#and ive told him he needs to get his priorities straight cuz his work cannot come before his health

[lilhawkens]

had to watch my bf work himself to death for the last year and i just can't do it anymore

[dreamss-of-boston]

Rise - ch2

Sonya’s first expedition.

--

hello! this chapter was hella fun to write, cuz ive never really written too much action before and it was interesting describing everything. i hope i was able to write down what i was visualizing accurately so that it makes sense lmfao. i hope u all enjoy!! thank u for reading love u bye

-the expedition-

link on AO3! https://archiveofourown.org/works/16998978/chapters/40117439#workskin

The Survey Corps thundered out of the gate, spilling out into the wide expanse of Titan territory. Sonya would have been lost in the throng of soldiers if it weren't for her squad leader-- Moblit Berner-- to guide them to the right position. Sonya couldn't help but gaze up at the blue sky, dusted with clouds and uninterrupted by the off-white walls which usually surrounded her vision. No, out here, there was merely sky and Earth, meeting at one single point.

“Eyes front, soldier!” Peter yelled at Sonya sharply, and she turned in annoyance to see him smiling cheekily. “We don't want you running into any trees, now, do we?”

They rode on. This particular mission was intended to be a quick one: they were to enter the forest, gather supplies left there by the previous squad members, and leave. It seemed simple enough, but the supplies were in an area of thick forestry, and the only reason they got there in the first place was because the previous Commander had attempted to set up a safe-house there. A ‘safe-house’ in titan territory seemed like a very obviously stupid idea to Sonya, but apparently the Corps had made it their top priority to establish one before she had joined.

A red flare went off to her left, and another, and another. She felt immense fear rise in her throat, and she and Anna locked panicked eyes next to each other. Peter noticed this, and actually didn’t make a joke out of it.

“Hey, it’s okay! Look, we’re totally avoiding them.” He nodded to the green flare that was now ahead of them, pointing in the new direction which the Corps were slowly turning in. Peter gave a reassuring smile to Sonya and Anna. “We’ll be okay! We’re in one of the safest parts of the formation.”

And on they rode. There were some red flares here and there, but the Commander’s green flare would always guide the formation to safety. Eventually, Sonya felt a sort of rhythm within herself, and felt part of a whole-- like how she felt standing among her soldiers as they were accepted into the Survey Corps that night.

“Heads up!” Moblit called from the front of their squad. “Once we get close enough to a tree, deploy ODM gear and follow my orders.”

Slowly but surely, the corps were approaching the forest line and Sonya began to feel a little more at ease. She eased Chuck to a stop, and gave him a little pat before she dismounted and whisked herself up into a tree beside Moblit, Peter, and Anna.

“Well done.” Moblit said, and pointed to the other Corps soldiers ascending to tree branches not too far away from them. “Our job, for now, is to guard the entrance to the forest while the other half of the formation enter and gather the supplies.”

“Oh, so we-- we’re actually gonna kill some titans today?” Peter said.

“Pray you don’t have to.” Moblit said grimly. “Spread out so that we cover more area.”

Sonya grabbed Anna’s hand and gave it a squeeze-- the poor girl was trembling. Anna breathed in sharply at the contact, and attempted to smile at Sonya.

“Look at the sky, Anna.” Sonya nodded to the clouds. “Isn’t it beautiful out?”

Anna looked up, and that seemed to distract her a bit. She gave a little nod, and with that, Sonya glided to another tree branch, a bit closer to the ground. She could still see Chuck, and it was of some comfort knowing that the titans had no interest in eating her horse. At least Chuck would make it out okay. She stood alert, scanning the horizon for any sign of titans-- and just like every soldier there, she waited.

[-]

The waiting seemed to last forever-- even Moblit was getting restless. He kept glancing back, as if he were expecting to see the others exiting any time now.

“Captain,” Sonya called, “would you like me to relay a message to the teams inside?”

“Yeah,” Peter responded before Moblit got a chance, “tell them to hurry it up!”

“Wagner.” Moblit said sharply, shooting him a glare. “As for you, Romanova, yes-- I suppose you could. Ask them if they require assistance. Take Weber with you.” He gestured to Anna. “And be quick about it.”

“Yes, sir!” Sonya and Anna barked, and off they went, whirring into the trees.

