Petra stands in the center, her hands clenched into fists and her arms wrapped tightly around her. Unlike the others, she doesn’t look at Eren. Instead, her gaze is fixed on the floor. Eren knows exactly what he’ll see when their gazes finally meet – disappointment, horror, disgust.

His gaze shifts to Auruo, who stands beside Petra, an arm wrapped protectively around his comrade. His face, usually sporting an arrogant smirk, is uncharacteristically cold and stony. Hadn’t it been just a year ago when he had brought Eren to a family dinner of his, treated him like one of his own brothers? Now his eyes are filled with a loathing only reserved for the worst people.

Of the four, Gunter looks the most heartbroken, his neutral mask barely hiding his true feelings. Then again, he had always been the softest one on the team, offering a hand to Eren when he noticed the boy was lagging behind during training. The others are probably unwilling to listen to an explanation, but Gunter looks confused, desperate to understand how Eren could do such a thing. It’s a pity he’ll never know. Eren would tell him, but it’s not as if the man would ever understand.

Eld wears his mask better than all of them, but Eren can see that the second-in-command is livid. His usually warm brown eyes are filled with rage. He had seen this man annoyed before, angry but only for a short period of time, and this is the first time he’s seen him absolutely furious. Eren supposes that it’s a good thing that Levi had gotten to him first or else the entire squad would have gone after him.

Eren tastes the blood and bile in his mouth and swallows it down to offer his old squad a crooked smile, but none of them smile back. “It’s good to see you guys, too,” he tells them. “I take it that you got my letter, then?”

Petra opens her mouth to reply, but it’s Auruo who speaks first.

“Eren, what the fuck?” the man says, his mask finally slipping. His face is twisted in disgust at the man before them. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

“I’m very well aware,” Eren replies. His tone is so even compared to Auruo’s, whose voice is choked back with tears. He watches as their masks slip even further, their rage building as they hear how casually he replies. It’s as if he’s commenting about the weather rather than discussing the destruction he had just dealt a city of innocents.

“You killed people, Eren,” Gunter whispers, his voice hoarse. While the others are furious, he’s pleading with him, lowering himself down so that he’s almost eye-level with Eren as if this will help him see from the other soldier’s perspective. “Innocent people. Eren, how could you?”

“Schultz, stand down,” his captain commands, but it’s only when Eld pulls Gunter back that the soldier retreats.

Eld steps forward, his mask gone entirely now. His expression is lethal; he’s ready to strike the soldier before him. “Why did you do it, Eren?” he asks through gritted teeth. He reaches out, pulling Eren up from his hair and lifting him up. “You’ve caused so much pain to everybody…but you’ve dragged us into it as well. Why?”

“I made a choice,” Eren says. He doesn’t flinch when Eld yanks at his hair even harder. “It’s the same as you when you followed me here. I didn’t force you to come to Liberio. You made that choice.”

“Because you sent that letter,” Petra says. Auruo tries to hold her back, but she shoves him aside and makes her way to Eren. There is hurt in her eyes, disbelief that he roped them all into this. “Because you asked us to come for you…and we trusted you.” Trusted him not to cause a fight, trusted him not to start a battle, trusted him not to force them into a war.

“And I knew you would come…because I trust you,” he tells them. And used you…It is these last unspoken words, words that Eren does not have to say out loud, that horrifies them the most. As his words sink in, he watches as their eyes widen in shock and disgust as they realize his betrayal.

He had thought that Eld would be the one to hit him, but Petra is the one that reaches him first. Her open hand hits him across his cheek, leaving a terrible sting in its place. For some reason, it hurts even more than any blow the others could have dealt him. The side of his face feels as if it’s in flames.  

“No thanks,” Petra says. She makes an attempt to move past him, but she only bumps into him again when he stands in her way. She takes a step back and sighs angrily. She’d shove him out of the way, but she’s afraid he’d fall and crack his head on the floor. Then again, that might be a good thing…

“Only because I was trying to get to the kitchen for some hot chocolate that someone didn’t spike with peppermint schnapps,” Petra says, waving her hand around. It doesn’t seem like she’s too concerned about their conversation because she’s busy texting someone else with her free hand. “I just gave him a quick peck on the cheek, but that was it.”

“Ohoho,” Eld says with a lopsided grin. “Then I believe we may have found the source of our manager’s grumpiness.”

