You can't force love

Chapter 23 - Female Titan attacks again!

Heart drummed in Levi's ears. Loudly, persistently. Swirling of the wind in his ears fell out as quiet compared to it. 

Please, don't let anyone die. Don't let Petra die, he found himself chanting into his head.

Was he really praying? Now, when he can't do anything and he seeks for the only help he can. 

Maybe I should have prayed more before... 

Gritting his teeth so hard he felt pain, he distracted his mind from thinking. If he carries on like that, he might as well go mad. 

Flying on invisible wings was to be ascribed to what he was doing. On instincts he was relaying when he hooked and unhooked the wires of his gear, when his arm muscles felt like they were on fire. He felt no pain from it. He couldn't recognize it as such. Instead, it felt like a suppression of his own body that aches to go even faster and faster. 

Then, his head shot up to the sound. He spotted a blue signal flare in the sky. 

His heart sank. Such a signal meant to show the others to gather in the place the signal came from. And it came from none of the higher-ups.

However that was, they were the Female Titan. There was no other explanation. And now it became clear that all this was planned - Hange's titans, attack on Eren and now signalling with a tool only members of the SC are supposed to have. 

Those bastards... he snarled and changed his direction. 

Sunlight that managed to break the tops of the trees, together with shadows, danced over his face devoid of any gentleness. Anger and fear were his company until he would reach his squad. 

With every leap he was closer. The trail of the blue smoke almost dispersed. But he couldn't see it since he had gotten below it, at the spot it was fired from. 

And when he got there, he halted. Widening his eyes at the sight before him. Shock was the strongest emotion right then.

***

"How much more?" Auruo shouted at Eld who led them.

"Not too long, we're close," Eld shouted back, never taking his eyes off the path forward.

"How does he know?" Eren asked in curiosity.

"Look up and tell me do you see the blue trail anymore," Gunther said.

When Eren hooked his wires far enough, he glanced up. Even when he was up in the air, he couldn't see it.

"I don't."

"That means we entered the close range of where it was fired out. That's how we know," Gunther smiled at Eren's overt puerile curiosity, feeling like he was a teacher giving a lesson to his student. 

Chuckling, Petra glanced back at Auruo who caught her gaze and smiled somehow curtly, but genuinely.

Smile not quite reaching her saddened eyes, Petra thought about what had actually happened over there. How he wanted to say something but the signal flare had hindered him. It surely was something not irrelevant or small and she felt bad for not knowing what that might be. 

What a friend she was? How come she didn't notice something as big as making Auruo make a face he had never made? A face of reminiscence, a face of melancholy and wistfulness. 

What is it that you wanted to tell me? What was it that made you doze off in the middle of the mission? Something I don't know... Do the others know? Eld and Gunther were equally shocked as me to the point of not speaking. Or maybe... they knew but didn't want it to look like it?