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

|13| The Calm Before the Storm II

"Stop it! What's the point of chastising Eren now? Give it a rest!"

"Listen, Mikasa, unlike you, the rest of us aren't willing just to throw our lives away for him. We need a reason. The truth. We need to know why we are laying are lives down for,"

"You really need a reason? Is humanity not a reason enough for you?" Nathalie's voice came from behind. Everybody tensed up and saluted her as she entered the storeroom where everybody had gathered. She couldn't help overhearing their conversation in the storeroom of the Survey Corp Headquarters.

The boy tensed up right away. Jean, was his name if she remembered correctly. "Lieutenant, with all due respect I meant no-"

"It's alright, Jean," Nathalie said and she gave him a smile. He wasn't expecting such a response from her. He wasn't sure what to say. Everyone seemed surprised by her reaction. "At ease, soldiers. You're on a break, aren't you?"

"B- But, Lieutenant-" Armin tried to say but Nathalie cut him.

"Call me, Nathalie or Nat if you prefer it that way, but make sure Captain Levi's not around when you do," Nathalie laughed and everybody seemed to calm down somehow. "Allow me to be honest with you all. When I first joined the Scouts, it was just an undercover job to get in their ranks and murder Commander Erwin,"

Everybody gasped on that. Once again Armin started wondering why in the world would she spill that out publicly. What were the Scouts trying to achieve by this?

"Of course, nothing went as planned and then I joined the Scouts for real no matter the terrors that I had seen first-hand," Nathalie explained as she sat on a wooden box beside Sasha. "So, you can say, I didn't have a reason to lay down my life until I went out there and saw it for myself,"

"Alright, then. Enlighten us," Jean said and she raised an eyebrow. This one's got guts.

"I grew up in the Underground District. Imagine how I felt when I first rode out of the Walls. I felt free. It's not just the titans. There's something out there that causes our pain. We're trapped in here, behind the walls, living in terror, not knowing when they will strike again and kill our comrades, our friends, our families. They devour and dissect people who have done nothing to deserve it. We've done nothing wrong to be terrorised like this..." She looked up at Jean who seemed to be getting her point. "...can you bear to sit back and watch and do nothing to end this injustice?"

Jean gritted his teeth. "No,"

Nathalie smiled as she stood back up and she looked in the eyes of the rest. They all seemed to be reconsidering it. "Can you?" They all shook their heads and Nathalie gave them a smile. "Do not worry about tomorrow. I will be leading you. We're all going to survive after this. I give you my word,"

Nathalie said reassuringly, even though she did not weigh the meaning of her words. She didn't want to. She would have enough time until tomorrow to sink in self-doubt. She turned at Eren.

"Eren, a word, please,"

Eren nodded. "Yes, ma'am," He followed her as the two of them strayed a little bit further away from the others. Once she made sure the others wouldn't hear them, she crossed her hands against her chest.

"I can't imagine how it must feel, but suddenly the entire world's fate lies on your shoulders..." She placed a hand on his shoulder "...this is a burden that no one should be asked to carry,"

"It's alright, Lieutenant Nathalie. I've been wanting to help in the fight against the titans ever since I was a kid. You were right about what you said before. We've done nothing to deserve being terrorised like this," Eren gritted his teeth. She saw that fire in his eyes. He was angry. He had every right to be. "I want to kill every single titan out there. I want to end this nightmare," he said determinedly.