Wings of Freedom - Chapter 2

Levi lead the Special Ops squad, which included Eren and Colette, through the town and towards the gates to the outside. The rest of the Survey Corps rode along behind them, along with the new trainees that had joined with Colette.
Speaking of his apprentice, Levi glanced at her. She was staring straight ahead at the path in front of her black and white horse, ignoring the stares she was attracting from passerby. The corporal realized that she's probably had to deal with this her entire life, and glared daggers at the people rudely staring.
“It won't do any good, sir. I'm just too weird for them to accept.” She looked up at him, and the light caught her left eye just right so that it appeared to be glowing golden. “You've got to admit, I look pretty weird.”
“He turns into a fifteen meter killing machine and they accept him fine.” Levi answered, jabbing a finger in Eren's direction. Eren gave a muffled “Wha..?” as the mention of him dragged him out of his daydreaming. Colette just rolled her eyes. “But right now, he looks human. They know he exists, but they haven't seen his Titan form. There's even doubt that he can actually become one or if it's just a lie, whereas for me, they can clearly tell I'm different with just one look.”
“Give it time. They'll get used to you eventually.” Levi told her.
“If I survive today.” She grumbled back. The corporal didn't answer.


She did. The mission had been an easy success, they hadn't been attacked on their way to the vantage point and from there they had gathered the information they'd needed, and as soon as they got back Hanji had vanished to go study it.
Colette wandered the halls of the Survey Corps base, thinking. She had survived her first mission, yes, but they hadn't even been attacked by any Titans so that was kind of obvious. Luckily the lack of fighting had prevented anyone from finding out about her little oddity.
She scratched the back of her shoulder absentmindedly, purposely avoiding the accursed extra appendages there. Those things had caused her so much trouble, she couldn't help but hate them, at least a little. In another world, another time, maybe she could look upon the feathery limbs with fondness, and be grateful for the freedom they could give her, but in this world they were nothing but a curse for her – hence why they were bound tightly against her back under her uniform. They were slightly noticeable under the white material, if one looked closely, but luckily her jacket made even that pretty much invisible. The third inhuman appendage she had, the one attached to the base of her spine, had been much harder to hide under the annoyingly tight uniform, however.
The loud banter of victoriously happy soldiers reached her ears, and she realized she'd stumbled upon the mess hall, and apparently it was time for dinner since it sounded like everyone was there. Had she really been exploring random hallways for that long? She shook her head and pushed the door open, stepping into the large room and gently closing it again behind her.
Colette stood for a moment, watching the activity in the room and mapping out where everyone was. She spotted Levi first, he was at a small table in the corner with the rest of the Special Ops squad, excluding herself and Eren. Deciding she'd bothered him enough for one day, she looked around for her fellow trainees.
While she didn't really consider anyone her friends, she had grown fond of the recruits she'd trained alongside for three years. She finally found them at one of the larger tables in the middle of the room, they were all sitting with Eren and the crew he'd graduated with, including the two friends of his that she'd heard so much about, Armin and Mikasa. She moved over to them, and took a seat between the Burns twins. Martin was distracted by an argument between Jean and Edward, but David turned to her with a welcoming smile. “Hey Def.”
“Dave.” She tilted her head at him in greeting before turning to the rest of the table. Armin caught her attention immediately from across the table, his hand held out in greeting as well. “Oh, well hi.” Colette said, shaking the offered hand.
“I'm Armin.” He said in a happy tone.
Colette paused for a moment, confused by his kindness. Didn't he find her weird? “..... Colette.” She answered eventually, blinking.
“I hope you don't mind me asking, but why did David call you Def?” Armin asked.
“It's my nickname, actually. I prefer it over Colette, honestly, so anyone here is free to call me by it.” She answered casually.
“Oh, that's cool! No one else here really has nicknames, we never really thought about it.” The blond told her.
“Well, it's what my parents always called me, so I just got used to it instead of my real name.” Colette explained.
“Huh. I wonder why they didn't just name you that instead if it was what they were going to call you all the time?” Armin stared at the table in thought. Colette just shrugged, she didn't really want to tell him that story.
The table fell silent, and everyone was looking in her direction. Colette tensed. Had she done something wrong? She was starting to panic until she looked back at Armin and saw him staring past her. Turning, she saw Levi had come over while she wasn't looking, and was standing behind her expectantly.
“Sir?” She tilted her head slightly, though the mask she'd shown him earlier was back on her face, looking respectful but slightly defiant.
“You should head off to bed. We're getting up much earlier than everyone else tomorrow to start your training.” Levi informed her with his usual cold stare. “Also, you won't be in the barracks with everyone else. I'll show you to your room now, if you like.”
Colette was surprised he even gave her the option of declining, instead of just ordering her to follow him. Though she wasn't in the mood to get yelled at, so she just nodded and stood up with a faint “Yes, sir.” Levi turned and walked toward the door without a word, so Colette glanced at the table and everyones' stares before giving them a shrug and following her superior.
She caught up to him just outside of the mess hall, the short corporal having paused to wait for her. He continued walking with an irritated look, and she fell into step behind him in silence, not wanting to annoy him further. It was a few moments before either said anything, and Levi himself was the one to break the silence. “You seemed to get along alright with the older recruits.”
“They could hardly be called 'older', sir. My fellow graduates are all older than Eren, minus one of the other girls. They merely finished their training before us.” Colette said with an indifferent tone.
