VII

                                    

                                          
The blissful summer months spent with Rico soon passed. As the autumn days began to creep in, the pair of you anxiously awaited news of her relocation.
You would be relocated in the spring of the following year, when it would be your turn to relocate twice in the year. You hoped that one of your placements would align with Rico's full year term and you hoped that between the pair you would have been able to see the four main districts along Wall Maria. This would make the inevitable discussion about where to settle much easier after your two rookie years were up. Of course, there was always the chance one or both of you would decide to move up and do the tour of Wall Rose, but that would still require regular relocation. 
"I've got the letter," Rico said one morning, as she walked into your barracks.
You looked up at her, cautiously, trying to read her expression.
"I'm heading west."
She was smiling now, and you let out a sigh of relief. You had been fearing she would be relocated to the northernmost district, which would've been near impossible for you to visit. The quickest route there was directly through the capital, and while you had the status of a soldier, you didn't quite trust that your paperwork would get you through without arrest. East was good, and so was west.
"Oh Rico, I'm so glad! Neither of us will have to travel far for visits, we could even meet at the Scouts training grounds and see Nanaba too!" You exclaimed. 
She nodded triumphantly, and you had the feeling perhaps the allocation wasn't as random as you had been lead to believe.
The autumn months passed quickly without Rico, and soon enough the bleak midwinter began to set in. The only solace was the food. Sean couldn't really relocate again. But even though his own flesh and blood had moved to another base, he seemed happy enough that you were still around to dote on.
You often helped around in the kitchen, partly for ol' times sake, and partly for the extra cash. Besides, it was the off season for soldiers. It was never dry enough in the winters for any real wall repairs to be carried out. 
———————
circa 845
The new year passed without a hitch, you still maintained regular correspondence with both Rico and Nanaba, and occasionally with Hange. You would be moved not long after the last snow melted, but before then a Scout mission was to be launched. 
Their horses could be heard before they could. You anxiously stood guard upon your horse, Castor, waiting for Nanaba to round the corner. She did, and you gave her a gleeful wave as she passed under the gate. It had been a while since you had last seen her, you hoped that when your relocation was confirmed, it would give you a few days leeway to meet up with your old gang. 
The gate slowly shuddered closed behind her, and you snapped your attention back to your Commander. Horses back to the stables, report for other duties, the standard drill.
You were stationed to join Hannes by the interior gate. He had been stationed there for guard when the Scouts passed through and, apparently, had had quite enough of the townsfolk. Enough to start drinking.
"I tell you, the kids round here are something different. Makes me wish I'd continued the wall tour," he murmured "I'd only settled here for some girl after my time was done, and by then she'd moved on!"
You shuddered, you hated his drunken ramblings about the lost love of his life- he was so dramatic, it wasn't as though she had died. 
In fact, you were just working up the courage to tell him this (respect your supervisors be damned) when a blinding ball of light exploded from the exterior gate. A loud, ungodly sound erupted from the site not a moment later.
Snap. Hannes had never been so sober, so fast. 
And that fact, more than the light and the boom, scared you the most. 
"Soldier, get out of here. If anyone asks, I sent you before that," he nodded towards the unfolding chaos, "happened. You say it was a direct order, because it is." 
There was no time to react, Hannes was flying away, paying no care to the damage his grapples did to the buildings they sank into. 
Something bad was happening, unfolding right before you, and you had no clue what it was. Hannes had said to run, and you turned to do just that. Whatever was happening was dangerous, life threatening. Everyone you cared about was far, far away. Rico would be safe. Nanaba was far beyond the walls at this point, and would be about as safe as she normally would be. You remembered Hange would be too. Farlan was dead, and so was Isobel, there was no reason not to flee. 
As you began to apply pressure to your ODM trigger, a horrifying thought hit you. 
That wasn't everyone accounted for.
You thought of the Garrison base, of the kitchen staff frantically running from this impending doom. 
Sean's still here. 
And with one clear thought in your mind, you threw yourself into the fray. 
——————
"Miss Church?" 
Someone was shaking you.
"Miss Church? It's over, you're out of it now. There's friends here to see you. The doctor needs to clear you first."
You grimaced, feeling an icy hand clenched in your own. Is this the friend here to see me? I thought the doctor needed to clear me first?
You gingerly eased your eyes open, blinking rapidly at the sudden bright light. Looking down at the had grasped in yours, you realised it was just that- a hand.
A gasp escaped your lips, and you dropped it. The hand splattered against the tiled floor, the last of the blood in it leaching out of the severed arteries at the wrist. 
It all came flooding back. Your frantic race to the kitchens, the titans.
The titans. 
Killing them on your way there.
Killing?
Grabbing hold of Sean and running, unable to fly with him.
Sean.
The Titan rounding the corner, lunging, and grabbing most of Sean in its mouth. The crunch. Sean's lifeless hand in yours. The utter peril of racing back to the wall, blindly swinging your blades with the unoccupied hand. 
"Thank you for saving him," ... oh Rico.
She smiled at you, reaching to the floor to retrieve Sean's hand as the doctor began to check you over.
"I..." you stammered. 
"Save some of him, I mean," she looked down, biting back tears, "most folks with family in Shiganshina weren't so lucky."
Even if he was only Rico's uncle, not yours, you were allowed the bereavement time. You couldn't help but thinking, however cynically, that this was because bereavement pay was significantly less than sick pay, which you would have been given on account of the almost coma-like stat you had just woken from.
As the pyres slowly burned away the few pieces of the people recovered from Shiganshina, you looked over to Rico, holding her hand. 
"Nanaba made it out," she breathed.