Angel With A Shotgun [Levi Ackerman x OC] / Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin

Code XLIV: The Will to Die

trigger warning: there is a mention of suicide in this chapter.

[the included photo: baby babyyyyyyyyyy ughhhh Levi why are you so fineeeeeeee T-T]

The next few weeks for Xora were spent almost always with Levi, training extremely hard for the Xyrochron. It initially began with strange machines that had been constructed to bend the brainwaves of the test subjects' slowly and gradually until they became the almost, if not exactly, the same. Their schedules and cravings slowly synced; their sleep cycles matched nearly perfectly, and they had similar diets with similar portioning, as well as indistinguishable exercising regimens. But no matter how closely their mentalities were synced, the characteristics of their personalities remained distinct.

Eventually, the training dissolved into simple mind games similar to games that seemed to be constructed for children. Which card would they pick, the left or right? Which color would they pick, red or blue? Which shape would they pick, the square or the circle? In the beginning, the testing showed little success; they always seemed to pick the opposite choices. But eventually they began to see change; with every passing day, their choices began to match more often.

And then it became much more complicated as time went on: of a list of fifty-seven people, which one stood out the most to them? Of three-hundred and ten cities in the world, which one seemed to be of particular interest? Soon, their minds were so similarly synced that in a high-definition picture of a beach, they would zoom into the same spot and pick the same single grain of sand. And soon, every single time they took one of these tests, their answers would be exactly the same.

The others mainly prepared for their next big assignment: infiltrating a facility of the Titans' that supposedly lay underneath the ice of an island near the coast of Antarctica. The place was called Sturge Island, a part of an icy archipelago; it was because of this that they suspected there were possibly even more Titan facilities on the icy continent, Antarctica.

Although the plan (so far) was going accordingly, the agents were still uneasy. There were still many things unaccounted for: for example, what Armin, Esfir, Hanji, and Levi had seen during Xora's brain scan. No one had yet told Xora of what they'd seen in fear of the impact on her emotional stability, which could drastically change their progress on the training with the Xyrochron's mind compatability. But the others were also aware of the fact that the longer they waited, and the longer they left the matter unprecedented, the harsher the effect would be on Xora if she were to ever find out what could be the truth.

But no one bore the courage to tell her.

Xora was aware that Eagle was a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes of a petite stature, but no one ever revealed to her how they got these details. At times she questioned the others, but they waved it off as intel they received from some of the Titans' archives.

Also, in the meantime, Xora was preparing for her own venture out into the field—alone. She was to return to the forest where they had first interacted with Eagle, where the Special Ops squad had lost their lives. Her mind's mere glimpse at those memories often sent shivers down her spine, but she had to resist them.

One late night, Xora and Levi were spending the little leisure time they had in the library, poring over novels and encyclopedias of the world. All was quiet, and the atmosphere was tranquil, the night peeking through the curtains halfway draped over the large windows; the dim glow of the chandeliers, the gentle thrum of each other's breathing, the swishing of pages turning. Xora was unusually wearing a thin tank and fitted sweatpants, choosing to abandon her suit to better enjoy the relaxed environment of their little freetime. The silence was rather comforting.