Broken Hearts, Severed Limbs (Levi x OC x Erwin)

|11| Suspects

The night of the 104th Cadet Corp's Graduation.

The children were scared. Some of them had gone through the hell back in Trost. Asking them now whether they'd join the Scouts was a hopeless task. Everybody knew, of all Regiments, the Scouts were the ones with the most casualties and not many people saw any hope coming from the Expeditions beyond the Walls, so they had lost their faith in the Scouts.

It always angered Nathalie. She knew it probably angered Levi as well, and every other member in the Scouts. They were putting their lives on the line for the people who would glare at them when they'd pass through the streets after another bloody Expedition. Alas, there was nothing that Nathalie, or any other Scout could do to change the public opinion for them. And now these kids were given the opportunity to join a Regiment that promised death. Nathalie looked at the kids and she was sure most of them were going to disappear after the Commander's speech.

Petra was standing beside her with the map in her hands. The Commander was hoping to lure the traitors out by giving them intel about the next mission. The intel was false, of course, but Commander Erwin never ceased to prove his ingenuity.

"Good evening, I'm Erwin Smith, Commander of the Scout Regiment. The Scouts need you. We need all the warm bodies we can get. After the recent titan attack, you now know first hand the horrors of which they are capable, as well as the limits of your own skill. However, this battle's aftermath gave humanity a new chance for victory. I refer to Eren Yeager. Eren didn't just help to deter the titan invasion, he's offered us a means to discern the truth of their origin. Intel suggests that the cellar of Yeager's home in Shinganshina holds a vital secret regarding our enemy. We will form an Expedition to find this secret. Find it, and use it to break free from the titans' tyrannical one-hundred-year reign for once and for all. But we must first retake Wall Maria. We will form an Expedition a month from now and members from tonight will be joining. Some of you are expected to lose your lives, but you should ask yourselves: are you ready to lay down your lives? Are you ready to lay everything for humanity?!"

Chills. Nathalie sighed with a smile on her face. No matter their differences, Erwin was a Commander she was honoured to serve under. He had perfected the skill of talking people into killing themselves. Funny or not, he was the ideal Commander for a Regiment such as the Scouts. The cadets had troubled expression on their faces, but she knew most of them were just scared.

"That is all. Those wanting to join other Regiments are dismissed," Erwin finished.

"Commander, I think you have overly intimidated the cadets, sir," Mike pointed out. Nathalie rolled her eyes. You think? "None of them are gonna stick around,"

"We do not expect them to," Nathalie said darkly. "Nobody just dives in their deaths,"

And she was proven correct when most of them started leaving. It was both a hard choice and an easy one. Thinking about their own skins was something that everybody did, but thinking about humanity as a whole? These would be considered dreamers of an impossible vision.

And thus, the kids started walking away. No. They were in a hurry to get out of there. Who would dive to death? For humanity? No one had the guts for that. Nathalie never joined the Scouts for the sake of humanity. She never gave a damn about humanity. Humanity wasn't something that had treated her right. But she wanted to live free. She wanted to be able to live outside the walls and discover things they didn't know.

There was so much out there. So much that they didn't know. She didn't want to die ignorant of the wonders of the world. What if there were any other people out there? The world would be too small if it was just them. These were the true reasons for joining the Scouts. The discovery of the truth. The reason of their suffering. A handful of cadets were still standing before them. Nathalie's smile slightly grew. They weren't many, but they were something.