Chapter Text
The first thing Quinn notices when she wakes up is an intense wave of pain running down the length of her thigh. The damaged muscles contract and spasm as she struggles to sit upright, practically choking on air from the discomfort.
When she finally manages to prop herself up, the next thing Quinn notices is a wall of thick metal bars staring her in the face.
It takes her a moment to piece together what happened, recalling events that felt more like nightmares than memories — countless hours blurred together by blood and slaughter.
‘Shiganshina has fallen!’
Quinn’s feet hit the floor in an instant, reigniting the fire in her leg tenfold. She lets out a soft yelp as her knees start to buckle, barely managing to balance herself with her other leg.
“Easy.”
A low voice echoes from just out of sight moments before Levi struts into view, walking in front of her cell with his arms crossed over his chest. “Your leg isn’t completely healed yet.”
Quinn finally looks down to examine the extent of her injury. Her uniform pants have been replaced with a shoddy pair of shorts, revealing a blank canvas of white bandage wrapped around her leg.
Running a gentle hand across the surface, Quinn can tell that the wound is no longer fresh.
“How long have I been out?”
“... About three days.”
Quinn’s heart stops completely.
Three days.
“Why am I here?”
Levi leans against the back wall, propping one foot up against the brick surface. “Commander Erwin didn’t exactly appreciate your little attempt at going AWOL, and frankly I don’t either. What the hell were you thinking?”
Quinn refuses to meet his eyes, letting out a shaky exhale as she sits back down on her cot. “Why are you here? Why aren’t you out there fighting?”
Levi’s hesitation to answer doesn’t go unnoticed.
“We retreated back to Wall Rose the day after you were injured.”
Quinn struggles to formulate a response, her mind moving at a snail’s pace. “So… what does that mean?”
“The territory within Wall Maria has been officially declared lost.”
A violent lurch threatens to rip itself from Quinn’s stomach, suppressed only by the bone-dry surface of her throat.
She knows that’s not enough time to evacuate all of Wall Maria — not even close.
“What about the people?”
“Right now I imagine all of the outlier districts are packed to the brim with refugees.”
“Let me out of here,” Quinn demands in a much firmer tone. “I need to go find my family.”
“I can’t.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because,” Levi emphasizes through gritted teeth. “You've been sentenced to ten days down here because you committed a blatant act of insubordination. I couldn’t get you out if I wanted to.”
“Bullshit.”
Quinn spits the word out like it’s rotten.
Levi’s gaze drops to the floor. His voice is low, like he’s talking to himself rather than her. “Hange was supposed to be here too, damn it.”
“Here for what?”
When Levi looks back up, Quinn notices his demeanor has softened.
“Quinn, we’ve been looking.”
Her composure starts to crack just a bit further, a sense of panic crawling up Quinn’s back and wrapping around her throat. She watches as Levi approaches her cell and wraps both of his hands around the tarnished metal bars.
“Hange and I originally planned to get you out of here as soon as you woke up, but you were out a lot longer than we thought you'd be. So, we went to look without you.”
Anxiety-ridden words start to pour from Quinn’s mouth before she can stop them. “But— but there’s no way you could’ve searched through all of the refugees already. They could’ve—”
“There were only two boats of people who made it from Shiganshina.”
Levi’s stony eyes stay fixed on hers. Despite the seriousness they hold beneath the surface, Quinn can’t bring herself to believe him.
“Right now it’s estimated that less than half of Wall Maria’s population even surviv—“
“Let me out.”
Levi tightens his grip on the metal bars. “I can’t.”
“Why the hell no—“
“Because you were completely fucking irrational out there!”
Levi’s voice raises considerably, his harsh words echoing throughout the small cell block. Quinn clamps her mouth shut, knotting her hands into the sheets below her.
“You’d be nothing but a pile of Titan shit right now if I wasn’t there to save you — and even then, you almost lost your damn leg. You chose to ignore a direct order with zero regards for your own life, all while we’re in the middle of the biggest disaster humanity has ever faced.”
Levi’s gaze moves from Quinn’s face, down to her bandaged thigh.
“You do realize that under normal circumstances, you’d be stuck in medical waiting to be discharged right now. You wouldn’t be able to move, let alone stand.”
