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Thank you for making your way here to my story!
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Starlight:
Chapter One:
Hopelessly Misplaced
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"Levi, let's face it." Hanji broke down, the everlasting smile falling from her lips. She collapsed against the bark of an ancient pine, resting on one of its branches. Only today, its scent wasn't soothing her. "We're out of gas, and our blades are dull. No one will be coming in to save us…" She placed her head in between her knees, "We're doomed, and it's my damn fault."
Levi was about to argue, but it was her fault, and now they were going to die for it. It was her idea to venture past wall Mari, on a lead she hadn't even fully explained to him yet. They had gone alone, which the more he thought about it, the stupider he felt for allowing it to happen that way.
"Captain, please call me a moron or something. I can't stand the silence." All she had wanted was to study the titans when they weren't aware of human presence., but something went terribly awry in the middle of the experiment.
He sat down after making sure there weren't any bugs where he was going to rest, "You may be a failure, however, I don't think you're the one who botched the job and got us into this mess." It didn't make any sense, unless Titans had suddenly developed a strong sense of smell more powerful than a purebred bloodhound, but if that were the case, they should've been found out a lot earlier. "It's only been three days, we might still be able to find our way back, but we need to get water before we collapse." He could tell by the way the squad leader had sat down a moment ago that she was already feeling woozy, they had completely run out of the little water they had that morning.
"The only problem being that there are titans everywhere and we have no gas."
"Only?"
She sighed, the situation just felt so hopeless, then a thought came to her, "Are you trying to cheer me up?"
She received no reply, and so she assumed that her hunch was correct. He was trying to comfort her in the only way he knew during her last days! How very considerate of him, considering they were both going to die because of her error! "Captain, I really am-"
"Say it after we get home." He scanned the trees. Something was watching. A titan? No, Hanji would have noticed by now if it were any of her precious text subjects. "Let's start moving, now."
He was about to climb down when he took note of her pitiful state, there was no way she would be able to keep up with him like that, so with a sigh, he motioned for her to climb onto his back.
"Levi. I really can-"
"Do it." They didn't have time to quarrel amongst themselves. Hanji needed rest and water, then they could go about hunting something to support them for their journey home. If they returned home, and at this rate he seriously doubted both of them would make it back unscathed.
Humanity would either lose one of its greatest soldiers, or one of its most brilliant minds.
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It was a bit before they made it to the river. Zoe had already passed out, or at least Levi assumed she passed out, because she stopped her usual jabber. At least she had become cheery again before the end, a smile ever gracing her fast.
He set her down and filled up their canteens in the river after washing his hands, but now it was only a matter of getting his companion to drink in her inebriated state. With a sigh, he realised the easiest option that he had accessible would be to 'bird feed' her. It was to save her life after all, she would forgive him for the momentarily compromising physical contact necessary for it.
He filled his cheeks up with river water before placing his lips on hers, putting the water into her mouth. As he held this position, he pressed a pressure point on her leg to help her to swallow. He repeated this process a few times. He would have to take care of her like this until she woke up, which shouldn't be long, but if they got into trouble the timing could mean their lives or death.
It was good news that the sun had set. If she woke up before sunrise they could head out and follow the river until they saw something familiar.
After getting himself some water he began to clear a spot for her to rest, but his body began to threaten to let exhaustion overcome him.
'Levi Ackerman, don't you dare give in. There's only you. Both of you will die if-' His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pain that pierced the base of his neck, a needle.
"Shit…" He muttered as he fell over, his head landing on his comrade's lap.
So they were being tailed after all, but not by titans.
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He didn't know where he was when he woke up. All he knew was that the bright light dangling above his face was going to burn a hole in his retinae, so he forced them shut immediately.
"Good, you're awake." A voice boomed from somewhere in the room, possibly to his left, he didn't know, his ears were ringing for some reason. Though he could tell the voice was female, though her voice was strange, which confused him, maybe his ears were playing tricks on him. He remembered that humanity once had many different voices, but that was long ago, "Who are you, and why are you not in any of our books?"
