Chapter 3: Voices

Several members of the Garrison met in the Trost headquarters' chart room later that evening at Rico's request. Mercedes was initially uncertain about the outright exclusion of Commander Woerman, and in particular conducting the meeting two floors directly below his office, but that had soon passed. Along with her own squad seated at the back of the room, there was Rico's reformed Elite Squad and another that had been put together not long ago, composed of more senior soldiers. More tellingly, however, was the presence of Gustav, one of Commander Pixis' aides.

"As I'm sure you're aware, we are forming this preliminary preparatory strategy without the initial input of Commander Woerman," Rico, at the head of the room, stated. "If you are concerned about this treading the lines of sedition, you're welcome to leave now. Please know, though, that Commander Pixis has approved our taking precautionary measures, and should Commander Woerman ask we will happily share this information with him. We will simply not volunteer it."

She paused, and scanned the room. No one left. "Good, then."

"I can confirm that Commander Pixis is willing to support your measures," Gustav said beside her, "in light of a new enemy."

"Our priority is to not only identify the Burning Titan and confirm whether it is or is not another Titan shifter like Eren Jaeger and Annie Leonhart, but also gather as much information as we can in the event of another appearance or an attack," Rico continued. She turned her head slightly in Mercedes' direction, but did not look at her. "Tomorrow, with the help of her squad, Carello – the former understudy of Squad Leader Hanji, of the Scouting Legion – will return to the location of the first sighting to gather any physical evidence."

Rather than the assignment causing her anxiety, Mercedes found herself wondering if the rest of Rico's squad – or indeed, the other elite squad – held any resentment toward her for taking a prominent place in the strategy. She only semi-successfully reasoned it away with the fact that both elite squads shouldn't be intimidated by a less experienced one. She was only Rico's shadow, and being put through the ringer – that was all.

"Sir, is it true that this Titan was completely covered in fire?" a member of the other elite squad asked. "How are we supposed to fight that?"

Rico looked fully at Mercedes on the other side of her, then, making her feel more exposed as all eyes turned to her. Mercedes lifted her chin a fraction. "From what we could see, yes, it was completely covered in fire of seemingly varying temperatures and was unaffected by it, suggesting this was a fixed part of its physiology rather than a one-time party trick. Although the flames did appear to weaken prior to it disappearing, we do not know why. It also seems to disintegrate into ash rather than a steaming, dissolving carcass. We won't know how to fight it until we can get more information than that."

"In the meantime," Rico jumped back in, "additional watches and increased gate security will help us restrict and monitor all who are leaving or entering Wall Rose. I'll be expecting daily reports. Otherwise, we'll continue our regular duties and try not to draw attention to what happened. Do all you can to quiet any rumors that you hear."

"Come on! You're not going to get any breakfast if you're slacking!" Mercedes yelled behind her as the four of them plummeted to the beaten earth and grass outside Trost's gate.

The day was impressively warm and cloudless considering the fog they'd had the previous morning and the fact that it was early spring, and even the short dash down over the wall had her feeling warm under her jacket. They were making a bee-line for the house-sized patch of blackened soil a few meters away where the Burning Titan had vanished. Mercedes mostly concentrated on running and dodging, while her three squad members dealt with the Titans. Aside from defending the gate, this was the first time they'd been alone in the thick of it, even though guards were watching them from the Wall – the maybe twenty-meter distance between their objective and the base of the Wall felt like a mile.

Twenty minutes. Tops. That was what Mercedes had told them. She'd try to get all she could in twenty minutes. Then they'd retreat. To be honest, she wasn't convinced she'd find much and it'd made it difficult to figure out what, if anything, to bring with her. She'd decided to just rely on her eyes.

Mercedes jumped as a smaller Titan lunged, its arm passing under her feet and grating into the ground. She heard Baena singing to herself like she always did as she came down for the kill. Mercedes kept going; Fhalz sped ahead of her briefly to distract a slightly larger Titan that was in her way; she ran under its legs and there, scant feet away, was the charred earth. She dropped to her knees beside it and as best she could, tuned everything else out.

