Erwin slumped in his chair in disbelief. Levi had returned a few short hours ago with Ymir and Christa Lenz, or Historia Reiss as it turned out. The knowledge that one of his soldiers was in fact a noble's bastard barely even registered in the face of the rest of the information he had been provided. The report that had been handed to him had been… devastating.
In his office there was near complete silence as nobody said a word, the only sounds coming from the slight movements of papers as Hange continued to read through the report to focus on any of the details they might have missed or might have seemed like contradictions. There were none in Ymir's story.
Erwin himself didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The truth had been revealed, all that they had fought for laid bare, a hundred years of lies and deceptions all… gone.
"So…" Mike began, his tone almost casual as he still tried to process the truth of it all. "What do we do now?"
What did they do? That was truly the question, wasn't it. They all looked to him; Hange, Mike, Levi… but he didn't know what to say at first. Wordlessly, he stood up and retrieved the bottle of alcohol that he had used in celebration such a short time ago. He looked it over, studying it as he thought.
"We have answers now. To… almost everything."
He'd been given the drink for celebration when humanity began to have its victories, and he's done so recently. Yet knowing what he did now, it felt like a lifetime ago. The truth had been revealed to them, the truth that his father had been murdered trying to discover. Funnily enough he didn't feel like drinking.
The bottle shattering against the wall might well have been a gunshot in such a silent room, stunning everyone as they watched the amber liquid drip down the wall. It took Erwin a moment to realise that he had thrown it, that his rage had slipped so much that he had acted without realisation. But he still felt that fire, the white-hot passionate fury that demanded answers for why this had happened. A fury… that wanted answers from the king.
He snapped from his spiralling hatred as he saw Mike move over and begin to clean up the shards of glass. "I-… I'm sorry." He said, taking a deep breath and collecting himself. "For my outburst, this is all…"
He didn't need to explain, they were all going through the same emotions of having their worlds turned upside down. He who had led commanded so many operations against the Titans in a battle which seemed so tiny now in the scale of their true enemies. Hange, who had tortured so many Titans in an attempt to study them, to find answers in their biology when they were truly people like them. Levi, who had been their best, who had been held up as a shining example of human prowess for killing so many Titans, so many people…
Mike seemed to be handling it the best to those who didn't know him, but Erwin still saw the same turmoil in him. His nose had allowed him to smell the Titans coming, he'd needed to be intimately familiar with their scents. Yet now he knew them not as other, unknowable creatures. But transformed and tortured humans.
Not just humans. Eldians. That was what they were, it seemed.
"Ready some horses. Levi, you'll come with myself and the Garrison elite teams to meet with Pixis in Ehrmich district. An emergency meeting needs to be held." The garrison teams had helped escort everyone back to the temporary Scout headquarters and had been resting from their night works in the barracks. He knew there were questions being asked about why they were there, as well as why both Ymir and Historia were being kept away from their comrades. With the recent news about traitors in their midst, he didn't want to risk some of his soldiers being perhaps unwilling to wait and see if their enemy had another chance to strike.
"Hange, you'll remain in charge here." The woman nodded and readied her notebook to take notes of her orders. "Have the men ready to relocate to the Wall Sina headquarters. Essentials, not a full evacuation, we'll continue to run search expeditions from this castle in coordination with the Garrison, Mike you will be the one to oversee the sweeps."
He took his seat at his desk while the thought deeply. "Annie Leonhart will be moved to the interior as well, make sure there is a sizeable protection detail with her. Her interrogation… you still haven't learned any more from her?"
Hange shook her head. "She's stubborn, that's certain. She's also afraid of me. I would suggest we slow things down with her, if we keep on pushing at this rate she might break entirely."
Erwin nodded in agreement, his thoughts already having been along the same lines. "Agreed. We'll interrogate her more slowly, see if hitting her with our new knowledge makes her open up more. In the meantime, Ymir will come with myself for the meeting with Pixis, Historia will stay here."
"You're splitting them up?" Asked Levi.