There’s a pause as Levi waits for a response that Quinn can’t bring herself to give.
“How many times has this happened? How many times have you sustained a major injury that should’ve ended your career and still managed to make a full recovery? Is this some kind of annual tradition for you? Do you get off on it?”
“Fuck you.”
“No, fuck you. I told you to keep a level head out there, and you went and lost your goddamn mind.” The metal in Levi’s hands starts to creek, and he has to let go to stop himself from snapping the bars clean off.
“I know you’re better than this. You know you’re better than this. Fucking act like it.”
Quinn’s eyes finally falter, her head hanging low towards the floor.
“Please just leave.”
Levi’s eyes burn a hole into the side of Quinn’s head for what feels like hours before she finally hears the soft echo of his footsteps walking down the hall.
⚔︎
“Alright, what the hell do you know about her?”
Those are the first words that leave Levi’s mouth as soon as the door to Erwin’s office clicks shut behind him. The newly appointed head commander spares him a brief glance before returning his attention to the papers in front of him. “I take it she’s finally awake?”
“Yeah, no thanks to your brute of a section commander.” Levi gripes as he sits down in one of the chairs across from Erwin’s desk. He’s still a bit sore about how hard Miche knocked Quinn unconscious. Levi could’ve found a better way to restrain her — one that wouldn’t have incapacitated her for days on end. “You said we’d talk about this later, and it is later — so talk.”
Erwin finishes writing the last of his sentence before setting his pen down neatly in front of him, finally looking up to address Levi directly. “Has Quinn ever mentioned a boy named ‘Louis Allram' to you?”
Levi’s posture goes stiff. “No.”
“I figured as much.” Erwin responds with a sigh. “Full disclosure, then.”
The man takes a moment to lean back in his chair, folding his hands in his lap. “When Quinn first joined the Survey Corps, I had already been serving for several years. She appeared to be just like every other bright-eyed cadet who’d come and gone before her. Even with her impressive record from the Cadet Corps, nobody could’ve predicted that she’d produce such impressive results. Still, there wasn’t anything particularly unusual about her — until she started to train with the younger recruits a couple of years later.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Levi waves a dismissive hand. “She’s your guys’ favorite babysitter. Get to the point.”
Erwin looks like he wants to roll his eyes, but maintains his professional demeanor. “Louis Allram was another very promising cadet. His performance wasn’t nearly as impressive as Quinn’s, but he had a lot of potential, so he was paired to train with her often. It seemed like everything was going well, until one day Louis interrupted a conversation between Shadis and I in a state of panic. When we brought him back to Shadis’ office, the boy told us a story about a training incident that happened a couple of weeks prior. He claimed that he had an accident with one of his blades — one that ended up injuring Ms. Strober.”
Erwin pauses and leans forward in his chair just slightly. “Sliced about half an inch of her pinky clean off, or so he claimed.”
Levi’s hands tighten into fists in his lap.
“Mr. Allram claimed that when the incident took place, Quinn went into a panic and started begging him not to tell a soul what happened. He didn’t understand why, but he complied with her wishes nonetheless. It wasn’t until Louis caught sight of Quinn’s ‘perfectly intact’ finger days later that he started to claim there was something wrong with her.”
There’s a visible flex in Levi’s jaw before he responds. “Did you believe him?”
Erwin lets out a sigh. “Honestly, no. I thought it was far more likely that the boy overestimated the extent of Quinn’s injuries in the first place — as did Shadis. Still, we reassured Louis that we would speak to Ms. Strober about the situation, and we did. She gave us the exact answer we were expecting, and even showed us her finger as proof. It did appear as if only the pad of her finger was injured — at least, by that point it did.”
Levi crosses his arms across his chest, his brow slightly raised in interest. “‘By that point’? Are you saying you think it might be true?”
“Like I said, I didn’t believe Mr. Allram’s story — what piqued my curiosity more than anything was Quinn's reaction to being questioned about it. When we called her into Shadis’ office, the girl was terrified. She did quite well at hiding it, but her hands never stopped shaking. Now why would someone who’s made a career out of fighting monsters be scared to present such a small injury to her superiors?”
