Dedicated Chapter Song: King of Pain - Andy Black
Where is the spark that won't fade away? And where is the Queen to my King of Pain?
(Levi)
"Hysteria hasn't shown her face," Cayden informed after doing a quick surveying sweep of Shinganshina. "That means for the meantime, we can focus on taking the Beast down."
Anna had barely moved since she'd been wounded, giving her a few extra minutes of life. Instead of ten, she'd moved up to thirteen. Her eyes were dull and lifeless, though she was still breathing. "Anna?" Levi crouched down beside her again, placing a hand on her shoulder. "How are you doing?"
"It's over..." she whispered. Twelve minutes. "I won't make it." her eyes slowly glanced out to the Beast. "It's really too bad. I would've liked... to see the world again. But...Levi," she calmly said, raising her head. "Can you see them? Our comrades? They're watching us...they want to know what the objective is that they forfeited their lives for." she felt as though ghosts surrounded her, glaring at her body, just waiting for her to die. "Because the Battle isn't over just yet..." her head lowered again, looking down at the blood-soaked cravat. "It's all... in my head, isn't it? It's just a childish delusion, right?"
Levi moved closer to her, pressing his lips to her head. "You have fought well," he whispered, on the brink of tears. "It's only thanks to you that we've come this far. I will make the choice." his eyes were angry. Not at her, but at fate- at time; their true enemy. "Give up on killing Hysteria and die. Wait for me at the gates of Hell. In the meantime, I will take down the Beast Titan."
Anna smiled sadly at him, closing her eyes and letting out a deep breath. "I love you..." she whispered, exhaling what he thought would be her last breath. But she surprised him once again by slowly getting up to her feet. "But I'm not going to just die like cattle. I lived like it, and I'm not...ergh ...dying the same way." she grabbed her handgun from her holster and shot off several bullets until the muzzle of the gun was burning hot, then pressed that part against her skin to cauterize her wound.
The pain was intense, and she did scream, but she was going to do what it took to keep herself alive a bit longer. "Take that fucking piece of shit down," she growled through the pain. "Cayden and I will destroy that bitch Hysteria."
Somehow he found a way to smile at her, happy that she might just make it through this. "I'll see you when this is all over," he said, jumping off the edge of the Wall and soaring to the other side.
Anna turned to her brother. "You ready?" Cayden nodded fiercely, a quick smile appearing on his face. "Let's do this." Anna didn't know Cayden all that well, but in the short time that she did, she was proud of him for changing who he was so fast. Anna bent her knees and crouched before running and leaping off the Wall, Cayden right at her side mimicking her movements. "I'm not dead yet, Hysteria!" she screamed, looking up as another round of boulders came flying in.
"Erngh!" Cayden groaned as a large stone smacked him in the face, causing him to lose balance and drop from the sky. "Cayden!" Anna worriedly called, looking down at him. "I'm fine!" he waved up at her. He wiped the blood from the cut above his eye. "Shit...that could've been bad." Anna snuck a glance out to the outer Wall where Levi was sneaking up to the Beast Titan by taking down his wall of normal Titans one by one like a bridge. "That's my hubby." she proudly smiled, then winced at the sharp pain in her abs. "Grr...can't stay like this for long. Come on, Cayden!"
Out beyond the Wall, Levi had finally managed to reach the Beast. Before the Shifter even knew it, Levi was hacking at him, slicing with such speed that it was impossible for them to regenerate. The look in Levi's eyes would frighten anyone who didn't know him personally. It wasn't just the look of anger, but of pain. This one Titan alone had caused so much damage. He was damned if he didn't find out who it was beneath the Titan skin. "You looked like," Levi said, constantly slicing at the Titan's nape, eyes, fingers, and more. "You were enjoying yourself." He'd managed to slice its knees, bringing the Titan down to the ground.
Whoever was in the Titan must have been panicking at that point. "Well, don't let me put a damper on your fun!" Levi wasn't even close to finished. He sliced and he sliced until he hit human flesh, and even then, sliced that too until the man behind the Beast was unarmed, quite literally. The man who appeared out of the Titan body was tall, broad, and a well-toned body with shaggy, pale blond hair and a matching mustache that descended down into his beard. Levi slammed his sword into the man's mouth before he got a chance to say anything. "Urgh!" groaned the man.
"Your body is heavily damaged after transforming into a Titan...so you can't transform again while you're busy healing. Isn't that right?" Levi wheezed, out of breath from how much strength it took to take the Beast down. "Hey!" Levi said when faced with no reply. He shoved the sword through the man's mouth and out his right eye. "Answer me. Don't you have any manners?" But deep down Levi knew couldn't kill him. Not yet. He needed someone else alive to transform into a Titan and take the Beast's power, or else it was wasted. That's when he thought of his wife.
Anna...if she takes his power away...she will live...
While distracted by the thought of his love, another Shifter came up from behind and snapped at Levi, startling him as it took the Beast's Shifter in its mouth and ran off. Levi stared at it in shock. "Hey!" he yelled after it. "Where are you going? Stop. I'm not done with you yet." The man in the second Titan's mouth was furious. "ALL OF YOU!" he commanded his Titans. "KILL HIM!"
Left all alone, Levi was faced with more than a dozen Titans coming straight for him.
Hysteria watched from a tree not too far away. "Oh, dear," she crooned eloquently, crossing her legs. "I do hope you use that raw strength of yours, Levi. It would be a shame to waste such a pretty face."