"She kept this knowledge from us for years, her loyalty is limited at best but from everything you've told me her attachment to the girl is genuine. It'll be a reminder that we have power over her still, but not in a way that might damage relations."
"You want Historia questioned while you're gone?" Mike asked, questioned actually meaning rather politely by their current standards.
Erwin shook his head however, mind clear. "No. We'll show our trust in her given how she helped convince Ymir to confess everything, and the two will doubtlessly discuss their treatment when they return. Let's show them both that we aren't their enemies if they don't choose to be."
"About Annie…" Hange began, once more picking up the report and opening to a specific section that outlined Ymir's return to human form. "If she continues to refuse to be of assistance, what shall we do with her?"
The implication was clear, and certainly one that Erwin had been considering. "Should it come to it, we'll have Jaeger ingest her."
"Not another Titan?"
"No. While it is possible we could get someone of value, we must consider the current balance of power." There was a slight look of confusion on the others faces, and so he elaborated. "If what she says is to be believed, Ymir has several years of experience as a Titan shifter compared to Eren. In time we will have her teach him, but for now he would be at a disadvantage should she decide to go rogue. With the colossal and armoured Titans, the difference would be even greater. Perhaps that crystallisation ability would be enough to tip the scales."
Unspoken was the possibility of Ki. However given Eren's relatively poor ability compared to the rest of the Special Operations Squad, and his currently unique gifts, it was better that he be left to specialise in his own talents.
"With Eren… should he be told?" Mike asked. "About the curse?"
Ah yes, the curse. Thirteen years of life after a person gained their titan shifting powers. With the walls falling in 845, and the current year of 850, Eren Jaeger unknowingly had just eight years of life remaining. The same was the situation for Ymir, and unknown though likely lesser for the infiltrators.
"He should know." Erwin was surprised when it was Levi that spoke so definitively, as were the others. Motioning for him to explain, Levi continued. "When Ymir described the curse, Historia was devastated. It's clear to see there's a very strong attachment between the two of them, likely romantic, and I'm sure even Hange can attest that Eren is in a similar situation with Mikasa."
"A romantic relationship in the ranks, I thought you hated that Levi?" Teased Hange. She herself kept whatever love life she may or may not have had a secret, but it was known that she didn't object to it the way Levi did. Physical release was a healthy way to deal with stress she had said, as well as that attachments of a romantic nature were inevitable.
Levi frowned at the insinuation that he was walking back his opinion on the matter. "Let's not kid ourselves that either Jaeger or Ackerman are the most emotionally mature of people. He's got a martyr complex the size of the walls and she's got attachment issues even bigger, had I the choice then neither would have been in my team to begin with. But since they are, we'll have to deal with it the best we can. If that means telling them they have a ticking clock so they'll stop dancing around their own emotions then that's what we'll have to do. The fallout if we hide it and they find out will be much worse."
He didn't look happy about it, even by Levi standards, but it was clear he would accept it if he had to. Erwin smiled in amusement at his frustrated expression. "A fair argument. See to it that they are told, but after we have more confirmation that Ymir's information is accurate."
The fallout of acting on false information would be even worse than saying nothing. But his meeting with Pixis would hopefully help clarify things.
"That's her room." Marco stepped to the side as the two survey corps members stepped inside. They hadn't come alone, several high ranking MP's had come with them, and even Commander Dawk was in their offices. He and several others were being questioned about their knowledge of Annie and if they'd ever seen anything suspicious, but never telling them precisely what she had done. When Marco had pushed, he'd received a stern warning and the short explanation of "treason".
Watching the two scouts begin to tear apart her room did sting at Marco, as he fought the urge to jump in and protect her. But the men who'd arrived had made no allowance for doubt. Whatever Annie had done, she was guilty. This was not an investigation about that, they were just collecting evidence. As he stepped back, he moved to join his squad just in time to catch Marlo asking the others about what they think Annie might have done.
