The Birth of Freedom

From the Ashes we Rise

RIAN

We had returned to headquarters in the early hours of the morning after last night's choosing ceremony and had been given the morning off duty thanks to Miche to recuperate after the long ride. Parting ways with Aurora, I had dived headfirst into bed only to find sleep alluded me as my mind went over and over everything that had happened.

Something had been bugging me since Eren's partial transformation but due to tensions in the Levi squad, getting my head out of my ass and collecting the new recruits, my mind hadn't been calm enough to figure it out. However, when I had laid down and finally relaxed those nagging thoughts came to the forefront with an unrelenting persistence.

When Eren had transformed, and we had all shit ourselves, I had noticed that the Titan body appeared after a blinding lightning bolt and a gust of heated wind. At the time, I hadn't thought much on it because of the giant arm that had suddenly appeared taking precedent but now with time on my hands, the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't deny what was staring me in the face.

I had seen it before. I had seen it when Shiganshina fell. When Aurora had jumped up by the canal side in wide-eyed fear when the Colossal Titan appeared. Repetitive events are rarely down to chance and if that bolt of lightning appeared when Eren transformed two days, then the flash of lightning that appeared moments before Wall Maria fell was more than just freak weather. 

Eren wasn't the only one.

Darkness passed and turned into day as I lay all night tormenting over the horrific implications of my revelation and I was so caught up in my own mind that I had failed to notice my dorm mates enter the room until Eld was standing at the foot of my bed, exhausted.

"The Commander has asked to see you" Eld informed me before stumbling over to his bed and collapsing into it, he must have been on night duty with Eren.

Throwing back the covers I scrambled to make myself presentable before making my way to Commander Erwin's office wondering what Erwin wanted me for.

Rounding the corner to the Commander's office, I was surprised to see Aurora arriving outside dressed in her uniform and judging by the wildness of her unbound hair and her scowl, she too had been summoned and had rushed over as soon as possible.

"What does he want?" Aurora asked groggily making me smile. Guess I wasn't the only one hoping for a lie-in, so much for the morning off.

"Your guess is as good as mine." I shrugged before knocking on the door and entering, "Sir, you wished to see us?"

Commander Erwin looked up from his position behind his desk, which was littered with piles of papers in a state of disarray and smiled a little too warmly.

"Ah yes, please both of you take a seat." Erwin gestured for us to take the seats by his desk and Aurora shuffled forward into the nearest chair before sitting down apprehensively as her eyes darted between Erwin and me.

I feel it too.

"I will get right down to it." Erwin began as I took my seat "As of today, I am promoting you both to team leaders. After the expedition in a month, you will both be responsible for two teams bolstered by the new recruits, given that they survive. Until then, you are to remain under the command of Captain Levi and continue to protect Eren Yaeger at all costs."

Er what now?

"I thought we were supposed to be in the vanguard, that our unique skill set was best at the front of the formation. That's why we were assigned to section commander Miche's unit to use our talents to save our comrades." Aurora said slowly as if she was missing the point, and frankly, I was with her.