The click of keys turning in the ignition followed by the dying hum of the engine left the SUV quiet after a few seconds, save for the sounds of its driver and passenger both unbuckling their seatbelts and shortly thereafter pushing open their doors before throwing them back shut in near unison.
"So how do you want to do this?" Bertolt asks simply as he stands by his door gazing across the street at the two-story brick building they're here to pay a visit to, glancing to his side as tall, blonde partner in crime walks around from the driver's side to join him.
"Same way we always do things Bert. We have a very particular set of skills, you and I. We'll go in loud and we'll go in hard. The whole thing will take less than ten minutes I bet." Reiner replies with an unmistakable smirk curled upon his lips, the chiseled features of his face making him seem all the more confident in his abilities and likelihood of success. Bertolt simply gave a nod in response, acquiescing to the rudimentary but often effective plan and waiting for a gap in the traffic before striding across the street alongside Reiner to put it into motion.
The two of them had been given a contract by a local organized crime boss to seek out an ex-associate of his who had gone into hiding after fleecing him out of several thousands of dollars. When his own men couldn't turn him up, he called upon some Fixers. If you needed to get a critical or sensitive job done that required you to perhaps skate around the boundaries of the law, a Fixer was the person that you went to; provided that you had the right connections and the necessary funds to provide just compensation, of course.
Reiner Braun and Bertolt Hoover happened to be one of the most well-renowned Fixer duos in the country; both of them having previously been members of the infamous Jericho Syndicate that was once considered by and large to be the most elite assembled group of Fixers anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, the extralegal organization dissolved after the shocking death of their leader, Eren Yeager, a little more than three years ago during a job that went awry. Following Eren's death, a power struggle ensued within the Jericho Syndicate that ultimately led to their fatal fracturing. With the team unable to rally behind a new head – colloquially assigned the title of Maven – and with so many splintered factions dividing them, their downfall was inevitable.
After the Syndicate was no more, all of the members went their separate ways. Some stayed in contact with one another, and some actually remained quite close. Such was the case with Reiner and Bertolt, though they had been working together long before ever being recruited as part of the Jericho Syndicate. They had grown up as childhood friends, and the forged bond between them was practically unbreakable. It was the least surprising thing to anyone then that they had resumed working as an independent duo afterwards. The two of them made for quite the excellent team, as well as an imposing force that you most certainly didn't want to have tracking you down given their intimidating physiques and impressive skills.
The small brass bell hanging over the front door of the watch and jewelry repair shop let off a high-pitched ring to announce the arrival of a new customer, prompting the man standing behind the counter at the back of the store to look up from the magazine he had been idly flipping through.
"Welcome to Arturo's Watch and Gold Repairs; how can I help you today gentlemen?" asked the man in a vaguely exotic accent sounding to be from somewhere in Latin America. He was tall, though not as tall as either the blonde or brunette who had just walked in. His dark hair was slicked back and he wore a thin gold chain around his neck; looking half-mobster and half-greaser at the same time, which was appropriate considering his status as an employee working under the man whom Reiner and Bertolt were here to meet.
"Yeah, thanks. I was hoping you guys could take a look at my watch; it's been on the fritz lately. Stops counting the seconds sometimes." Reiner responds to the clerk without missing a beat, walking up to the counter as he fiddles with the clasp to the silver watch he wears around his left wrist while Bertolt heads over to one of the side walls to look over the trinkets sitting inside of a glass display case.
Once Reiner gets his watch off, he hands it over to the man in his early-thirties working behind the counter of this store that serves primarily as a front for other illegal operations. The man sets the watch down flat upon the glass top of the counters so that he can bend down closely to inspect it, unwittingly allowing the big, tall, blonde ox standing before him to quickly grab his gelled head of hair and smash it directly through the layer of plate glass comprising the top of the display case built into the counter. Tiny shards of shattered glass fly through the air, glimmering in reflected light as they do so and rain down noisily upon the linoleum tiled floor of the shop. The clerk remains unconsciously slumped in the now broken display case with blood trickling out from the multiple cuts skewered across his face as a result of the jagged glass he was sent crashing through.