Petra stops texting for a second to look up at her colleague. “Because the editor in our department is terrible at proofreading?” she says with a smirk.

“Petra! Why would you bring something like that up on Christmas?” Eld is so shocked that he’s speechless. “That was one mistake! Are you ever going to let me live? And besides, you don’t get on Auruo’s case as much and he’s the one who wrote the damn thing in the first place!”

“Oh, we tease Auruo enough,” Petra says, rolling her eyes. She nudges Gunter in the ribs, looking at her friend with an impish grin. “And, really, it’s your responsibility to read and edit while we do all the writing. Is it really that difficult to fix something to ‘firsthand job’? Instead of … well …”

“Hey, we were all tired that week! It’s understandable that I’d make a mistake like that,” Eld says with an indignant sniff. He glares at Gunter for snickering and his friend immediately shuts up, his laughter replaced with a guilty expression.

“Hey, you guys,” Auruo says, appearing next to them. He seems slightly out of breath and disheveled – most likely because he had to push through the crowd of women blocking the kitchen that he had to walk through to get back to his friends – and his face is slightly flushed. “I found out what’s been going on. Gelgar told me after I got him drunk enough.”

“Geez, I was wondering what was taking you so long,” Petra says, slipping her phone into the back pocket of her jeans. She looks over at him expectantly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “So Gelgar really did know about it, didn’t he? I told you he had a suspicious look on his face.”

“Yeah, whatever, I’ll give you your twenty dollars after I explain everything,” Auruo mumbles. He settles between Eld and Gunter, glancing over at Levi with a strange expression on his face. “It’s a competition. Have you all noticed how the head of each department – Hanji, Levi, Erwin, Mike – are all taking turns under the mistletoe tonight?”

“I think I have seen them…except Mike,” Gunter says. “Although if this a kissing contest, I understand why he’d prefer to just keep to his girlfriend instead of strangers under the mistletoe.”

“Nope, kisses only count if they’re under the mistletoe,” Auruo says with a shake of his head. “That’s why Gelgar’s so pissed. He wanted Mike to win. The prize is a Lamborghini, and Gelgar was hoping he’d be able to convince Mike to let him have a spin on it if he ended up winning.”

“How can they afford a Lamborghini and not give us raises?” Eld asks darkly.  

“So he’s mad because he wants the Lamborghini?” Petra asks.

“I’m sure there’s another reason,” Gunter mumbles, but Petra overhears him anyway. He shrugs, pulling his coat closer to him. “I only mean…well, you helped Erwin out by kissing him under the mistletoe earlier, Petra!”

“Because I needed to get past him and he said he’d only let me through if I gave him a kiss!” Petra protests. She rolls her eyes when she hears Auruo’s dramatic gasp. “Oh, shut up. It was only a peck on the cheek anyway.”

“Well, why didn’t you ever have to go to the kitchen whenever Levi was there!” Auruo says. He gives her a dirty look for betraying her department in a competition that none of them were aware of until just a few minutes ago.

“I never needed to get anything that time! If you’re so angry, you can go kiss our boss under the mistletoe,” Petra snaps. She glances over at Levi who is still glowering at the corner. Turning her gaze to the ground, she mumbles, “Also, Levi looked really scary under the mistletoe and I thought it would be better to just leave him alone…”

Auruo and Petra continue to bicker with each other while Gunter stands between them, begging them to stop drawing attention to themselves. Although most of their workers are used to the two arguing with each other, Gunter would rather not have them fighting at the Christmas party.

Eld, who usually either goads Petra or Auruo on, is uncharacteristically quiet. Instead of taking part in the conversation, he stands to the side and stares at the mistletoe hanging over the doorway. The gears are churning in his mind, and he turns to his friends with a wide smile on his face. He throws his arms around Gunter and Auruo, bringing them all in for a close huddle. “Well, we can’t just let our boss lose, right? The party isn’t over yet, so we still have a chance of winning.”

Petra raises an eyebrow. Tilting her head, she asks, “Do you have a plan?”

He grins back at her.

Levi sighs when he glances at his phone and sees that it’s 11 o’clock. It’s his turn to take his place under the mistletoe once more, and he suspects that it won’t be any different than before. It’s bad enough that he was forced into this stupid competition, but losing so badly just makes it worse for him. He should really just slip away from the party and go home, but he’s sure that Hanji will only tease him about it the next morning. No, he’ll just grit his teeth and get this over with. Considering how late it is, this will be the last time he has to stand up there and then he can go home while Erwin drives off in that bright red Lamborghini that he never wanted anyway.

