I had a hard time deciding on how to start this chapter. Thanks to those who sent me PM through here and Tumblr. There is slight mentions of religion in this chapter but nothing in specific so no need to worry.
Chapter 3 ~ The Clock is Ticking
The strange occurrence happening in the HQ was starting to be somewhat of a problem, as he was walking through the courtyard to clear his mind, he came upon Connie running like crazy to catch some of the Commander's paper work that had managed to escape his office. It would seem that the windows had opened on their own as the wind entered the room and caused the whole mess.
It was not the only strange thing going on around that time, several scouts have reported seeing a strange symbol. Sometimes the symbol vanished into thin not long after they had appeared and while others remained; he however, had never seen such a symbol before he could only call a wiggly cross.
He remembered what Eren had told him about how his picture had been found on the floor when it should have been in the picture frame the night before. Armin was starting to believe that maybe Eren was not completely crazy from the lack of sleep and the massive stress, something is definatly haunting them. He recalled how Black Tundra acted after he heard the violent commotion in the stable, it acted exactly as if Levi was right there in the field. He could have sworn the horse moved his head as if it wanted was there to rub its nose but it did not last long, after an hour Black Tundra returned to the stable on its own and refused to let anyone touch it.
"Arlert." A feminine voice booming behind him as he turned to face the usually energetic squad leader who had grown fatigued since the expedition.
"Yes." His right fist over his heart, he makes his best salute, even though he did not have to he just figured it be respectful to his joy he received a smile from the brown haired woman.
"No need for the salute. I need you to do something for me." She asks, handing a sheet of paper with the wiggly cross drawn on it. "I need you to find out what this symbol stands for." She added and walked away when Armin understood.
There was really just one place he could go to conduct his research, the HQ's library. It held many books that could not be found elsewhere, many were actually banned books to which he wondered how the Legion had even managed to get their hands on it. He recalled as he made his way through the hall when he had checked each spots the strange phenomenon had occurred this morning. The wood that had a carved symbol but magically fixed itself was smooth like exactly nothing had happened. There was a pot that had almost fallen on Jean's head, the dirty windows filled with wiggly crossed drawn on them were discovered by Sasha and countless more. It was clear that this was not just someone's idea of a joke, each of these mysterious sightings had been done almost simultaneously unless these were done by a group of people. He doubted that a human could make symbols just disappear.
Armin entered the quiet library, like usual no one ever was in here; just the sight of a book seemed to be enough to scare more than half the Scouting Legion members. He walked by the tall book shelves, inspecting each book one by one, hoping that something could be helpful. He passed books related to Titans and military subjects, he had after all already read them and not once did he ever see a wiggly cross and it hit him as he walked towards the book shelf with many banned books. He was certain that the wiggly cross being part of an old religion cult that had once been influential to humanity probably had the answer he was looking for.
He was rather astonished at the wide range of religion books there actually was as he took each one toped over the other until he needed to go place them unto a nearby table, not wanting to damage the books in case he would lose his balance and they would fall to the ground. He did another trip before he decided to go through each one, page by page. The first book Saint-Peter: Catechetical Discourses was surely a lucky pick, he adventured through each page as he saw multiple types of cross symbols, it is only a matter of time until he would find the one he needed. As he went through each one, he was surprised just how many different types of cross symbols there were once in the past each seemed to symbolise something entirely different but in a common way, he had to control the urges to read about each of them; there was just no time, he could not waste so foolishly as he forced himself to continue but he surely would come back to read them when he could.
The lighting in the library had changed since he had gotten there, the sun now shone an orange tone through the library windows. He had not noticed how the time had flown as he had sunked deep into his research but all had been for nothing as the books he had found did not contain that wiggly cross. He was rather disappointed, he wanted to be able to give an answer to Hanji and give some peace and mind to Eren.
All he could do now was to place the books back in their prior places, taking each book back to the old bookshelf, he was sure that this would have worked. Other than old religion books, he really could not think about what this particular cross could be about, he had even spotted a book about spirits, how a deceased soul often cannot find peace and there for cannot rest and lingers in the world of the living. He wondered about what Christa had said last night, how the corporal's ghost is haunting the HQ, maybe it was not crazy after all.