The cacophony of sound is enough to alert another grunt who had been sitting in the employee break room area located behind a closed door marked with a sign reading "PRIVATE", rushing out to see what the hell was happening only to be met by Bertolt as he stepped out into the main showroom. The statuesque, dark-haired young man greeted the concerned fellow with a swift boot the gut which sent him reeling back into the break room, which Bertolt followed him into to continue pressing the attack. At the same time, Reiner took the initiative to head back over to the front door of the repair shop and flip the sign hanging on it around so that it read "CLOSED" to anybody walking by outside. He couldn't help but smirk a little bit in amusement at himself as he walked back over to assist his companion, entering the employee lounge just in time to watch Bertolt lift up the already dazed enemy combatant and slam him down onto the simple wooden table sitting in the middle of the room with enough weight and force to break it in half as the hapless man now lays incapacitated in the table's wreckage on the floor.
With the two lackeys who never stood a chance now having been swiftly taken care of, the two men on a mission take a moment to regroup in the break room. The muffled sounds of frantic footsteps can be heard through the ceiling on the floor up above, the stairway to access it only located a few feet away in the corner of the lounge.
"So you think he knows we're here for him?" Reiner asks with a sarcastic smirk as he meets the eyes of his slightly taller comrade, Bertolt merely letting out a light sigh while glancing back at the ruins of the table and the battered body of the man he just sent careening through it. Bertolt wasn't a violent person by nature – in fact, most people who know him well would describe him as rather gentle and mild-mannered – but when his job called for him to utilize his raw strength and fighting prowess he knew it was necessary to use it. Often times he felt bad about it afterwards in cases where his opponent was clearly outmatched, as was the case this time.
"He's probably just waiting for us to come up there with a gun locked on the top of the stairs. There's no way we can just waltz on up now." Bertolt said with a bit of dismay while Reiner gave a nod of agreement. They both knew that the longer they had to stick around here, the greater the chance they'd be around if someone were to happen on the scene and call the police. Considering that Fixers and cops aren't usually on good relations with one another, this was a scenario the two of them hoped to avoid.
"You're probably right. Luckily, I happened to come prepared for a situation such as this." Reiner replies as he reaches inside of his olive-green cargo jacket and pulls out a small, black, cylindrical device with a pin hooked to the top. "Behold." He adds with a mocking sense of wonder as he pulls the pin from the grenade and tosses it up the staircase, Bertolt already turning away in a crouch and covering his ears as Reiner joins him. Seconds later there's a blinding burst of light and a horrible high-pitched screeching fills the air as the flashbang goes off, giving the two Fixers the cue to rush up the steps to capitalize on the temporary disarray.
Surely enough their assumption was correct that their target had been planning to ambush them at the top of the steps, as lying on the floor nearby the disheveled older gentleman is a simple Makarov pistol that the stun grenade effectively disarmed him of. Given the way he's sprawled out on his stomach facing away from the steps, it seems like he was attempting to run away but was unable to escape the blast radius in time before it detonated. Now momentarily blinded and disoriented, it's an easy task for his assailants to lift him up off the floor and drag him back into his office nearby, only to shove him back down onto the carpet once they have him where they want him.
"Mauricio Rojas…there's a pretty little price on your head. Did you know that?" Reiner asks the middle-aged Latin man with a small chuckle of satisfaction knowing that his contract is about to be completed one way or another. The job was stated very clearly: either get back the money owed to the crime boss by Rojas, or make him pay with his blood instead. He and Bertolt both noticed the safe sitting in the corner of the office when they walked in, and it only takes a silent nod shared between the two before the dark-haired half of the duo begins rummaging through the large chestnut desk in the room looking to find a code.
"Please…don't waste your time wrecking my office. Ugh…I'm sure you've already done…quite a number downstairs." Rojas says through his groans of soreness and discombobulation, waving his hand dismissively at the two boys while propping himself up on one elbow. "Toselli sent you…if he wants his money that badly then he can take it. In the safe…the code is 4127. There's enough in there to pay him back with interest…just take it." He finishes with a deflated sigh that acknowledges a few thousands of dollars isn't worth this much trouble on his end. In all honesty it isn't enough of an amount to make a difference on Don Toselli's end either, but for him it's about making a statement that nobody is going to screw him over.
