FicWad

Levi
Early June
Hints of purple shimmered where the golden sun kissed the crimson blood that painted the green trees surrounding me and my fallen comrades like a sunken winter sunset. As I came to the clearing of demolished brown trees and churned green earth, I saw the mutilated corpses of my friends, of my family. I saw their mangled bodies but continued onwards because they made no sound. No life rang out through their bodies, like their laughter from only moments ago when they chattered with the new recruits about seeing their first titan. No life rang out through them again.
The world around me was silent except for my shallow breathing and my bitter song bird’s weeping. The fire of her beautiful hair frosted the ground around her, some glossed with her blood. Her titanium 3DM gear, shattered like diamond glass, glittered around us, reflecting spots of the sun up to the leaves. No mouse scurried below the trees, no insect hummed about besides the growing buzz of the flies that gathered to get their fill of death around them, no song bird sang besides the sour weeping of my bird as she mourned her broken wings, her forever flightless body.
I stood behind her, immobilized like cold marble, unable to move forward and save her, even though I knew by how she was smashed against the dragon-scale bark of the oak tree, with her head too far bent back to look up to Heaven and pray to God for his forgiveness, that it was a miracle she was not dead yet, that she would die soon and I, helpless, could not save her.
“Petra,” I breathed as my heart tore through the bones of my chest with acid claws. Her body began to shake as she started to sob, her short hair dancing behind her.
“Levi,” she cried in shame as I dropped to my knees. “I can’t feel my body! I can’t move!” Tears spilled down her face and I could hear her choke on them and her bones, her blood. I paused, unable to breathe as I felt my heart begin to suffocate.
“Petra,” I whispered, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Of course. Of course, of all the people I could save, of all the people I have saved, I couldn’t save my team and I couldn’t save her. For that, I was sorry.
She began to quiet down as she realized what I meant, that she would die that day in her own humiliation and regret, and that I, dubbed Humanity’s Strongest, could not play God and fix the faults of Devils.
“It’s okay, Levi. It’s not your fault.” She began to settle. I tasted salt on my lips and gently touched my face to feel cold tears stain my ashen face.
I could see the life fleeting from my Petra as her movements became sharp but not graceful, harsh but not angry. I knew she would die soon and I reached for my love to peel her crushed body from the tree.
“My darling, you promise me you can’t feel anything?”
“Not a thing.” I knew she lied, but I needed her in my arms once again, once more while breath filled her punctured lungs and her crushed heart still filtered blood through her opened veins.
I reached for her, gingerly taking her thin shoulders in my strong hands and pulled her to my chest. She cried out as bark broke off and clung to her flesh and bones but her head stayed still as she muffled her crying, and a hysterical sob escaped my lips. I could feel her wet blood and hard skin cool like winter wind as Death made her bones tremble as He eagerly awaited to kiss the life from her fair rose lips. I cradled her in my arms so her fading meadow green eyes could meet mine a final time.
Pathetically I smiled at her, my face splotchy with anger and fear and sorrow, but she smiled at me with the brilliance of the sun and the twinkling stars above our bowed heads. I touched her face, caressed her cold cheek with my quivering thumb, and she sighed.
“Being in your arms, Corporal, I feel at home, but free from the Walls.” She smiled again and I smiled too, intoxicated with her beauty even sodden with Death. “I am honored to have served under you-“
“Petra…” She understood.
“I know, but there’s too much to say with too little time to say it all. I love you. I promised you I’d follow you past the end, and look where we are now.”
“I’ve loved you since I first saw you decide to stay for the Survey Corps once you graduated.”
“I always wanted to serve under you, Humanity’s Strongest.” She broke my heart, but I didn’t let her see it. Suddenly her doll face contorted with rage and anguish and she began to cry again.
“Petra-“
“I can’t move my body! I can’t feel you touching me, but I can feel the warm grass beneath my fingers.” I looked down and saw her hand in the grass. I took her delicate porcelain hand and cupped it to my face. Could she feel my tears, feel my sorrow through my skin?
Cold on my cheek I felt the steel and hard stone of my gift to her, my love for her, smartingly claim her finger to me.
“I never take it off,” she whispered to me, like two lovers alone together in the dark. “Levi…” She said. I bent over and kissed her lips. She tasted of dirt and blood and cold rain. I drank her final warm breath and felt myself die with her.
No song bird sang, not even my forever flightless songbird.
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