OH MY GOD, I'M BACK! Sorry for taking so long to write another chapter, fellows, but this double quarantine has been kicking my butt - along with my schedule. No further talking about it, let's dive right in!
DISCLAIMER: ME NO OWNS SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN, THANK YOU!
DISCLAIMER II: THE LEGAL PROCEDURES THAT ARE VIEWED IN THIS CHAPTER ARE SERIOUSLY OUT OF MY OWN IMAGINATION AND IN NO WAY LEGAL! I WAS JUST TOO LAZY AND TOO EXCITED TO KEEP ON WRITING TO RESEARCH THOROUGHLY - PLUS, THIS IS FANFICTION, SO... THE ONLY THING THAT STUCK TO REALITY IS THE MIRANDA RIGHTS SPEECH.
A husky female groan nearly echoed in the small room, as the team's suspect – well, more like captive, really – returned slowly to consciousness. The dangerous hitman steadily blinked to focus her vision – and then her gaze sharpened as she took in her surroundings. That and the fact she could feel the strain from her arms being handcuffed together behind her back.
Eyes like silver laser shot to the most important details, instantly storing them to memory for later. A window, right at the corner, with its blinds drawn shut. Cement walls and floor. Metal table in front of her, and the chair she was sitting on (not tied on, she noted), also metal. A single white light at the ceiling, but enough to let no shadows linger. No place to hide.
And six people crowding the wall opposite of her. Seeing no door, she assumed it was behind her. Which meant she couldn't see, at least right now, where she was located. Smart. Very smart. These people knew what they were doing.
She studied the group in front of her. Three women, two blondettes (with one of them being a bit petite), and the tall brunette who had been with her target. The rest were men, all of them on the short side; a baldie, a blonde, and a stern-looking one with raven-black hair.
She smirked. Definitely cops. And surely not as smart as she initially considered them to be, if they actually believed their appearances could be intimidating just because they were banded together. Maybe the stern-looking dude could frighten her, but surrounded by these fresh, young faces… doubtful. Either they were underestimating her years of experience because they got a lucky shot on her, or they simply didn't know who they were dealing with.
Making herself comfortable on the unforgivable metal surface she was placed to sit on, she leaned back. "Congratulations for capturing me, I believe, are in order. Bravo, folks. I would clap but my hands are a bit… occupied at the moment. How about some introductions instead? Let's start with you, sweetheart", she nodded towards the petite woman. Pick out the easiest target first, the weakest link. Exploit them. The rest will follow, slowly but surely. Oldest trick in the book. "What's your na - "
"Constance Chamberlayne", the woman stepped forward, voice clear and back ramrod straight, as her blue eyes pierced her own, like gazing at her very soul. She took a seat on the other side of the table, making the simple act of pulling a chair and sitting down look like the most elegant and precise thing in the world. Shuffling her papers on top of the table, she snapped them efficiently in order, and then her perceptive and terrifying gaze locked her in place again, like a queen sitting atop her throne would to a lowly peasant. "You're under arrest for assisting and/or executing a number of assassinations under the orders of Don Delgado. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time.". She stopped for a couple of seconds, and then her posture relaxed, and a bright smile lit up her angelic face as she turned towards the blonde man. "Did you get all that, Armin?"
He gave an equally innocent smile back. "Efficient as always, Krista", he clicked a few buttons on the small remote he took out of his pocket. In a motion that screamed the ease of a routine procedure, he turned towards the scowling midget. "Should we inform the Chief to let Ms. McCormick know we might need her again?"
"Do it", the other man ordered. "Her face irritates me – Christine will definitely have to defend me."
The blonde sighed. "She's not going to like it…"
"Tough luck", his superior sneered. "She's free to come and do our job if she believes herself capable of doing it peacefully. They all know the drill and they agreed to it when they forced me back here, so they can all kiss my ass.". Sobering a little, he looked at the petite 'queen' sitting across from her. "You're dismissed, Lenz."
Krista nodded solemnly, standing up without so much as a creak from the chair (seriously, how did she do that?!) and looked at Constance with a doe look. "Did you know?", she asked quietly. "That your boss abused his wife and massacred children?"