Reiner continues to stand watch over Rojas who continues to grumble under his breath about all the damage he's going to have to get repaired down in his shop, while Bertolt quickly trots over to the safe and gets down on a knee to input the code. There's a beep as each number is pressed, and a string of chirps followed by the sound of the locks disengaging once it's been fully entered. Dutifully taking out the individual stacks of money and counting over it, Bertolt smiles as he determines this will be plenty and that this mission can be finished without any casualties.
"There's a little over $34,000 in here. I think that will be plenty to pay off your debt." Bertolt states approvingly, prompting Reiner to toss him a conveniently nearby tote bag for the money to be deposited into. It doesn't take more than a handful of seconds for all of it to be transferred from the safe to the bag, and after a brief goodbye out of courtesy to Rojas, the two best friends make their way back out of the store the same way they came in, passing by the two still unconscious henchmen serving under Rojas as they leave.
"Woo! Nothing better than the feeling of a job well done! Now all that's left to do is drop off the cash and then we get paid!" Reiner exclaims as he smacks his hands together victoriously while he and Bertolt cross the street again and return to their SUV still parked next to the opposite curb. The brown-haired boy hands the bag off to his blonde companion as they reach their vehicle – a sleek, black Cadillac Escalade less than a year old – so that Bertolt can drive this time while Reiner rides shotgun.
It's only after a couple of minutes on the road that Reiner's phone begins to ring, prompting Bertolt to look over at him incredulously while his muscular passenger fishes it out from his pants pocket.
"Did you have that thing on the whole time?!" he asks dumbfounded by the idea that Reiner's phone could have gone off at any moment while they were in the middle of their job, receiving his answer only from the nervous chuckle and shrug Reiner gives in response as he looks at the name spelt out across the screen to identify who it is that's calling; prompting him to answer it.
"Annie, perfect timing. Bert and I just finished working for the day. What's up?" he asks to the small blonde on the other end of the line with a satisfied grin on his face while Bertolt merely shakes his head in disbelief. Annie was a former teammate of theirs as a fellow member of the Jericho Syndicate a few years ago, and the duo had maintained a good relationship with her after its disintegration. They hadn't formally worked together on any contracts since then, but it wasn't uncommon for one of them to call the other to ask for advice on how to handle a job; though it was almost always Reiner or Bertolt calling Annie. It wasn't unusual for her to call them for non-work-related topics of conversation, but Annie preferred to handle her business primarily on her own.
"More than you could imagine. I don't have the time or the details to get into it all right now, but I need you to help me out." Comes Annie's reply, taking Reiner by surprise as he wasn't expecting a call for assistance to be what awaited him when he answered his phone.
"Uhh sure Annie, of course. We'll do whatever we can to help out. What exactly do you need?" Reiner asks a bit uncertainly, his words catching Bertolt's attention as he looks over quizzically while stopped at a red light, wondering just as much as Reiner now what it is that Annie needed aid with.
"I've recently had some very crucial information fall into my hands, literally. I have a flash drive with files on it that need to be decrypted. This isn't any ordinary work either; the guy who encrypted these files in the first place did it so nobody would be able to unlock it except for him." Annie explains as she leans against the wall outside of a multi-story building on a street corner, her icy blue eyes glancing furtively at the people as they pass her by and her fingers fiddling with the aforementioned flash drive that still sits tucked inside the pocket of her oversized jacket. "I possess neither the talent nor the patience to decode them myself, and I don't intend to pay any grey hat an exorbitant sum to do so either. Besides, if the information on here turns out to be what I think is on here, I don't want it to be seen by any eyes I don't know." Annie continues as she fills in the boys on her dilemma, already knowing how she intends to resolve it though and simply setting things up for her friends to be aware of the situation; at least as much as they need to be. Until she can confirm for herself whether or not Eren is still alive, she plans on telling only the necessary parties about it.
