It had already been the fifth day in row that it had been raining non-stop. The streets were almost empty aside from the occasional vehicle driving past. It felt like the city suddenly got deserted, like everyone wanted to distance themselves from whatever had been going on between the city and the Recon Corps. In the last days, there had at least been one shooting a day. As far as it was known, at least a dozen people had been arrested. They were mostly low-grade dealers, whos' only connection to the Corps was the stuff they were selling. There were rumours that prisoners got injured in riots or suddenly disappeared from their cells. It was like the universe knew how messed up things had become and made sure to let it reflect with the weather.

"That's really one ugly-ass building."

"I know, right?"

"Who builds such a hideous thing?"

"Exactly what I've been talking about. And what's more, it's next to the 'Emperor'!"

"I can't believe I never saw this," Levi said and Nanaba mumbled what he supposed was a 'right?' while she drew on her cigarette.

The two of them were sitting on the covered balcony of Erwin's suite, having a smoking break. Well, at least Nanaba was smoking. Levi had decided that he needed a break from the people in the room. While they were sitting there, Nanaba had commented how ugly the building across was and the next thing Levi knew, they had started trash-talking it.

"Feels good to direct the anger at it, ha?" Nanaba said and tilted her head back. She closed her eyes and blew the smoke up. "After Mike's funeral, Erwin and I were close to blowing it up." She remained in the position for a while, before she sat back up. "Stupid building."

Levi averted his glance from the building at looked at Nanaba. "You probably should have done it." He paused for a second and then stretched his hand out in her direction. "Mike would totally have been against it, though."

Automatically, Nanaba gave him the almost finished cigarette. "Yeah, he would have hated all the dust," she said and they both had to chuckle at the thought of Mike standing in the dust of a collapsing building. "But speaking of smoke one hates, Hanji won't be happy to find out that you're smoking again."

Levi pretended to look offended and took another draw from the cigarette, before passing it back. "If you don't tell her, I won' either."

Nanaba stubbed out the cigarette and stood up. "You're making an unwilling accomplice out of me," she said with a teasing tone. Levi rolled his eyes but didn't reply anything. It was not like he had started again, was it?

"Head back in?"

/

The living room in Erwin's suite had been repurposed as a makeshift meeting room, with another dining table added in, where Rico and someone from her team were sitting around. Gunther was sitting in the armchair with his laptop on his lap, while Gelgar and Lynee were on the couch, scanning through some documents. One of Erwin's bodyguards had put his chair in front of the tv and was watching what seemed to be a car race on mute. The living room door was ajar, and you could hear Erwin's voice coming from the hallway. He was on the phone, again. Like he had been for the past few days.

Levi sat down next to Rico. "Any luck?", he asked. There had been all kind of rumours out on the street about what was happening with prisoners who were part of the Corps, but all connection to the inmates with the outside world had been cut.

Rico took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She had been starring at the screen for hours. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing," she answered. She sounded exhausted and the four empty energy drink cans next to her laptop couldn't be healthy.

"Why don't you guys call it a day?" Levi suggested. It was frustrating that apparently no one knew what had been happening. Or at least no one had mentioned anything on their phones or mails. Maybe now it was time to make a move 'in person'.

Meanwhile, Nanaba's team was trying to find a way to get the distribution of their products running again. The sales numbers in Trost had went down, as there had been multiple raids between the lower ranked dealers. While the production and distribution in other countries had – more or less – stayed the same, they had to pause the production at the 'Titan' for the time being. However, not only the drug business in Trost had taken a dive, but also their other deals. Truth be told, the biggest part of their business in Trost was a fucking mess. Maybe they had gotten too comfortable with the way things were running before, when Erwin still had his deals with the Wall-Cult. Levi couldn't believe that he was actually missing the days, back when Nile Dawk had been his biggest problem.

/

Maybe another hour passed, when Erwin came back in the room. He talked with the remaining people for a bit and then he thanked them for their work and sent everyone, except for Levi and Nanaba, home.

"This time, we can't go to a war like we did with the Leader," he concluded when the three of them were alone. "We didn't fully recover from that and I can't, and won't, send more people running into their deaths like that."

"So, this means we're going with 'Shadow' then?", Nanaba asked, referring to one of the three possible operations, they all had been working on in the last two weeks. She had come up with code names for them and somehow the others had started using them as well.

Erwin nodded. "If it's okay with the two of you?"

Levi got up from the couch, heading to the liquor cabinet. "It's probably the one most likely to succeed," he called back while he stacked three glasses together. He grabbed them with one hand and the first bottle in his reach with the other. "But it's also probably a suicide mission for us."

Erwin sighed and shrugged. "Probably."

Levi put the glasses and bottle down at the table, then he placed a glass in front of each of them and poured the liquor in.

"It wouldn't be the first one," Nanaba commented and took her glass.

"No, it wouldn't," Levi agreed and looked at Erwin. If death was the only option left, though, so be it. From the day he had gotten his wings, he knew that he would be ready to die for the Corps. For Erwin's idea of freedom. "I'll do it, but if we die, then I'll kill you for real."

The Don laughed and took his glass as well. "Then I'll announce the plan to the team tomorrow and when the time comes, we'll just have to try not to die."

"So, to not dying in our suicide mission, then?", Nanaba asked and raised her glass.

The two men raised their glasses as well.

"To not dying, then."

/