Levi stays quiet, digesting every word of Erwin’s story.
“Shadis didn’t seem to think much of it, but Louis refused to budge on the situation. He continued to push the issue even further, even threatening to take his complaints higher up or start outlandish rumors amongst his peers.”
The commander takes another pause, his eyes growing serious. “It wasn’t until I offered the boy a position on my own personal squad that he finally agreed to drop the subject.”
At first, Levi looks confused. Then, as the realization sets in, his eyes start to widen.
“So what happened to him?”
Erwin answers without skipping a beat. “Mr. Allram’s career was tragically cut short in the field of battle not long after.”
For a moment, Levi is completely speechless. His lack of response causes Erwin’s stare to harden even further.
“Do you understand?”
Levi nods his head.
Did he really?
“Have you confronted her about this?”
The commander sighs and relaxes in his chair once again. “No, and I see no reason to. The one thing I do know for a fact is that Quinn doesn’t know any more about herself than we do.” He crosses his arms and glances to the side, eyebrows furrowing slightly. “I think her father did though – at least, to a greater extent. He was always so insistent on treating any injuries Quinn sustained in the privacy of their own home. I would’ve arranged a meeting with the man when I became head commander, had it not happened under such unfortunate circumstances.”
Levi bites his tongue and swallows heavily. “So I take it there’s been no luck on that front either?”
“I’ve sent for someone to retrieve a newly updated list of all of the registered refugees in Trost, though I have to say again, I doubt they’ll be of any help to you. There have been no other reports of any more refugees from Shiganshina ever since—“
“Yeah, I got it.” Levi cuts Erwin off as he stands from his chair, his gaze turned down to the floor. “Just let me know when you get the damn list.”
He leaves the office without another word.
⚔︎
Levi didn’t see Quinn for the rest of her ten day sentence.
It’s not like he had much of a choice in the first place — the entire regiment was hanging on by a thread, drowning everyone in more responsibilities than they were equipped to handle. He’s accompanied Erwin in and out of HQ more times than he can count, his new position extremely demanding both physically and mentally.
Part of him was also still pissed at Quinn’s idiotic behavior out on the field. Emotional distress or not, she was trained to operate under pressure. There’s no way she really thought she could make it all the way to Wall Maria by herself — and if she did, that’s even more concerning.
She was downright stupid. She almost died right in front of him, because she was being downright fucking stupid. The fact that she’s still capable of losing her head like this after five years of service makes Levi feel uneasy. It makes him question just how many times she’s survived an injury that should’ve ended her career — or worse, her life.
Her finger.
Did that actually happen?
Did Erwin really believe it? So much so that he would sacrifice that boy to keep him quiet about it?
Levi has had several conversations with Erwin about his own ‘quirks’, after being questioned about it for months on end. He knew from the moment he acquired them that his abilities weren’t exactly ‘normal’. The circumstances in which it happened made it pretty hard not to. The strength, the speed, the fine-tuned instincts — none of it made sense, and Levi didn’t know a single thing about it.
Quinn isn’t like him, though. While she’s strong — impressively so — Levi can still overtake her with ease. She possesses the instincts of an elite soldier, but not unusually so. Plus, her fighting style is a lot scrappier than his, but her body is far more durable.
Is he really about to add regrowing fucking body parts to that ever-growing list of differences?
For a moment, Levi had considered the possibility that both Erwin and that Louis kid were just a couple of nutjobs. Regeneration is a huge leap away from some unnaturally fast healing, after all.
Then, Levi remembered something unusual — something from the night of the festival.
Quinn’s shoulder.
There wasn’t a single scratch on it.
He isn’t sure how he didn’t realize it before. Was he really gawking so much that he completely spaced it? Levi hadn’t seen her wounds up close that day, but he saw enough to know that there should be some sort of scar there — but there wasn’t. Quinn’s shoulder was nothing more than a blank canvas of smooth, milky skin.
He remembers it well.
Despite the endless list of questions Levi has in his head, he still isn’t sure if he wants to confront Quinn about any of it. There were two parts of Erwin’s story that Levi believed without a doubt — that Quinn doesn’t know a damn thing about why she is the way she is, and that her father definitely does.