Sonya had to admit-- it was very freeing using her ODM gear in the forest with no goal of slaughtering a wooden titan, without any officers barking at her to straighten her posture.

“Check this out!” She called to Anna, and used the momentum she had built to launch herself into a backflip-- she clumsily regained balance, causing Anna to laugh as they continued onward.

“How much farther in?” Anna asked.

“Can’t be that far--” Sonya began, but stopped cold as she saw the bottom half of a Survey Corps members’ body hanging limply over a low tree branch. Sticky red blood was oozing out of the exposed guts, and Sonya almost slammed into a tree if she didn’t stop herself in time. Anna had stopped, too-- the two girls looked at each other, panic-stricken and sick.

“What…” Anna whispered.

“I don’t know.” Sonya felt a sort of gear shift in her brain as she looked away from the soldiers’ body. A static-filled numbness took over. “We need to keep going-- but let’s get higher up.”

Anna nodded, and they continued. Sonya was right-- it wasn’t much farther until they reached the rest of the Corps, who were all perched high above their goal, staring down in terror. Sonya almost smacked into one of the soldiers from her training-- Alfonse Gunther.

“Watch it!” He cried. “Wait-- what are you doing here?”

“We came to see what was happening…” Sonya mumbled, although looking below told her everything. There they were: about ten or fifteen titans, standing among the wrecked safe house, staring up at the Corps with dead, hungry eyes.

“They just came out of nowhere!” Alfonse said. “They got my brother… They got Hans…” His voice broke off, and he didn’t say anything more.

“We can’t leave now that they’ve seen us-- they’ll just follow and that’ll send them straight to the rest of the Corps.” Edith Gutherie, a veteran soldier, said grimly. She had her blades out and ready, and yet she made no move on the titans. She glared up at a branch occupied by Commander Erwin and Captain Levi. “They haven’t given us orders yet… They’re scared to risk lives unnecessarily. After the last mission… we lost too many soldiers. We can’t afford to lose more until the next round of recruits come in.”

“Then why did we go on this mission in the first place?!” Ernst Klauffman, another new recruit, shrieked. “Why did we come out here and risk all these lives, huh?!”

“There’s eight months food and water down there, soldier!” Edith snapped. “In case you haven’t noticed, food is becoming scarcer by the day, and financial support for the Corps is at an all-time low. If you want to eat and keep your position in your comfortable living quarters, I suggest you keep quiet and follow orders.”

Sonya said nothing, she only stared at Captain Levi and Commander Erwin. They were stoic as usual, never allowing their inner emotions to betray their outward appearance. She glanced at the soldiers around her, all clearly waiting for any sort of command, and turned to glare back at Commander Erwin.

“Commander!” She yelled sharply, and both he and Levi turned their piercing gazes on her. Now that she had their attention-- and everyone else’s, for that matter, she grew suddenly self-conscious. Was it right of her to yell like that? Nevermind-- forget it, now is not the time to think about it. “Orders?”

Commander Erwin paused. “The plan,” he called, “is this. There are a total of fifteen titans of the 10-meter class below us. Therefor, fifteen veteran soldiers will be tasked with taking them out.” He listed the names of the soldiers, including Captain Levi and Edith Gutherie. “However, we cannot risk killing them while they are around our supplies, for we risk them damaging all of the food and water when they fall. Half of you all will join the fifteen veteran soldiers by working as a group to lure the titans away from the supplies. The other half of you will join me in descending, packing our supplies on our carts, and exiting the forest. Once the titans are slain, the rest of you will join us outside the forest, and we retreat.”

The soldiers all nodded-- Sonya felt herself tense up, and instinctively unsheathed her blades.

“You don’t need to do that-- you can count on us.” Edith said with a little smile.

“I’m sure I can count on you,” Sonya said grimly, “but I’d rather prepare for the worst.”

And so the plan was set in motion. The scouts divvied themselves up, with Anna being part of the group to retrieve supplies and Sonya to lure the titans away. The soldiers began their move, but the titans still seemed intent on watching the others, staying still in the trees.

“Drop lower!” Captain Levi commanded, and reluctantly, the troops descended a few branches. Still, the titans did not seem to notice or care.

“Are they abnormals?” Edith wondered aloud.

