Lyor, whose eyelids were inclined to fall together on the smallest provocation of silence, yawned without parting her lips to avoid any inconvenient extent. It was nearly eight o'clock in the evening, and the sun was setting through the window over the hills of the Recon Corps' training grounds. She sat in the mess hall, her books and notebooks strewn across the empty wooden table along with a tray containing her now room temperature dinner. With dinner having been served at six-thirty, the mess hall was quiet and practically empty, and it seemed to yawn with her in sympathy. She quietly scribbled notes as she hunched over her books, consumed by her work.
She didn't notice she was no longer alone in the hall until someone sat across from her at her table, setting their respective food tray down. Her eyes tore away from her work, and to her surprise, she found Erwin standing before her. She cringed internally; she had practically thrown her back out trying to avoid him ever since she had learned a very unpleasant piece of information about him. Marie. The name festered in her.
"May I sit with you?" Erwin smiled, poised and regal, as per usual. Lyor found herself irritated from just looking at his chiseled face.
Without batting eye, Lyor brought her eyes back to her work. "Sure."
She heard the chair pull out and unobtrusive shuffling as he took a seat. They sat in silence for several minutes as he ate his vegetables and whatever sewer mush the cooks masqueraded as meat, the sound of his fork occasionally scraping against the porcelain being the only conversation between them. Lyor pretended to work, but the officer's presence tormented her. Erwin couldn't be ignored. Still, she kept her gaze to herself.
"You're still working at this hour?" He finally asked after nearly finishing his meal.
Lyor never looked at him. "I have to; we've got our first official test run next week and we're nowhere close to being ready."
"You shouldn't work during meals."
"Hn."
She felt him staring a hole through her, and from her vision's angle, she saw him put down his utensils.
"Why did you give the book to Schoenberg?"
Lyor's heart skipped a beat at the abrupt confrontation, and she finally met his eyes. Those enigmatical, unwavering pools of blue scrutinised her and pulled her into his persuasion with such authority that she couldn't hold his eye contact without reddening.
The mention of Markus made her insides twist with anxiety. She had drowned herself in her work these past few days in order to discourage any sentiments of worry to inhabit and obsess her; she had yet to internalise anything Schoenberg had said to her, and she wasn't ready to deal with it. When she had no answers, running away — though she would never admit — was her go-to solution.
Provocative and mulish, she answered him, finally holding his discerning stare. "It's my book. Am I not allowed to loan my own book?"
"You should have nothing to do with him."
She paused at his forwardness. "You criticise your superior? He's a perfectly decent man."
"That's not what I believe. Nor is it what you believe."
"Why? Prejudice simply because he's a military police officer?"
"I like MPs. But not this one. I believe him to be malicious. Stay clear of him."
"And what is it to you?"
Lyor watched the blond's expression tighten into a grim one.
"I'm not such a fool as to imagine our friendship is anything but advantageous to you. But don't suppose I'm content to minister your time in the Scouting Legion. One day, I will no longer be a mere squad leader, and I will leave you. You can be sure of that. But for now, I care too much for my relationship with your father to see you go to ruin because of him. So if you don't mind, I'll…" She was surprised to see him falter in his speech, the intensity of his burning gaze quelling in the slightest way before returning to its natural, unreadable state. "I'll stay by your side."
The young engineer could only gawk at the man, and he meditated on her silent reaction.
"I can see you're very busy, so if you'll excuse me," Erwin glanced at her books and stray paper, and finally stood up, tucked in his chair, and took his tray. "Good evening."
With the wings of freedom upon his back, the man walked away. He had just reached the time of life at which 'young' was ceasing to be the prefix of 'man' in speaking of one. He was at the brightest period of masculine life, for his intellect and emotions were clearly separate: he had passed the time during which the influence of youth indiscriminately mingles them in the character of impulse, and yet… He hadn't been able to dissociate from the apprehension that sounded in him whenever he witnessed the budding relationship between Lyor and his superior. He certainly prized his connection with Mr. Reichart, but it gave him an excuse to care openly for Lyor. Although he didn't regret it, he hadn't planned on voicing a smart-alecky monologue.
Exiting the mess hall, he could feel her eyes on him.
