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

Code VIII: Practice

The next morning, Xora was spending time in Hange's  bedroom once more. Alongside Eren, they were organizing Hange's inventory, doing so in punishment for last night's fiasco. Xora insisted on helping the two out, claiming she'd nothing else to do, for Levi hadn't given her any orders.

"I'm sure we didn't miss much," Hange insisted upon reminiscing about the night before, shrugging her shoulders as she flipped through an assorted stack of documents. "After all, you both did remain in one piece."

"I'm so sorry," Eren apologized profusely as he alphabetized folders and files into an emptied cabinet, the rest of its contents laid out in sprawled piles next to where he sat dejectedly. "Hange insisted I try some of this expensive vodka she bought awhile back because she can't drink what she wants whenever he's around. I'm truly sorry, Archangel, if I'd been sober—"

"It's fine," Xora said, shaking her head as she cleaned up reports and documents that were to be filed away or destroyed. "Do not dwell on it. After all, if it comes to it, I would not hesitate to give my life for this mission, so I truly bear no concern for death."

"Now, now, don't be so morbid," Hange laughed, shaking her head. "Every member of the IE knows that our own lives are something we have to value above a mission's success. Those failed missions can be compensated, but human lives cannot."

"Under my own circumstances, I am confident that my life should not and does not matter. I am simply an agent. Sometimes, death is necessary for a mission."

Both Eren and Hange cast the agent strange looks before meeting each other's gazes. Hange chuckled again.

"You sound like Erwin," she simpered mostly to herself. "Oh dear, and I'm starting to sound like Levi. But then again, nobody wants a repeat of mission O-17, am I right?"

Once those words left Hange's mouth, Xora paused for a sliver of a moment before continuing to work, her pace quickening.

"Yes," she answered briskly, a dark shadow flickering across her stoney gaze. "I agree entirely. To have a repeat of such tragic failure would be rather... unfortunate."

"O-17?" Eren repeated, looking up from the mass of folders sitting on the floor in front of him. "I've never heard of this. What happened on mission O—?"

"Excuse me," Xora cut Eren off, dropping her papers on Hanji's desk with a loud thwack. "I've finished here, so I will be off to see the Captain to see if he has any tasks at hand for me." And without waiting for an answer from them, Xora swept out of the room within a few strides. The door slammed shut behind her, leaving a thundering silence before the two in the room.

"Did I say something wrong?" Eren asked sheepishly. He turned to look at Hange, but she didn't seem surprised.

She only returned a shrug before saying, "How do I phrase this..." She tapped her chin, pondering her words. "Only very few know about mission O-17. When our Archangel was only around thirteen or fourteen, she had already worked her way to Gamma status—something that made her a bit famous in Chicago. It was only a few years after she joined us. At that time, she was sent on a mission to safely transport an artifact from an excavation site to a nearby lab for studying. When no one received word from them after the expected time of arrival, a few Betas were sent to go and retrieve them and the artifact. To be frank, they were shocked to come upon the missing agents."

"Why?" Eren asked anxiously, his eyes wide with anticipation. "What did they find?"

"Every agent that had attended that mission was slaughtered. According to one of the Betas, there was blood everywhere. Every agent had been killed—every agent but our little Archangel."