"This stinks."
"Understatement of the year there Connie…" Jean grumbled as he tossed a pebble against the wall. He reached out and brushed his fingers through the dirt at his feet, rifling around until he found another small stone to entertain himself. He threw it at the wall of their cell again, only idly paying attention to where he was throwing them as it bounced off and landed in Sasha's hair.
"ARGH! Jean you asshole, stop throwing stones in my hair!"
"I threw one!" Jean threw up his hands in defence. "And it was an accident, relax."
"You've been throwing stones for an hour, yer getting' on my nerves!"
Jean was about to make a remark about her returning accent when he was cut off by a guard kicking at the door to their cell.
"Shut up in there!"
"You shut up!" Sasha was on her feet, kicking back at the door in anger. "I can talk if I want to!"
"Traitors need to be quiet." The man warned, glaring at her through the bars. "So shut up!"
"You're the damn traitor! You turn against us after all we've done for everyone!" Sasha kicked the door again and again. "You shut up! Shut-fucking-up!"
The man only tsked at her and walked away, not responding to Sasha's outburst with anything more than a roll of the eyes. She did not appreciate that, kicking harder at the door until one of her blows landed at the slightly wrong angle and she screamed out in anger, clutching at her toes as she hopped about.
"Sasha, will you stop antagonizing the guards?" Jean was entirely unsympathetic as she fell to the floor. "What's got you so worked up anyway?"
"Worked up?!" She rose to stare down at him only to immediately wince and drop back to the floor. "The Garrison has turned traitor and put us all in prison, there was some kind of battle in the capital that killed some of our best, we were dragged out of our beds in the middle of the night, I've had guns shoved in my face, I've been accused of crimes, nobody has given us anything to eat yet, and you KEEP ON THROWING STONES!"
Sasha was panting by the end of her screaming match, only relaxing slightly as Connie rubbed her back in sympathy. Jean sagged, groaning as he apologised. "Okay, I'll stop with the stones."
"It ain't just the stones." She stopped rubbing her sore toes to rub at her head in frustration. "What are we gonna do? We can't just wait here until they sentence us for something we didn't do!"
"You need to keep calm." A voice sounded from one of the further cells. Jean stretched his head to look out of the way and was just able to see Section Commander Zacharius leaning against his cell door and looking over at them. "I know you're angry, we all are, but you can't lose control like this. Kirschtein, stop throwing stones. Blouse, stop yelling."
"Yes sir." They both sounded off sheepishly.
In one of the further cells, another poked out their head. Jean couldn't turn very well, but he could see enough to recognise it was Mina, who was looking just as rough and miserable as the rest of them.
"Sir, what is the plan then?"
"For now, we wait." He held up a hand to stop her complaints before they could begin. "There's no word on Commander Erwin, that means he's still out there. So trust in him to think of something. He won't abandon us, and he had Captain Levi with him, nobody short of Gohan could stop him. But it won't help if we're all fighting amongst ourselves when the commander arrives."
They settled back down as ordered, but all of them were going stir crazy after the night raid and few answers as to why. Officials had informed them that due to acts treason and murder committed by high-ranking officers, the entire regiment was being detained until further investigation. None in the regiment believed it and none believed that their stay would be temporary either.
Jean sat and watched as Sasha continued to fret, only in silence as she leaned against Connie for emotional support. He thought hard, then finally spoke up as he decided to admit the truth.
"…I'm worried too Sasha. I don't… I don't know what's going to happen to my mom." She looked at him in surprise. He hadn't talked much about his mother, the most he'd ever spoken about her was during an impromptu cooking competition they had held. "I don't know what she'll think when she's told… whatever it is they tell her, some bullshit. But I worry that I won't get to tell her anything again. Not for a long time at least… I'm trying to keep myself distracted, but yeah, I'm worried too."
Sasha didn't respond for a while, only pondering his words and rubbing at her foot.
"My pa's alive… I wasn't sure for a while after what happened in Wall Rose, his village was in the woods near where it all started. I didn't see him during the attack or in the people who fled. But he sent me a letter, it came yesterday, got delivered to the new headquarters for me. I… I didn't open it… we didn't part on good terms, I don't know what he would think of me. Now I don't know if I'll ever find out."
Her heart clenched as she said the words, and Connie pulled her in tightly. He was still struggling with the loss of his own family, and the truth of what had happened to his mother, but it was a pain he had been forcing inside, private. He held Sasha in sympathy, and she squeezed his arm back in gratitude.
Despite what many had suggested, there was no romantic feelings between either of them, they were far more akin to brother and sister. Given all that had happened to them both recently… it was important to them to have each other still.