"What do I gotta say to get this crap into the hangar where it belongs? You got a language I'm not privy to? 'Cause I'm a fast learner."
"Keep your shirt on, Heinrich. This is the last of it."
The sky was clear, and sun hung high in the sky, overlooking the Scouting Legion's HQ as a handful of soldiers and engineers bustled about, straining to lug equipment out of the fourth squad's workstation garage. Lyor, Nifa, Abel and Rashad were out in the SC's hangar a few yards from the castle, fixing a large metallic frame into the ground that they would use to anchor the beast of an engine they were going to test that day. Lyor was on her knees, screwing in the last bolt of the structure's corner fixture, when she saw a wagon pulling into the hangar. Heinrich drove the horses while a few soldiers, including Hanji, followed on foot, making sure the wagon wouldn't collapse under the enormous weight of the engine it carried.
Wiping the sweat from her forehead, the young woman stood and warned her colleagues to make way. Once the cargo reached them, they all gathered around it. It took about twenty men to lift the engine and propellor from the wagon to the metallic frame, and then five to crank the structure to its proper height after having screwed the engine into the frame. Meanwhile, Lyor and Rick connected wires from the engine to their control station that stood about 10 meters from the propped up engine; a rectangular table-like metal desk that reached Lyor's middle. While the group worked, Wilhelm and Shadis stood at the entrance of the massive hangar, discussing the test-run's specifics.
The engineers, along with squad four, were going to conduct their very first test of their prototype steam engine. After weeks of blueprint after blueprint, and the endless wait for precious materials, the group of scientists had finally been able to assemble their first engine. With its' considerable size, they were now going to test its' strength and overall outcome.
With the engine, control board, and wires in place, the engineers took a last gander and walk around the machine to ensure all was primed before they congregated around the control board. Wilhelm began to brief the other three engineers when they started to hear a commotion from the hangar's enormous door. Looking behind them, they noticed the crowd of scouts that had gathered at the entrance like a bunch of inquisitive cats waiting for something monumental. Upon commander Shadis' inaction,— too busy staring curiously himself at the squad's project — Hanji stomped over to tell them all to 'quiet down', to put tactfully.
"Heinrich, you're in charge of adjustments. Rick, monitor the gas levels. Lyor, make sure you record everything, and I'll handle the control board," Wilhelm finished, ignoring the shouts. They all nodded, and they each began to make their final preparations.
"Where the hell is my notebook?" Lyor inquired, looking around the board for her observation book."Watch your language." Wilhelm warned, fatherly at heart. He adjusted a few notches on the control board as Heinrich slipped on his work gloves and took off his glasses — that were so high in strength that they looked more like looking glasses — and replaced them for a set of goggles that made his eyes look like ogling titan eyes.
"What did Shadis want? He doesn't look too happy." Rick asked Wilhelm, handing Heinrich his tool bag.
"He wants to know where the hell you put my notebook." Lyor grumbled as she searched.
Wilhelm pulled her notebook out of her belt as he answered — she had stuffed it behind her when they were working. Lyor took it sheepishly and settled in the stool beside the control board. "He was ensuring that everything was ready to go. The Scouting Legion spent a lot of their budget paying for our materials and he doesn't want us to waste them. And neither do I. If we have to buy more materials, we're going to have to seek out sponsors."
"Oh, great; more sponsor dinners." Rick interjected, huffing in annoyance.
"So, if we've double and triple checked everything, we won't need any of those," Wilhelm commented, giving Heinrich a thumbs up as the old man set himself up near the engine. He eyed Rick expectantly. "But only if we've triple checked our work."
Rick rolled his blue eyes and took his spot beside Wilhelm at the control board, Lyor sitting on a stool adjacent to them. "Yes, mother. With all four of us combined, we must have checked the damn thing twelve times today; we're good to go."
"Good," Wilhelm flashed a small smile to his friend before he turned to Shadis, who stood as rigid as a rock a few meters behind them. The commander gave the man a nod, signalling they could commence. "Then let's begin."
From her seat, with her notebook open in her lap, Lyor watched her father click and adjust buttons on the board, and the engine gave an awakening roar — making everyone slightly jump — before dying down to a comfortable purr. The three engineers couldn't help but give each other a proud smile, before Heinrich stepped up the propellor on a stepping stool, and gave the metal a strong push, making it spin. Before long, the engine kicked in and spun the propellor at an electrifying, but steady, speed.
