Lyla slowly walked down the stairs. The rest of them froze and didn't even think to stop Lyla as they were utterly dumbstruck.
Finally, Lyla arrived in front of the dungeon doors where the screams echoed off the walls. When Lyla arrived in front of the door, the screaming died down and she could hear the MP speaking.
"I killed them all. From the teacher who was too smart for his own good to the stupid couple who tried to fly. All was to keep peace inside the walls. But… this. It hurts so much."
There was silence.
"It's okay, however, because I serve the King. The King is with me! I shall keep peace and save humanity."
Lyla burst into laughter and opened the dungeon doors. Everyone looked at her in surprise. Levi pushed off from the wall he was leaning on.
"I thought I told you to wait upstairs."
Lyla walked in as if she didn't hear Levi at all as she kept laughing. Finally, she caught her breath.
"Oh, you want to keep peace? You want to save humanity?"
Lyla grinned sinisterly. She glanced at Hange and Levi.
"Listen well, all of you. The sturdy walls that protect you, will one day attack you. The wall will be your doom when all hell gets loose." Lyla then tilted her head. "That is, if nobody stops the wall from waking and if you can't control them."
Lyla giggled. She extended her hand and gently caressed the MP's cheek.
"Poor thing, at this rate you would break his jaw. Then you won't be able to hear anything, now would you?"
Hange's eyebrows shot upward and Levi glared at the girl who was clearly not Lyla.
"Who the hell are you?" Levi demanded. Lyla turned around and smiled.
"Oh me? I'm just… let's say another part of Lyla."
"Get the fuck out of her before I beat the crap out of you," growled Levi. Lyla laughed and said fondly, "Now, now, don't make such threats. Didn't you hear me? I'm a part of Lyla. The magician part she's forgotten for years. Really, I'm dying to become one with her. You know, it's not all too pleasant to be separated from your soul."
Lyla twirled around and faced the MP again.
"It's such a pity the King decided to hide everything. Do you think that would protect yourselves? You and I both know that there's no future inside these walls."
"My loyalty lies with the King," said the MP. Lyla's eyes widened for a moment, then, she started laughing hysterically.
"The King who you think is the King, is no King."
"Then who is the King?" Hange asked. Lyla smirked.
"Rod Reiss. Yes, that local landlord. With no doubt, the MPs took Eren and Krista, or Historia if you prefer, to him. They would be under the chapel if my guess is correct."
Lyla again faced the MP and leaned down toward him.
"You may think you're doing a great favor to your people and to the King. But mark my words, your actions would be the cause of your death. They're coming, and they won't hesitate."
She twirled majestically and bowed down.
"I'll take my leave now. Lyla's stamina is wearing out and I think I shouldn't force myself out anymore. Besides… Levi doesn't seem happy with me."
Lyla giggled as she saw Levi's scowl deepen.
"Don't worry. Lyla won't remember any of this. Not until she awakens as a magician, which will be quite soon because her memories are coming back. I remember the cookies you know."
Levi and Hange both made confused expressions.
"Oh, by the way," said Lyla. "I would hurry. Eren wouldn't be alive for long you know. He's only a vase to contain the power."
Levi and Hange's face went pale. Lyla laughed one last time and she fell to the ground. Levi's eyes widened. He hurriedly knelt down and cradled Lyla's head. She groaned and slowly opened her eyes.
"How do you feel?" Levi asked worriedly. Lyla looked around and saw the gruesome sight. An MP covered in blood with missing fingernails wasn't an image she needed. She groaned and turned her head away.
"Now I feel like I'm going to vomit."
She then lifted her head and quirked an eyebrow.
"Why am I here? Did something happen, sir?"
Levi looked lost for a moment. Then he slowly said, "It's rather hard to explain."
Lyla face-palmed. "I did something weird again, didn't I?"
"You can say that again!" Hange said with her usual maniacal smile. "But you gave the information we need. We now know where Eren is and who the true king is!"
Lyla had no idea how she gave the information but she thought that all's well that ends well.
"We'll just need to confirm if what Lyla said is true!" said Hange gleefully. Levi gently steered Lyla out of the dungeon and she calmly walked up the stairs. Armin looked up from his hands when he heard Lyla's footsteps.
"Lyla!" he hurried to her side. "Are you okay? I mean… you looked quite shook up when…"
"Yeah, when I blacked out," Lyla finished. "It's okay. Besides the fact that I feel really tired, everything's fine."
...
...
What Lyla said turned out to be true.
"Now we know where Eren is. The problem is that we don't know where this said 'underground chapel' is." said Hange. Her face suddenly turned dark. "There's one thing I didn't tell yet. I wanted to be sure."
Hange took a big breath, then spoke, "If we don't hurry. Eren might get eaten by a titan."
Everyone's eyes widened in surprise, including Lyla's as she didn't remember anything in the dungeons. Mikasa immediately tried to leave the building but Levi stopped her.