Marlo had always been an inquisitive one, and the black eye he wore hadn't slowed him one bit. He'd got it trying to stop some officers who were selling weaponry, which had gone… poorly. Marco had gotten his own in defending the man, something which had led to a rather big fight in public and a subsequent dressing down after the fact. The two officers had been "disciplined", yet otherwise set free. He and the others had been assigned additional duties, had leave cancelled, and Marco had personally found dog shit smeared in his blankets when he'd went to bed that night. It wasn't the end of their unofficial punishments, but an investigation this big would certainly put it on hold, perhaps even long enough for them to give up.
Marco sported a black eye and bloody nose of his own, however those hadn't been from the MP's. No, they had come from his investigation into the disappearance of Carly Stratmann. He'd honestly almost thought he would die when he'd been jumped by those thugs, but was extremely thankful he'd put in so much hard work as a cadet. His training there, as well as the occasional fighting lesson from Gohan, had saved his life.
"Marlo, give it a rest." Hitch moaned as she listened to the boy spit ball yet another possible crime Annie may have committed. "If command is not gonna tell us, then you're not gonna be able to guess it based on anything you knew about her. Clearly we didn't know her at all…"
It was perhaps a bit of a stretch to say that Hitch and Annie had been friends, but as the only two girls in their squad and roommates they were perhaps a pair of kindred spirits at least. For Marco, the pain stung a little more. He had known Annie in the cadets, and had worked with her in the MP's since they left, but as Hitch said it seemed he had never truly known her. He had wondered like the others about what she might have done, yet had no idea, and the fact that the commanders weren't sharing didn't sit well with him.
"You're Marco Bolt, leader of Annie Leonhart's squad correct?" He turned to see that it was Commander Dawk himself who had walked over and asked him. Immediately, Marco and the others dropped into a rigid salute.
"Yes sir! Leader of Bolt squad sir!"
If the commander cared at all he gave no indication of it, barely even glancing up from the clipboard he held in his hand.
"Right… I'm Nile Dawk, commander of the Military Police. Step into the room for questioning."
He raised his arm and pointed off to one of the side rooms where another MP was waiting and standing guard. Very quickly, Marco began to have the feeling he was in trouble, gulping as he moved as ordered.
The room itself was familiar, being not only a fairly standard interrogation room but one of which he'd actually already been inside a few times before. Though those times, he hadn't been on the far side of the table. It had an almost alien feel as he stepped inside however, darker and colder than it had been before. The two stern faced MP's standing in the far end corners certainly didn't help much. They carried no weapons on them, but one look at the way they clenched their fists and stood with a tension running through them told him they wouldn't need any if they felt violence was needed.
"Waltz, you're taking the notes for this one." Commander Dawk spoke to the aide by his side, a short blonde haired man that looked a little shorter than Marco, though he was at least a decade older. The aide had already been preparing a notepad as the three of them took their seats. Perhaps it really was Marco's imagination, but even the table did seem colder.
Nobody spoke at first, waiting obediently for the commander to finish setting out some of his own notes and reports, some of which Marco recognised as having belonged to him.
"So…" the commander began. "Marco Bolt. Placed eight in the 104th Cadet Corps, served in the battle of Trost along with many of your cadet comrades, and joined the Military Police afterwards. Notable for an idealistic streak and has been described as something of a troublemaker for the officers." Marco sweated nervously. He knew it was due to his outcry against the more blatant corruption, but in this situation it really didn't sound too good.
"Recently involved in a fistfight with other members of the Military Police and currently under disciplinary review, and there is a note here recommending you for a commendation for the successful finding of one Carly Stratmann and convincing her to provide evidence of her fathers' drug business. That's quite the contradiction…"
He fixed Marco with a flat stare. Unsure of whether to respond or not he hesitated, unable to say anything before the Commander spoke again. "Was it your anger at the system or feeling unappreciated that made you betray humanity?"
The accusation took him so off guard that he had to do a double take. "I… what!?"
"You knew Annie Leonhart for years in the cadets," the commander continued "plenty of time to become well acquainted. She was arrested for a treasonous act she committed two days ago, a day she was meant to be on duty. Except as squad leader, you granted her an exemption. So when did she tell you her plans?"
"I, I don't know anything about plans, I- she, she asked me to allow her the day off as she said it would be a bad day for her."