Did.
Despite the side of Levi that still resented her for her stupidity, another part of him just couldn’t stomach the thought of going back to Quinn empty handed. He had searched through every list he could get his hands on, scoured every inch of Trost’s refugee shelters — hell, he even tried to get his hands on records from the other outlier districts.
Nothing. Not a single trace.
Levi couldn’t be the one to tell her. He just couldn’t. He doesn’t have the same social graces that Quinn does when it comes to death and grief. She knows how to be delicate and sympathetic with those who are mourning their loved ones — Levi doesn’t. And that’s exactly the kind of treatment Quinn needed. So, he tried to focus on what he did know – hunting people down.
Finding her family should’ve been a piece of cake compared to what he’s used to. Weapon caches, drug mules, trafficking rings — he’s tracked down everything an expert detective wishes they could. And yet, he couldn’t find Quinn’s family.
Levi had avoided her for all of that time and didn’t even have anything to show for it. No comfort, no answers — nothing. He didn’t even get to see Quinn when she was released, being stuck accompanying Erwin on a two day trip deeper within Wall Rose.
Levi was almost hopeful that he’d come back to an extremely pissed off Quinn, locked and loaded with a lecture about how he was an inconsiderate jackass for not coming to see her. He preferred that thought over coming back to find her completely torn up by grief.
But, to his surprise, Levi found neither.
Despite being overrun by exhaustion from his trip, Quinn is the first thing Levi notices when he enters the mess hall that next morning. She’s sitting by herself, a full cup of tea resting in front of her. There’s a neutral expression on her face, and her body language seems fairly relaxed. The only thing that’s somewhat notable is the way she’s absent-mindedly tapping her fingers on the table.
When Quinn spots him in return, she gives him a textbook smile. Levi can’t help but be put off by how… normal it looks. He tries not to make his confusion evident on his face as he approaches her.
“It’s good to see you got back safely.” Quinn remarks as soon as Levi reaches the other end of the table.
“… Yeah. It’s good to see you aren’t in a cage anymore.”
Her smile grows, and it only makes Levi feel more uneasy.
“Are you… doing alright?”
The girl nods without hesitation. “Yeah, I’m fine. Exhausted, of course, but I think everybody is right now. But other than that, I’m doing alright.”
She doesn’t leave him any opportunity to argue, or show any visible signs that she’s not telling the truth. Other than looking a bit pale, Quinn seemed like her usual self.
“… Right. That’s good.” Levi replies as he observes her, watching for even the slightest change in Quinn’s demeanor, but he finds nothing. Not until he surprises her by suddenly standing up from her seat.
“Well, I need to go. I’ve got a lot of things to catch up on. It was nice seeing you, though.”
It’s an empty remark, like one you’d receive in a professional setting. Which, to be fair, is the only way Levi should be interacting with her in the first place.
“Yeah. You too.”
Right after Quinn walks away, Levi’s attention turns to the cup of tea she had left behind. It’s cold, and looks completely untouched.
⚔︎
Levi didn’t realize just how little he would see her after that.
Since they were no longer on the same squad, Levi and Quinn were practically always separated. Miche’s squad handled the more practical side of things, while Erwin handled everything professional and logistical. It was an exhausting change of pace, but Levi’s assistance was proving to be effective. As it turns out, there are a lot of powerful people who feel more inclined to listen with someone as intimidating as Levi by Erwin’s side. His performance during the fight for Wall Maria had earned him quite the reputation.
Still, sometimes he misses the simplicity from before.
Everybody does.
The Royal Government was unusually eager to approve funding for their future expeditions, scheduled to take place outside of Wall Rose just a couple of weeks later. The quick decision making had the Scout Regiment scrambling to prepare, having even more Garrison troops reassigned under them. The government was desperate, that much was obvious — desperate to either retake Wall Maria, or thin out humanity’s numbers as much as possible in the attempt.
One of those possibilities was far more realistic than the other.
It was an ugly fact, but there weren't enough resources to go around, point blank period. Members of the military were already being limited to one meal a day, with pitifully sized portions and quality so poor you couldn’t convince a dog to eat it. As hard as Levi tried to fight against it, it was like an unspoken truth that everybody knew — one way or another, people were going to end up dead over what little they had left.