“Hi, boss!” he hears a familiar voice chirp. Standing under the mistletoe is Petra…while Eld, Auruo, and Gunter stand behind her. They all wave at him with sheepish expressions on their faces.

“What are you all doing here?” Levi mutters, thinking that it must be a mistake of some sort. The competition is supposed to be a secret, after all. “If you’re just going to the kitchen, get on with it.”

Petra opens her mouth to answer, but it is Auruo that speaks first. “We came here to kiss you!” he blurts out. His cheeks are flushed a rosy pink, although Levi is sure that some of it is from consuming too many drinks and not from embarrassment. It takes Auruo a while to realize what he had just said, but he quickly corrects himself. “The competition that you and the other managers had…we heard about it! And we wanted to help you!”

“And drive the Lamborghini,” Eld adds.

Levi isn’t sure if he should be touched or not. On one hand, he’s glad that Hanji can no longer make fun of him for not managing to snag even a single kiss under the mistletoe. On the other hand, he has a feeling that his team’s motivation for coming to his rescue was materialistic rather than sympathetic.

“That’s…thoughtful of you guys, but it’s unnecessary,” Levi says, waving his hands in front of him so that they’ll stop stepping up closer to him. “I don’t even like that shitty car.”

“Then just give it to one of us when you win!” Eld says.

“And besides, it’s only a kiss,” Petra says, popping up right in front of him. She leans up close to him, and all he can see are her amber eyes that are almost golden up close. “It’ll only be a second.”

“O-okay,” Levi says hesitantly.

Before he can say anything more, Petra steps up to him. She cups his face in her hands and presses a firm kiss on his lips. He hardly has enough time to reciprocate when she pulls away, and he’s still in shock when he gets his next kiss.

If Petra’s kiss was shocking, then Auruo’s is even more so. Because of the height difference, he stoops down to kiss his boss on the lips. It’s a sloppy kiss, one that seems as if someone had spit on Levi. Auruo seems quite pleased with himself once he pulled away and looks as if he’s about to brag about how their department is now one kiss closer to winning a Lamborghini, but Gunter quickly shoves him out of the way.

“Please, not on the lips again,” Levi says warily, wiping Auruo’s saliva from his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Sorry, boss,” Gunter says, but he thankfully places his kiss on Levi’s forehead before stepping aside for Eld.

“I’ll give you another one for good luck,” Eld says with a grin and swiftly kisses Levi once on each cheek.

He thinks that’s the end of it, but Petra and Auruo are fighting to get in line once more behind Eld. Levi raises his eyebrows at the both of them, but they don’t seem to notice their boss’ stare.

“Why are you getting in line again?” Auruo says, trying to fend off Petra. Although Petra is much smaller than him, he’s still having difficulty fighting her off. “You already kissed him!”

“Then why are you in line too?” Petra huffs. Her hair is tousled from being pushed around by Auruo. She shoves him back roughly, making him stumble back a bit. “You practically fought me to get behind Eld!”

Levi’s a little too tired to deal with this right now, but he doesn’t have the heart to scold them. After all, they were doing this for him, and he is grateful that he wouldn’t be going home with a score of zero.

That's it. But why is she here? She was somewhere else before, somewhere very different. It was darker there. Large trees stretched towards the heavens and she was running away from something. Was she running away or towards it?

It was a Titan, one of those foul beasts that had eaten so many of her comrades, but this one was different. It was so coordinated. It was intelligent. It was killing everyone.

Gunter. Eld. Auruo.

Those are the men standing behind her. They seem to be saying something to her, calling her name, but she can't quite hear what they're saying. They were dead though, so why were they here? Was this the afterlife?

She must be dead too then. The last thing she remembers is black and red. Pain runs through her body as she's smashed against a tree by the foot of a Titan. The memory of it hits her like a lightning bolt and she groans in pain. The men behind her run toward her but it's like they can't reach her. It's as if an invisible barrier separates them.

Help me.

Her mouth moves to form the words. Her lungs hurt from screaming them but the words never leave her throat. She can only hunch over, curling into a ball as if making herself smaller will protect her somehow.

Wasn't she supposed to be protecting someone? The image of a young boy flashes through her mind. His eyes, usually wide-eyed and bright, were frightened. He's shouting something, his hand held up tentatively towards his mouth as if he's ready to bite himself.

