When Eren woke up, he knew immediately that something was wrong. He didn't remember falling asleep. His body ached. He couldn't move.
He couldn't move.
His eyes shot open to look at the dark room around him. There were three bare light bulbs doing their best to brighten the room, but the dark grey concrete walls and floors seemed to suck away any reflecting light.
Eren's hands were still zip-tied behind him, but now they were also secured to the wooden chair he was sitting on. Each of his ankles was secured to a chair leg. He tested his restraints. He could barely move.
The room was fairly large. The size and shape reminded him of some of the classrooms at his old high school, and he thought bitterly that he'd rather be there than here, even though he's never once in his life wished to be anywhere near that place.
There were two men in the room. When Eren remembered the events from the last morning – or when was it? How long was he out? – he squinted through the dim light to see if the men in the room were Reiner and Bert (if those were their real names), but even with their heads turned away from him Eren could tell they were different. A decade or so older, probably. Their appearances weren't quite as distinctive as the men who had kidnapped him.
Eren felt like an idiot. He had trusted them. Well, not completely. But he had been played. He had let them get close and didn't realize anything was strange and that's how they got him. Even when he had felt like something was off he didn't do anything about it. And now where was he?
He had no clue. There were no windows. He couldn't tell the time of day, and he didn't know how long he'd been sleeping for. He didn't know how he'd ended up asleep in the first place. He'd been shoved in the trunk of the car and then he was able to tell they were driving him around for a while, and every now and then when whoever was driving turned to harshly or hit a pothole he'd be jostled around. Maybe they hit a bad bump and he'd knocked his head. It would explain why it was throbbing.
He needed to at least figure out what these people wanted from him. He decided that his best bet would to be to try to get the two guys in the room – who looked like they were playing cards by the dim light in the room – to talk to him.
"Hey!" Eren called out, getting the men to put down their cards turn to him. "Where am I?" It was a long shot that they'd give him any useful answer, but he needed to ask it anyway.
One of the men stood and walked slowly over to Eren. As he got closer, Eren could see that he had thinning hair and that he had tough skin that looked like leather, as if he'd worked outside a lot in his life. The man knelt before Eren so his face was at the seated boy's level. "So you're awake, huh?"
Eren had been hoping for some sort of memorable accent that would give him a clue as to who had captured him, but the guy had none. He also didn't seem to be answering Eren's first question so he moved onto another. "Who are you?" he shouted again, even though the guy was right in front of him. "Why am I here?"
The man just chuckled before he stood up. "Oh, I think you know why you're here, boy," he said, and he grabbed Eren's chin to force him to look up at his face.
Eren tore his chin out of the man's grip and spat at him. "Fuck you!" he seethed, pulling at his restraints. "I don't know anything!"
The guy slowly wiped the spit off of his face and looked down at Eren. "We'll see if you're still saying that in a few hours," he said calmly.
Eren just pulled more at his restraints. "Go fuck yourselves!"
Then a fist connected with his face.
"What do you want with Eren?" Erwin asked the man on the other end of the line as calmly as he could.
"Nothing," the man said. He sounded older, but not distinctly enough to give them any valuable information. "It's more about what I want from you two."
"Then why are you bringing him into this?" Erwin knew it was a stupid question, but he couldn't help if he wasn't thinking completely straight at the moment.
"How else am I supposed to get to you two? Besides, I knew if I took one of you, you'd never reveal anything. The two of you are too… tough. Eren, however, is just an innocent kid." Levi nearly snapped from hearing someone other than himself calling Eren a kid. That was his name for Eren, along with brat. But he managed to stay silent and just as Erwin was about to say something in response the man continued. "Well, I guess he's not completely innocent." That peaked Erwin and Levi's curiosities, which the man satisfied before being asked to. "I mean, I doubt any child who escaped from his burning house and watched it burn to the ground with his mother still inside isn't exactly… innocent."
"How the fuck did you know that?" Levi snapped, not bothering to rely on Erwin to be the sole communicator anymore.
The man just laughed. "I know a lot of things, Levi."
"Well then you should know exactly who you're messing with and that you're going to be dead here real soon."
The man chuckled again. Fucking kidnapper thinking everything was fucking hilarious. "I guess we'll just see about that. I suppose part of it depends on whether you'd like Eren back with his head still attached or not."
Armin gasped. Mikasa and Levi looked like they were trying to find a way to kill the man through the phone, which Erwin was nearly crushing in his grasp.
"What do you want for him?" Erwin managed to ask through clenched teeth. He had a strong feeling that this guy didn't just want ransom money.
"I'd be willing to make a trade," the man said smoothly. "I get you two and he goes home alive."
"That doesn't seem very fair," Erwin said, trying to negotiate. "Two of us for one of him?"
"It's not my fault you two got attached to the same person. It's disgusting, but it sure does make this easier." Erwin and Levi scowled further at their relationship being called disgusting, but the man went on. "Besides, wouldn't it be better for Eren to never see you again after this? Even if he doesn't blame you – which he probably will, let's be honest – he'd just be back in the same danger he's been in while being with you. You two are 'good' people, you'd agree with the whole, 'if you love somebody let them free' thing, wouldn't you?"
It took Erwin and Levi a moment to figure out a response. They didn't want to admit it, but the man seemed to have a point. He was just trying to manipulate them of course, and they wouldn't let that work on them, but maybe after this whole thing was over it would be best for them to go their separate ways. So it took a short nonverbal conversation between Levi and Erwin for them to come to a decision.
"Alright," Erwin eventually said. "We'll do it." Armin and Mikasa looked at the two warily, not thinking that they'd actually sacrifice themselves for Eren like this. "But first," Erwin added, "We need proof of life. And we need to see that he is unharmed."
The man on the phone sighed. "Well, I can give you proof of life, but my men are telling me that your Eren is not a very complicit hostage. So they have had to take certain… measures. But I can promise you he's in one piece."
"He'd better stay that way," Erwin threatened.
"As long as you fulfill your end of the bargain," the man agreed. "I'll send you a video call tomorrow as proof of life."
"Why not now?"
"It's late, Erwin, shouldn't we be getting some sleep?" the man asked, and everyone listening detested his joking tone. "Besides, I'd like some time to get to know this boy who's become the Achilles Heel of two of the Recon Corps' greatest agents."
"He doesn't know anything," Erwin growled. "And remember you promised he'd be ok."
"I promised he'd be in one piece," the man corrected. "Don't worry, I'll try to make sure there's no permanent damage."
"There'd better not be," Erwin said. "Or else the deal's off."
"Now, now, Erwin, do you really think you're in the position to make that kind of stipulation?" Erwin pursed his lips and took a deep breath, not knowing exactly how to respond. He didn't have to, though. The man on the end of the line just said, "I'll talk to you tomorrow," and hung up.