The hitman raised her eyebrows. Her voice was almost pleading her to deny any kind of knowledge – to prove herself innocent, even after being caught red-handed. Too late for that, sweetheart. She locked gazes with her, eyes as cold as metal, and knew when the other's face crumpled that she didn't need to answer – this Krista was obviously no stranger to reading a person, or the ugliness of this world. "I think I'll take that phone call to my lawyer now", she answered instead, in a monotone that she knew could piss off even the most patient of interrogators.
Krista didn't show any other reaction other than the crestfallen look – on her behalf? - she offered earlier. She simply turned to her superior. "She's all yours, Captain", she announced, and then stepped up on her tiptoes to peck the freckled brunette on the cheek. "Give her hell, honey~", she smiled fondly, as if she was just telling the other woman to have a nice day at work, and then she almost glided, like a fucking nymph, around the table. The door's click seemed to echo in a sound of doom behind her.
"Damn, she's mad", the tanned woman grinned wolfishly.
Constance tried not to let the sudden tension in the air affect her. The minute Krista was out of the room, the rest of the team zeroed in on her like sharks that had smelled blood. The angry shortie stepped forward, his eyes not leaving hers for a second, as he said "Lock the door, Leonhart."
She gulped. Suddenly, she didn't feel as confident.
Levi knew that he was violating all sorts of laws and protocols. He knew and he didn't care. Back when they had forced him to return despite his explicit request to leave him alone in his early retirement, he had made some demands of his own. One of them, being that, should he come back, he would be doing things his own way.
Not that his request went by smoothly. There were still people in higher – and equal – positions who openly disagreed with his methods, but he guessed having Erwin on his side made up for it – somehow. He still didn't have total freedom, but at least he knew his Chief's ex-fiancée had his back in court (even if she totally tended to chew him out each time he needed her assistance).
And now, he was gonna need her for… well, he had lost count of how many times, really.
But it was worth it. Sometimes, following the rules wouldn't ensure you made certain the bad guys would pay. Sometimes, protocol couldn't protect the innocent. Couldn't avenge the victims. Sometimes, all the rules and laws in the world just weren't enough.
He thought of those poor kids. Of their families mourning them. The terror he'd glimpsed on Bodt's face – fear for his own little boy. He knew the man enough to understand that, without Santo, he would be devastated, lose all of his will to live. How many others were currently in the same position, all because of one man's vile disregard and abuse of the same laws and morals that Levi was forced to follow?
He thought of Michelle Delgado. That woman with the serene voice and posture, who tried so hard to make herself as pleasant and as invisible as possible. Because she had learned to view any kind of attention as bad. Who flinched at loud noises, ready to shrink away from confrontation – because she had been hurt, and had only known violence and cruelty in the hands of others, in the hands of her own husband. Levi wasn't much of a marriage guy, but even he knew that one must love and respect his own wife. It was in the god damn vows, was it not?
And yet, that same woman had risked her life, taken her chances, to help Kirstein – even when the latter was holding her at gun point. The detective had written all about that flying shoe of hers in his report. She had trusted them enough to put herself in danger again, for no other reason than to ensure that her husband was brought to justice. So as to stop this vicious cycle of death and suffering that had his own personal brand on it.
There were people like Michelle out there in the world. Good people, kind, selfless. And then, there were people like Constance Chamberlayne. Who served evildoers and criminals just because they could. He had read her files, he wasn't stupid. She wasn't in need of money. Her life wasn't threatened by Delgado. She owed the bastard nothing. She just killed… for fun.
Her attitude towards Lenz earlier said it all. She knew everything, and just didn't give a damn. Yet, her eyes seemed to drink in their reactions with each word. She was trying to rile them up.
Time to show her why that's a mistake with this unit.
He silently bypassed the inviting chair, pushing it and the table out of the way. Meticulously. Slowly.
Then, he kept his pace until he reached her side. He let his hand drop heavily on her shoulder. "Now that we're done with pleasantries, let's cut to the chase."
The assassin stared at him, her brain obviously working out that something was not going according to her plan here. She raised an eyebrow. "Sure. As soon as I call my lawyer, that is."
"What lawyer?"