"Right, well, I get what you're saying and all Annie, but if you're looking for hackers you're searching in the wrong place. Bert and I are all brawn and no brain over here." Reiner replies jokingly though admittedly very intrigued by what Annie is telling him. Whatever is on that flash drive must be pretty damn important for her to not want anybody else seeing it and to cause her to go such rare measures as calling upon somebody else for help. Meanwhile, Bertolt mutters a "Speak for yourself" playfully under his breath at Reiner's comment about them lacking intelligence, earning him a punch to the arm in kind that perhaps proves his point since that might not be the wisest thing to do to somebody operating a motor vehicle.
"Trust me; nobody is mistaking either of you two for code breakers anytime soon. I know that neither of you have the skills to decrypt this either, but you do know somebody who can." Annie responds, briefly pausing as she shifts her weight onto her opposite foot. "I need you to tell me where I can find Arlert."
"Armin? Well…I guess if you need a hacker you aren't going to find many people better suited to the job." Reiner says scratching the back of his head a bit as he's still trying to make heads or tails of all this. He's fairly sure that Annie and Armin haven't had any contact with each other in several years; not since they all worked together in the same unit. Even then the two short blondes hardly had the best of relationships. Reiner and Bertolt however had maintained a friendly relationship over that same time with the prodigal genius, providing Annie with the window she needed to reach him. Exchanging a glance with Bertolt, who is doing his best to piece together the ongoing conversation through his companion's words only, Reiner made up his mind. "I can't give you an exact location on where he is – trust me, I would if I had one – but as far as I know he's been saddled up in Trost for a while now."
"Thank you Reiner. Once I figure out more about what's going on, I'll make sure to fill you in. Until then I have to keep things close to the vest. I'll talk to you again soon." Annie promptly tells her helpful friend and former squadmate before hanging up her phone without allowing Reiner to inquire any further.
Two days later, Annie's plane was touching down on the runway outside of Trost International Airport; the sun still rising in the sky during these morning hours over the shining metropolis of a city that Armin Arlert was apparently calling home these days. She wasn't surprised in the least to learn that this is where'd he been conducting his business from; Trost is the nation's leading hub in banking, commerce, and economics – it's a veritable hacker's paradise. For a Fixer with the technical prowess of someone like Armin, a fortune could easily be made here.
Annie had called in some favors in advance with some contacts in the city who owed her, and she had managed to get a relatively narrow idea of where she could find Armin somewhere in these sprawling streets and towering skyscrapers. Considering his résumé and skillset, it wasn't exactly difficult for him to find contracts. She had thought about getting another hacker in the city to try to trace him for her, but she knew that Armin was too good to be tracked down by any run-of-the-mill Fixer. It would take someone almost as good as him to even think about breaking through his security, and Annie wasn't about to spend thousands of dollars just for a simple trace.
After getting a rental car from the airport and spending nearly an hour navigating the streets and traffic of Trost, she had arrived at the general vicinity in which she hoped she could find the genius she was looking for. The diminutive yet intimidating blonde began to wander around, not knowing exactly what she was looking for but simply trying to scan for anything that she could classify as a lead. She had only been performing her undeveloped search for a few minutes when she received a call from an anonymous phone number. It was common for clients to keep their numbers blocked when attempting to contact a Fixer, so Annie thought nothing of it when she flicked the green icon on the screen to answer it.
"Hello?"
"If you want to talk, meet me in the parking garage the next block over. Silver van; second level."
That was all that the unmistakable voice said before Annie heard a beep and the line went dead just as quickly as it had come alive. She stood there in place on the sidewalk a bit stunned as she stared at her phone, putting it back into the pocket of her jeans after a couple of seconds once she had finished processing what had just occurred. That was most definitely Armin who had called her, but how he had gotten her phone number and how he even knew where she was? Those were things she was still attempting to figure out. She'd have to get those answers later though; Armin knew she had a reason for being here and he'd just invited her to speak with him about it. Not knowing how long offer would stand, she wasted no further time progressing towards the location she had just been given by Armin Arlert himself.