"Look at what you've done, Levi..." spoke the man. "Agh, this hurts...but...your weapons must be nearly spent. Once you're gone...I'll have wiped all of you out. It was a pretty close fight, but we win."
"I...swore to her..." Levi clenched his dulled swords. "I swore to her that I'd kill you..." Levi revved his ODM gear and launched himself up into the air again. Although his weapons were spent, he refused to give up.
"Gah! Captain Levi!" Ruby's eyes spotted his heat signature all the way past the Wall all by himself as she had swung herself up about 52 meters into the air. She was torn between going back to help Eren or saving the Captain. In the end, she hoped she'd made the right decision as she landed on the outer Wall again. "Come on..." she shut her eyes and made a running leap off the Wall.
"Huh?" the man looked to the falling teenager. "Killing yourself now so you don't have to deal with the pain of being eaten? How heroic."
Just a few meters before she would've hit the ground, Ruby's eyes opened, flashing a bright neon green as she sliced her hand with her blade. A blast of hot Titan steam and a bolt of green and yellow lightning distracted all nearby Titans towards her. From the steam emerged the Skeleton Titan, looking strong and angry. Ruby stood at 21 meters, taller than she'd been before. She cast one quick look at the man in the quadrupedal Titan's mouth, then took off running towards the Captain, stomping on every smaller Titan on her way.
"Now this took an unexpected turn." Hysteria's crimson eyes darkened.
Levi exhaled in gratitude as Ruby finished off the Titans near him, pulling their heads off, biting their napes, breaking them in every way she was physically capable of. Before more Titans came after them, Ruby grabbed Levi in her palm and held his securely, running back towards the Wall. More Titans were ordered to kill them, and they were coming in fast.
'Dammit. I won't make it all the way back if these smaller Titans keep latching onto me,' Ruby thought as she felt one 4 meter latch onto her left leg and chew at it and one 5 meter do the same on her right leg.
She kicked out her leg, sending the 4 meter Titan flying. Levi peeked out from under her fingers and glanced down at the small Titans latching onto her. "Do you need some help?" he offered. Ruby cast her large eyes to him and grunted, slightly shaking her head. She was certain she could handle this. “Let me know if things get too hard to handle.”
As if she was jinxed, several more Titans latched onto her lower body, preventing her from going any further. She tried to stomp her foot and kick them away but it was no use. She was rendered immobile. Levi held onto her large fingers as he slid out of her grasp. “I can kill them for you—”
Ruby let out a fierce huff. The Captain looked at her glowing green eyes hidden inside the hollow eyesockets of her skeleton mask. She had another plan in mind. “Don't tell me you're going to throw me over the Wall...”
Ruby nodded at his words. He seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. “Damn brat...” he groaned, bracing himself. Ruby brought her right arm behind her, and as if mimicking the Beast Titan’s pitch, threw the Captain all the way over the Wall and back into the firey hell that was Shinganshina District.
It seemed that the Armoured Titan had gotten away at that point, but the Colossal Titan was within the Scouting Legion’s grasp. Anna and Cayden regrouped with the others, only to find out that poor Armin Arlert was on the very brink of death.
“Captain!” Eren cried out once Levi finally made it back to them. “Shit... that was the last bit of gas I had...” Levi exhaled, glancing at the Wall as Ruby's Titan tiredly climbed up the edge.
“Here, take my blades and gas—” Anna said, stumbling over to her husband, only to cry out loudly and pain.
“Sister, are you alright?” Cayden worriedly asked as Anna dropped to her knees. Her hand uncovered her bleeding wound once more. “It opened up again...” she muttered. Her eyes laid upon the severely burned Armin, almost wanting to cry at the sight of him. “Holy shit...”
“HE'S BREATHING AGAIN!” Eren yelled, the moment Armin made the slightest of coughs. “YOU CAN DO IT! KEEP BREATHING!” he encouraged with tears in his eyes. “MORE!” Eren suddenly spun around and faced Levi. “CAPTAIN! HURRY, GIVE ME THE INJECTION!”
Levi wasn't paying attention to him; just the pool of blood surrounding Anna's feet.
“WE NEED TO HAVE ARMIN TURN INTO A TITAN! AND HAVE HIM EAT BERTOLT!”
“Yes...alright...”
“...just a little longer, sis...” Cayden pressed his a piece of torn cloth to her wound. The cut from earlier had healed itself on his face, leaving a scar above his eye.
Levi held the container holding the serum tightly in his hands, looking between his wife and the badly injured teen. “Captain?” Eren worriedly said. “We're giving this injection to Anna.” he said sternly.
Anna looked up at him with a glare in her eyes, but said nothing. Eren approached the Captain, ready to fight him for the serum if it came to that. “You just said we could use it on Armin!”
“I'm choosing to keep the woman alive who will save humanity.”
“No.” Anna seethed through her teeth. “No, you're only doing it because you can't bear the thought of losing me.”
“Anna—”
“Shut up, Levi!” she clenched her eyes tight. “And give Eren the fucking serum. I'm not turning into another one of those disgusting vermin just so you don't have to be lonely anymore! I'm sorry...”
Levi stared at her in shock as he handed the serum over to Eren. “But you're the Queen—”
“No...” Anna tearfully laughed. “No, I'm not. I lied. I lied to keep you all safe. I lied because I thought I could come up with some kind of alternative plan being the Queen. But the truth is...this was always my plan...” she shoved her brother off of her and stumbled to her feet.
“Don't you remember what she said a very long time ago?” Anna sadly smiled, putting her gun against her temple. “If I die, she dies.”