Levi almost laughed, this chick was seriously messing with him. It was probably someone he knew that was changing their voice to make him think he had gone crazy. Every human left alive knew him, no matter how much he hated it for being called out in the streets at least a dozen times a day. "Captain Levi Ackerman of the Scout Regiment." He forced out, though his throat was dry so it made talking uncomfortable.
"There is no such person."
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"Your friend tells us he's a captain of scouts."
"You have Levi?! Oh thank goodness! I was worried the Titans got him!" She laughed, and her interrogators sighed, the girl had been laughing since she woke up.
"We need to make sure your stories match up before we terminate you on grounds of insanity." The genes of the mentally unstable could damage the future generations to come after all.
"Woah woah woah, I may come off as a crazy, obsessed, Titan fangirl, but I'm a perfectly normal member of the scout regiment, and so is Captain Ackerman, albeit a clean freak." If the place he was was anything like her surroundings, no amount of chains could restrain him and his urges to clean.
"Right." The tall blond rolled her cerulean eyes, "He's in a prison cell with the rats, awaiting you and the executioner."
Hanji suddenly realized how serious the circumstances were. These people weren't playing a joke, they were really intent on killing both of them, and had no idea who they were. Hanji had slipped up once, but she wasn't going to let Levi die for yet another one of her mistakes, "We're real!" She tried to explain, or at least move her hands, but they had strapped her down really well, "I swear!"
"It doesn't make sense, Hanji, or at least the other one says that's your name. No humans survived other than our own people in this area, and yet, during our exploration, we found you two."
"Because- Wait, where are we?" She sniffed, tasting the air on the back of her throat, and could immediately tell how stale the air was. "We're underground?" All of the underground projects inside the wall had been halted, how were they underground?
"Yes, we are. Our ancestors, the last humans, survived by using abandoned mines near ground water to create a sanctuary deep within the Earth. Everyone knows that."
"No, humans survived by building giant fucking walls!"
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Rats. Dirt. Cobwebs. All around filth. Levi sat, legs crossed so that the least amount of his body made contact with the horrors, surrounded by what was the most disgusting environment he had ever been in, including military barracks. Across from him was an oddly dressed guard, in what was presumedly a military uniform, nearly entirely khaki from head to toe, though it was difficult to tell in the horrible lighting.
He couldn't believe this. From what he had figured out from the little hints that had been given to him, another human colony had survived outside the wall! But more shockingly, they tolerated this filth!
He wanted to pace, but that man was staring him down, probably awaiting the moment he would be able to spill blood, not to mention Levi really didn't want to step on anything disgusting. "Is it true?"
"What?"
"Humans survived underground?" He was apparently going to be executed, hopefully the squad leader would be able to make them reconsider, though either way, he desperately wanted out of this hell hole.
"Are you a moron? Of course we did otherwise you wouldn't be here. But I can't believe you built a wall and it worked." He replied with a smirk, "Must be wonderful to live on the surface."
Levi shook his head, though he understood that he should try to make friends with the guard to show that he wasn't hostile. "It's a living hell." He sighed, remembering those he lost, and those he never met and would never be able to, "After a hundred years of peace Titans have learned how to break the walls. We're cattle…" 'Petra...'
"Awful… So they're capable of learning…"
"If Hanji's, the woman I am with, research is correct, then yes they are."
"She studies those things?"
"She loves them, kind of." Except for the fact she'd lost so many of her closest friends to them. Her love for Titans was moderately sadistic if anything.
"Crazy, you know what's crazier?" Boy this guy was talkative, "You probably don't know this since you didn't even know us." He paused to see Levi nod. "We weren't the only ones. There's a group way North. They took advantage of the dark season around the Arctic Circle-" He paused when he saw the confusion on the Captain's face, "You don't know what that is, do you?"
"No idea, but there are dark seasons?" How much did those inside the wall now know about the world they lived in?
"Yeah, the winter up there is dark. Well, the Titans can't survive there because of it." Levi's expression changed to absolute shock when he heard this. "But every summer Titans encroach on them and migrate there. They eat quite a few, though they have laws there that every family unit has to have a certain number of children in order to keep the population up. So life is pretty stressful there, they get hitched young, You'd probably have two or three kids by now." He laughed, "I've been up there, there are kids everywhere you look."