"The server room is just up ahead on your right. Plug me in once you get inside and I can take things from there." Armin instructed through his headset as he sat in front of a bank of computers and monitors constituting his mobile command center, located in the back of a windowless silver van. He leaned over to take a sip from a bottle of root beer as his large blue eyes flit back and forth across the numerous security camera feeds currently displayed upon the three monitors surrounding him.
Today the name of the game was corporate espionage, and it was a simple enough job. He'd been hired along with his partner to break into the system of a rival corporation and delete all the research that they had been doing on a prototype piece of technology; a loss that would set them back by almost a year and would allow the company that gave him a contract to prosper instead. The first part of Armin's job was to guide his partner through the headquarter building and into the server room while avoiding security, using the live camera feeds at his disposal which were quite simple to hack into.
The other part of the job was just about to begin, as his partner had successfully infiltrated the server room at last and the blonde cyber-genius could watch as he plugged him into the network. Once his link had been established, his eyes lit up and he began to go to work; his fingers scrambling across the keyboard while his eyes skimmed through lines upon lines of code, every keystroke precise as it needed to be for him to hack through all the security layers impeding his mission. Fortunately, while this corporation was clearly ready to defend itself from cyber-attack, they didn't seem to actually be anticipating one. It didn't take Armin much longer than a couple of minutes to disable all of the countermeasures in his way, subsequently gaining access to all of the information he needed and then some.
A small grin curled upon his lips as he swiftly found what he was looking for and began the process of eradicating all of the necessary files; in the meantime browsing through some other sensitive areas in the network to do a little bit of personal snooping while he waited. Whenever he performed a hit on a major figure or corporation like this one, he always liked to see if he couldn't uncover anything incriminating or scandalous that he could put into his back pocket. Then in the future he could anonymously inform his targets of what he knew; using that acquired blackmail as an easy method of collecting cash on his downtime.
A familiar tone rang through his headset to notify him that the job was complete and that all the files had been deleted, giving him the cue to remove himself from the system and erase all traces of him ever being there on his way out. After he was certain that he'd covered up his tracks sufficiently, he began powering down his own hardware.
"All clear on my end. There's an auxiliary stairwell down the hall on your right after you exit the server room. You should be able to take that all the way back down to an exit around the back of the building. Meet up with you back at the garage." Armin said through his headset to his partner still inside the building before signing off, removing the wireless device, and finishing off the remainder of his beverage. He tossed the emptied can into a trash can he kept in the corner as he stood up and stretched out his legs and back, breathing out in relief once he had finished and allowing him to hop out of the back doors of the van.
Walking around to the driver's side door, he spotted the figure approaching in her white jacket and dark blue jeans; her gray boots softly plodding along the concrete floor of the parking garage and echoing off the walls and pillars nearby.
"You're right on time. Hop in the other seat, we've got to make a quick drive." Armin called out in a friendly manner to Annie, who was still very confused about most of the aspects of this situation. She wasn't in much of a position to ask questions just yet though, so she nodded and followed Armin into the van; pulling open the passenger door just as he started the engine up and slamming it shut as he began to pull out.
Her icy blue eyes glanced over at Armin as he drove his way out of the parking garage; analyzing him intently. He hadn't changed much since she last saw him in all honesty. He was maybe another inch or two taller, but then again so was she, so it was hard to tell exactly. Either way they were both still very much on the short end of the spectrum, so any change in height wasn't really that significant. Her body still appeared to be much more hardened and toned than his, though Armin was still quite thin and appealing in a cute way – if that was what you were into. His dress was simple; a dark-gray t-shirt and accompanying pair of pants just a couple shades lighter than his shirt.
"So…I heard you have something you need to bring to my attention." Armin suddenly piped up to break the silence that had been sitting between the two of them for the past couple of minutes. It wasn't lost on Annie that his words didn't carry the inflection of a question and were instead stated as fact, the small smile he was showing all but confirming that for her.
"And where exactly did you hear that?" Annie replied, not about to give up the goose so easily and at least not without attempting to get some clarity on how Armin came to be expecting her.