“Either way, they were here first, and therefore are the older group.” Levi shot back.
Colette was silent for awhile after that. Her mind wandered over multiple different things as they walked, her gaze blindly fixed on the wall to her right. “Why did you pick me, sir?”
She didn't even realize she'd spoken aloud until Levi came to a dead stop and she bumped into him. He turned to face her, and stared straight at her while he prompted her to ask again, unsure if he'd heard her right. “What was that?”
“Nothing, sir..” She looked down at the floor. She was yelling at herself in her head to keep her mouth shut next time. Though she said nothing of these thoughts, Levi could practically see the torn expression on her face and knew she hadn't actually meant to speak her question.
“I didn't want an apprentice at all.” Levi started. Colette turned her gaze to him, though she didn't lift her head so all he could see was her silver eye shining gold again, the rest of her face and her dark eye were in shadow. “And I didn't plan to choose one. I was simply humoring Erwin when I agreed to look at the new graduates who had decided to join the Survey Corps. After meeting each one, I knew none of them were right, that they probably wouldn't last one day of personal training with me. They just didn't have the right mindset, or determination, and so on. But right when I was about to leave, I saw you, and you were different, I could tell. So I decided to give you a chance.”
“Yeah, I don't look anything like anyone else you've ever seen, huh...” Colette blinked for the first time during the conversation and looked down again.
“I wasn't talking about your looks.” Levi said quietly.
Her head snapped back up again and she stared at him with wide eyes, surprise etched across her face. The gold was gone from her silver eye again, and the other had darkened to where it looked almost completely black. Before she knew it, her body had acted on its own again and she'd lunged forward to hug the corporal.
He stiffened in surprise, though didn't push her away like he normally would. Colette felt him start to move his arms up to hug her back, but she flinched away and stepped back to where she'd been standing before, her arms crossed and bangs covering her face. “Sorry sir. Can we continue on our way now?” She mumbled. Levi nodded, and turned to keep walking down the hallway, while Colette trailed behind him. They kept walking for quite some time in silence, Levi was too busy thinking to say anything, and Colette was yelling at herself in her head again.
After awhile, Levi stopped again, this time in front of an old wooden door. He pushed it open and stepped into the darkness inside, and Colette could hear him walk further into the room before picking something up off of a table, and it turned out to be a candle as Levi lit it and set it back down, filling the room with the orange light. She stepped into the room after him, and looked around. It was simple, but definitely one of the upper class master bedrooms, made obvious by the intricate wooden molding on the walls and the ornate furniture.
“Get to bed, we're getting up in only a few hours. My room is the next one over if you need me.” Levi said, and when she turned to face him, she noticed he'd moved to stand in the doorway while she was distracted examining her room.
“Sir?” She asked.
“Yes, what is it?” The corporal grumbled back.
“Thank you.” She said. “For what you said earlier, and everything else too, I suppose.”
“Which reminds me. Why did you freak out like you did when you hugged me?” Levi asked, looking genuinely curious.
“I...” Colette started, about to think up a lie before deciding to tell him the truth instead. “I just didn't want you to touch my back, sir.”
“And why is that?”
“I can't tell you, sir.” She wanted to tell him, she really did, but she knew it would cause nothing but trouble if anyone knew about it.
He just nodded, accepting her answer, and stepped out of the room. Just before he closed the door, he looked back and said “You'll have to learn to trust me for this to work.” and with that, the door shut with a faint click and she heard his footsteps retreating to the neighboring room.
Colette let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. After a moment, she decided she was alone for good and moved to change clothes. She removed her jacket and boots before fighting to rid herself of the 3D Maneuver Gear straps. Once those were finally gone, she quickly discarded the white uniform as well, and then glanced at the mirror on the far side of the room. She stepped closer to it and studied the multitude of white bandages wrapped around her entire body except for her arms.
She sighed, and hoped no one ever saw this, because she wouldn't be able to explain why she was covered in bandages when she wasn't injured. Colette shook her head to clear it, and started to undo the bandages.
Minutes later, the last strip of white cotton fell to the floor, and she gave a faint sigh of relief as those three accursed appendages were freed. As much as she hated them, they were still part of her and binding them was painful. She looked back at the mirror, staring at the feathered wings sprouting from her shoulder blades and folded down against her back, and the long, thin tail protruding from the end of her spine that she now had coiled around her feet on the floor, the feathered tip of it dusting against the floorboards softly.
The tail itself was black, with a few white markings on it, and the feathers at the tip of it were arranged like a paper fan, and could fold like one, too. On one side, the feathers were white, but on the other, they were black. Similarly, her right wing was white, and her left wing was black.
Colette made sure to stretch her wings well, since this was the only chance she'd get to for awhile. She was able to stretch them out completely and even give a few experimental flaps despite the room being relatively small, since her wingspan was actually very tiny. Spread fully, her wings were almost as wide as she was tall, which wasn't much since she was the shortest person in the entire army. Her wings had never had a chance to grow fully, though, since they'd been tied tightly against her back for her entire life.
With an annoyed sound, she reached for the bandages again. Though sleeping without them was more comfortable, she didn't want to risk Levi finding out about her wings and tail. Once the offending feathery appendages were semi-comfortably bound again, she changed into her nightclothes and blew out the candle.