There are things Erwin Smith does not like to remember. His father's death, his mother's mental breakdown, and the loss of Ilse Langnar, just to name a few.
Erwin prides himself on keeping his subordinates safe, despite the risk that comes with being a member of the Legion. With rogue Metas and sadistic people roaming the streets, there's more than enough risk. But with the changes he's made, Erwin has kept the Legion safer than ever before. He hasn't done it alone, of course. Hanji has helped keep Legion members healthy and Mike has been a strong force in the Legion for years.
But Ilse, she was never a fighter. Erwin never really understood why she wanted to join the Legion. She hated fighting, despised physical labor, and didn't like using her powers all that much. Sometimes he wondered if she'd been forced into it, but whenever he saw her on reconnaissance missions, all his musings were put to rest. She was a born journalist and when they needed to investigate some shady business, Erwin had asked Ilse to go undercover.
They'd never done this before. Only the police did undercover missions but Erwin needed information straight from the source, not through an organization with corruption tainting their past. And Ilse had been all too happy to go undercover. He could still see that way her brown eyes lit up when he proposed the mission to her. He could still hear the excitement and giddiness laced in her voice as she spoke over the phone to him, telling him all she could.
"I'm so close to getting to the bottom of this, Erwin!" she had said excitedly. The rapid pitter-patter of feet in the background told him she was jumping around. "I'm on track to making a swift promotion and once that's done I can get even more information!"
"I'm glad to hear that," he had replied. "Are you still able to do the journal drop next week?"
"Yes! I can still do that."
"I'll be at the coffee shop at one o'clock on Friday. I'll see you then and be careful, Ilse." He didn't know why he said it. She was always careful. Erwin wasn't that worried; being caught was a possibility, but who would expect Ilse of all people to be a spy? There was nothing physically remarking about her. Her true assets were in her mind and the way she wrote. No one would suspect a thing.
And yet that Friday, Erwin sat alone at the coffee shop waiting for a woman that would never show up.
Erwin tried to look into what happened to Ilse, but never got anything more than she was last seen at her apartment the morning before their scheduled meeting. And even with that, Erwin was skeptical if that was true. Ilse was unassuming and moved through the world like a phantom. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that she'd been in and out without anyone noticing. But Ilse never came back to headquarters, never gave him her journal, never called again.
It was ironic in the worst way. She used to move around and watch everything like she was a ghost, and now the only trace left of Ilse Langnar was her ghost haunting Erwin's mind.
Hi everyone, Amaranthprincess21/Mari here! My friend Julia and I have rebooted our old project Attack on Heroes and I decided doing side fics would be good for the little things we can't fit into the audioplay itself! This is just the beginning of a lot of awesome SnK superhero AU fics! :D
I can't insert links but it's called Attack on Heroes:Resurgence! You can find us on Tumblr and Youtube!