The musty smell of the dungeon reminded him of Petra. The goddamn dungeon reminded him of her. Of course. Fucking everything reminded him of Petra. He inhaled the cold, damp air and heard Petra's voice the first night she'd seen Eren asleep and shackled.

"He's just a child."

"He's a soldier, ranked 5th in his class and has the ability to transform into a titan. Do not make the mistake of viewing him as harmless or it will cost you your life."

Her mouth had snapped shut and after an agonizing half hour she was relieved of her shift and ran out.

He shouldn't have said anything.

Moonlight seeped through the tiny windows, shedding some light in the abysmal dungeon. Levi counted the drip drip drip of rainwater leaking through the ceiling and tried to drive his mind from the sound of Petra brewing coffee in the morning.

The clank of metal and screech of rusted hinges alerted Levi to the guards' arrival. Erwin stood in the doorway, fixing Levi with a look of warning. They'd planned so long for an opportunity like this one.

The silent walk down the hall did nothing to cool Levi's temper. It happened every time he thought of the monster. The taste of Petra's lips the last time he'd kissed them, her final whispered plea to be careful, her bloodied hair, the smell and sound of crackling bone - it all flooded back and left him furious.

Every guard they passed stood stiff, eyes following their leaders, hearts singing for revenge.

After a hundred feet, they reached the spot, nearly a dozen armed soldiers positioned around the door.

Hanji stood outside the cell, arms crossed low on her belly. Her face was lined with exhaustion, nerves burning behind her eyes. But beyond that, her body was cloaked with the pain of being so close to what had ripped apart her friends. Levi paused outside the door and rested a hand on her arm, carrying all that pain in his friend's heart with him into the cell. It was infinite, a century of fighting poisoning their bones.

Just a child. So was Annie. Not even twenty, and already destroying entire worlds.

Deep set eyes fluttered at the sound of the cell door opening and closing. Her hair was limp, shrouding her face, her head bent forward by the weight of crystal on the back of her neck. So vulnerable, indefensible. How many times had he envisioned this very moment?

Annie's arms strained against the shackles, her knees scraping against the floor without the luxury of a bed to support her.

The crystal had been shredded and torn away from her body, acid and metal destroying everything in its path, leaving bizarre burns on her flesh. Jagged rock poked out from her belly, neck and legs, all the places they couldn't quite remove in their hurry.

Her hands were encased in the crystal as well, Hanji had made sure of it.

Hanji, who would lose days of sleep poring over chemical formulas and bit back frustrated tears with each failure, never letting herself give up, the memories of her lost friends pushing her forward. And now the work was done.

Bitter pleasure washed over Levi at the sight. Her wounds would heal, the burns would fade and the blood would dry, but even the momentary pain she was in gave Levi bizarre relief.

She'd never understand what it meant to find the broken pieces of his family massacred on the forest floor. But failure, oh, he was certain she had that bitter taste on her tongue now. And she was in no way short on pain. That would have to be enough, for now.

Annie peered through her curtain of golden hair. The great Captain had come to pay her a visit. She looked him square in the face, peering down her Cleopatra nose as if he were dirt on her shoe. Drowsiness pressed on her mind but she kept her eyes open, unwilling to reveal any weakness. The silence stood thick between them.

"What was your mission?"

Cracked lips twitched in pain, blood filling the spaces between her teeth, the lines in her mouth turning red. Levi blinked, pushing ahead with the next question.

"What do the titans want?"

She spat the blood out, red splattering across the stone right by Levi's shoes. Her neck felt on the edge of snapping and she half wished it would. It had been so quiet in the crystal, dense silence enveloping her. Now cold air scrubbed her face, the insufferable twit's voice scratched her ears, the torchlight made her eyes water.

Levi stared at the spots of blood, refusing to look Annie in the face, the fury within him threatening an act of idiotic violence.

"No need to bite your tongue, Leonhardt. I will gladly remove it for you once we're through." He dragged his eyes up to meet hers. The firelight deepened the shadows on his face, his severe brow transforming into the fearsome scowl of a monster.

"Now tell me what you know."

Annie licked her lips.

Erwin stepped forward, his tall figure emerging from the shadows like a ghost. Annie's face lit up with mild surprise. The sleep left her senses dulled and stupid - she hadn't realized he was in the room with them.

"You will answer the captain's questions."

