Work Text:
Levi Pov
They were out on a mission to capture an abnormal, for the past year or so four titans have been a hindrance,
The armored titan, 15 meters proportionate and covered in armor that our blades cannot cut, intelligent, it will follow the scouts until they retreat or until sunset comes where it runs away into the nearest forest to just disappear
The Female titan, 14 meters, a proportionate female with blonde hair to her shoulders, and skinless, intelligent, any moves that might be threatening to her will cause mass murder, she can take down hundred of scouts so best not to mess with her
The Jaw titan small 5 meters, un-proportionate with its head larger than the rest of its body, dark hair to its shoulders, intelligent, follows scouts through the forest no means to attack but makes the newer recruits uncomfortable,
The Rogue titan, 15 meters, dark hair down to shoulders, olive skin, and no lips or cheeks with teeth level molars higher than the others, will follow scouts leave if attacked and makes no means of attacking
Levi remembered these files and was forced to memorize them before this mission as was everyone else, though of course coming across the female titan he got reminded by Hanji and the other scouts as well, she ran alongside the scouts for a while, no one had made any efforts to get off their horses they knew what would happen.
The female titan was blood thirsty if intimidated and they did not want to be the result of that, not yet at least. As they got to the forest they started the plan. Levi got off his horse and flew to her ankle cutting a tendon sending her falling face first into the ground.
She crouched kneeling with her still good leg behind her, the scouts began running towards the forest immediately, she got into a runner's stance when the steam stopped flowing from her ankle she began sprinting towards the scouts, anger in her eyes.
The scouts were already in the forest and they could hear her catching up, when she entered they left their horses using ODM gear to glide through the trees. She followed behind, slightly faster she was catching up to the slower recruits.
“GET READY” Levi yelled gliding into the open area and on a tall tree. The rest of the scouts joined landing on tall branches shortly after Levi, then the female titan arrived.
“NOW” Hanji yelled with a too wide grin. The female titan looked in the trees with surprise covering her nape before the canons sent wires into her skin, she tried to move her legs but she struggled, she could not move.
Levi landed on her shoulder getting out his blades to cut her fingers but he couldn’t, they were harder than rock, and like the armored titan he could not cut through them. “Be careful captain Levi,” Historia shouted, The female titan tensed, muscles tightened as she let steam bellow from her mouth, Levi knew what was about to happen.
Levi quickly covered his ears as the female titan let out an ear shattering scream, glanced at Levi and they made eye contact for a split second blue eyes piercing into gray before thundering footsteps approached.
A roar bellowed from the new titan, the Rogue titan, he came only seconds after the female titan called, the scouts prepared to defend the Female titan when the Rogue instead began pulling wires out of the Female titan, with an arm free the female titan begins pulling wires.
The scouts begin attacking, aiming for tendons and their napes but the two titans would swat them away like flies, batting them out of the air, breaking their gear and hurting them in the process. When the female titan had most wires out the Rogue titan stretched out his hand, Levi braced for impact in the tree nearby ready for the attack but it never came, only a heavy thud.
Levi saw the female titan was looking at the ground, the back of her head was steaming and the rogue titan stood there hand right where her head was. The scouts stood there silent in shock mostly, the female titan lifted her head, face full of surprise and anger. Her mouth open eyes wide and eyebrows furrowed, the rogue titan let a blast of steam escape his maw in clear amusement. The Female titan turned and punched the titan in the arm, steam from her knuckles when she made contact.
Hanji let out a loud laugh which ruined the moment and the titans were brought back to getting captured reality, Levi flew forward towards the female titans exposed nape when a hand flew forward, the Rogue titan snapped his wires, and he began falling fast towards the ground.
Just before he hit the ground a large hand grabbed him, the Female Titan, she gave a smirk and clenched her fist allowing her thumb to align to Levi’s head, he gave her a glare before a sharp pain hit his head, Levi was knocked out.
Eren Pov
Eren looked down at Annie’s hand shocked HAD SHE JUST KILLED HIM? Eren thought when she began sprinting away towards camp. Eren followed, confused she was still carrying the corpse.
They ran towards camp easily losing the overwhelmed scouts behind them. As they ran they met Ymir on the way, she landed on Erens shoulder and left her titan form grabbing onto his hair for control.
“I got rid of some titans towards the south of camp,” She yelled loud enough for Annie and Eren to hear, “We should be good for tonight!” Eren nodded before continuing for camp, it was Ymir’s turn to be outside titan form.
The group could stay in titan form for up to a month, but it gets tiring, so they take turns so each of them have a week to stay in their smaller forms to relax and get back their energy. They had made a camp for the groups smaller forms, although being smaller was better for them health wise they were still in titan territory and it was safe for more than one person to be small.
So they walked back to their camp, it was only 7 meters above the forest floor but enough to keep smaller animals from eating their food, or stealing their supplies. Ymir was placed on the platform and started a quick fire, when the fire was started annie placed down the body next to the fire.
“What the shit Annie?” Ymir yelled, backing away from the body, “we should make a no corpse rule or something I swear.”
However despite Ymirs anger Annie poked the body until it began to cough and sputter breathing now more obvious, it was clearly alive.