"Everyone is too scared to have children where Hanji and I hail from, because to have children is to have something the Titans can destroy." Along with hopes and dreams, homes, and beautiful friendships.
He sighed, "You?"
Levi shook his head again, "She was killed."
Another sigh. Albeit a sympathetic one. Life wasn't perfect underground either. Lung diseases were common, and infant mortality rates were high as such. "Levi was it?"
"Yes."
"I'm Sol, nice to meet you."
Mission: Befriend The Guard; success.
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"Ow!" Hanji winced, being prodded down the dimly lit hallway with the butt of a gun, fettered with handcuffs. None of her captors said anything as they opened Levi's cell door and slid her inside. "Captain!" She cheered, tackling him. It would have been an embrace were her hands not chained up behind her back.
He wrapped his arms around her waist in shock, she was alive, thank goodness. Though he didn't express his relief outwardly like she did. "This is uncomfortable, can I let go now?"
"Yeah, sure." She squirmed out of his grasp, which was humourous and cumbersome without the aid of her hands, though considering such, it was also quite the achievement, albeit her klutzy mistake when she knocked their foreheads together and the both slammed into the bench he was sitting on before. Hanji couldn't stop laughing, especially over the position they were in. "Who's on top now?!"
He couldn't hide, or even stall, the blush that crept across his face immediately. He was about to shove her away when she rolled off of him in a fit of giggles, "Your face!" She choked out, the syllables punctuated with laughter. So when she hit the ground Levi folded his arms across his chest in protest.
As Hanji was quieting down. the guard, Sol, nodding towards the pair that brought Hanji in, "He's actually quite a nice guy." Levi noticed the exchange, and thanked his lucky stars that he tried to be friendly, it had probably been a test after all.
They both nodded and Levi recognized the next voice as the woman who interrogated him, "Sorry for putting you two through that. We have to do what we have to do."
"As military, we understand." Levi stated as his companion finally collected herself and did a small curtsy after Sol undid her cuffs. "So why don't you tell us your method of fighting Titans?" He was very curious to see if they had developed a different method than they had, or if it was similar.
Sol scoffed, and now that they had stepped out of the dark prison cell and into the somewhat brighter artificial light, Levi could see his dark brown hair and grey eyes, though his pupils were much larger than a normal persons, but that was possibly due to the dim lighting. "We don't fight them, we tried decades ago, but we failed, the surface is lost to us."
Levi nodded, but he understood that if he played his cards right, that the scouts may just be able to get reinforcements if they came out far enough, which would be a powerful advantage over Titans. This could be a wonderful alliance, and he and Hanji had somehow ended up as the ambassadors. "Where are we going?" He could feel Hanji copying his every movement, apparently she wasn't done playing games yet.
"To get you to a place to rest…" His eyes wandered over to the ever playful Hanji, "Hey, you're pretty cute."
Levi's eye twitched, but Hanji smiled and giggled at the compliment. Levi knew her well enough to know she planned on making him a game too, a human psychology experiment. Well, that's what Sol gets for flirting with his subordinate.
What surprised him was Hanji's retort, "You are too… We don't have guys like you back home." Levi shivered as her voice got deeper and more airy, "Your eyes are gorgeous."
The two would have continued flirting had Levi not taken the time to scold Hanji, "You do realize the situation we're in?!" He raised his tone subconsciously, and he felt surprised by the emotions that came over him, and worried that he may have come off more aggressively than he intended to.
Hanji's eyes narrow and she smirked, "So you do get jealous!"
Shit! It wasn't Sol's behaviour she was observing, it was his! And he fell for the trap! He wouldn't let her know how much this bothered him, he couldn't. "I just want you to retain a sense of professionality. We're representing our people." The fact that they had to was still shocking, that more humans survived than they knew.
"Levi, honestly, we're the worst people for the job." She sighed, "Erwin should do it, and Armin."
"Erwin and Armin aren't here. We are."
She groaned, frustrated, "Fine. But you need a bath." She knew this would tick him off, he probably felt more disgusting than he had in his entire life. "Though I totally call the first one!"