A fine, blonde brow quirked up. Amused, she struggled past her exhaustion, looking for a mode of attack.

"What was it like, finding the bodies of your soldiers, Commander?" Erwin didn't flinch. He stood straight, arms behind his back.

The titan shifter set her sights elsewhere.

"Or you, Captain? Seeing their necks sliced up, bodies tossed down like the titans you hate so much?"

Levi clenched his jaw, hoping the pain would sober him from his anger. Gunter's body was perhaps the most difficult out of the bunch, his neck sliced so clinically, ligament and muscle shorn and gleaming with blood. The sick irony haunted everyone. One of their own had done it, had struck their comrade down like a beast.

"It was easy to kill him, I only did what I'd been trained to do."

Erwin eyed Levi. If they weren't careful they could lose control of the entire interrogation.

"But that girl…she was very close to killing me"

Two short steps and the woman's face was squeezed in Levi's grip. She didn't even blink at the short nails digging into her raw flesh.

Standing so close it was now obvious that the crystal had burned Annie's cheek. Her eyelashes were gone. Grotesque, a reflection of her soul.

"What do you want with Eren?" His voice was ragged and dangerously low. He watched her moonlit face for a reaction.

There was nothing that could convince her to give away anything. They would never comprehend the torture she'd gone through, the magnitude of her goal. They thought themselves better, and it was easy to. They were blind to the truth.

Levi was still looking her in the face, but mentioning the girl - she'd brought about a reaction.

Annie locked her clear blue eyes on his, her voice just above a whisper, as if sharing some intimate secret with a lover. Hot breath washed over Levi's face.

"I could smell you on her."

Unadulterated rage seized Levi, the back of his hand bashing against Annie's face, the red mark blazing hot on her pallid skin. His head pounded, blood flooding his heart and leaving him breathless with rage as he turned his fist sideways and smashed it against her jaw. A crack resounded through the stone room but Erwin stood passive, silently feasting on the sight before him.

Annie let out a choked gasp, fighting through the pain to lift her head again, that smug, regal defiance never leaving her face. She'd found the button, now she just needed to push a little harder.

"It was disgusting. Killing her was disgusting." She could almost laugh at how easy it was. "I wanted to die after having to touch her. She stank of you."

Levi's fist smacked against her face, bruising her eye.

"What? Did you lie with her just before the mission? Fuck her and promise her the world?" A lilting tone overtook her voice, like that of a laughing child.

The moonlight shined on her bloodied lips as she hissed. Levi could hear nothing, see nothing. No one existed but him and the monster. He desperately wanted to shred her to bits with his teeth, rip her cold eyes from her skull, make her suffer the way he'd suffered. It was all he dreamed of since he found out the female titan's true identity, and now he held her face in his hands, so very close.

"It was like swatting a fly."

Her hair was tangled in his hand now and he pulled her head back, tight against the crystal, gaining full access to her face as he mercilessly beat her, all restraint flying out the window. Each swing of his fist screamed for silence, his cold eyes ablaze. The sound of skin against bloodied skin filled the dungeon, the guards outside fighting to maintain composure in the wake of the brutality. The Commander finally realized what was going on.

Levi was going to kill her, he was playing right into her hands without a second thought. Erwin placed his arm across Levi's front, pulling him back from the shackled woman, his tense brow leaving no room for argument. It had gone on too long.

"Where did the titans come from?" A deep sigh emanated from the blonde, her shoulders sagging.

To kill Annie would be to sabotage all the work the scouting legion had done. The shifter herself killed titans before just to hold them back. She was their golden key, it would destroy their efforts if she died.

"Fuck off."

Erwin kept his arm across Levi's torso, the stress finally showing on his usually calm visage. They weren't any closer to finding out the truth.

"Keep watch. If anything happens, find me immediately"

The guards grunted out their "yes, sir"s and Erwin exited the cell, the captain already ahead of him.

Hanji remained outside the cells, tears streaking her cheeks, the pain of loss bubbling up again in her chest. Levi could barely look her in the face, it was too much like looking into a mirror. He shoved past her, racing for the door. Somewhere in the distance he could hear Erwin offering soothing words to the squad leader.

Consolation was worthless. For the millionth time his eyes clouded with the sight of Petra broken against the tree trunk, his mind melding it with a new vision. Annie's contorted body hitting the ground, dead by firing squad.