Too Late—A Moblit x Hanji One-Shot

Requested by :point_right: Hanji Zoë :point_left: Go give them a follow. :bust_in_silhouette: :white_check_mark:

{Moblit Berner}

Sometimes I wonder if I should have expressed myself better. Nifa was always scolding me for my cowardice. She was the only one who knew that I liked Section Commander Hanji Zoë. Nifa was always saying if I didn’t act quick, someone would snatch up that opportunity—she often joked that someday she would take Hanji for herself just to irritate me. She was trying to prove that if I wanted to mean something to Hanji, I’d have to be forthright.

I was okay with watching from the sidelines, though, as she hung out with Captain Levi and Commander Erwin. Her odd charm drew so many people to her, with its unique buzzing aura, I was surprised she didn’t have Scouts falling for her left and right. Well, maybe that was just me.

She held such a power and confidence that couldn’t be stamped down by anything. Caution wasn’t her suit, which severely countered my timid attitude. Must have been why we were stuck in the same Squad. I guess that was why I fell for her. She was so vibrant and full of life she practically glowed. She could never be shot down and no matter how many times we were defeated by Shifters or Titans she always came out with a new strategy and a smarter mind. I wish I was like that. I still look up to her. Well I might not for any longer...

Her sweet albeit slightly sadistic smile was something that I got to experience everyday. My heart would burst, stupidly, whenever she told me trusted me the most.

It would also stammer as she got way too close to those dangerous Titans Sawney and Beane, was it? She was always risking her life to pursue knowledge, something I wish I had the guts to do. She was brave and courageous, and....and you could listen to me rant about her perfection all day but you didn’t come here to read that. You certainly didn’t come here to read about how poor sweet Nifa, the only person entrusted with my secret, was brutally shot by that wicked cruel bastard; Kenny Ackerman. No, you came here to read about the love of my life, Hanji Zoë.

(Goodbye, fourth wall, neither Maria, Rose, or Sina, but audience.)

We trained together as cadets. She ranked third, with Miche as first and Keith second, Erwin fourth. I ranked ninth. But when she said she would the Scouts to help Humanity end the Titans, I knew exactly where I belonged.

I belonged where she went. My heart didn’t stay still. Not a place.

A people.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I knew the mission would be dangerous. Retaking Maria and Shinganshina while facing off three Titan-Shifters out for our blood? We may have the entirety of the Scout Regiment to back us up but give our past experiences that wasn’t a whole lot. Every time Hanji wandered far away, steering her mount into the thick foliage, I would get panicky. But she would re-emerge seconds later, unscathed. I swear that woman tore my heart with her antics every waking moment of my stressful life. But Erwin was right to order me to keep my eye on Hanji. I was glad that I did because if I hadn’t she would be dead. Like I was about to be.

Bright light scorched my eyes, imprinting my brain with a golden hue. At first it was beautiful, but then the searing heat rippled out in an echoing wave, and I saw Hanji crouching beside new on the old trodden dirt path. She and I leapt into the air via ODM, trying to maneuver away as fast as we could.

“IT HAS TO BE BERTHOLDT. NO ONE ELSE WOULD CAUSE A BIGGER REACTION!” She screamed as we flew through the crumbling ruins of houses. We tried to speed up, wasting precious gas. But the blaze was faster, stronger than us, and as we turned a corner I saw the bright, unearthly simmering fire follow us. Without thinking, I gripped Hanji’s shoulder and jerked her behind me, into a long since disused stone well. She screeched as she fell backwards into the well, and I waited till I heard a telltale splash before ducking to the mucky path. Weeds clambered across it, twining with the mottled grass, and I pressed my face into the grimy earth one last time before a strike of stinging pain lashed through my whole being and then utter coolness, soothing and empty. My last thought could have been anything, but I was certain in my heart that it would be you, Section Commander: Hanji Zoë.

