Chapter Text
It was raining blood.
Another drop fell, hitting Levi on the cheek. He stared up and into the dark, unseeing eyes of the man caught in the treetop.
“Captain!”
Levi blinked once, and the red came down.
Hooves came thundering by, someone grabbed Levi from behind, and his head collided with strong shoulders.
“Eungh! Why’s your face all we-” Eren turned to look back at Levi. “Is that blood?”
Levi scowled at Eren, raising an eyebrow before shooting up into the air. From behind them came stomping sounds, and the Female Titan came into view. She lunged forward. Eren leapt off his horse and into the air with Levi.
“Pay more attention!” Levi snapped.
“Oh, I need to pay more attent-” he broke off into scream and did an ungraceful twirl in midair to avoid being grabbed. “But seriously, I’m not kidding, quit zoning ou-” He shrieked and spun again. This was getting annoying.
“We can take care of her!” came a shout from behind. “Get Eren to safety!”
The shout had come from Oluo. Levi glanced back, just in time to see the Titan’s hand grab ahold of his arm. She moved as if to throw him, neglecting to let go of his arm, but his body still separated and went flying. He collided with a tree, making a sickening crunch. Levi’s stomach clenched. Eren shouted something incomprehensive and went streaking through the air towards the Female Titan.
What followed next was a rapid blur of movement, as Levi barrelled through the air towards them. There was a flash of blood and Eren landed clumsily on the ground.
“Now,” he shouted, landing neatly on the ground next to him. His arm, for the time being, didn’t seem to be present. He began to loudly curse the Titan.
“Got it! Petra, distract her!”
The Female Titan lifted her hand. He swung to avoid her hand and stumbled onto a tree branch. Before he could react, she’d grabbed him with both hands and torn him apart.
“Eren, stay here.”
“Yeah!” he shouted, pointing at his bloodied, half-arm. “Like I’m gonna go anywhere?!”
Levi rose up into the sky. There was a shriek and Eld was promptly decapitated.
It was raining blood. Wind rushed by him.
“Corporal!” Levi blinked.
“See?!” Eren yelled from the ground. “Stop zoning out!”
He was pretty useless, so he was really one to talk.
“Are you alright?” Petra asked, holding tightly onto him.
“Fine,” he jerked away from her and shot his own gear into the trees.
“Still stuck down here!” Eren screamed. “Should I do the thing now?”
“Yes- corner her into Hange’s trap, if we can just- dammit!” Levi hit his gear, and plummeted to the ground.
“Captain!” Petra dropped down next to him. “Sir, are you alright?”
“I’m fine, dammit! My gear just-”
“You don’t look fine! Sir!”
Levi started to stand. “No, I told you, I’m-” he winced.
“Let’s pull back, sir.”
“No, we have to-”
“Eren! We’re pulling back!”
It took nearly five hours of evasive maneuvers for Levi, Petra, and Eren to get away from the Female Titan. Though the other scouts sent out on the mission were able to capture it, they were not able to injure it in any way and it remained unknown who was inside the skin. The surviving scouts returned home several days later, utterly defeated.
A second attempt to go out into the taken land was planned six months later. In contrast to the first, this plan relied heavily on stealth and size- as opposed to masses of soldiers, less than ten would be going out, and no one was to know of their location, or their activities. The plan’s success relied heavily on the absence of the Female Titan, which was why such a small group set out.
In normal circumstances, this expedition would be huge. After all, lives were at stake.