When Erwin's alarm rang at 6 a.m., the Don had already been awake for over an hour. He had already had his coffee and was just packing his suitcase, when his phone started ringing. Erwin put the last pair of trousers in his suitcase and then shut off the phone. In probably one hour the moving team would be there to take his few personal belongings that he had at the 'Emperor', to bring them to his house, where he hadn't been for months. The suite at the 'Emperor' was functioning as his office, because there was no need in having so many people know where he actually lived. Sometimes, he'd stay overnight at the hotel, when he didn't feel like driving home, but in the last months, his working days had gotten so much longer that he had quasi moved in. Now however, it would be too reckless to stay there. Who's to tell, that Zackly wouldn't drop by again?
There were a suit and shirt left hanging at the mirrored door of the closet across from his bed. Erwin took down the shirt and froze for a second when he saw his reflection in the mirror. The almost sleepless nights and his diet of mostly coffee had taken a toll on his body. He had lost muscles and looked too out of shape for his own liking. When you took a closer look, his arms were also uneven. Or, more precisely, his arm and his arm prosthesis, which was designed to look exactly like his intact arm had looked months ago. His hair was neatly styled, and his face shaved clean and yet the bags under his eyes gave away the exhaustion he was feeling. Erwin realized that he had bigger problems right now than the absence of his abs, but it still bugged him a bit to see himself like that. He had worked hard to obtain a certain image among his subordinates, and he didn't want to give it away that he wasn't feeling anything else than 100 % percent fit.
"Like you don't have other things to worry about," Erwin said to himself and put on his shirt.
/
Hanji felt like she had transferred to a new High School in the middle of the year when she entered the building the Recon Corps were using as their new headquarters after the previous one had been ruined in the last shooting. It was in the same street as the 'Titan'. There was a bakery on the ground floor and above it there was the meeting room. The room was spacious and almost the whole floor was one big space, save for three offices that were separated from the rest of the floor by glass walls. Hanji assumed that this had at some point been an open-plan office, only that now the cubicles were gone and replaced by a few round tables with chairs at one side and four couches at the other side of the room and some cupboards along the wall. There were two projection screens hanging at each side of the room, which were used as tv's and Hanji even noticed a gaming console under one of them.
There were small groups sitting at random tables, one couch was occupied, and a few people were standing in a circle and chatting. She hadn't met most of the people, as she had never been to the headquarters before. Until now she only worked with Nanaba's group, as she was part of her team. When Hanji entered the room, all heads turned in her direction. She felt them all starring at her. They were probably all curious to see who the woman was, whom 'the' dreaded Levi called his girlfriend. It really felt like in High School.
"Hello!", Hanji greeted, hoping that her voice didn't give her nervousness away.
They all greeted back and before she could take a better look around the room, to see if somebody from her team was already there, someone appeared in front of her.
"Hanji, nice to see you again," a tall, buff blonde man greeted her with a confident smile. "I don't know if you remember me, but we met a couple months before," he said.
Hanji looked at him for a second, before it clicked. "You're the one who sedated me," she said and laughed. "Rainer, right?"
Rainer's grin grew even bigger. "Yes! Although it was Annie who rammed the needle into you."
He then asked her how she was doing and after a short small talk, he suddenly grabbed her by the arm. "You've got to meet the rest of Levi's team. We don't hear anything about you from him, half of them don't even believe that you exist," he laughed and before Hanji could protest, he dragged her to one of the tables. "This is the cool-people table," he announced and pointed at the people that were sitting around it. "You know Annie and Berthold … and Gunther, I guess? And those are Sasha, Ymir and Historia. Or Christa? I don't know, she switches too much between them."
"Historia's fine," the blonde woman said. "It's nice to meet you, Hanji."
Hanji greeted them. It was fun to finally put some faces to the names Levi had been always talking – or rather, complaining – about.
"You're working for Nanaba's team, right? How do you like it?", Historia asked.
Before Hanji could answer her, Rainer sat down at the free chair next to Historia, crossed his arms on the table and looked up. "You're living with Levi, right? Is he always that grumpy?", he asked nonchalantly.
The rest of the table looked at him in shock, and Gunter only shook his head, he had the same "I'm so done"-expression that Levi had as well, when talking about Rainer.
"Rainer!" Berthold winced.
"What? I'm just curious," Rainer said, oblivious to the group's reaction. "I just can't picture him with a normal private live, much less in a relationship."
The group starred at him in disbelief and Hanji had to control herself not to burst into laughter. She wondered how the group would react if they found out that Levi had made her pancakes with a chocolate-chip smiley face on them that morning.
"Boy, you're actively asking to get killed," Ymir said rather amused.
Hanji didn't know what to respond to that, but luckily Nanaba just stepped to her in the same moment. "He is, isn't he?", she agreed with the same amused tone, before her voice switched back to normal. "I'm sorry to ruin your fun, but I'll have to steal Hanji away from you guys."
"You're ruining Shorty's reputation," she teased, when the two of them stepped away.