{Hanji Zoë}

No. No, no, no, no, NO! I tried to scramble up but my gear was damaged from being jostled into the bottom of the well. I was knee deep in slimy water and I was pretty sure I saw a flailing rat. Wading over to it, I picked it up. It coughed one final breath, then went limp in my hands. I dropped it back into the water with a sigh. It sank slowly, slowly, then settled at my feet. Sloshing away, I tried to get a grip on the slick moldy walls. My soft leather boots slipped down the well sides, though, and I shed them to get more friction on my toes. I had to escape before I got to cold or tired. But the water felt surprisingly warm. So did the rat...the heat wave! The Titan transformation explosion must have killed the rat, knocked it into the well, and me...Moblit. Moblit!

“Moblit!” I shrieked, scrabbling at the walls, my hearth thumping in my chest. “MOBLIT! MOBLIT!!!” I banged furiously on the wet walls, my fear accumulating. “MOBLIT WHERE ARE YOU!” I yelled until my voice grew hoarse and my skin frigid, for the water had cooled off ages ago.

Levi. I need to find Levi and Erwin.

They’ll help me find Moblit.

Oh Hanji, stop using your emotions and get your thoughts straight. You know exactly what happens to people who get struck by that heat.

No. I have to believe Moblit is alive.

“Help!” I roared. But I knew no one except Reiner and Bertholdt would hear me so I shut up and wrestled my boots around my neck. Then I gripped the damp stone bricks and hoisted myself handhold by handhold over the well. I could see the edge—!

SPLASH!

I fell back again, my spine twisted and aching, my hands sore and slimy. I sat up in the water, and the dead rat brushed against my ankle. I stood quickly, then tried to wedge myself up the walls by pressuring my weight along my arms and between the two opposing sides of the well. I spider climbed to the top and rolled over the lip of the well with a tired breath, curling onto my stomach with a gasp. Just as I lay down, a huge boulder chunk sailed through the air and landed a few hundred feet away. A spray of red tainted my vision, and a coppery scent dominated the air.

Blood.

Misting everywhere. Just as I rolled to the other side, I felt a lumpy, limp thing touch my neck. I leaped back and stared at the misshapen red hand before me.

“No.” I whispered, but it was more of a pointless denial. I scrambled along the hand and wrist and arm, where a bare torso sported welts and blisters and stains of red ripping across the raw skin. “No!” I sobbed again, clutching his arm to my chest. His hair had been crisped to nothingness, and his entire upper half was hardly recognizable, but I saw the signature we had scratched into his gear, explicitly without Erwin’s permission. It was most definitely the one and only Moblit Berner. The tears were hot and messy all over my face as I silently cried into Moblit’s shoulder. His muscle tissue was exposed as the delicate skin

riiiiiiiipped.

“You—I—Why didn’t—no one told me I would have to lose another friend!” I gripped his neck, which was singed an angry vermillion pink. I had lost so many to hate and Titans. So I tried to move on, tried to stay positive. But holding Moblit’s corpse, the corpse of someone far closer to me than I realized, I slipped all the way back down that well, in a way.

The darkness pressed so close I couldn’t breathe. But then I pictured their faces.

Annie.

Reiner.

Bertholdt.

How many traitors were hiding among us? How many more would we lose to drive them out?

Moblit wouldn’t want me to grieve, he’d want me to move on and learn from this. He’d want me to get help and continue the mission. Loathe to let go, I forced myself to release him. I suppose he deserved a better fate than protecting his foolishly naïve section commander. I choked back another sob, then situated him in an upright position against the well. I hated leaving him here like this, but I had no choice. Wrapping my Scout jacket around him, I buttoned my cloak tighter, feeling the insignia billow in the iron tainted breeze. Then I shakily swapped our gear and swung for the looming wall, my heart quivering the entire way.

“Levi!” I whispered when I saw him, strangling Eren Yeager. He was holding a sleek black case in one hand, and was kicking away Eren with his foot and free hand. Behind them, lying on the sun baked red singles was an unmoving figure, burnt black. And at my feet, in front of them, was...