She froze. Leonhart's cold question sure did its work in making her pause and nearly drop her façade of confidence. "The one you - "
"I told you no such thing", Levi squeezed his fingers on her enough to make her wince. "None of us did."
"But, the woman, Krista, she - "
"Do you see Lenz in here?", he gestured mockingly to the room around them. "It's just you… and us."
She narrowed her deadly eyes. Speculating. "That's against the law."
"What law?", he narrowed his own eyes, in return. "In here, the only laws these people will follow, are mine. What Lenz said earlier is recorded, so that at least a few dumbasses will stay out of my way. Make no mistake, I am going to get in trouble for doing this. But I'm dragging you down with me, and when it's all over, I'll stand back up – without you. Arlert, bring up all her files and identifications. I want them gone the second I tell you so. Erase all traces of her and our association here."
"Already done, sir", the hacker nonchalantly confirmed. Levi would never say it out loud, but damn did he love how efficient the brats were when it really counted!
"Wait, you guys are doing it all wrong!", for the first time since waking up, the woman started showing panic. She was clearly schooled in the inner workings of these procedures, and that irked him even more. Oh, when he got his hands on that mole…
He took his hand off her shoulder, choosing instead to lean on her, his elbow on her head – hey, if he was short enough that she was at the perfect height for that when seated, might as well take advantage of it, right?
His voice took a mockingly friendly tone. "This of it this way, Boobs: you're currently in a place where your boss can't reach you, or find you, and vice versa. No one knows you're here – and yes, we know there is a mole, don't give me that look", he playfully chastised her – well, as playful as someone like Levi could be – when she tried, and failed, to bring back her mask in an effort to cover her hidden aces. Things not going according to plan must have really taken her by surprise, and now she was struggling to regain some kind of composure. He had her right where he wanted her. He gestured towards Arlert. "See that annoyingly cute blondie over there? He can erase everything about you online – and offline – with a click of a button. You might as well wear a fucking sign around your neck saying 'You have been banned from existence'. So, you either tell me what I want to know, or you'll continue being in this state, until I get bored with you – which is pretty easy, trust me – and then you'll be really gone. Nod once if you understand, twice if you want a hit to your head to comprehend thought or whatever."
Apparently, she was a little on the slow side of understanding requests of this kind, because she took a long time to reply "… Who are you people? Ouch!"
He glared at her, his hand retreating from having slapped the back of her head. "That didn't answer my question – I don't tolerate insubordination. Let's try it once more – here, I'll go slower this time."
In retrospect, she shouldn't have been so arrogant. Delgado's mole had told them that not all cops they would come across would play by the rules, but they never said anything about violent midgets and their equally sadistic, mischievous minions. Seriously, who the fuck throws all protocols and legal procedures out of the window, acts smug about it (with full knowledge of what it means), and then smacks a suspect – repeatedly?
She tried to be a smartass about it, but the perpetually angry shortie hadn't been joking – he really hated insubordination, and she swore the couple of bumps she got really weren't worth her need to mouth off. And her observation skills told her he was getting closer to, as he had said, 'getting bored'. Given his slap-happy nature, she wasn't willing to find out how he intended to make her 'gone'. She liked living, thank you very much.
So she talked, and talked, mixing lies with the truth. Hoping this would be enough for Delgado to see her as someone still loyal to him. Hey, the money was good!
As she was talking, answering questions here, confessing to something there, sometimes throwing out a flat-out lie, she tried to memorize their faces. The midget had told her to cooperate, and he obviously wasn't planning on letting her call her lawyer. Bu as soon as her ass was in jail, because she knew that's where he was planning to put her, she'd let Delgado's men have at it with the information, and buy her freedom. The man had eyes and ears everywhere.
"I think we're done here", the blonde male announced, still typing something on his laptop, while still standing and holding it in one hand. "The facts check with her story just fine."
"Great", the blondette with the weird nose and monotone voice commented. "What now, Captain? Any orders?"
"Yeah", he replied, narrowing his eyes as he studied Constance further. Had he figured her plan out? Impossible! A smirk formed on his face as soon as he noticed her minimal twitch. "We're going to make Braun really sad – we're keeping her hostage, but away from his care."
The brunette snorted. "He's not gonna like that~", she said in a sing-song voice.
