As an officer leads Eileen to what she assumes is a holding cell, the sound of a quiet whimper catches her attention. She looks up to see a small boy no older than ten, behind him stands an older woman, she assumes his mother. The boy's round, unsullied brown eyes are shining with tears as he wipes his snotty nose with the back of his hand.
She notices that his brown eyes and dirty blond hair are too similar to Flinn's as she makes the connection.
Left behind a small boy and a widow.
"Mom..." He whines when his dad's killer gapes at him. He clutches his mom's blouse, begging to be saved while he looks up at her.
She knows Eileen is right in front of them, and pays no attention as she bends down to her son, using a hanker chief to dry his tears.
She anticipated Mrs. Flinn to spew words of abhorrence. She only feels disappointment when she realizes that she wasn't going to pay her any recognition, instead tending to her wailing son.
Her wrists are bound behind her back by a chain now. The officer grips her forearm harshly, the one already bruised and throbbing from a couple days prior. He urges her down a hallway before they're travelling down a flight of stairs where the light continues to get dimmer. They reach the bottom and take a couple steps before they reach her cell.
The chambers are made with exposed brick and ashen concrete, only big enough to fit a small bed made for one. A wooden bucket sits in the corner, unwashed from the previous occupants stay.
He drags the heavy metal bars of the cell open with his free arm, and moves her forward by ramming the middle of her back with his firearm. She stumbles inside with a grunt as she hears the sound of the cell being closed again.
"Would it kill you to be a little less rough? I'm not exactly fighting you, am I?" She rubs the area on her back she was jabbed.
"Ha!" He lets out a sarcastic laugh before responding harshly. "Should be lucky you got me here with you, bitch. I've got a lot of friends who would do worse."
She turns around to face him. "Yeah, of course I know that. You know I had good reason to do what I did. It's insane how you all lie to yourselves."
"Maybe you should just shut your trap, women like you sticking your nose where it don't belong, such a fucking bother." He huffs.
She feels the tips of her ears burn and doesn't have a chance to counteract before he's speaking again. "Just stay put, someone should be coming to get you soon. Have fun getting eaten out there." After that, he's on his way back up the stairs.
The Scout Regiment. She remembers.
It sends a shiver through her body, one that travels to the back of her head where an all too familiar feeling of anxiety settles. She sits on the flimsy bed with a sigh, letting her upper half lean over, fatigued.
If her hands were available, she'd be pushing her palms against her eye sockets in frustration like she usually does when her thoughts become uncontrollable.
When she graduated the Cadet Corps, she'd chosen the Garrison regiment for two very simple reasons. One, she didn't rank high enough in her class to be recruited into the Military Police straight out of graduation. Two, there was no way in hell she'd be following her suicidal classmates footsteps in joining the Survey Corps.
She's interacted with the division plenty of times, instances where she watches their return from outside the walls. The rickety wagons damaged from missions that barely withstood the weight of dead bodies piled on. The faces of soldiers who, took an oath to fight for humanities freedom, only came back evermore defeated than before.
They're people who she admires, people who are brave enough to face the Titans that threaten their existence. People who fight for freedom- her freedom. But the cost, their lives, is one she'd never been on board with. It's a risk she wouldn't take just to quench that small thirst of knowledge of what the world outside the walls is like.
She runs through those memories in her head again, the one's where she watches their return. She wonders who's place she'd take. One of the soldiers who returned on their horse, one who survived at the cost of a traumatic experience; or, one of the dead.
The static in her head forces her lids closed before she scooches her butt backward, and lets her upper body rest on the wall behind her. Wearied by her overactive mind, she falls asleep.
--
The sound of the cell opening jolts her awake. With a groggy moan, her eyes flutter open to see a young officer escorting two others to the opening.
She recognizes the boy as Jossef Ritter, someone only recruited a few years prior. She remembers their few interactions as pleasant.
"Hey, Wilhelm." His tone isn't harsh like the last officer.