"Psst."
The voice came from outside, though they had trouble locating it at first. It wasn't towards the interior like their jail doors, instead it was from their small exterior window that showed only a small glimpse of light and the outside world. Hiding just out of view, a few strands of blonde hair were visible as a woman laid covered by a green cloth in an effort to blend in with the grassy floor.
"Hey, wait a minute, you're that woman from the Titan. Dina right?"
"Yeah, that's me." She didn't look at him as she spoke, only giving him a small wave as she looked elsewhere for any sign of guards. "I'm looking for Commander Pixis, do you know where he is?"
Jean pulled himself as close to the bars as he could to try and get a look at her. "What? Aren't you hear to break us out or something? Why do you want to find him?"
"Well… I was going to ask him to let you all go."
Jean looked at her gobsmacked. That might have been the stupidest idea he'd ever heard. "That's it? Just ask him?"
"Something like that…" She admitted, still not looking at him. Though Jean felt this was more due to embarrassment than out of trying to be sneaky.
"This isn't going to work…" Jean grumbled, letting his forehead sag against the bars in frustration.
"Armin said it would, that kid seems pretty smart to me."
"Armin said it? Armin's still free!?" Jean knew he had been out of the headquarters at the time of the raid, but his actual status was entirely unknown to any of them. He felt immediate relief at knowing his comrade was safe, or at the very least free. Knowing that Armin had been part of developing this plan also made him feel a bit better. He forcibly perked himself back up and stood up straight. "Fine, Pixis is in the central office, I saw him in one of the windows when we arrived."
"Right… which one is that?"
"It's-… it's the building marked central office. There's a big sign for it."
"I can't read the language here." She said it flatly, and this time it was Jean's turn to be embarrassed. "Which one is it?"
He reached an arm through the bars, having to hold himself as close as possible in order to reach through enough. He pointed out of sight, to where he remembered it being roughly located.
"Okay… we'll have you out in a bit, don't worry."
"Sure, we'll just stay here."
She shot him a patronising glance, to which he only shrugged back unapologetically. The plan sounded insane, but if Armin believed in it, then maybe there was a chance.
Dropping away from the bars, he looked back to his comrades who stared back at him with hopeful eyes.
"Well… we have another plan."
Eren and Mikasa had entered the Underground City without issue. Travelling through it however, was proving to be a far more troublesome task thanks to the growing crowds. Soon after they had arrived, they'd grabbed a newspaper to see what everyone was so riled up about, swiftly discovering why.
The newspaper had been a government owned one and declared that the Scouts had committed treason. Yet despite the Scouts lack of presence in the underground, it seemed people were in staunch refusal to believe it. As much as the two of them appreciated the emotional support, the rising number of people in the streets only made their jobs much harder. The two of them had taken to moving across rooftops to avoid being slowed down by the people in the streets.
"I don't see anything." Eren complained. "Can't sense anything either. There's too many people."
He tried shutting his eyes and focusing but had no luck in finding his mother or Hannes.
"It's no use trying to sense them from here." Mikasa had been unable to sense anything either, and as complete strangers to the city it was impossible for them to see anything that gave them hints about where to find them. "We need to move around and find them."
"Let's-" Eren cut himself off. He had been about to suggest splitting up, his desire to find his mother quickly ramping up his anxiousness but held himself back. As much as he may have once not wanted to admit it before, Mikasa was by far the better of the two of them, and this… this was far too important to let his pride get in the way. "Let's stick together, I'll need you when we find them."
"We'll need each other." She corrected, as she put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
He put his on hers, meaning only to acknowledge her when he instead froze. Mikasa… Mikasa was eternally supportive of him. He knew that, but having the sudden reminder of it as they were trying to rescue their mother was hitting him with a surprising level of emotion he hadn't thought about. He felt… comforted by her in a way he had been taking for granted.
"Are you okay?"
Ever perceptive, she had of course noticed how he'd frozen upon touching her hand. What Eren hadn't noticed about himself however, was the single tear that fell down his cheek. He quickly snapped himself out of it, breaking away to look out across the city.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. I-… thank you Mikasa." He moved towards the edge of the building. "Come on, we'll start clockwise, moving across the edge of the city."
He looked back to her, waiting for her opinion before they acted. After a moment of contemplation, she nodded in agreement, and the two of them leapt away.
Sentry duty was terribly dull. For the Military Police on guard around the chapel, there was little to fear or do as they stood on watch with eyes scanning the countryside. Thanks to their Ki sensing, their job had become much easier as well, with only a few eyes watching the distance whilst passively everyone else focused on the immediate area. Separating out people from animals was relatively easy once with a little bit of practice, which meant that for now and all future protection works there was little for them to be concerned about.