"A bad day?" One of the other men spoke, and Marco was so focused on the commander it took him a moment to realise it had come from one of the guards behind him on his left. The man scoffed and took a few steps closer to Marco, staring down at the boy. "I didn't realise that was all it took to get a day off. Somehow I doubt it would work if I tried a line like that."
Despite the way he smirked and mocked him, the mans eyes were hardened steel and Marco broke eye contact first. "She said she… gets cramps. Because of it being, that time."
"Period pain." The commander summarised, looking away from Marco briefly to pick up a specific file he had laid out. "Funny. Her medical records don't make any note that she ever had an issue with that. Think that will line up with the statements we're getting from the other cadets that knew her?"
"I didn't pry!" He insisted, knowing how weak of an excuse it sounded. "I didn't know her well enough in the cadets to know if it was a regular thing or not. She didn't exactly share much about herself, especially about that. So I took her at her word."
"Her word hm?" This time it was the other guard who spoke up. "Seems like a lot of trust in someone to let them have a day off at the drop of a hat when you're a squad leader."
"The report from your commandant in the cadets described you as a lot more sensible than that." One again the commander had spoken up, throwing his focus back towards the man. Marco was changing direction so much he was almost getting dizzy.
"Sounds like you've had a rough time here little Marco." It was the second guard again. Despite his relaxed posture as he leaned against the wall, the smirk he had on his face was dangerously close to a snarl. "You get a little frustrated? Need something to take your mind off things? She offer to help you… blow off some steam in exchange for a day off?"
Marco blushed, both in embarrassment and anger. "We've never done that. I've never done that, I would never take a bribe. Let alone something like… that. Nothing like that has ever happened. I thought I knew her, so I decided to trust her."
"Thought you knew her?" The commander didn't sound too impressed. "Three years training together in the cadets, yet you say you didn't really know her. Then at the same time you call her a friend. Which is it?"
Marco gripped his head in frustration. All of the accusations were so wild and grating he felt like he was losing his mind. "Listen, Annie wasn't a very friendly person and we never talked much, but when we came here we were the closest thing to friends either of us had. Between that, and the terrible time we've both had lately, she asked for a day off and I thought she could use the break. If anyone in the squad had asked for one I'd have given them the same chance for some time off."
He looked around the room at the others who were silent. Not just silent he noted, the two guards were watching the commander to see if he seemed satisfied.
"Let's move on for now." He finally said after an excruciating silence. "The battle for Trost…"
"Then using these pistons, that will generate the power needed to drive the propeller. If we manage to get a speed above this, it will generate lift! With variables depending on wing span, the curvature of the wings, and so on as listed out here." For Gohan, it was a very new experience to be teaching mathematics to someone else, and one that was very different to his teaching of martial arts. Still, Armin was proving himself to be a very attentive student, following along with all that he was teaching with few issues and asking for clarifications whenever he did have a problem.
"This is incredible." He said as he looked over the admittedly very rough drawing of the aeroplane that Gohan had done. "How do you know all of this?"
"Ah well, my mum was very big on my education hehe…" Gohan had certainly become known as a smart person in the cadets, but from the way Armin asked him it seemed like he wouldn't fully believe him. Sure enough, Armin was looking over the pages with both wonder… and suspicion.
"How… how do you know this?" He paused and turned to look at Gohan questioningly. "This is all advanced, way too advanced. More than that, these formulas. They're proven concepts… how?"
Gohan stilled. He'd known about the level of technology of this world for years now of course, but what he had forgotten was the subtle level of suppression that had occurred. He'd heard stories about those who had developed new technologies disappearing or being imprisoned by the military police, one of the first stories he'd ever heard was that of Armin's own parents.
Executed for constructing a hot air balloon…
"My mum she… really didn't want me to become a fighter like my dad. So she used to get a hold of all kinds of books and things, secret ones and have me learn. I think she wanted me to become a scholar." Another small wave of sadness began to wash over him as he remembered his parents. Every day he continued to miss them.
He hoped they were proud of him.