Eren.

Where is he now? He's not here so she doesn't assume the worst. But he's alone. He's alone and it's all her fault. He's too young to be alone. His mother is gone. His father has been missing ever since the Fall of Maria. He only has his friends in the Scouting Legion but they were assigned to other squads. The only people he was depending on had failed him. She had failed him.

Trust us.

Those were the words she said to him. They were the wrong words.

At the very least they had bought him time, but would it be enough? Would it have been better to have just let him transform in the first place? Had their decision been right?

Don't regret it, the choice you made.

She remembers someone said that to her before. It was so long ago. She had swooped in recklessly, aiming to kill a Titan that had just devoured a comrade, and was completely unaware of an abnormal coming her way.

Another Legion member pushed her out of the way and the abnormal consumed him instead. All she could do was lay there frozen in shock as he screamed and pleaded for help. She couldn't make it there in time. No one can. She watched him die a gruesome death and she cried the whole time.

She would have let the Titan eat her too if someone hadn't slain both the Titan she had initially targeted and the abnormal. He carried her out, setting her on the roof of house that was not yet demolished.

"They're dead because of me," she said shakily to the soldier. Her whole body was quivering. "If I hadn't been so reckless, if I hadn't been so quick to avenge my friend's death, maybe that other soldier would still be alive."

The man first glanced at her. He didn't say anything at first but then he spoke. "Don't regret it, the choice you made," he said. His eyes were stormy and distant. Even as he spoke, it was as if he was remembering something from a long time ago. "He must have thought your life was worth sacrificing his for. Prove him right."

Captain Levi.

She remembers dedicating her heart to humanity. The Legion. Her captain.

So how could she die when her work was unfinished? How could she abandon them as they faced a new horror? How could she?

Her old comrades call her name behind her. Their hands are beginning to reach her. They brush her arms and she pulls them away. "Come with us," they say. "Petra, you have to let go."

She can't go, not now. Her captain still needs her. How can they leave him so easily? Did they not dedicate themselves like they did?

"Don't touch me," she croaks, wriggling out of their grasp. She stumbles forward. She doesn't know where she is but she needs to go back. She needs to get back to him. "He's all alone. He needs me right now! How could you keep me from him when he's by himself?"

They keep trying to drag her back as she claws herself away. She kicks, she screams, she cries. Let her go, let her go, she needs to go. He doesn't have anyone else. Who will be there for him if she isn't there? Let her go, let her go, please, let her go.

Petra.

The voice sounds so familiar and she looks up. He looks just like him, her captain. The same sad expression, the same dark hair, the same gloomy eyes. It's him. It has to be him.

The men behind her stand up straight, their fists clenched to their heart. "Captain!" they say, chins held high.

Their captain gives them a nod and says each of their names in turn. "Gunter. Eld. Auruo." He turns to Petra, who is still on the ground staring up at him with tears staining her cheeks. "Petra."

She stands up shakily. Her fist is raised to her chest. "Captain!" she says, choking back sobs.

"You have all served me well," he says. "I could not have picked a better team. Your duty to the Legion and your captain ends now. Thank you for your service."

The others around her bow, but she's not ready to say goodbye. How could they leave him so easily? They – Gunter, Eld, and Auruo – turn from their captain, ready to leave.

No!

She's hardly ever raised her voice that high. It sounds strange coming out of her mouth now. Her shout is startling enough to have everyone turn to stare at her, waiting for her to speak.

"You need me," she stammers to her captain. She can't stand the sad look he's giving her. "Please, take me with you. You're all alone. We left you all alone. What are you going to do without us? Without me?"

He approaches her and she's too scared to look at his face. Is he angry with her for speaking out? A hand is placed gently on her head and she looks up. His face is so gentle.

She reaches up to touch his face, cupping the side of it with her hand. "I left you alone," she whispers. Tears are running down her face again, but she can't seem to stop herself from crying. "I'm sorry. Levi, I'm so sorry."

It's okay.

He tells her it's okay and she doubts him at first. He removes the hand from her head and he covers the hand she still has on his cheek. "Thank you," he says.

She closes her eyes as he slips away from her. When she opens them, he's gone. It's like he was never there at all.

Petra. Let's go.

She wipes the tears from her eyes and turns to her comrades. Eld reaches his hand out to her and she takes it.