"Tough shit, I don't really give a fuck", he shrugged growling. "Get her up", he ordered, stepping back and getting out his gun. He made sure the safety was off, and pointed it at her, cocking it. The brunette followed his example.
Constance inwardly cursed. She had two guns, fully cocked, pointing at her, and by the looks of it, the owners wouldn't hesitate to use them if she decided to take the opportunity to bash the approaching blondette and the baldie with her chair and escape. The midget especially seemed way too trigger-happy.
Shit… Not only was her mole way out of context with these cops – they didn't even inform her how efficient this team was. How come the Delgado lackeys and associates had never heard of them?!
She was manhandled – albeit, not too roughly – out of the room and into another, bigger one. This one had a couple of windows, and desks – no devices of communication whatsoever, though. No phones, no computers. Some people were seated at the desks, focused on paperwork.
There was Krista, not even sparing her a glance as she was furiously scribbling things on a notepad. A very tall man with dark hair and green eyes leaned over her shoulder, reading her notes with silent rapture without touching her.
A guy with ash-brown hair and brown eyes was focusing rather intensely on his own paperwork opposite of Krista's desk. He was fidgeting, stealing glances at her and at the desk closest to the door her captors seemed to be leading her to. His body was tense, like he was ready to bolt at the first chance.
She smirked. At least somebody here understood who they were dealing with.
Her smirk, though, was short-lived.
"Shit!", the fidgety male cursed, leaping from his seat the next instant and towards the spot he had been looking at. "I knew it! I told you guys we shouldn't have taken him with us!"
"Let me go, Horseface! We can take her out! No one will know! It's the perfect chance! She can finally pay for the lives she's destroyed!"
The new, growly voice with the obvious murderous intent made her look at the man the 'Horseface' was trying to restrain. He was shorter than the other guy – but still taller than the midget – and his gray eyes seemed full of unrestrained rage. He was yelling at the top of his lungs for the others to follow that mad plan of his to off her then and there, and Constance's eyes couldn't help but be attracted to the badge hanging from his neck. She gulped. What the hell were these people?! What kind of monsters had the police force been hiding?!
The loud male was being held by two people – the Horseface and a woman. Well, to be honest, the woman was the one truly getting the job done. She looked unfazed and determined – and suspiciously familiar? Like a certain…
The professional killer gasped, her eyes flying towards the team's violent leader. Well, fuck! The demonic shortie had more of his kind out there?!
The freckled brunette by her side pointed her gun at the guy who was restrained. "Don't make me shoot you, Eren. The Captain would be pissed, and I already have a shit ton of paperwork on my hands."
Said Captain just gave a sidelong glance, and uttered one, single word, in a deadly quiet voice "Jaeger…"
At once, the commotion stopped. The angry dude piped down instantly, going pale and muttering apologies, while his pals let out a breath of relief.
The shortie nodded in satisfaction, and motioned for Constance's captors to keep walking.
The minute they had crossed the room and closed the door behind them, Constance turned to the sadistic leader. "What the fuck is wrong with you people?! Trying to kill an arrested accomplice? How could you let such a wild card in your team?"
"He gets the job done when needed", he shrugged. "No second thoughts on attacking dangerous bastards."
The baldie snorted. "If you thought the Captain would try to mellow out his own prodigy, you have another thing coming."
"Prodi - ",she nearly choked at the revelation. Yes, she knew she had totally lost her cool, but she doubted she'd get it back soon with these people. They were chaos personified. "Do you have any idea what it'd mean for him to kill me before I'm officially judged by the law?!"
She was only met with bored stares.
"Paperwork?", the freckled one repeated, shrugging.
"Two weeks of suspension?", the baldie guessed, and brightened up. "Oooh, that means vacation time!"
"Headaches from the higher-ups?", the blondette questioned, too, not fazed at all.
The killer turned her horrified eyes at the leader. He gave her a daredevil smirk. "Who said Jaeger was the only wild card in my team?"
PREVIEW:
"Guns, knives, these things here I don't even wanna mention... Are we getting ready for a war?"
"We've been at war ever since we joined the force, Leonhart. Try to keep up with the times."
"I thought that was just our routine."
"Eh, close enough."