"When pigs fly!" No way, he needed to get this dirt off of his body as soon as possibly. This was the most grime he had had one his skin cumulative since the day he was born.
Hanji laughed so hard that she ended up snorting, and Levi speculated that the stale underground air was getting to her head, "So, Sol, how far away are we from where you found us?"
"A week by ground boat, and by that I mean one of our underground rivers." Everytime he saw a look of surprise on their faces it dawned on him just how little they knew about the world. "How about… I show you two the things we've gathered-"
"Can we clean up first?"
"Yeah, sure." Sol sighed, he had been in charge of taking care of the guests for only a few minutes and it was already easy to predict their train of thoughts. "There's a place up here reserved for military visitors, though its never been used until now. It's still kept up just in case, it's good it finally has come to good use." He lead them down a linoleum hallway, their footsteps echoing down the path. At the end of the hallway was a metal door inlaid with mother of pearl and obsidian around the border, and the crest of a snake in the centre, catching the amber light of the dim path. The black handle and lock glinted in the golden flickering light. In front of the door was a short red headed girl, who jumped repeatedly when her blue eyes caught sight of the approaching trio. "They're real! This is awesome!" She spun the key to the door around her finger, and deftly unlocked it with a swift and delicate movement. Her black dress flowed behind her when she spun back around, her hair mimicking the movement and landing on her shoulder. She ran up and hugged Levi and Hanji, "I hope we can be good friends!"
The girl was short, but she was still quite a bit taller than the midget captain, so as usual whenever a girl hugged him like this, he ended up with quite a bit more than expected in his face, not to mention he nearly choked on her perfume.
The girl suddenly let go and skipped back over to the door, swinging it open for their visitors, "My name is Penny! I'll be the guard of this door for you!" She held her right fist up next to her right shoulder, and her left hand fell down to her side in a blade. Apparent this was their form of a salute.
Hanji blinked confused, she wasn't as used to being randomly saluted as Levi was, "Well, you can not salute us? We're friends right?"
Penny giggles, holding her position, "But you're a squad leader, he's a captain, and Sol is a-"
"Penny, we can't disclose that just yet." Sol sighed, leading the pair into the door. "Bath room is that way." He pointed down the right hallway. "Check the closet for something to wear while we wash your clothes."
While Levi was distracted preparing to go clean up, (He has his methods.) Hanji was stunned looking around the place. Artificial sunlight beamed through the window from the centre of the subterranean city, which looked more beautiful than the inside of wall Shina. The artificial sun was suspended right above the capitol building, from the cavern ceiling.
She looked around the room, it was practically a fully furnished condo. She noted that there was only one bedroom, which made sense considering that they never expected visitors in the first place. It was located on the opposite side of the condo from the bathroom, and so she decided to go check it out.
She ran her fingers over the soft red cotton bedspreads as she headed for the curtain above the mahogany headboard, and gently pulled open the velvet curtains, letting out a gasp at what she saw.
Blue and white, with the setting sun. There were little white lines across what she assumed to be water, it was obviously water, but she had never seen a lake that large in her life.
Sol came up behind her, "That's the ocean. This room was dug on accident actually. A miner took the wrong path, he nearly fell out in surprise when he opened up this hole and saw the ocean. Takes your breath away right?" He saw her nod, "That's how I feel everytime I look at you."
"It does." she blushed, but decided to push away his flirtatious attempts, they were in a bedroom after all so it would be best to ignore him, "All my years in the scouts and I've never seen anything like this. Your people have done so much more than ours." She pried herself away from the most beautiful thing she'd seen in her entire life and began to rummage through the drawers, until she pulled out a black swimsuit.
"Can you give me a minute?"
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Thank you for reading and please let me know what you thought!
And for those of you here who wandered here from my other stories,
don't worry, they'll continue to be updated! ^^ (by that I mean just Ino's team, lol.)
The next chapter shall hopefully be soon!
And introducing my beta-reader/WeDon'tKnowWhatElseSheIs:
DevilsMaidenRen!
(who is too lazy to write on her own :3)
~Scepidilionz~
Ummm, I am being forced to write something... So… Hi…? :3
*DevilsMaidenRen*