The Last Ackerman

Chapter 12: Farewell, Kenny

"Hanji!" The scream rang out as Hanji's limp body slowly fell down the crystal pillar with blood dripping down after them. Levi's breathing was ragged as he perched on an opposing pillar eyeing the bodies flying around him in the cavern. Anger flared in him and he launched towards an attacker.

Everything around them is manic. There's blood, chains, crystal shards of the cavern sputtering around as bodies are launched into them and Eren is having his own fight with Historia and Rod Reiss in the corner. The whip of ODM gear is constant in Levi's ear as he fights, darting around the cave while trying to get some grasp of the situation. Hanji's down, Historia is struggling with her father, Kenny is around here somewhere. Kenny, the bastard.

(Flashback)

Elysian stared down into the tea in her cup. She watched the light dance on the dark liquid, listening to the scratch of Levi's pen on paper. The room was quiet, nothing but their breathing and the sound of the pen could be heard. The entire barracks were sleeping but the two Ackermans just couldn't doze off tonight.

It had been three days since Elysian had revealed her last name to Levi. There were still bruises on her neck and stomach and blood still pooled from her nose occasionally. She sat hunched in her seat, eyes drooping but unable to sleep.

"You should go back to bed. You look tired." Levi said.

"Can't sleep." she replied. Her voice was heavy with exhaustion. The day's training had been rough, even more so with her existing injuries. Levi wanted to ask her so much, yet he hesitated every time he went to do so. He sighed.

"Tell me about you." he asked. She looked up at him, confusion written over her features. "What do you do when you aren't training?"

"I eat and sleep." she replies.

"Anything else?" his pen stopped scratching and he put it down, looking up at her. She was curled into a ball in the chair, head resting on her knees. He could see the purple and blue bruises over her neck. A small wave of guilt built in his throat.

"I don't have time for anything else-" she paused, lost in thought, "sometimes I sit by the tree in the courtyard."

"You sit with Armin."

"Yes. He's nice."

"You do know relationships between cadets is a bad idea, correct? You must focus." a blush crept up on her cheeks and she looked away.

"It isn't like that. He's just a friend." Levi quirks a small smile. A fool could see she was lying, but he let it go.

"Was it always the same with Kenny?" she looked down sadly as soon as the name came out of his mouth. His morbid curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"Yes."

"How was it?"

"We would train. All day every day. Morning to night. He would leave me to sleep and go out drinking, even when I was a child. I was always covered in cuts, bruises and scrapes. I couldn't eat until I landed a hit on him." he could see her bottom lip quivering as she spoke. To see such a strong girl reduced to tears so easily felt like someone was ripping his heart out, but he let her carry on. "He never cared for me like a daughter. Only like a man who wanted power, and he saw me as a way to get it. I wasn't his kid, I was his soldier. Nothing more than a fighting machine from the day I was thrown into his arms." angry tears were running down her cheeks, hot and fast. She was just rambling now but Levi was happy to sit and listen to all of her anger. "He'd push me and kick me until I was covered in blood and he'd keep going until I fought back. I was four, for fucks sake. He'd never help afterwards, either. He'd just leave me on the floor to cry and go back inside to drink again." she wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve, sniffing hard. Levi slowly got up and walked around to her. She looked up at him with red, puzzled eyes as he wrapped his arms around her. She immediately relaxed into his hold and began sobbing, hot tears pooling into Levi's shoulder. He did nothing but hold her as she cried, her body shaking with the force of the sobs. "All I ever wanted was for him to love me." Levi rubbed small circles into her back until she slowed down and eventually stopped, having fallen asleep on him from the stress of crying. When he pulled away from her he spent a moment just looking at her red, swollen face. The face of one of his best soldiers and one of his only relatives destroyed from crying over how much pain her own father had caused her.