In Between The Ends

Chapter Eleven

     "Absolutely not." This was the first thing Arya could manage to say after listening at length to their plan for recuing Historia. Fear prickled at her scalp as she imagined going back to the island she so desperately tried to escape from.

"Please, Arya." Connie pleaded with her, a look of desperation on his face. "No one knows the inner workings of the Eldian High Council or the Jaegerist military as well as you do. We know how much we are asking, but without your help we won't even know where to start." Arya avoided looking at him while he said this and ran two hands through her hair at an attempted to calm herself.

"We wouldn't be here disturbing your work if we didn't think we had any other choice." Armin said softly, watching her pace back and forth from one end of the room to the other.

"Yes, I know that." She mumbled distractedly. "Look, I am deeply grateful to you for the help you gave me at my placement hearing, which has allowed me to help more people than I would have ever hoped. But this..." She looked at him now, terrified.

"I know you're scared, and that's okay." Pieck said softly, walking up to stand in front of her. "So are we. But we can't sit by and let them do whatever it is they have planned with Historia, or her family. We need you." She placed a gentle hand on Arya's arm in a comforting gesture.

"When you pulled us from that room in the capitol, you said that the plan you had would perhaps be useful one day." Jean said, a little more harsh than necessary. "Well, it's time to cash that ticket in." Armin glared at him angrily.

Arya sighed. "Even if I agreed to help you, this whole thing with Captain Ackerman is absurd. I can't force a man to undergo reconstructive surgery if his wish is to be left out of this whole mess." She gave a frantic little laugh as she looked between them. "What do you want me to do, knock him out and do it anyway?"

Armin stood to join Connie and Pieck next to her, and they stepped aside. He placed a reassuring hand on her small shoulder and bent down to look at her downcast face.

"No one is asking you to do that, Arya. All we need for you to do is tell him what you can do for him. Levi believes that there's no hope, and we need you to try and convince him otherwise." She hesitantly lifted her head to look back at him now, a worry line carved deep into her forehead.

"This whole thing is madness, I know." He continued. "So many times, the four of us have charged headfirst into danger that we quickly forget that not every one else has had to do the same." He shot a hard look at Jean before turning back to her. "I won't try to convince you to do this; that would be unfair. You have done so much for us already that even being here to ask isn't fair to you. All the same, we are here, and we are asking."

Arya stepped away from his touch and regarded them all intently. Here was a group of people that had risked their lives time and time again in the name of those the cared for. Heroes of Humanity they were called by the people. They looked death in the face and still fought for the good of the world. Did she have the courage to follow them?

She sighed again and turned her attention back to Armin. "This is a choice that I can't make yet. I don't know if I have the same kind of courage you do, to face the enemy head on despite the risks. But..." She paused. She was remembering the first time he had caught her gaze, and the feeling that grew inside her heart then. It was the same feeling she had on the plane: that there was something rushing forwards to meet her, some undeniable truth that she was somehow a part of. Arya didn't know if "destiny" was the right word or if such a thing even existed, but if ever there were to be something close to it, this was it.

"But I will do what I can for you until I have made that choice." Her face was both resigned and determined as she said this. "I will tell you as much as I can remember in regard to the High Council and military regimes and, regardless of my reservations, I will go speak with Captain Ackerman and see what I can do."