"Well," began Armin's answer as he pondered over how to say what he wanted, "Let's just say that you and I have a mutual friend who doesn't do very well with secrets." He finished with a chuckle as Annie let out a small sigh of derision. She was going to have to thank Reiner later for spilling the beans about her arrival in Trost. "After that, it wasn't too hard to set up an alert once you showed up on a flight registry that would let me know when you'd be getting here. Then I just waited a little bit after you landed to check in on where you were. Lucky for both of us that you happened to be so close by."
"And how did you know where I was anyway?"
"You have a smartphone, don't you? As long as you've got the ability, it isn't that difficult to hack into the GPS function on it and keep tabs on whoever you want."
"Hmm. I'll need to remember to get that disabled then."
"Maybe I can help you with that too once I get done with whatever you have that's so important you had to come to me with it."
Armin shot Annie a knowing smile after that, not failing to notice how she had attempted to avoid directly answering him when he brought up that he knew his gruff former teammate had some work for him. Annie elected to remain silent while Armin reached up and pressed a button on a small device attached to the sun visor, causing the garage door to their left to begin rising up so that Armin could turn and drive the van inside. The door began to close behind them with another press of the button after they had parked inside; the engine shutting off with a turn of the ignition so that the two small blondes could exit the vehicle.
"I have sensitive information on a flash drive that's protected with an encryption. All I need you to do is figure out a way to get it unencrypted. It's way over my head and the things that might be on there aren't something I'm willing to let a stranger's eyes observe." Annie says out of the blue, divulging the details of why she traveled all the way out here and taking Armin a bit by surprise as he walks over to flick on the lights in the garage. The garage itself is rather ordinary on the inside, even if the van currently being kept within it most certainly isn't. There's nothing out of the ordinary on display that would give away that there's more going on here than meets the eye.
"Sounds like it's pretty juicy information then, especially if you felt the need to come all the way out here just to enlist my assistance in obtaining it. Of course, I'd be happy to help you out Annie…just so long as you're willing to talk about a proper fee." Armin replies with a grin as he walks back over, voicing his willingness to provide Annie with his exquisite services as long as she's willing to fairly compensate him for it.
"I think you'll be willing to waive your fee in this instance – once you know what it is you'll be working on." Annie rebuts confidently as she pulls the flash drive in question out from the pocket of her jacket and holds it up in between her thumb and one of her small fingers. "Eren might be alive."
The resounding bombshell that Annie just dropped hangs heavily in the air as Armin's jaw seems to almost unhinge from dropping so much in shock. His bright, blue eyes widen to further express this disbelief, and he's left at a loss for words as he tries to formulate what to say in response. After all, what's the appropriate follow-up to learning that after three years of believing he was dead, the best friend that you ever had might be alive after all?
Armin is spared having to speak next when the back door to the garage opens up unexpectedly, and in walks a man with light grayish-brown hair who looks incredibly perplexed at seeing an interloper present at the garage.
"Armin…who the hell is this?" he asks glancing back and forth between the still stunned hacker and the unknown blonde girl standing across from him.
"Uhh…sorry, this is Annie. She's an old friend of mine. Annie, this is Daz. He's been my partner as of late. He does the infiltrating in the field while I take care of the technical stuff." Armin answers to fill both of his current companions in on the situation, as Annie was caught just as off-guard as Daz was when he entered the garage; although she did a much better job of keeping her cool. Years of practice had honed her ability to make it seem as if she was emotionless.
"Nice to meet you Daz. I'm taking your partner from you." Annie says to the rather anxious looking newcomer to the conversation, her stoic facial expression and intimidating presence (in spite of her small stature) not doing much to help the situation. Predictably, Daz doesn't react well to hearing the news that he's about to have his partner in crime snatched up by some girl he's never met before.
"W-what?! You can't do that! That isn't even your decision to make! A-Armin! Tell her to get the fuck out of here!" Daz exclaims in resistance to these developments, now turning to Armin in the hopes that he'll rebuff Annie as well and send her on her way.
"Daz, listen, I know this is all a bit alarming to you, but you have to understand—"
"I'm sorry to inform you that this isn't up for debate. Armin is joining me and you're just going to have to find someone else to do the work that you're incapable of doing yourself." Annie says tersely, cutting Armin off as he attempts to explain the situation and calm Daz down, her patience being strained at the moment. She'd be damned if she was going to let this kid try to stand in the way of her getting one step closer to tracking down Eren.