"Hey, I'm not saying anything," Hanji defended herself. "Also, you're the one that's calling him Shorty, and no one reacts that shocked."
Nanaba laughed. "New members do. But we have the years-long partners in crime banter vibe going. With you, on the other hand - you make them wonder if he likes to snuggle or not and that's too much for their poor minds."
/
After a while the room was pretty full. Hanji was sitting with Lynee abd Gelgar from her team and two people who had introduced themselves as Daz and Phil. It had gotten loud in the room, with everyone chatting. Suddenly the door flew open and the noise died out. Levi and Erwin entered the room with three other men in tow. One of the men immediately stopped at the door and the others made their way to the middle of the room.
Hanji observed Levi with curiosity. Now she got, what Rainer was talking about. She was so used to the way Levi behaved at home – or when they were around Erwin and Nanaba – where he let his guard down, that she had forgotten the serious, slightly threatening Mafioso he had been back then, when they had met. The way he moved through the room radiated a certain vigilance. He stopped somewhere between the couches and tables and leaned back against the wall. With his arms crossed and a strict mien he scanned through the room. Erwin stepped a bit further into the center of the room than Levi, the two other men staying in proximity. Hanji figured they had to be bodyguards.
"Thank you all for coming here on rather short notice," Erwin started with a loud, clear voice. His face was serious. "Ever since the Corps had been founded, they have been at a constant cold war with another organization. We were underground and they hid so well from the public that you can argue that they are the same as us. Ultimately, both have the same goals. We both want power and money and we both had pretty much the same unscrupulous approach to achieve it."
He paused and looked through the room. "Until now we have managed to stay out of each other's business, but a line has been crossed and we are finding ourselves, once again, at war. Only that this time, it won't end with a shootout."
The tension in the room grew. You could hear a few people shifting in their seats, but no one dared to make a noise.
"There are four people in charge there: Chief of Staff of the MP Darius Zackly, vice-mayor Reeves, the director of Trost bank Rod Reiss, and Minister Nick. All the other members are not ranked highly enough to make decisions. It is almost impossible to get close to the four of them. They are not only guarded by their own bodyguards but now have also hired Shadis to do the dirty work for them. We will only have one chance to attack them, and that's when they hold their secret meeting. That will be the only time those four men will be in the same room, without guards or weapons inside. Our chances will be best, if we get Shadis to back out before the meeting, so that we only have to get past their bodyguards."
A murmur went through the room. "How do you intend to get Shadis to back out?", somebody in the crow asked.
"I'm going to talk with him and try to get him to back out." It was the first thing Levi said since he had arrived in the room.
"How?", a voice from the back of the room shouted. "Didn't he just try to kill you?", another person in the crowd asked. "Do you really think that's going to work?"
Levi shrugged and Hanji's heart sunk into her stomach. She knew about their plan, but hearing other people voice her concerns, made her fear grow.
"We can't attack him, like we did with the Leader," Levi said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "As much as I hate to say this, Shadis isn't the enemy to concentrate on right now."
Erwin took over: "Shadis doesn't play for a single team. At the right price anyone, but especially he, can be bought. Right now, the Cult holds that power over him, but I am going to strip that away from Zackly. He holds the so-called key to the city and without it, he has no power. Their meeting will be in three weeks, until then, we won't give them any chance to cause any more damage to us. We're switching to our alternative meeting points, the lab at the Titan will be relocated and I want you all to try your best to stay put until then.
In three weeks, we will have a relatively short time frame to act and our future will depend on the execution of operation 'Shadow'."
He took a step back and suddenly Nanaba appeared on his spot. Hanji had been so focused on the Don's speech, that she hadn't noticed Nanaba appearing there. By the noise that went through the room, neither had anyone else.
"Operation 'Shadow' is the one most likely to succeed, but it has to run smoothly from start to finish, if we want to survive," she took over the speech. "There are three phases, that have to work, in order for Don Smith to get the key. In the next two weeks, Rico and her team will have to find out every little detail about the four men at top, most importantly about the people they care about. A few hours before the meeting, Levi will try to get Shadis out of the picture. We can't do it too soon, so that the Cult doesn't get suspicious. Ideally, Shadis will get his men to back out just after the meeting starts. Just when the meeting starts, there will be groups out there who will just then take all the family members hostage. That will be our leverage in the end. The plan is for Don Smith to get to the room without getting noticed by the members beforehand. That means, that the ones of you who'll go with him, will have to be able to take out the guards before they can alarm anyone."
She then stepped to the side.
"But what will happen, if the guards see us? What if they see the Don?" It was clear that 'see' meant 'kill', yet no one dared to say it out loud.
Erwin stepped back to the middle and looked at each person in the room. There was a determination in his look, which made him look as if he was invincible. No one dared to speak. "If I die, the line of successors is clear. They can kill me, but not the Corps. They can kill a man, but not the idea. As long as there is one single person with the wings of freedom out there, our idea will prevail."
The room remained silent for a second and Hanji swore that she could feel the wave of enthusiasm build up between the members. Then suddenly, everyone jumped up, cheering.
"For Freedom!"