Honey and Sky | Jean Kirstein x OC

5 | Bloody Roses

Lena sat on a random cot, one of the many that had been set up in a large room at Trost's headquarters, so the soldiers could have a place to rest for a few hours during the night. She was hunched over, elbows resting on her knees slightly apart, staring at her blood-stained boots. Next to her, Sasha had laid down on another cot and was staring blankly at the ceiling. Nearby were also Krista and Ymir.

Lena reached a hand down to one of her boots to scratch a dried stain, wondering whose blood it was. By now it was probably too late to want to remove it. She remembered her uncle, who whenever he got splashed while gutting an animal would always run to rub the garment with water. If you don't clean the blood right away, there's no way to get it off, he used to tell her. Well, there went her boots. Hopefully she could request new ones if she said she had outgrown them, although she was already on her second pair.

As she sat up again, she realized how constricting her harness felt, after having spent most of the day flying. With a little groan, she tugged at the heel of her boots until they were off, and then unhooked the harness, leaving it all at the foot of her cot, ready to put it back on in a few hours.

At last she stretched out on the mattress, and the first thing she noticed was the crushing exhaustion that immediately overcame her. The second thing was the deafening silence that flooded the room, broken only by a few soft sobs. Third, the overwhelming wave of memories. She covered her eyes with a forearm and let her mind recreate the events of that day.

__

The nearby officers had ordered them to meet at headquarters shortly after the Colossal's appearance, where a senior Garrison officer instructed them to resupply with gas so they could begin the defense plan. There she met with Sasha and the others.

"Lena!"

Lena ran to her as soon as she heard her name and the two merged in a trembling embrace.

"The titan... We saw... Right above, the titan... A lightning bolt..."

Lena stroked her back to reassure her. "Ssh. Breathe, Sash... You can tell me later..."

Immediately they were separated into squads and set to fight. The order was for the Garrison soldiers to take the vanguard, and the most skilled were called upon to ensure the evacuation of the civilians. In the middle were the green cadets, freshly graduated, who had not even chosen yet which branch they would devote their lives to. Which for many ended that day.

The first big blow for Lena was Mina.

Hours after the chaos began, when the retreat bells finally rang, the cadets gathered at the top of several buildings, from where they could see the immense advance that the titans had already made. The collective mood was disheartening, for to top it all off, they were running out of gas and could not get over the wall.

Lena overheard Connie talking to Jean about how to get to the supply building. They were discussing who would dare lead such a plan, when Mikasa arrived asking for Eren. That's when Lena became aware of Armin's presence, as Reiner pointed out to Mikasa where she could find him. He was kneeling behind a wall, and seemed to want to melt into the ground.

Mikasa approached him and said something, most likely asking him about Eren's whereabouts, though Lena couldn't hear it. What she did hear was the boy's response, who shouted out the names of the members of his squad, killed in the fight.

"Mina Carolina...!"

Lena was petrified in her place. It couldn't be true. She couldn't have died. Earlier that morning they had eaten breakfast together and admired Commander Smith. They were going to the Garrison together. And now... she'd been... eaten?