"I…I'd like to see you try! You think I'm just going to let you come in here, take my hacker from me, and tell me to just deal with it?! How about I give you something to deal with instead?!" Daz shouts, not willing to simply step aside and planning to enforce his will upon Annie in order to let her know just how mistaken she is.
Moving aggressively towards her, he gets his fists balled up and raised for a fight while Annie simply stands in place watching him with unimpressed, venomous eyes. It wouldn't take very much for her to dismantle her hapless attacker, but she did not wish to waste neither the time nor the effort that it would require to do so. Instead, she calmly decides to reach inside of her jacket and pull out her favored .357 long-nose revolver; taking aim and firing off one round straight into Daz's left kneecap before he even has the chance to think about getting out of her line of fire.
"What did you do that for?! Are you out of your mind?!" Armin exclaims in incredulity as Daz crumples to the floor screaming in agony, clutching at his injured knee and trying to suppress the bleeding caused by the bullet now lodged inside of it. With a shrug, Annie puts her magnum away before responding.
"He was going to attack me. I felt that I was in significant danger, so I defended myself." She says matter-of-factly, not even bothering to make her words sound like a believable excuse. The shrug that she adds in response to Armin's continued glare doesn't help matters much either. It doesn't take long for her to tire of Daz and his wailing, which prompts her to walk over to where he lays in the fetal position in order to silence him with a swift boot to the temple which knocks him unconscious.
"We should get moving. The sooner we get back to Stohess, the sooner we can start working on where to find Eren." Annie says as she tucks her revolver back into her jacket, turning her attention back to the hacker with the suggestion that they leave together as soon as possible.
"Why do we even have to go to Stohess? Why can't you just stay here for a day or two and let me work on it with all my own equipment?" Armin asks while trying not to focus on the unconscious heap that he supposes he can now call his ex-partner. He was pretty sure that the gunshot wound wasn't going to be anywhere close to fatal, but Daz was still going to be in for a world of pain once he woke up.
"Are you telling me that once you get access to the information on here, including Eren's location, you aren't going to want come with me to see if he's there?" Annie rebuts, postulating a very valid point that hadn't occurred to Armin yet. He realized that she was right though; no matter how slim that chance may actually be of Eren still being alive, he knew that he was going to be there to find out for himself.
"Before we go…there's one thing that I want to ask you." Armin tells Annie, who looks over at him expectantly while awaiting his question. "What do you plan on doing once we find him?" He asks with some sternness to his otherwise youthful features, the inquiry catching Annie off-guard. Of course though, she realized, that Armin would be as protective of Eren as all but one other person on the planet. She understood his concern as well; it wasn't a secret that she and Eren had a relationship that could have been classified as tumultuous at times. The two of them had briefly attempted a romantic partnership, but it didn't last very long after Eren decided that their desires for each other weren't worth the friction and other problems it could cause within the group. He took his responsibilities as their leader very seriously, and ultimately he was unable to allow his heart to interfere in his decisions to such an extent.
These were the reasons that Eren had given her at least. Annie was less than convinced. She was certain that Mikasa had been in Eren's ear, and that she was the one who convinced him to cut things off with her so abruptly. As his adoptive sister, Mikasa was Eren's closest friend and confidant, and she held an enormous amount of influence over him. Of course, it also didn't help Annie's cause that what was viewed as over-protectiveness by others was so clearly seen by the spurned blonde as unadulterated lust. She'd never been the best of friends with Mikasa, so it was no wonder that the raven-haired girl was none too pleased when her beloved brother entered into a relationship with Annie.
"I suppose I'll ask him where he's been for the last three years. That sounds like a good place to start." Annie ends up replying after pondering on it within her head. Honestly, she hadn't exactly thought that far ahead yet. The shock of learning that Eren could very well be alive and the subsequent stress of trying to find him had left little time for her to actually think about what might happen when – if – they were to meet again. Provided that the opportunity did arise for that to occur however, Annie was certain of this much: she wasn't going to let him slip through her fingers again.