not burned her with his feelings.
Hanji...?
"Hanji... I'm sorry," he said when Annika's knife found its mark. He was so out of it, he had not even seen her strike. She withdrew the knife. The ground rushed towards him. Goddamn, it hurt.
"Can't say I'm sorry, you asshole," Annika sneered, striking again. A meticulous killer, his Annika. Trained by the best. Kenny... sorry, old man, Levi thought. I wasn't good enough in the end. But you always knew that, didn't you?
How very strange, though, Levi thought. Why was Annika crying pink tears? He lifted his hand to catch one. His vision faded just as the warm droplet met his skin.
You should have bet on Annika, his last thought was, laughter bubbling in his chest. How ironic. But thank you, Hanji. I am a lucky bastard to have known you.