None could sneak up on them, none could kill any of their own without alerting the others, and each of them were now far too strong to be concerned about any ordinary person getting lucky in a fight with them. There was nothing for them to be worried about, save for the boredom.
"Is it a… cricket?"
"What? Crickets don't have eight legs, they have six."
"I'm pretty sure it's eight. Definitely more than four."
"I'm pretty sure you're an idiot."
"I'm sure both of you should shut up."
The order came from their superior, Lutz, who had walked in on the two MPs playing 20 questions as they leaned against the wall of the chapel instead of more actively standing guard.
"What exactly do you want us to do? If someone comes up the stairs we'll stand more formally, but in the meantime, nothing is happening."
"Nothing's meant to happen anyway, nobody knows about this place."
Valid points, and none that Lutz could truly find any argument against. Still, they were meant to be holding themselves to certain standards, and that meant they still had to act the part even when nobody was around.
"If I catch you two leaning again, I'll have you guarding the latrines beneath Mitras. Stand up straight and keep your eyes peeled."
"Oh yeah, I'll be sure to report every blade of grass, every cloud in the sky, and every stray horse I see."
The man suddenly paused as he realised that the horse he had mentioned, he hadn't actually noticed before. Looking off in the distance and just cresting a hill was indeed the stray horse he had seen, though far more unusually was that this one had a saddle.
"Anybody sense a rider?"
"Nothing, nobody but us and animals for miles."
"You're with me, we're going to check it out."
The officer let out a whistle as the three of them moved to grab their horses. The other three with them at the chapel would stay on guard and remain there in case anything happened.
There was no sense of concern to them as they rode out to inspect the horse. It was unusual to be sure, but their senses told them that nobody was around for a long distance, their eyes telling them the same. Reaching the crest of the hill they could see from one wall all the way to the other, making out the small villages and random outcroppings that lay across the land.
Not a single sight seemed suspicious.
"It's saddled alright." One of the men said as they rode closer and eyed the horse carefully. "I think this is a military horse. Yeah… saddle is marked as military property."
"Stolen saddle on a random horse? Or maybe one got free from a stable?"
Lutz hummed noncommittally. It was plausible that one had gotten free, but it just seemed too unlikely for him to brush off. He rubbed at his chin in thought, something just didn't sit right with him, and he hadn't survived so long without listening to his gut.
Something twigged at the back of his mind, a small flare on his Ki senses. He traced it back to the chapel, where the three other guards still remained. They were still there, just where they had left them. Relaxing no doubt.
Not… moving.
His eyes narrowed.
"Back to the chapel. Now!" He cut the two others off as they began to question him, quickly moving to follow as he galloped back to the chapel at full speed.
The three other guards were inside, and he leapt from his horse with one of his guns drawn, the other hand immediately pushing the door open to see inside.
The three guards were indeed there. Unconscious.
"What the fuck…?"
He pulled the second gun as he stalked inside of the chapel carefully, guns sweeping around and above him for any sign of intruders.
He heard the other two arrive and dismount, swearing like him as they saw their three unconscious comrades. They followed their commander, guns raised and sweeping through the room as they stepped inside.
Creeping from behind them, with his power level held low, Gohan followed them too.
His foot lashed out into the back of the rear mans knee, dropping him down with a yelp of pain. He grabbed the man by the front of his armour and threw him towards the officer at the front, his two other comrades having immediately spun around at the sound of his yelp.
Their guns fired, all four of them hitting their comrade as Gohan turned him from an impromptu shield into a missile, the now corpse slamming into the officer and dropping them both.
Gohan moved onto the third and now only standing man, who in his panic dropped his guns and tried to reload them. He managed to get one loaded and pointed just in time for Gohan to grab the man by his raised arm and flip him over.
He landed hard, but he didn't scream until Gohan followed up with a punch to his elbow, shattering the bones and joints. His scream of agony was silenced as Gohan threw a punch into the mans throat, turning the shout into little more than bloody gurgles.
Gohan heard the sound of a body hitting the floor and spotted the officer throwing off his dead subordinate and rising to his feet. Gohan grabbed the choking man by the foot and flung him towards the man, this time missing as the officer ducked down and the MP smacked into the wall, falling to the ground unconscious in a heap.
The officer drew a knife from behind him as he charged, lunging to stab Gohan who nimbly side-stepped and grabbed the mans wrist. He punched the mans elbow and snapped this one the same as his comrade, the knife dropping from his limp hand. Gohan caught it as it fell, spinning it around to plunge into his knee.