Equal-sided, practically circular – looks like even heat distribution, she assessed. She used the hilt of her blade to scrape up some of the dirt. Still black underneath. She pocketed some of the dirt and continued scraping for a moment more, only to find more dry black earth. Significant heat even on an insulator, then. She got back into a crouch and scurried to the center of the patch, looking for anything that might have been left behind. Her fingertips hovered over it. Nothing.

Mercedes briefly came back to the real world to check on her team – nearby Oliver held on to the shoulder of an eight-meter class as it fell, deploying a line into a nearby ruin to pluck him away. The other two seemed to be faring well.

Ten more minutes, she estimated, and went back to the search. She looked around her, trying to guess where a potential shifter's human form would go after the disintegration. The nearest cover was a pile of rubble a meter or two away. Mercedes bolted toward it, noting how as she left the blackened dirt the grass underfoot was scorched, singed, browned, wilted, and then healthy again.

Still hot, but not a huge radius of varying temperatures. It must have been fairly contained around its body, then – at least here on the ground – it felt so hot to me up on the roof.

When she reached the rubble, a small amount of the ash still remained, piled and cornered in the lee of a few rocks; she scooped some of this up too and put it in her other pocket. Her eyes flitted around the area. She didn't want to leave her squad's sight but she was running out of places to look and things to look for. Their in-fight squabbling – or more accurately, Fhalz's squabbling – was muffled in her ears, drowned out by her own heavy breathing.

If it was a shifter, they'd have to be pretty fast to reach this spot from the epicenter without being seen. Suggests a faster and less disorientating detachment from their Titan body than others we've seen.

Mercedes couldn't see any footprints, disturbed rocks or lichen, scuffed dirt – nothing. She continued to dart around and over the rubble like a crazed beetle.

There has to be something, come on! This can't be it. You're going to look fucking stupid if you come back with just pockets of dirt and ash and an endnote about grass.

"'Cee! Come on! We don't have long left!" she heard Baena call.

"I know, I know! Just give me a minute!" she retorted more angrily than she'd intended. Screw this.

Mercedes risked going out of their sight and went farther into the rubble, where it formed what remained of walls although she still wasn't sure what the building had once been. It cast a cool shadow on her from two sides and compared to the dazzling sun, she had to let her eyes adjust for a second. She scanned the ground, she scanned the walls, she even scanned the fucking sky. She did it again. And again.

"Damnit, why isn't anything here?" she growled.

"'Cee? It's really you."

Mercedes quickly realized that not only was the voice too soft and close to be any of her squad, but that it may have been familiar. She looked around but didn't see anyone. "Hello?" she called.

A Titan body crashed into the rubble and she had to jump out of the way of the falling wall. As it continued to tumble, she was forced to leave the building entirely. Steam began to consume the area and though she looked again for who had spoken, Mercedes knew they had outlasted their welcome. Titan activity was growing too heavy for them to deal with it alone.

"Back to the Wall! Go!" she shouted.

As they made their way back she tried to look around for a retreating figure, but wasn't able to see much. She wondered if she'd truly heard anything, or if it had all been in her head. Either way, it certainly wasn't something she could offer up as additional evidence. It was going to be a frustrating conversation to have with Rico that all she could grab was dirt and ash.

She recalled the sound of the voice, and its nagging but irrational familiarity. If she had to, she'd almost call it grateful, like it hadn't seen her in a long time.

Listen to yourself. How can a voice 'see' you? Focus.

The four scaled the Wall and once at the top, regained their breath. Mercedes slapped Oliver on the back as she passed, and then looked over her shoulder at the scorch mark as if it'd spell out an answer now that they had tickled it.

"Breakfast now, yeah?" Baena checked. She was hopping around as she adjusted her boot.

"You guys go ahead – I need to go report to Rico. I'll meet you."