{Mercy's POV}
"Mercy, no!"
That was all I heard Levi shout before I succumbed to the darkness.
I looked around. I didn't see anything. My keyhole vision had disappeared completely as the device took over my mind and body. I was nothing but a mere consciousness as I stood in my own blank mind scape.
I began running. There was nothing else to do but find my way out.
I ran for what felt like miles, but to no avail. There was no tunnel of vision in sight. I had lost myself completely.
I knelt down on the hard ground and wrapped my arms around my torso as I wept quietly.
How could Levi kill my mother? Accident or not, how could he not tell me? How could I have been so blind?
"Gahh!" I screamed as my voice echoed into the vast abyss before me.
How could my father do that to me? How could he let those men lay a single finger on his little girl? How could my mother leave me? Why wasn't I enough?
Questions bounced against my skull until my head hurt, but only my echoing scream could answer my questions.
I knew the whole truth. I knew everything that had happened to me. It all came crashing down when Jean said he saw Levi's name carved into my skin.
I continued to cry and scream as I held my own body. I wished I never knew the truth. I wished that I could have lived in blissful stupidity forever, but my grief caught up to me and always found a way to claw my innards into heaping shreds. I wished I could let it all go; let my grief be free of me and me free of my grief, but I couldn't help but hold its pulsating stubbornness in my hand as I felt every claw mark and scratch.
"You shouldn't be here," I heard a voice come from the distance, a voice I didn't recognize.
I looked around but saw no one.
"Leave!" The voice shouted much closer this time. It sounded as if it was originating from behind me. I quickly turned around and gasped at the sight.
A little girl with shorter brown hair and bright green eyes stared up at me. Tears streamed down her face, and I felt as if I was staring into a mirror.
"W-Who are you?" I asked shakily as I sniffed, but I already knew the answer.
"Who are you?" The little girl mimicked back, and her eyes darkened as she stared at me. It was as if she wanted to kill me just with her eyes.
I held my palms up as a surrender and knelt back down until I was eye level with her.
"I'm Merciana Sheehan... Who are you?" I asked as politely as I could but the girl took a step back as if she was afraid.
"Elise Abernathy," her tiny voice echoed into the darkness and I felt my body go cold.
I was staring into the eyes of a dead girl that I hadn't known for a long time.
"Why are you here?" I asked, and she took another step back.
"I live here," she said coldly as if I was a trespasser on her turf. I nodded my head and pulled in a shuddering breath.
"Where exactly is 'here'?" I asked calmly. My heart was beating out of my chest the more I stared at her.
I looked down at her wrists. They were discolored from cuffs, and her arms were riddled with scars of every sort.
"Your mind," she said flatly once again. "I live here. You shouldn't be here..." She said, fear growing more and more in her voice. She took another step back, her eyes widening all the while.
"Why-"
I could barely get the words out before she went running away.
"Elise, wait!" I shouted as I followed her. I chased her into the darkness for what felt like hours before I finally caught up to her and grabbed her wrist. She let out a curdling gut scream that chilled me to the bone as she fought me away.
"Get off of me!" she shrieked, but I couldn't let her get away. I had so many questions. I had so many answers for her.
"Stop! I'm not going to hurt you!" I shouted back, but she weaseled out of my grasp and took several steps backward.
"Why are you here?" she asked in an angry tone and I took a deep breath.
"I don't know, Elise," I sighed, her name dripped from my tongue like vinegar. "I don't know..."
"You need to leave..." she said, her voice growing even angrier.
"How do I get out?" I asked and she tilted her head as her eyes relaxed.
"If I knew how to get out do you think I would be here?" Her tiny voice chuckled. I shook my head and looked around.
There was nothing in sight.
"No," I chuckled, "I suppose not."
I looked around at the darkness again. How did she stay in such a dark place for so long without going crazy? I figured she'd have been happy to have some company. I turned my head back to her, she stepped back at my movements.
"Where do you stay?" I asked.
She blinked at me several times before she turned her head, and looked off into the distance at my left. She lifted her arm, and pointed in the direction.
"That way... with Mom," she said nonchalantly, but her words were earth shattering to me.
With my mom?
I felt my chest rise and fall quickly with each breath I took. My heart was beating hard against my ribs as I stared into the dark vicinity.
"With... 'Mom'?" I asked. "C-Can I see her?"
She whipped her head back around as if my question was taboo. She eyed me up and down.
"Why shouod I let you see her?"
"Because I.. haven't seen her in a very long time," I said sadly. I watched her gaze soften as she looked into my eyes. She turned her head and glanced in the direction she had pointed to earlier before she looked into my eyes once more.
She slowly held her hand out.
"Follow me," she whispered softly and for the moment I set my grief down so I could hold Elise's hand and together we walked into the darkness.
{Levi's POV}
"Mercy, no!" I screamed as Mercy's blade came barreling for my neck. I quickly pulled my blade from its sheath and blocked her shot. She stared into my soul with glowing green eyes and screamed an ancestral scream I could never forget.
I took several steps back but she continued to charge at me quickly. She spun her body, her blades coming for my neck once again, but I quickly dodged her once again with mine.
"Gahhh!" She screamed and withdrew her blades. Her hair flowed around her as if her fury was personified. She glared through her brows at me, eyes still glowing nearly white.
"Mercy, snap out of it, please," I begged but she lunged at me again. I was barely quick enough to jump out of the way, and it wasn't long before Armin and his crew stood right behind her.
"What's going on?" Armin asked.
"Why is she trying to kill you?" Jean shouted with fear in his eyes as he stared at Mercy's back.
Mercy stood before me taking deep breaths as she stared at the ground.
"I-" I wasn't able to speak before she looked up at me, her eyes sending me stuttering. They glowed even brighter, they held more anger.