Sonya gritted her teeth-- and without thinking, she swooped down, swinging directly in front of one of the titan’s monstrous eyes. That caught its attention. It turned towards her with a sickening grin, and sluggishly began to reach for her.

“Sonya!” Anna screamed, just as Sonya pulled herself up, using an excessive amount of gas on the way. She clumsily perched in a tree, and watched with satisfaction as the titans began to turn their attention on her and the other soldiers.

“Good work, Sonya!” Edith called, and the other soldiers followed suit, dropping to Sonya’s level as the titans began to trudge their way away from the supplies.

Sonya caught Anna’s gaze high up in the trees, and for her sake, she flashed her a confident thumbs-up. Inwardly, her heart was racing and her limbs felt hollow. She was sure that she was going to throw up at any moment, but she pushed on, following behind the soldiers.

“We’ll get them surrounded in that clearing up ahead,” Captain Levi called, gesturing to a sunlit absence of trees in front of them.

And so the soldiers went-- swooping right by the titans noses, narrowly missing their giant hands, until they reached the clearing.

Captain Levi, Edith, and the other thirteen veteran soldiers took their places in the branches as the titans stumbled right into their trap. Some of the other soldiers had followed Sonya’s idea and stood with their swords unsheathed, just in case.

“Now!” Captain Levi commanded, and the soldiers whizzed forward, slicing and spinning with rapid movements. Sonya was impressed by Captain Levi especially-- he seemed to literally be flying, a focused concentration of death for titans. The veteran soldiers made quick work, luckily-- all except for one.

“Captain!!” One of the soldiers-- Klaus Vernon-- screeched. He was trapped in the grip of a titan, one with brown hair and a permanent frown. It’s monstrous jaw gaped open, bringing Klaus right up to its slimy tongue.

Captain Levi grunted, pushing off of the titan he had just slaughtered, and swung around to the back of the titan gripping Klaus. Before the titan could bring its jaws down to crush Klaus, Levi dealt the finishing blow, and Klaus was released from its grip. As he fell, Edith swooped in to catch him and bring him to safety on a branch.

Levi wiped some blood off of his cheek with a grimace as steam fizzled off of his cloak.

“Move back to the supplies.” He ordered, and so they went.

When the troops made it back to the supplies, they had made pretty fast progress on loading everything on to the carts.

“Any casualties?” Commander Erwin asked Levi as he joined him.

“Klaus got grabbed by a titan, but otherwise no.” Levi reported.

Sonya went to join Anna, who was on the fringes of the supply yard, loading food on to the carts. Now that danger was relatively gone, she was brimming with excitement to tell Anna about seeing the veterans in action. Before she made it to Anna, though, something made her stop cold.

Behind her friend, shrouded in the shadows of the trees, there was something glistening-- something moving. Sonya’s breath caught in her throat-- was that…?

“Anna!” She shrieked, but it was too late. A monstrous hand was reaching towards her friend, and it was moving much faster than the titans Sonya had just seen. Anna looked behind her, and screamed just as fingers wrapped around her arms, pinning them to her torso, and she was lifted off the ground. Anna kicked and screamed, and as the titan brought itself up to reveal itself, it was too late.

The five-meter titan brought Anna into its mouth head-first, and snapped her body in half as its jaws closed.

Sonya’s feet were glued to the floor-- no one was closer to this situation than her, and all she had done was watch her friend get eaten. The crunching of Anna’s bones rung in Sonya’s ears, and as the crouching titan turned its hungry eyes towards her, she felt a gear shift in her brain once more.

Numb and angry, Sonya charged straight at the titan. She could hear the other soldiers yelling at her to stop distantly, and as she leapt from the ground, deploying her gear to swing around and behind the titan, her unsheathed blades and the nape of its neck were all that she chose to focus on. As she made her way behind the titan, she readied herself, attaching her wire to its neck and bringing herself forward.

Using all of her strength, she made the cut she had made a hundred times before-- while cutting through flesh felt much different than cutting through leather, the result was the same. The titan fell, with Anna’s blood staining its mouth, and Sonya held on to it on the ride down.

Steam surrounded her as the body began to decompose-- she detached herself from the corpse, and stumbled onto solid ground. At the edges of her vision, she could see the soldiers running up to her to see if she was hurt, other soldiers deploying ODM and whisking off into the trees. Sonya paid them no mind. She fell on all fours, and retched onto the forest floor.