A Choice with Regrets [Levi Ackerman]

21

I haven't had a good night's sleep ever since the last expedition and because of it, my heart still aches to this day. At the Survey Corps Headquarters within Wall Rose, the hallways were empty and that's because everyone was working outside. Viktor and Zaiya were out feeding and grooming the horses, while I sat with Abel inside a room to write some papers. While Abel was telling me a story about Viktor as a child, I was losing to the laziness and distractions of birds chirping outside the window.

I was sitting there... letting these feelings from the past sink in and slowly took a moment to unplug the world to rest my eyes. Abel's words were getting softer as my vision was blurry and my body began to tilt to the side.

Before Abel could react, an arm was hugging my shoulders to break my fall. Opening my eyes again, a weight lifted from my shoulders when it appeared to be Levi.

"A-Are you okay, Sina?" Abel was concerned about me, but he was also surprised that Levi showed up out of nowhere. Perhaps he came looking for us.

Levi noticed how tired I looked, but he was exhausted himself as well. "You two, come with me."

We both blinked at our captain, not sure what he wanted from us. Without asking why, we followed him into a room where Erwin, Hange, Viktor, and Zaiya were standing around a wooden table. Abel and I didn't know what to expect, so we joined them in silence.

Hange decided to pick on Levi when he finally joined us. "Looks like you had a long night, Levi. Not to mention your uniform—"

"You don't want to piss me off." Levi clenches his teeth at her. "Let's just start."

"Start what?" Abel asked and I was confused as well. Why are we all summoned here?

"We have a mission." Erwin finally answered us, "A very serious one."

Despite how tired I was, I wanted to learn more about this mission and so did Levi's squad.

"Does this have anything to do with titans invading Wall Maria?" Viktor asked Erwin and we all felt our stomachs turn, hoping that's not the case.

"No," Erwin answered with a straightforwardly. "According to other military branches, our soldiers have been unexpectedly murdered within the walls."

From that moment, my heart nearly dropped at the news and everyone else around the table was in great shock. Levi seemed mostly concerned here, but I didn't want to assume anything.

"Who would do such a thing?" Viktor clenched his fists on his sides. "Our job is to slay titans and now we also have to worry about some murderers within the walls?"

"We're literally sandwiched between the titans invading Wall Maria and murderers inside the walls. Humanity is over..." Abel sighed, hoping there would be a solution to this. Levi and Hange already knew about the mission, and Erwin continued. "From the capital, I was given a mission to arrest a cult that emerged some time ago. The scouts are requested to participate in the mission."

"A cult?" Zaiya's eyes grew with anticipation and we all stared at Erwin until Hange added to his sentence.

"The Titan cult." she specified. "According to my research, they are an organization that employed terrorist tactics to kill innocent civilians... including soldiers like us. They are somewhat suicidal people who worship the titans."

"What an awful side of humanity..." Viktor shakes his head in disgust. "I can't believe there are people who worship those naked bastards..."

"I thought the titan cult vanished many years ago." Abel brought up, assuming he might know something. "Why are they suddenly showing up again?"