The propeller generated a mighty wind that blew a few lighter items away in its wake — papers, screws, scrap pieces — and a grumbling roar so loud that no one could hear themselves over the noise. Lyor recorded down the details of the initial speed, and within a few minutes, Lyor's father kicked the gear up a notch. Second gear, and the metal sheets that covered the hangar began to waggle. Heinrich was walking around the engine, making sure that the machine was withstanding the strain. Repeating their pattern, Wilhelm made sure he got a thumbs up from Heinrich and that Lyor was finished her notes to move on to the next gear. In third gear, the rambunctious note the engine sang moved up a semitone, and Lyor felt the hairpin being blown out of her hair. She moved to snatch it as it fell out, but Hanji caught it in midair as she walked up to her colleagues.
She hollered over the cacophony to be heard, handing Lyor her pin. "This is fantastic! The noise alone will scare away the titans!"
They smiled as Heinrich and Lyor finished their respective roles while Hanji tried to ask questions over the noise. She watched curiously over Wilhelm's shoulder at the control board as he gradually pushed a lever to the last gear. The sheer power of the engine made everyone laugh in stupor: a few of the metal shingles were being blown off the roof, crates of sturdy wood were sliding away from the boisterous wind, and it seemed like Rick's beard was going to get blown off.
Heinrich rounded the machine, and the engineers smiled ear to ear when the old man gave them a thumbs up: the engine was working at top performance. Wilhelm and Rick celebrated with a handshake while Lyor and Hanji took notes, all of them euphoric from their success. Wilhelm reached for the lever to start progressively shutting the engine down, when the unthinkable happened.
A horrifying explosion, louder than the discord of the screaming engine, shred through the air, and the engineers froze in horror at the sight before them. A cloud of flames suddenly engulfed the engine in a flash explosion, Heinrich disappearing in the blaze. All the blood in Lyor's face depleted, and all she could do was sit there in shock.
The engine shut off from failure, and someone cried to put out the fire. When her legs finally responded to her brain, Lyor sprinted after her colleagues — some engineers, some soldiers — as they all barrelled towards where Heinrich was last seen. She noticed Erwin had been one of the first men to run to his side — as if appearing out of thin air. Pushing through the crowd that surrounded what she assumed would be the old man, Lyor finally caught up to Rick and Wilhelm, who knelt beside an unconscious body with Erwin.
Erwin bellowed for his men to help him move Heinrich's body out of the proximity of the burning engine, and Lyor witnessed the elderly man's state as they lifted him away: his left side had been practically charred — arm, side, and thigh — so severely that his clothes in those areas were burnt off, revealing angry, bloody red skin.
She watched the group carry her old friend away, and she held back the terror that seized her throat and voice like a plague before she clenched her fists to rid herself of it. Relieved that Heinrich was being taken care of, especially by Erwin, Lyor rushed over to the scouts to help them put out the engine's fire. They fetched buckets of water under Shadis' command before someone brought a hose to spray the machine down.
After a few minutes, the fire was subdued and put out completely. She watched the scout medics take away Heinrich to the infirmary while Wilhelm followed, panicked. Lyor moved to follow, but she was held back by Hanji. She looked the older woman in the eyes.
"Let's give the medics their space. Help me clean up this mess in the meantime before it damages our hard work," Hanji offered the brunette a compassionate smile. "He'll be okay; I've seen worse, trust me."
Lyor nodded, giving a small sigh of both relief and uneasiness. Lyor, along with Hanji, Rick and a few members of their squad, began to dismount the engine from the now charred and damaged metal frame. They unscrewed the bolts as a heavy silence fell on them. She was thankful for the mindless activity that kept her hands busy; it gave her time to think through what the hell had just happened. The only reason the engine could have exploded was if the exhaust nozzle hadn't ventilated the chamber properly, and the squad had worked for weeks on that principle. As Lyor sorted through her brain and her hands worked busily on the bolts, she finally noticed her hands were shaking. The image of Heinrich's limp, exhausted body sprawled on the ground flashed in her vision, and she couldn't run away from it by burying her thoughts in the technicality of their work anymore.