"Hey, Ritter." She returns the greeting in a gentle voice.
"Levi Ackerman and Petra Ral are here to escort you to the the Survey Corps headqaurters." He bows his head toward them before grabbing a key and walking toward the bed in the cell.
Eileen looks past him to get a look at the duo. Levi Ackerman, an infamous man, known as 'Humanity's Strongest Soldier.' She's seen him in that sea of green capes, always returning on the same black stallion with an impassive face. He was short in stature, actually standing at the same height as the small girl standing next to him. Despite the uninviting aura, there's a boyish charm to his appearance.
His eye's are steely grey and cold, different than the warm amber of Petra's. The same contrast that applies to their hair colors, his being wispy and inky while Petra's is full and golden. His tight lips are downturn, and he looks like he can't believe he has to be bothered with a task like this.
"What are you doing?" Levi's glaring at the boy moving toward the prisoner.
"I'm uh, undoing her chains?" He raises the key like he's questioning his own actions now.
"You're gonna undo the chains of someone who just killed one of your men, and just throw her at us? She stays tied for now." He orders with arms crossed.
"Okay..." Joseff offers a sympathetic glance at Eileen before turning around back to the two. "I'll just leave this with you, then." He drops it in Levi's out turned palm.
"You can go now, we've got it from here." He dismisses.
"Oh, okay." He gives Eileen a small wave. "Good luck out there, uh, bye." He makes his way past the two scouts and ascends the stairs.
Petra is the first to speak to her, offering a guarded but polite smile. "You've already heard but I prefer formal greetings, I'm Petra Ral."
"Nice to meet you, Ral. I'm a little more pleasant but given my current," she motions her head to gesture at her surroundings, "situation, please excuse any informalities on my part. Eileen Wilhelm."
Petra nods. Both the girls turn to Levi, expecting an introduction but Petra knows better. She steps in to take his place instead. "Levi Ackerman, head of the special operations squad."
Eileen only nods in response. If he wasn't going to offer a formal greeting, neither would she.
"So...how are we going to do this? Keep me chained up right? Scared I'm gonna kill ya both or something?" She teases with a small grin.
Petra cringes at the distasteful joke.
"I'm not putting my comrade's life in danger." Levi doesn't care whether Eileen was serious or not.
Ouch, tough crowd.
"It wasn't my idea, by the way." Petra waves a hand in reassurance. "I'm sure you wouldn't actually try to kill one of us."
"Well, she did kill someone in her regiment. There's nothing that proves she won't try that on one of us now." Levi turns his head to Petra.
"I'm right here," Eileen stands. "And for the record, it was self defense."
Levi ignores her. "Petra, stay ahead and lead the way to the carriage."
"Yes, Captain."
He enters the cell and orders her to turn around which she obliges begrudgingly. He fists the chain that binds her hands and places a palm on the middle of her back, using the position to steer her out.
The trip to the scouts carriage is short, only having to lead her from the cell, up the stairs, through a few narrow hallways, and to the back of the building where a coach man waits for them.
Petra pulls the door open and steps in, sitting next to the window on the opposing side. Levi pushes Eileen with the hand on her back, forcing her through the entry and him following after. Levi joins Petra on the same bench closest to the carriages door. Eileen sits on the bench facing them. She's forced to sit between them as the cramped spaces wouldn't allow for two people to sit facing each other unless they were comfortable enough to touch knees.
The carriage jumps soon after signaling the start of their journey back to headquarters.
"So, um, what's going to happen when we get to headquarters? Am I just going to get locked up again?" Eileen asks Petra. She definitely wasn't comfortable enough to even look in Levi's direction, who looks just as bored as when she first saw him. Chin resting on his fist, staring inscrutably at the scenery outside the carriage door window.
Petra looks away from the window to her direction, about to answer. The second she opens her mouth, she's cut off by Levi's curt answer.
"That's up to Commander Erwin Smith."
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Good grief i know this is short, but i just really wanted to have something published.
I'll be starting on the next chapter really soon