Chapter 21
They found Pixis sleeping in front of a map of the Wall Rose with a warm shot of whiskey next to his hand.
"Pixis!" called Hanji.
Pixis' head shot up from the table where it had been resting. He blinked. Seeing the whiskey next to him, he drained it in one gulp.
"…Mmmm," he said. "What is it?"
"Pixis," repeated Hanji. "I assume you heard about how we escaped our execution."
"Yes, although the Military Police said you were hung in a public execution. Everyone knows they're lying because you were seen running away."
"We were going to go to Siganshina, but we ran into a few titans and had to change direction," Armin told Pixis the whole story.
"Interesting…" he stroked his mustache. "But what about the other titan shifters? Where are they?"
"We don't know," said Armin.
"If they know the secret, then maybe they can disappear by imagining it. Maybe they know what's outside and Grisha Jaeger is threatening them, too, so they're trying to get as many people out as they can. That's why we think they're enemies of mankind," suggested Levi.
"That actually makes sense," said Sasha. "I mean, if people are still alive when they get out, then that would save them. It just seems like they have no memory of what happened... But that might actually be a good thing."
"So the question is: can Eren disappear like the others?" finished Mikasa.
Eren looked blankly at the faces staring at him. "I… I don't know."
"Try it," said Hanji.
Eren sucked in a breath, both to clear his head and to breathe in as much of the gas as he could. He hoped the extra gas would help. He focused on appearing next to Connie, who was across the room.
When he opened his eyes, nothing had happened. He was still standing between Mikasa and Armin.
"Try harder," suggested Jean.
Eren tried again. He opened his eyes when he felt a warm liquid running out of his nose. He dabbed at it. It was blood. He pinched his nose and leaned forward a bit.
"Maybe that's not how they do it. Maybe they just turned into humans again and hid," said Armin.
"So do you believe us, Pixis?" asked Levi.
"I think it's a bit far-fetched, but it sounds closer to the truth than what the Military Police are saying," said Pixis.
"What are the Military Police saying?" asked Connie.
"First, they said all eight of you were hung, then when they found out you had been seen escaping the walls, they said you had worked some kind of titan shifter magic. They said they had seen you die, but then people came forward with eyewitness accounts of you climbing out of the gallows."
"Did anything else happen while we were gone?" asked Hanji.
"The king was poisoned. He recovered, and they caught the culprit. They're accusing Historia Reiss and Erwin Smith for the attempted murder of Lord Balto."
Eren let go of his nose, forgetting he had a nosebleed. It had stopped bleeding. Apparently it was over.
"What?" Armin was confused. Why would Erwin or Historia poison the king? They were smarter than that.
"They're supposed to hang tomorrow at noon in the Mitras district," said Pixis.
"We should rescue them," said Connie.
"If we do, we shouldn't shout our plans out like this," Mikasa pointed out.
"There's nowhere safe to talk anyway, so here is as good a place as any," said Sasha.
Before long they had made a plan that Armin said probably wouldn't work, but it was the best one they had.