Tasteful - Levi x OC (Attack On Titan)

Bigger Problems to Deal With

It was all a mess. Everything had been ever since the attack on Shiganshina 5 years ago. Arden thought that perhaps she could move on with the rest of humanity, to find a way. But the world just wouldn't let them. Now with the attack on Trost, the acknowledgement that shifters live among them, the increasing activity and secrecy of the demon realm; it was all a mess.

Then there was Kain. He was gone. 'Missing' as the other soldiers believed. But Arden Croix knew her brother and she knew that Kain never did anything without reason. Even if it was simply boredom, Kain Croix had thoughts and plans behind every little action he took. Arden knew that.

That's why she found herself storming into the temporary barracks the 3 Regiments had claimed as their own during this most recent mission. She was debating making the trek across Trost to visit the Scouts HQ, so she could better prepare. But she didn't. She couldnt. The thunderous thoughts wraging in her mind put a still to all her movements as both hands slowly and stiffly rested themselves onto the table infront of her. Tips of her fingers flexing ever so slightly so that short nails chipped the dark wood.

Her shoulders felt tense and achey as they shifted with every movement. She took in a deep breath, holding the air as her eyes squeezed shut and her jaw clenched. Then as she released it, her head began to fall forward until it hung low in deep thought. Long, raven locks flowing over her shoulders and covering her face.

Unconsciously, a single slender index finger had begun tapping an irritated beat onto the wood. The hollow sound being barely above a pin drop, yet it sounded like the crash of a hammer in the silence. It was so silent, that she wasn't sure she was breathing, allowing her mind to think over every possibility, every small seemingly insignificant detail it could conjure up, without a single noise to disturb its thoughts. All to answer the singular question clawing at her mind.

What was Kain planning?

Arden knew her brother better than anyone else, better than he himself did at times. So all the pieces were adding up. Maybe it wasn't his intent when he pleaded that he and Arden switch places to travel with Hange and her squad to Utgard Castle, but it was now. Something had changed along the way, something that turned and grinded the calculating gears in the crazy man's mind.

And Arden could only think of one contingency that could've altered Kain's course. The shifters: Reiner and Bertholdt. Perhaps it was this third mystery shifter that had caused Kain to abandon his post as a soldier. Or perhaps it was something else, words that were spoken, knowledge shared. Whatever it was, the woman knew that her brother wasn't 'missing'. Phil had mentioned that Hange's squad was attacked by the Colossal and Armoured Titan's, but there was no mention of them after. So she could only deduce that they had fled and escaped, possibly with Eren. That meant that Kain wasn't missing, he was following after them.

It was the only reasonable explanation. He couldn't have been murdered, because even if the Colossal and Armoured Titan's are terrifying enemies, they're nothing compared to the monsters of the demon realm. Swallow him whole, crush him under their feet, swat him like a fly; Kain would simply get back up and brush it off as if nothing had even happened. Walk away without so much as a scratch of battle. Unless he was killed by a demon, Kain wouldn't be dead. So he wasn't.

But that only left more questions. If he wasn't dead, then where did he go? Why follow the shifters? Could it have been that he was attempting to rescue Eren? But Arden shook her head, eyes squeezing shut in frustration. Kain wouldn't do that, it would be risking too much. For him to retrieve Eren by himself from the clutches of the 2 Titan's wouldn't be a believable story to the rest of humanity. Even if Levi himself, Humanity's Strongest Soldier was to attempt a stunt as unfathomable, it would be just that, simply unfathomable. Then the already high suspicions surrounding the strange Croix siblings would only solidify.