"Armin." The call came from the doorway where the two turned to see Mikasa standing there. "They want you helping with loading up one of the wagons."
"Oh, right." Armin awkwardly stood up and passed some of the pages back to Gohan. There was a fair few of them as Gohan had been working on some pieces with Armin for several hours if he included all of the small visits the boy had made. Not only Armin, but all of his friends had come by to see him at some point by now, usually in groups to wish him well and ask him about Annie.
Annie…
He hadn't had anything more to tell them aside from the fact that he had fought her and hadn't seen her since being taken as a prisoner. He'd tried to ask for information from any of the medical staff he'd seen and his friends, but none had been able to tell him anymore. He longed to know what was happening, to get his answers, but he was stuck waiting in this room until he was recovered enough to leave. A process which was coming along much better than it seemed the doctors had expected.
He wondered how well he would be able to hide his Saiyan biology.
As Armin said his goodbyes, Gohan put his drawings away for the time being. A nice and neat pile of them adorned his bedside table, ready for presentation to commander Erwin or section commander Zoe when he eventually got the chance. As he finished tidying up however, he was surprised when he saw that Mikasa was still waiting in the hallway for him.
"Hey Mikasa… everything okay?" He couldn't tell based on her unreadable expression, but she seemed to be standing tense.
Wordlessly, she stepped inside and moved over to the bed by his side. "How are you feeling today?"
He raised an eyebrow in surprise at the seemingly mundane question. "Oh, um… I'm okay I guess."
She nodded, but didn't seem to entirely believe him. Somewhat awkwardly, she took a seat next on the edge of his bed and looked at him. "Gohan…" She broke off and looked at her hands. For the life of him, Gohan didn't think he'd ever seen the girl look so nervous about something.
He leaned forwards and placed a hand on hers. "What's wrong Mikasa?"
She looked off distantly as she got the words ready in her head. "Annie… did she beat you?"
He blinked in surprise. "Did she… beat me?"
She suddenly gripped his hand tightly with hers, looking him deep in the eyes with a rather unusual level of urgency. "Annie… you're the strongest of us Gohan, everyone knows that. You can do incredible things, things nobody had even known of. Was it… was it enough?"
Steadily, it began to click into place. Much like how she'd been so insistent on having him teach her Ki when she'd learned about it, and much the way she fretted so heavily over Eren, she was a very heavy worrier. He knew she trained perhaps the most out of anyone, as well as having her own considerable natural talent. But she also constantly feared it was never enough, and so for him to fail… he represented a ceiling of power that she measured herself against.
He squeezed her hand tightly back. "I could beat her."
She looked at him uncertainly, but he thought back to his fight with her. "I came in with the wrong kind of fighting style. I knew her, knew she was a martial artist, and that she knew how we fought Titans. So I overcompensated, I fought her like a martial artists. I controlled a lot of that fight, I had her against the wall a lot. But I… I was hesitating. Maybe I didn't realise it at the time, but I didn't fight her like I would a Titan. Quickly, decisively, and with the intent to kill. Instead I tried to wear her down, and then she caught me off guard."
Mikasa's eyes flicked over the wrappings on his body, and he couldn't help but blush in embarrassment. "I know how it might look, but I wasn't out of that fight just yet. But she… she knew Ki as well. Hit me with the solar flare I showed off in the cadets. It was foolish I know. But" he held up her hands as he looked her in the eyes with a promise, "next time I'll win. You can as well."
He cracked a wry smile. "Besides, you don't think I've finished teaching you everything do you?"
He could see the gears turn in her mind as she began to wonder over all the possible things he could teach her, but he imagined she didn't truly fathom the depths of power she could eventually wield. Mental image training, the multi-form technique, shaped Ki blasts, even true flight in time. Some of those abilities he would need to finish brushing himself up on, but he could do it.
Reiner held his breath as he stayed motionless, crouched in a ball as he listed to the sounds of footsteps moving through the building. He and Bertoldt were unable to see each other in the darkness, but they could just faintly tell where the other one was from when they had hidden away so as soon as they noticed the patrol of Scouts heading towards their location.