It all clicked in that moment as she came toward me in slow motion.
I was the target. She had somehow remembered that I was the target while I was Underground. Her device had kicked in and her mind and body were adamant on killing me.
She knew the truth, and her brain turned her against me. No... Her father turned her against me.
Time seemed to move at a normal pace as I stared at her in fear.
I was barely able to make it out of the Underground alive because of Ed and his henchmen, but Mercy... she was all of them combined, and more. She held the strength of nearly a thousand men. She was quick and cunning. She was articulate and strong. I was no match.
I took several quick steps backward as she walked slowly toward me and glanced at Armin and his team.
"We need to lead her back to the Survey Corps. We need to keep her away from civilians..." Before I could finish my sentence she was lunging at me again. She ducked and slid across the ground on her ODM gear to slice my legs.
I jumped quickly and engaged my ODM gear into the building next to me.
She whipped her head around and watched me glide through the air as Armin and his friends stared at me with bewilderment. Several civilians had caught onto the fight and began to run and scream as they began clearing the streets.
"What did I say?" I shouted, which seemed to snap them out of it.
"Yessir!"
They all rushed Mercy, and one by one she swatted them like flies.
Armin went at her first, and she used the back of her handles to punch him across the face which sent him flying.
Jean and Connie came right behind him. She sheathed her swords and picked them up by the shirt before throwing them off to the side like trash. Eren and Sasha met the same fate, and my hopes were up as Mikasa charged her. She jumped through the air and tried to tackled her down from above, but Mercy could see her attack coming a mile away and prepared. She rolled forward and turned around to where Mikasa landed, and kicked her with all her might.
"Shit!" Mikasa groaned as she went flying across the ground. I continued to fly through the air as I watched it all unfold.
Mercy whipped her head around and scanned the sky until she laid eyes on me. She quickly engaged her ODM gear and came after me, so I used my gear to push off in the other direction.
I landed on the ground next to my fallen squad. I looked up to see Mercy perched on the side of the building, those glowing eyes still boring holes into mine.
She propelled from the side to come after us and I quickly picked up Eren and Connie up as everyone else stood to their feet.
"She's quick, Levi," Mikasa said intensely as I nodded.
"What do we do?" Connie asked, panicked.
"We have to neutralize her," Armin said solemnly and I quickly turned my head in his direction.
"None of you are to hurt her," I growled but Armin shook his head.
"She's going to hurt us or a civilian, Levi, we have to neutralize her."
"No, goddamnit!" I shouted. Mercy had made it to the ground and was barreling toward us. "Get to your horses! Fend her off me until I can get her to the Survey Corps. She only wants me!"
I quickly engaged my ODM gear and flew across the way to take the heat away from my squad. She only wanted me. She was only going to hurt them if they got in the way.
I watched as my team did everything to slow her down while I soared through the air.
I engaged my gear and pulled myself to the next building, and the next, and the next.
I looked back to see Sasha engage her ODM gear into the nearest building and swing around her. She wrapped her cables around Mercy until her arms were held down.
She let out a laugh I could never forget and moved her eyes to meet mine.
"Ahhhh!" She screamed slowly and pulled her arms upward until the cables went splintering to nothing.
Sasha fell to the ground and tumbled slightly as she cursed Mercy for destroying her ODM gear. She began running to her horse.
Jean was already on his, and rode toward Mercy at full speed but in a flash Mercy was already across the street and staring daggers at me as she stood in front of the King's statue.
I looked over at Armin and Mikasa, but they were hardly in view as I stared at Mercy.
Mikasa glanced at me for a moment, a look of an apology on her face as she barreled toward Mercy.
What are you planning to do...? I thought as Mikasa looked at me with melancholy.
I watched her jump over Mercy and land her hooks into the King statue behind Mercy. She swung herself around and pushed herself off the building behind it, which sent her flying in the opposite direction. I watched as the statue came falling down.
"Armin, move!" Mikasa screamed as the statue came crashing down and Armin went running in the other direction.
By that time everyone in the general vicinity had evacuated the area leaving no civilian in harms way.
I watched as the statue brought Mercy to the ground and crumbled on top of her.
"No!" I screamed and pushed off one of the buildings to head back.
Mikasa engaged her ODM gear and met me halfway on one of the rooftops before I could get to Mercy.
The rest of the squad got on their horses and began hightailing it toward the Survey Corps, which was nearly two hours away.
"She'll be fine," she assured. "I've never seen such strength before. That's nothing to her, she'll be up and moving soon which means we need to go, now!" Mikasa called as she walked toward me.
I looked down in the streets and saw my squad retreating.
I glanced over at the fallen statue and saw several crumbled blocks move.
Mercy was getting up.
"We need to lead her back to the Survey Corps, and if she catches up to us we need to hide. She won't hurt anyone that isn't me as long as they don't get in her way," I said with a heavy heart as I stared at the rubble.
"What exactly is the plan, Levi?" Mikasa asked as she wiped blood from her lip. "How are we going to get her to stop?"
I stared at Mikasa for several moments as the clopping of my squad's horses below rung through the rooftops.
"I don't know, Mikasa," I said grimly. "There are blueprints to her device from her aunt somewhere, but I don't know where. There's no time to look for them. If we can get her back to the Survey Corps and get backup we may be able to detain her."
"Detain her? You can't detain that!" Mikasa growled as she glanced at the moving rubble across the way.
"I'll figure it out.. Let's go before our borrowed time is wasted," I groaned and engaged my ODM gear. Mikasa followed close behind.
We were soaring through the air when I heard Mercy's blood curdling scream that made my body go cold.
"Levi!" She keened from afar, her echoes rattling the rooftops above.
Come back to me, Mercy, I pleaded from within.
Please.
A/N
thank you guys for 4k reads!! here's a bonus chapter to celebrate <3