Everyone left an hour later, knowing the plan. Hanji and Mikasa shared one of the rooms in the castle, while Erwin and Levi shared the other.

"What do you really think of the plan, Mikasa?" Hanji asked her.

"A plan is a plan." Mikasa said.

"Sure you think of it that way." was said just as someone knocked on their door.

"Yes?"

"The king wishes you to take a bath." the servant said.

"Come on. The king is ordering us to take a bath." she said to Mikasa. The girl wordlessly got up and followed Hanji out of their room.


"Honestly, why do we always have to do this?" Hanji asked Mikasa as they both wrapped themselves in towels.

"It is nice timing though. Gives us a chance to talk in private." Erwin said, him and Levi coming into the changing room. Both wore only slightly breezy towels around their waists.

"What are you two doing? This is the girl's side of the bath!" Hanji exclaimed, and Mikasa's hands covered her collarbone.

"We need to talk and nobody would think us to be in here." Erwin said. Hanji ceded defeat and followed everyone else into the bath water.

"Since we need to talk, what are we talking about?" Hanji asked, getting into the bath water.

"Zachley's plan."

"So we're not going to follow it?"

"Of course we are. We were called down for this meeting and mission specifically. They can't do this plan without Ackerman."

"Why can't somebody else be sold?"

"Because no one is worth as much as she is. You're worth only 1,000 dollars. Levi and I are only worth 10,000 dollars."

"Why are you guys worth than me?" both of them looked at Levi.

"I don't know. I wasn't a human trafficker. I don't know why men are worth more than women." he said, shrugging.

"For the female customers." Mikasa informed them in her calm voice, "While the husband is busy, most women go for a man. They are much harder to capture than women."

"We'll have to figure out what my part of the plan is."

"Zachley did give you a part. You have the same part we do We're not selling you."

"I could be sold with Mikasa and protect her-"

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?" Hanji asked Mikasa.

"You're not going to be bought or sold." she said.

"Why not? I've heard they do all sorts of things to you after they buy you!" Hanji exclaimed, looking at Mikasa.

"They do. They just won't ever do them to you."

"What's so bad that you've decided that I can't go with you?"

"They strip you of your clothes and shove their own filthy clothes on you. They brand you with their own mark, and color it in with their own specific colored ink. Then they take you and throw you in a room, there are smells in there that you hope you never smell again. The only things in the room are a bed and some chairs and a table. They cuff your ankle to a bed with a metal cuff that digs into your flesh and burns after the first week. The stinging flesh is infected a while after it, and the chain on the cuff is no better. They drug you so that you won't fight back, and the drugs they use sting your throat and burn your eyes. The men get a bottle of whiskey, before they notice you in the corner, trying to avoid what comes next. For the ones who don't comply, they don't feed you and then beat you after the customer leaves. They know how to break anyone in under a week. That, Hanji, is what they do to you, and why you aren't going because the mark never goes away. It stays forever to remind you that you still do belong to that man, and you will never truly be free because that mark will stay there, as an ugly reminder of everything." Mikasa deadpanned, unaware of the looks of horror coming across Erwin and Hanji's face.

"Where does the mark go?" Hanji squeaked, slightly afraid to ask. Mikasa dropped her hands back down to her side, uncovering the blue sea serpent on her collarbone, the color vibrant on her skin. Erwin and Levi said nothing, merely leaving the bath. Hanji turned around cheerfully to an empty bath.


"What are you doing, Mikasa?" Hanji asked, coming into the changing room.

"I did not wish to continue taking a bath." Mikasa finished changing.

"I guess I'll see you back in the room." She left the room.

"I bet she's terrified of going back." Erwin said, standing next to Hanji.

"Erwin! I don't have a shirt on!" she hissed, covering up her chest.

"I'm not looking. Back to my question."

"I don't know. You and Levi are like an open book to me, and yet I can't tell what emotions are running through her head. She's the only person I've ever met that I can't read like a book." she shrugged on a shirt.

"Really? Do you think she'll tell you what she's thinking?" he asked her. "No. The only person I've seen her show a drop of emotion around is Eren. Occasionally around Armin to. "Hanji paused, "even Titans are easier to read than her."

"I could just force her into telling me what she's thinking." Levi said, from the doorway.

"No. You're not going to torture her into telling you what she's thinking." He earned a 'tch' from Levi.

"I'll tell you if she shows anything at all." Hanji said, leaving the room.


Hanji chatted to Mikasa the whole time she was getting ready for bed, but it proved fruitless. Mikasa was not going to talk back.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Hanji whispered to Levi and Erwin, in their room. They were all listening to hear if Mikasa made any noise.

"It seems she has better control of her emotions than you do, Levi." Erwin said, earning another 'tch' from Levi.

"She's not going to tell us what feeling. At all. We'll just have to continue on with the plan-" Hanji was cut off by the largest noise any of them had ever heard Mikasa utter.

"What's wrong?" Hanji asked, zooming back into her room. Mikasa's whole face was a mask of terror. She took a deep breath at Hanji's voice, closed her eyes, and when she'd opened them, her face had removed the mask of terror.

"Nothing." Mikasa laid back down.

"All right." Hanji went back next door.

"What happened?"

"Nightmare" Hanji sat down, "she is terrified of going back."

"Not necessarily. Ackerman has nightmares all the time." Levi said.

"How do you know this?"

"She's in my squad. Ackerman had nightmares all the time. Almost every night. The first time we found this out, was when the boys woke up to find Ackerman in Jeager's bed. We all gave them a bad time about it. Arlert was the only one unfazed by it. We were all thinking bad things until Arlert pointed out that they used to share a bed all the time until he said they used to share a bed all the time as kids, when one of them had a nightmare."

"Well that was pointless. This tells us nothing." Erwin sighed.

"I'm going to bed."


A/N: R&R is very much liked and appreciated!