𝙃𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙩 || Eren Jaeger

𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝓊𝓂𝒷𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔 (𝐼𝒱)

*note— I've changed the pov back to Johanna's. I feel I write better from her perspective than in third person :)

*reminder— this fic will have a canon non-compliant ending. If you are confused now, it'll make sense in the end (which is soon approaching).

*and lastly, thank you for reading! If you are one of the og readers and you've stuck with this fic since the early chapters, props to you! Xoxo

19

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I dismount my horse. "Where is he?"

Those three words leave my lips before my feet even touch the ground. I completely forget the wagon and the others, my attention focused on the individuals up ahead: Jean, Yelena, Onyankopon, Hanji, and the Cart Titan.

I march up to them. There's a handmade wheelbarrow next to the Cart Titan and Hanji looks like she's tending to something— or someone— on it. This immediately raises a red flag.

"Jo..." Jean walks over to stop me. "Wait—"

"Don't." I insist and force my way past.

Hanji turns as I approach. She's a little nervous to see me, fiddling with the roll of gauze in her hand.

"He's gonna be—"

Fine. At least, I assume that's what Hanji was going to say, but it doesn't matter because everything drowns out when I see him.

My breath hitches. Nothing could've prepared me for this sight.

Levi lies weakly on the plywood barrow, obviously having been pulled around like garden supplies for the past day. I thought, at least, he'd be able to walk. But it seems silly to hope for that taking a look at him now. The damage is far worse. 90 percent of him is covered in bandages, except for his face at the moment.

"Dad?" My voice breaks.

He's practically unrecognizable. There's several lacerations, and to my horror, his right eye has been graphically slit, a long slash running through it starting from the left corner of his chin, over his lips, all the way to his right eyebrow. His whole face could've torn in two halves, for heavens sake.

There's no question whether the damage is irreversible. It's not.

Ignoring the painful swelling and the uncomfortable stitches put together by Hanji, his facial features soften and I see a faint gleam in his left eye.

"Hey, brat." He says hoarsely.

I quickly kneel at his side, unsure what to do with myself. The more I look at him, the more it pains me. I notice his right hand has been mutilated; he is missing his index and middle finger.

My eyes brim with tears, "look what he's done to you..."

"That overgrown piece-of-shit monkey... It's my fault. I wasn't careful enough." He says regretfully.

I should be relieved. I have my father still. Lots of people can't say that. But regardless... this is the debilitated state the enemy has reduced him to. Never did I imagine Humanity's Strongest would end up so thwarted. So... frail.

"Shh. Don't cry," he tells me just as I begin to.

"I thought you were dead," I say, trying to pull myself together

"If it weren't for shitty-glasses here, I would be." he admits. Then, in an effort at a lighthearted comment, he points at the biggest slash on his face, "Look, brat. Now we're matching."