The man fell down screaming, his working hand going first to his arm, then to the knife in his knee in disbelief. As Gohan stood over him, he panicked, grabbing his gun and firing a cable up into the roof to try and pull himself away. As his body began to soar up, Gohan grabbed him and brought him back down, slamming the man into the brick floor and making a small crater with the blow.
His cable snapped and fell loose to the ground, landing and pooling around his unconscious form.
Gohan took the moment to pause, sensing out deeply and at those below. They were active, moving quickly and no doubt taking defensive positions. It wouldn't matter, but Gohan knew Piccolo likely would have been disappointed in his failure to take all six out discreetly.
The previous three had been caught completely off guard, and he'd managed to take them out well without alerting the main group, though seemingly not their comrades on the surface.
There was a lot of them beneath him he could tell, their power levels all ranging from just above the typical human to quite reasonably strong. He could pick out the one belonging to Cavin quite well, he still remembered her. She was not however, the strongest there, that belonged to another, one staying near those he recognised as Ymir and Historia, it seemed he'd found where they had been taken.
He moved towards where Kuno's memories had shown him, the entrance down towards the rest of the cavern. A simple wooden door that Gohan opened with ease, revealing the staircase leading downwards.
He took a few breaths to mentally prepare himself, before he began his descent.
"He's here, it's-"
"Gohan." Frieda didn't turn to look at Cavin as she gave the report, a slight twinge of uncertainty in her voice. Instead, Frieda continued to inspect the various vials and syringes they had, thumbing through to see if there was any that would be of use to her. "Move to defensive positions and stop him."
If they could was left unsaid, as Cavin left to rally her MPs for combat. With a sigh, Frieda left the vials and walked back towards her sister, looking at her sadly.
"Oh Historia… I'm so sorry. I really hoped we might have a chance to reconnect again…" She reached out and rubbed her shoulders, looking her up and down. "But it looks like that might not be the case. You've grown up to be a beautiful woman, and I'm very proud of you."
"Frieda…?"
Historia's eyes were full of concern, which Frieda appreciated deeply. She may be a prisoner here, and clearly uncomfortable around the rest of their family, but Historia still felt something for her older sister. It was enough to warm her heart in a way that Frieda would cherish for what little of her life would remain.
Whatever came next, whether Gohan won or not, Frieda had a feeling that this day was to be her last as herself.
The will of the first king was indomitable, but she had managed to keep it at bay through a great deal of hard work. It had been a battle she had been losing, year after year it felt like there was less of her true self remaining.
After the fall of Shiganshina and her encounter with the strange man, Frieda had wanted to find her sister and bring her into the fold then and there. But to do so would have been dangerous, she would need to directly expose the truth of their family and the royals. It had been enough of a push that she hadn't been able to do it, the will of the first king had activated, forced her into inaction and disdain for Historia. The next time she'd been consciousness of her real thoughts, Historia had left the farm and joined the military, lost from her ineffectual reach for good.
She'd spent a long time trying to regain herself, but it seemed every step forward she took she fell back another two.
"Keep her safe." Ymir looked surprised at her request but nodded anyway. It was clear the woman didn't trust her, which was good. Historia would need someone like Ymir to keep her safe, someone who was sharp and not afraid to be ruthless.
Turning back to her family, she felt at a loss of what to say to them. She loved them, deep down, she knew that she still did. But when she looked at them… she felt so detached, like she barely knew them anymore. Her father, now just a shell of a man consumed by shame to her, and her mother just as filled with anger and bitterness. All her previous thoughts and feelings towards them seemed gone now under the kings will, she saw them as little more than subjects, as sinners like the rest.
She turned away before her disgust could show.
It was not her, not truly. There seemed to be precious little of her left anymore, only the love that she still held for Historia. But it seemed like this would be the day where she said goodbye to her.
Gohan was coming, as was the fight that would determine the future of their nation. He would not stop, he would not comply, that much had been made certain by their failure to control him. Instead, he would need to be put down. She could feel his power approaching, no longer hiding as he had before, instead he was throwing down the gauntlet and making his challenge loud and clear.
This would be a fight to the death, and if she failed then she failed the decree of the first king. The Eldians would never atone for their sins, for the hundreds of years of conquest and murder they had unleashed upon the world. Their people would never pay the ultimate price to settle the blood debt that they owed, and the world would fail to have peace.
It was not something she could allow.
She rolled her neck and stretched her muscles. The time would soon be upon her, a fight to the death… it would be time to find out how much her preparation had worked.