He was keeping his breathing as quiet as possible, and they'd scrubbed the place of any sign they were there, but the scouts were being thorough. Once again he heard the sounds of doors being flung open, furniture being moved, and the muffled sounds of conversation. They had by now searched nearly every spot save for the hidey hole in the ceiling that was far too small for a man of Reiners size to comfortably hide away in. He hoped that might be enough to convince them not to look, but he didn't feel like he would be lucky.
The two of them had been debating endlessly about what they would do now that their cover was blown, but had at least agreed that staying out of sight from any patrols was going to be key. He had a sword in hand, and if he could then he'd prefer to use just that. He and Bertoldt were both skilled fighters, had healing, and may be able to get the element of surprise. However their opponents were likewise skilled, and in greater numbers, Reiner estimated six against just the two of them.
The fight itself likely wouldn't matter anyway. The issue was the Scouts calling for backup. If they could take the patrol by surprise then they might be able to get away, but if they fired a flare or even if either of them transformed then the rest of the Scouts would know where they were. Then it would be a battle they really didn't want to fight. Unfortunately, two of the scouts had elected to stay outside. A smart move on their part, and bad news for their chances of getting away without bringing the entire regiment bearing down on them.
More than just the Scout regiment, the garrison would be coming down on them too. Damn it, he knew they should have left to escape past the walls by now. Damn Bertoldt refusing to leave…
Several more of the muffled voices spoke up, and though Reiner couldn't make out what they were saying, it sounded like orders of some kind. If he felt like he could have moved without making a noise, he might have crossed his fingers in hope.
The sounds of footsteps and creaking wooden floorboards began to move towards the main entrance, then there was silence. Neither Reiner nor Bertoldt moved until they'd heard the horses ride off in the distance and they had waited several minutes just to be safe.
"Reiner…?"
Bertoldt's voice was little more than a whisper, but in the echoing silence of the roof it was plenty loud enough for the blonde to hear it.
"Let's move." Reiner began to shuffle along the boards, aware of just how much noise he was making as his ODM gear rattled along the wood. He was thankful when he dropped down back into the open living room and could breath some fresh air again, his lungs filled with dust and dirt.
Bertoldt grunted when he came down, his tall frame poorly suited for manoeuvring through such tight spaces. When he was finally free, he happily stretched out and sheathed his blades. "Do you think they'll be back?"
"Not likely." Reiner bent over and stretched out his shoulders. Perhaps it was the cramped conditions, or perhaps it was the tension that had been running through his body, but he felt extremely tight. "They'll probably think we've gone over the wall in a few days, that or into Wall Sina."
That had been another suggestion of Reiners', to go straight for the heart of the Eldian government and decapitate it. If they were unable to do anything else, at least that might be enough to let them live.
Bertoldt moved to the window and carefully peaked through the glass. "Reiner… I don't think they'll be back."
Reiner grunted in confusion and looked over to his comrade, only to see him with finger raised to a point in the distance. When he moved over to him, he traced the line and saw what Bertoldt had indicated.
It was the fading trail, or a red smoke flare.
But as he looked more carefully, he spotted that there was more than one flare in the sky. There was at least three more from what he could see, and they were all very far away from their current location.
"Titans…?"
That didn't make sense, and yet it did. The scouts wouldn't be firing off flares over accidentally thinking they had found the two of them, and if it was for another reason then they would use a different colour flare. Red flare meant Titans.
"Has the wall been breached? Maybe the rest of the warriors have arrived?"
Reiner was silent in response to Bertoldts question. He had no idea what could have been happening, but his mind did leap to the same possibility.
"We have to move Reiner." The tall man gripped Reiner frantically. "They'll be distracted, now is the time to go and rescue Annie!"
Yes… yes they would have the chance now. Except…
"Not yet." Bertoldt immediately made to argue, but Reiner held up a hand to stop him as he continued. "Tonight. We wait until the scouts are fully deployed against the breach, there will be less of them at the castle. But then we go. Tonight, we'll get Annie back."