With a shaky breath, she felt tears start to swell in her eyes as she worked, but she was distracted by Rick's voice beside her.
"Guys, look at this," He breathed, and Lyor glanced to see he had opened one of the compartments of the engine to take a look inside. His face was pale as he stared into the engine, and Lyor braced herself for what else fate had in store for them.
Four of the squad members stepped up to Rick's spot, and they all peered over his shoulder into the agglomeration of wires, nozzles, and greasy pistons. Rick pointed to a specific connecting rod, and Lyor's brows furrowed: the metal rod was dented and damaged. She recognised the connecting rod to be the ligament that brought the exhaust nozzle to a wide, open angle in case of overheating.
Rick, breathless with dread and shock, spoke. "I was in charge of this piston chamber… I must've missed this damaged rod…"
"There's no way you could've ignored it; it's the first thing you see when you open the compartment." Nifa answered him reassuringly.
As the group poked around in the engine, Lyor watched them, absentmindedly. Nifa was right; an experienced engineer such as Rick would have never missed such a blatant defect. Someone could have tampered with it, but it would've had to been someone within the fourth squad, considering they were the only people who had access to the engine. Even so, no one in that squad could've had a genuine motive to tamper with the Legion's equipment — the entire squad was like a second family. She ran a hand through her hair, confused and now exhausted from coming down from her adrenaline high.
The compartments had even been thoroughly checked that morning by the engineers from the interior police and by Markus himself. How could they have all missed it?
Suddenly, a realisation made Lyor's face drain of all its colour.
"Failure is a part of life, however it is not a part of the Scouting Legion. I should've seen this coming a mile away… Do you realise we spent an entire six months of funding on building that failure of an invention? How is it possible that formally trained engineers could be so mortifyingly ineffective? Your man was almost killed!"
Lyor, Wilhelm, Rick, and Hanji and her squad watched Shadis pace and rant. Half an hour had passed, and they sat in a meeting room at a long table with Erwin and Shadis, Markus and his team of three engineers. Lyor was busy fidgeting in her seat, wondering how her father, Hanji and Rick could remain so imperturbable as their commander went off on a tangent about how gross of an immeasurable pile of failure they were. Her eyes drifted towards Markus, who sat leisurely in his seat, his arms folded across his chest as he examined the cuticles of his right hand. Her anger flared as she watched him; she knew he had tampered with their engine. There was no other explanation. He knowingly had almost gotten a man killed, and he sat there, looking at his nails.
She focused on Erwin, who sat beside Markus and across from her, his steadfast gaze watching his commander. He met her eyes when he felt her looking at him, and offered her an appeasing smile. Surprisingly, she felt her stress begin to melt under his soft gaze, but she looked away when Shadis took his seat at the head of the table.
"A defective rod? Markus, I expect this from civilians, but how did your team miss this?" Shadis fumed.
Markus shrugged and tucked his hand into his crossed arms. "Human error, Keith."
"Human error? Are you kiddi—"
"If I may, commander," Erwin insisted, and all eyes were on the handsome blond man. "Though this particular event may have ended in failure, Hanji can vouch for her squad's radical progress. Failure may not be part of the Scouting Legion, but it is undoubtedly part of the experimental process, even on a monumental scale. I must implore that you don't consider this a stalemate. Certainly, we'll need to request more funding, but it's a sacrifice we must pay for progress that could later save thousands of lives."
"He's right; give them a break," Markus added, a sordid smirk on his lips, and Lyor recoiled at the sound of his voice. "You'll throw another party for the sponsors, they'll cough up another drunken pile of dough, and we'll be on our merry way."
Shadis pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. "I suppose that will be our only solution," He looked up from his exasperation at Hanji. "The next time this happens, I will be putting an immediate and permanent halt on all projects, do you understand?"
"Yes, sir." Squad leader Hanji answered.
"Good," It was Shadis' turn to cross his arms. "Now, get your squad out of my sight. MPs are also dismissed."
Those who were dismissed stood and exited Shadis' meeting room. Lyor didn't leave without stealing a glance at the blond who remained in his seat for a debrief with the commander. He met her eyes, and she decided to return that kind smile that had put her at ease, in hopes that it would help him survive whatever Shadis was going to shit on him for. To her delight, he smiled back.
