Prologue: Lily-of-the-Valley
New beginnings
Everything was dark when he arrived. When the light was flicked on, walking into the room with the glare bouncing off linoleum floors was near blinding. Computers lined both walls ready to be booted up for another day of work, and the air was a bit stagnant. There was a new workstation at the far end of everything, obviously just installed yesterday for his own personal use since there were no telltale signs of long nights marring the surface of the desk with coffee stains.
Taking a seat, the spinning chair dipped under his weight, slender fingers caressing the side of the computer almost lovingly before pressing the power button. The whirr of machinery broke the silence, and the monitor lit up as bright as the sun, a message waiting on the screen. -Welcome to the Titan project, good to have you on board!- This must have been Hange's work. They were enthusiastic enough, and sociable enough, to leave a friendly message on his computer screen the first day on the job.
It had the desired effect, and as he positioned a camera at his face to begin recording his first log - expected to be done by the time everyone arrived - he was smiling. "Scientist Armin Arlert, new recruit to the Titan project. Day one, the time is 5:45 in the morning. I was instructed to relay what my first day has in store for me, and Hange encouraged me to talk about how I feel about it too."
"I'm a little nervous. I'll be splicing volunteer one, and volunteer two's genetic codes together, and placing the results in an incubator. Hopefully if everything goes right, Erwin and Levi will be the proud new fathers of a baby girl." he gave a nervous laugh, almost immediately regretting saying that last bit out loud. "Of course they'll have no real connection to her, they're just genetic donors of course! Besides, she'll be aging so rapidly, they won't even have time to raise her!"
Armin ran a hand down his face, grimacing in embarrassment. It wasn't very kind, but he hoped others had made as much of fool of themselves as he was now. It was a rare opportunity to work on a project like this, and he didn't want to ruin it by having a horrible first log! "S-subjects name will be Annie Leonhardt, half sister to Mikasa Ackerman through Levi, and Reiner Braun through Erwin."
"It is unknown whether or not this specific combination of DNA will be stable, that's why I choose to make a female. The double X-Chromosome should offer a better chance at survival. Hange personally approved my reasoning's, and showed support of them." He swallowed, lips pursing nervously. Armin had never done something like this before, and he wasn't really given a guideline on what to say.
"S-subjects rate of growth is estimated to be one year per month until eighteen, at which time, we will slow it down to normal. She will remain in stasis through this entire time, basic skills such as speaking, and writing will be programmed into her brain while this is happening. We have high hopes for Annie since Mikasa and Reiner are our top successes." He smiled at that. Usually something like meshing Levi and Erwin's DNA together would be dealt with by Hange themself, but they believed he wouldn't mess it up. He wouldn't allow himself to be a nuisance, he would make Hange proud, and wouldn't fail in this!