In the book Life After Death he had read by parts, animals are often sensitive to supernatural activities, they can see things that we humans can't and they can also hear sounds that are impossible to hear to the human ear. If this was truly true, this would explain Black Tundra's strange behavior. The black stallion could probably see his lost master, the ghost of the corporal was probably stroking the horse's nose but why would the corporal be haunting his comrades? If it was true that people who cannot find peace, what on earth could be holding Levi bound to this world?
"Armin!" The sharp voice of Eren caused him to get out of his thoughts. He was accompanied by Mikasa however both seemed out of breath and were rather spooked.
"Did something happen?" He asked as he walked to his friends who had stayed at the entrance of the library.
"Yeah! I've been putting the corporal's things away all afternoon, when I was done I left the room for like a second and everything just went back to their original places." Eren nervously said as his voice seemed to have a panicky tone in it. "And just now the large hardwood oak entrance door just opened by itself and as we got closer to the door it opened wider like whatever is haunting us wanted us to get back inside and then it shut the moment we got in." He added who was desperately trying to keep his sanity in check.
"Calm down Eren. I think Christa might have been right last night." Armin quickly says as he places his hand on Eren's shoulder. "I think the corporal is trying to tell us something. I think he wants us to go to the cross, I know this just sounds crazy but the symbol must mean something." He added now realizing really just how crazy he did just sound.
"What were you doing here anyway Armin?" Mikasa ask, pulling her red scarf closer to her nose.
"Hanji asked me to try and find out about the symbol but I did not find anything at all." He answered with a sigh, he was really hoping that when he would have left the library, he would have had the answers he was looking for.
"Do you really think that maybe the corporal wants us to go the cross? Where is that?" Eren asked as they all walked down the hall, looking at Armin, waiting for an answer.
"I don't know." Was all he could say when all of sudden he just remembered he had left a book in the library he had wanted to read later. He told Eren and Mikasa to go on ahead and he would meet them in the dining room afterwards as he turned around and sped back to the library. His eyes trailed to the table he had used all afternoon, the book right where he had left it; he wasted no time to pick it up and returned to the hallway when all of a sudden a door violently swung opened. Armin looked at the barely lit room, frozen as he felt a cold chill sweep behind him.
Armin swallowed what felt like a large lump stuck in his throat as he cautiously walked inside of the barely lit room. The room was filled with endless rolled-up sheets of paper which he recognised as expedition maps. Each was neatly placed in a shelf and a single table right in the center was filled with several maps that still needed to be placed away among other things.
"What exactly are you trying to say corporal." He asked to the emptiness of the room as he looked around. He felt silly to speak at nothing, not like anyone would tell him what he wanted to know. Armin looked at the small window, the sun's light was almost gone as it slowly started to disappear behind Wall Rose, he should be going, if he did not go to the dining room soon, he would have to wait for morning until he could have his next meal.
A soft sigh escaped his throat as he turned around, a picture tacked on a pin board caught his attention. It was a picture of the Operation Squad; Erd and Gunther were sitting at a picnic table, Auruo seemed to be talking to the corporal while Petra looked like she was stroking Black Tundra on the nose. He looked at it curiously when he realized that this must have been a room used by the squad itself for meetings and storing things concerning expeditions, his eyes always stuck on that picture, why he could not say but there was something about it that he just could not put his finger on it.
"Why did you bring me here corporal?" He asked to the silence.
Raddling of the single window quickly caught his attention as it violently opened allowing the wind to enter, maps and other random papers scattering all over the place when one caught his attention. A folded map, the only one that had remained on the wooden table, he placed the old book on the corner of the table and unfolded the map. The initial E.J were inscribed on them, it looked like a map of a section of Wall Maria, from what he could tell, it looked like the south-east part of Wall Maria. This must have been used when the Trost District was the relay start point for the Scouting Legion's expeditions, all that hard work had come to nothing in meer seconds when the Colossal Titan destroyed the gate and had to be permanently sealed shut.
It then hit him like a flash as he scanned the map and there it was, not too far from where they had been on the 58th expedition. So that is what he had to figure out, he… They had it all wrong as he quickly takes the map in his hands and removes the picture from the pin board, leaving his book behind as he ran down the hall. The answer had been ever so simple but he was so absorbed into something so complex that he forgot to look inside the box for once. Everything now made perfect sense but how much time they had left was the only thing he was worried about.
Finally chapter 3 is done. Review what you think about it and I hope you all like it.