“Erwin,” I croaked, kneeling to touch his face. His stumpy arm was red and his head was bleeding. His legs were a crumpled broken mess and more red pumped busily from his stomach. I stared at his poorly bandaged body and my heart cracked just a little more, enough to push me off the edge.

“Levi; what’s going on?”

“Help me! We need to give Erwin the serum so he can eat Bertholdt!” Levi jerked his head at the limbless body balanced at the peak of the roof. Distinct Titan Shifter marks stained their face and their black hair was spiked every which way and that. It was most definitely Bertholdt.

“Okay!” I snatched Mikasa who was flailing alongside Eren. Levi stabbed Eren in the stomach with a sharp roundhouse, sending the boy sprawling till the edge of the roof. Mikasa shrieked as Levi opened the box and protrude a filled syringe. The translucent violet liquid didn’t move as he held it away from him like you would a weapon.

“No! Armin is just as smart as Erwin! He can offer more with a better body and younger mind!” Mikasa screeched. I held her more firmly and glanced at the amber haired boy trembling to the side. He was a new recruit....

“You’re Marlo?” I asked him. He shook his head. “Dead. I’m F...Floch.” He turned away. I snapped my arms around the raven’s stomach and cursed.

“Mikasa you have to calm down! It’s going to be okay!”

“ARMIN IS GOING TO DIE!” She bellowed hoarsely. “I WILL NOT, ‘CALM DOWN’,”

“Mikasa please,” she must have sensed the tenderness in my voice because she stopped thrashing and sobbed quietly. I slowly turned her into my shoulder and she wailed in there.

Levi held the syringe to Erwin’s arm, glancing at me. “And your squad?”

“I...”

I have taken for granted Moblit’s caring gaze. Levi only asked for practical value. He had lost his squad too, but...but he didn’t...he didn’t have a social connection with the second in command. I gulped. “They’re...I only saw Moblit and I know he’s...”

“Oh.” Was all the captain could manage. He made to stab Erwin with the needle when I lost focus. I have been pushing forward mostly on desperation and adrenaline but now I realized we would lose sweet Armin Arlert and our precious commander would live only a minimal thirteen years before expiration.

“Levi, maybe we should—”

“What are you thinking!” Floch demanded as Levi faltered. “Erwin is who the Scouts need! Not some inexperienced teen!”

“But...Armin can....” Eren whispered from his limp position. He gripped the edge of the roof and heaved himself up. “Captain Levi, please! We need Armin! How many times has he saved us?” Disparity crept back in the brunette’s voice.

“What Erwin may lack in tactic he makes up for with experience!” Levi retorted.

“Which Armin can gain!” Eren argued back weakly. On and on it went until somehow I was dragging a gasping black haired girl onto a farther, higher house and I was watching my commander and friend for life slowly deteriorate as a skinny blonde Titan hungrily consumed the limbless Bertholdt Hoover.

What would you do, Moblit, if you were here?

I already miss you. I turned away as a ragged looking boy sat up and clung to his two best friends. I looked away as Levi watched his second—no, third—Squad finally be happy, where he had lost so much. I suppose he had been hurt far more than me, but that didn’t make my heart ache any less.

Nifa would tell my time could heal.

Keiji would tell me that I did what I did and there is no room for hindsight.

Rashad would tell me to keep on hoping for something to refresh this pain. New things.

Erwin would tell me that I had to keep moving on or else Humanity couldn’t hope to recover from anything.

And Moblit....Moblit would...I wish I knew him well enough to say exactly what he would think. Honestly the only thing I knew now was that I would never, never be the same without the very present soul of Moblit Berner.

Organs blood bones and heart, it doesn’t matter if he was the actual thing keeping me alive.

How can I go on when I know in my heart that you are dead, dead-dead-dead like my shriveling soul?

How can I survive without you, Moblit Berner?

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