Being the last one out of the room, she was a few feet behind her squad in the hallway, and the other groups went their separate ways. She began her way to the squad's office when Markus walked in step with her.
"First time you've been chewed out? You're as pale as a sheet," He commented, leaning to see her face as they walked. Lyor said nothing, her teeth clenched so tightly that she was sure her jaw would break. Lyor watched Hanji and Moblit make stress-drinking plans as they disappeared around a corner, leaving Lyor and Markus alone in the hallway. "Ooh, you're not as pretty when you scrunch your face like that."
She suddenly stopped in her tracks and faced the man two heads taller than her, her brows furrowed and her eyes ablaze. "If you insist on making conversation with me, talk to me about something worthwhile. Why was that rod defective?" She snapped.
Markus' eyebrows rose at her temper before a signature smirk grew on his face. "Actually, I take that back; you're quite handsome when you've murderous intent."
"Answer me!"
"It wasn't defective when I personally inspected it." Markus finally answered.
"But it was after you tampered with it?" She blurted.
Markus' smirk vanished as he looked down at her with a menacing stare. He paused for a long time before his smirk reappeared expectantly. "Yes."
Lyor stomach churned, and she spoke lowly and viciously. "Heinrich, an eighty-year-old man, has third degree burns because of you."
Markus matched her tone and leaned into her so that she would back up against the wall to escape any proximity to him. "I told you to wait and see how I'd tame you, didn't I? Would you like the hear what's next?"
He was clearly irritated by the way she spoke to him. Lyor swallowed the panic that seized her, but she still couldn't speak. She pressed herself harder into the wall when his eyes flickered to her lips, and she ducked under his body to start walking away. His next words made her freeze in her steps.
"Rick gets home at exactly six o'clock every night. He takes a bath, then he's out the door at six-thirty to go visit his sweetheart. She has dinner prepared for him, every night, and they enjoy it together. Then they go to bed and fuck like rabbits before they fall soundly asleep in each other's arms," he recited darkly and factually.
She slowly turned around to face him, her hands shaking and her skin clammy. "H-how—?"
"In fact, they sleep so soundly that I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't notice the house being engulfed in flames until it was too late," his smirk looked like a grimace to her. "I'm not the brigadier general of the interior police for nothing, love. And once he's taken care of, I've already memorised dear Mr. Reichart's schedule. He doesn't do much now that your mother is dead, huh?"
Paralysed to her spot from sheer terror, she could only watch him as he approached her with a frightening sneer. His hand rose, and she flinched, but he only reached her hair, and he massaged the strand in his fingers. "Your hair looks nice down; it's so long. You should wear it like this for our wedding."
He released her hair and left before anything could be processed by the horrified girl. She wasn't sure how she made it back to her squad's empty office, but she found herself sitting at her desk, mindlessly staring at the ground.
She thought about telling someone — anyone — that she was being targeted, but she realised it would only be brought back to the MP anyhow, where he was the master puppeteer. Who would believe her without evidence? She put her face in her hands and tried to remember what it was like to breathe without feeling as if your ribs were going to burst, without the weight of her entire world on her shoulders. Hot tears stung her eyes as stress began to take hold of her; her friends' and father's face fresh in her vision. She thought about how cadaverous Heinrich had looked slumped on the hangar floor, blood staining his clothes, and a sob shook her body.
You should wear it like this for our wedding.
Her fists clenched so hard that her fingernails cut into her skin. Disgusted by herself and humiliated, she grimly realised her only option was to give in to Markus; her freedom wasn't worth the lives of three men, and she didn't have enough strength or resources to fight him.
To her dismay, she heard the office door creak open, and she looked up with a tear-stained face.
"Lyor? What's wrong?"
Your hair looks nice down; it's so long.
"Hanji, do you have pair of scissors?"
A/N: Like I said, I am NOT an engineer and don't have a single godforsaken clue how airplanes or engines work, so please bear with me. If you're an engineer or know the ins and outs of engines, I AM SO SORRY. The cringe is real.
Sorry there wasn't a lot of Erwin in this chapter! Trust me, my friends, it will pick up.
Lemme know what you thought! What would you do in Lyor's situation? I think I'd probably jump off a roof... Creepy bastard.