Annie looked into a crate, then another, and another until she found rope and dropped it on the now known living person.
“What? Do you want me to tie him up?” Ymir said, walking over to the person Annie nodded. With a sigh Ymir got to work tying the stranger up and disassembling their gear placing it to the side for future use. Ymir left extra rope on their wrists and held it up for Annie, she picked up the person and smiled and Ymir amazing rope skills.
It was turning night and they needed sleep, although they could stay up for days (thanks to Erens research) they still slept, though it was more like turning off their consciousness. Annie grabbed the body and wrapped the rope around a branch above her. The rope was loose but it didn’t matter as it was only a 12 meter drop. Annie made sure to sit underneath the human just incase before the sun began to set. Eren watched the humans chest rise and fall and after a few moments he was lulled to a dreamless sleep.
Eren was first to wake up the next morning, Reiner was sitting closer to camp than Annie or Eren still sleeping soundly. Eren got up and stretched and stopped for a moment as he smelled an unknown human nearby.
A look around when he saw the person from last night, their skin looked pale with dark hair and beautiful gray eyes. For a moment Eren was taken back that the human was awake as the sun looked to have just risen but he got up from sitting and stood tall starting on his morning chores.
Eren woke up Annie and Reiner, they needed to do their morning rounds while Eren and Ymir figured out what to do with their new hostage. Eren held the person up and let Reiner sniff him to help with future identification, although it felt animalistic it would be helpful to track him down if he ever ran away.
“Eren put him down over ‘ere,” Ymir yelled, pointing to the platform where she had put down a blanket. Eren nodded and tried to place him down as softly as he could but it was not as soft as he might have thought as the human let out a grunt when he hit the ground.
Ymir went inside one of their poorly built huts and came back with a few dry food bars, they normally hunted fish or deer but they kept these bars around in case of emergency.
Eren sat down now eye level with their hostage, he could smell confusion and anger from him. Ymir came back with the bars and removed the bundle of rope from his mouth allowing him to talk and eat.
“Damn you let me go!” The man yelled and began yelling insults and making the fiddling with the rope on his wrists and ankles more obvious in an attempt to untie or bite them off. He turned towards Eren making short eye contact before backing up closer to Ymir. “Shit shit shit shit, do something,” He kept yelling, now he smelled more like confusion than fear or anger.
However, Ymir grabbed the rope around his ankles dragging him closer towards Eren ignoring the failed attempts to crawl away. She was less than a meter from Eren's face when she let go of the rope.
“Eat ‘im,” Ymir said, looking down at their hostage with a grin who was now frozen. Eren felt a bit offended that she said this, since one of their rules was to not eat humans. Eren let out a growl of frustration and a puff of steam since he was the only one in the group who could not talk in titan form thanks to his lack of lips. He sat up straighter and grabbed the hostage by the line of rope and dragged him towards Ymir who was cleaning the leaves off the platform.
“You were supposed to pretend to, not throw a temper tantrum.” Ymir kicked off the remaining leaves that were not burnt in the fire before looking down at the hostage. “You from inside the walls right?”
“Yeah what, don't tell me you aren’t,” the man laughed as though it was a joke but she didn’t say anything “holy shit you're actually not from the walls. How did you survive?” But his question was answered when Annie arrived, covered in steaming blood that was not hers. Annie sat beside Eren, poking his arm to make him move over so she could look at the new person making Eren grumble slightly.
Ymir sat next to the man “What’s it like in the walls?” The man gave her a poker face and looked into the forest away from Ymir making it obvious he wasn’t going to answer any questions.
Annie grabbed the long strip of rope connected to his wrists and held him up to eye level to her, she waited for the rope to stop spinning him slowly so they could make eye contact. “Answer the question” she said, her voice much deeper than when she is in her smaller form and definitely intimidating.
She lowered the man down back next to Ymir with a rough fall. “U-uhm there are many houses, and trees,” The man explained how many people there were and how loud it was even at night. The animals that roamed and whatever a bath and soap was and how amazing it was. Eren closed his eyes imagining what it was like inside the walls the community, the safety it all sounded amazing.
The man was questioned for a few minutes before Reiner arrived interrupting him, he had brought a deer for dinner. Reiner placed it on the platform next to the crates and walked to the opposite side of the platform from Annie and Eren.
He let out some steam from his mouth before sitting down officially relaxing for the day. Ymir continued interrogating the man, who is now known as captain Levi, for the rest of the day while the three titans watched and listened. When the sun began to set the titans rested upon their respected trees ready to sleep the day away.
Eren looked at Levi one more time before sleeping watching the human yammer about random things, he let the steam that built up in his jaws all day escape in a sigh and everything went black.
Eren woke up looking at the platform to only see Ymir, he sniffed the air and could barely smell the human, he escaped at least a few hours ago. Eren let out a quiet growl enough to wake his friends. Eren sniffed the air trying to find the direction he left as Annie and Reiner woke up, when Eren found his scent he motioned as to where he left and began running.
He found the hostage flying around aimlessly possibly looking for indication for where he was, Eren quickly grabbed him.