Hostility was already growing between the residents of Trost and the refugees from Wall Maria, with a handful of fistfights and even a couple of small riots breaking out among the citizens. Levi couldn’t help but worry about how often Quinn was taking trips there in a desperate attempt to find her family. On the rare occasions where they weren’t swamped with work, she would end up disappearing for hours, likely searching through the same group of people over and over again in vain.
Levi still tried to talk to Quinn whenever he’d get the chance, though it didn’t do him any good. It felt like every response she gave him was… hollow. Like she was constantly trying to brush him off in the most polite way possible.
Maybe he went too far when he confronted her back in the cell block. Maybe he rubbed far too much salt into her wounds, and now all she wanted was to avoid him.
Maybe the best thing for Levi to do right now is to just pull away.
⚔︎
On their first expedition outside of Wall Rose, Tilly died.
Levi witnessed the horse’s front half of her body get completely flattened under the foot of a 15-meter Titan, killing her instantly.
Quinn was just a few feet away when it happened, and the expression on her face was completely unrecognizable. She didn’t say a word to anyone for the rest of the expedition, reduced to a complete husk of herself. However, just the next day, she appeared to go right back to normal. Levi had spotted her chatting with Gelgar and Nanaba, idly stirring a spoon in her morning tea.
Again, her drink remained completely untouched.
⚔︎
Levi is tucked away in one of the common rooms when Hange finally finds him, partially hidden behind a sizable stack of paperwork.
“I see the glamor of diplomacy has finally rubbed off on you.” they remark with a snicker as they approach the table, taking a seat across from Levi. He grimaces and rolls his eyes in response.
“Don’t get me started. I don’t understand half of this shit, and yet Erwin thought it’d be a good idea to dump it all on me.”
“You’re preaching to the choir on that one.” Hange snorts, before their facial expression drops ever slightly. “Don’t get me wrong, I love a riveting discussion about paperwork as much as anyone else, but I actually came here to ask you about something.”
Levi glances up with a raised eyebrow. “What is it?”
“Have you talked to Quinn at all lately?”
Levi’s shoulders hike up the moment he hears her name.
He hasn’t, not for at least a couple of weeks. It feels like he’s hardly in the same building as her half of the time, with what little words they have exchanged resembling nothing more than a conversation between two strangers.
“I haven’t. Why?”
Hange sighs and sets an elbow on the table, resting their head on their hand. “I’m just worried about her, is all. Ever since the wall fell she’s been very… well, normal. Like she’s just reverted back to a default model. She refuses to talk about anything that’s actually happened. It’s like, I can talk to her, but I can’t talk to her.”
Levi’s sets his pen down slowly.
So it wasn’t just him.
“So why come to me? I still haven’t had any more luck than you have. She’s been avoiding me like the plague.”
“Because I think it’ll be different with you.”
“But why?”
Hange gives him an apathetic look. “Levi, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about how you two—“
“Don’t.”
He cuts them off with one single word.
Of course he hasn’t forgotten, but he can’t bear to let himself think about it either. That might as well be a lifetime ago, before the world started to fall apart around them. Everything is different now. Everything.
“Levi, I just—“
“No. I’m not having this discussion with you.”
“But can’t you just—“
“No.”
“Just try!” Hange yells, their increase in volume surprising both Levi and themselves. They pause for a moment to regain their composure. “That’s all I’m asking of you. I don’t care what you say, I don’t care how you do it — just please, try. She won’t budge, not with me or Nanaba.”
Levi lets out a sigh and rubs one of his hands over his face. “Fine, but it’ll have to wait. Erwin’s dragging me out on a trip to Sina tomorrow. We’re supposed to be gone for like a week.”
Hange throws back their head and groans in defeat, but concedes. “Fineee. I guess I can keep bugging her until you get back.”
“Good,” Levi grunts. “because you don’t get a choice.”
⚔︎
When Levi gets back from his trip, he quickly regrets his decision.
He shouldn’t have waited so long.
He shouldn’t have let it get this bad.