"Calm down. You behaving irrationally won't bring him back."
Mikasa resigned with a sigh.
"I'll go and report to Erwin about the new information," said Hange. Hange left and Levi said to everyone.
"From now on we must tread our path carefully. No independent actions unless permitted to. Mikasa, you, with everything you got, try to protect Eren."
"Of course, sir," said Mikasa with determination. Levi turned to Lyla.
"Lyla,"
"Sir!"
"You… you try to stay alive."
Everybody tilted their heads. What kind of order was that?
"And try not to go into weird trances anymore, please," added Levi. Now everyone looked terrified. Was the Captain Levi actually saying please? Lyla slowly nodded her head with a confused 'sir.'
...
...
Levi was right when he said they must be careful for the next day they found out that they were framed and the whole Survey Corps was held captive for murder. Squad Levi was now the suspect for the murder of two civilians.
"Unbelievable!" Lyla raged. Levi clicked his tongue and said.
"Looks like the King wants us dead pretty badly."
"I can't believe the citizens believed this shit! I mean, forget about us, they don't even know who we are, but you, captain, you were their hero! You're Captain Levi, Humanity's Strongest Soldier! Did they forget how many lives you saved? The sacrifice you made? How could they think a man like that could kill a civilian?" Lyla stomped around in frustration.
"The citizens would believe what they are meant to believe. They believe whatever the government would feed them," said Levi dryly. "Now calm down."
"How can I calm down when we are in such deep shit? We're in the middle of the forest, we have no gas, all we have is our blades and a wagon and we became suspects of murder we didn't even do!"
"Well you should, because I know you're rational enough to do so and because we're in the middle of the forest where anyone can hear us if they happen to pass by!" said Levi in an irritated tone. Lyla was quite getting on his nerves today, and it's only the first half of the day. Lyla turned and narrowed her eyes at Levi.
"You're crankier than usual because you couldn't have your morning tea, aren't you Captain?"
Levi huffed out annoyingly. "Thank you for reminding me. Now if you know that I'm crankier than usual, then calm the fuck down."
Lyla slightly giggled. She knew that he was more annoyed at the fact that she thought him 'cranky' than the fact that she reminded him about the tea. She plopped down next to Levi.
"Any good ideas Captain?"
"Nothing at the moment," sighed Levi.
"You know there would be MPs patrolling."
"That's why I told you to calm down."
"How about we disguise as MPs. We jump the first two we find and take their gear and uniforms," said Lyla as she tapped the empty gas tanks.
Levi looked at Lyla with an 'are you serious?' sort of expression.
"That's the most idiotic plan I've ever heard," said Levi.
"Well, do you have any other ideas then this 'idiotic' plan then?" asked Lyla challengingly.
Levi thought hard for a moment. When nothing came up, he thought even harder. Finally, he gave in with a huff.
"Fine."
Lyla stood up briskly, "They say that sometimes the most stupid ideas are the best."
Levi slowly got up and said, "Just who said that?"
"I don't know," said Lyla innocently. She then fist-bumped Levi's shoulder.
"Relax Captain, things will turn out okay. Or I hope so…" Lyla silently added.
...
...
"That's stupid."
Was Mikasa's initial reaction when Lyla and Levi explained their new 'plan.'
"Thank you Mikasa for your support," said Lyla.
"On second thought, maybe it's not that bad," said Mikasa with a straight face. Lyla giggled and Levi rolled his eyes.
"Okay. Mikasa and I will go up in the trees and Armin, you go pretend to fill the pails with water at the stream.
And so the waiting game began. Lyla stayed on alert, hidden behind bushes. To tell the truth, she was bored as hell but that didn't mean she can slack off. Lyla glared at Levi. She promptly volunteered to be the one to capture the MPs but Levi quickly dismissed her and assigned Mikasa instead. She was dissatisfied but she had to follow his orders. He was the captain after all. Lyla had no objection to the decision itself as Mikasa was skilled as she was. She just didn't like that Levi was that quick in making his decision and didn't even consider her.
By the time when Lyla was seriously considering if her plan was perhaps a disaster, she heard footsteps. Lyla immediately focused. Soon she saw two MPs; a boy with black hair and a girl with chin-length, curly light brown hair. It didn't take them long to notice Armin.
"You there!" the boy MP shouted. "You're a Survey Corps' soldier, aren't you? Stand up and turn around slowly."
Armin did as told and held his hands up in surrender. The boy again opened his mouth but before he could say anything Levi and Mikasa jumped off the trees and tied them up. Levi took out their IDs.
"Marlo Freudenberg and Hitch Dreyse."
Levi was talking on when Hitch suddenly said, "Many people died in Stohess because of the Survey Corps' crazy operation. Many innocent civilians' lives were turned into a nightmare!"
Levi simply said, "Yeah."
Lyla also had nothing to say about that. It was to catch Annie, but it also did cause a lot of tragedy. Could've there been a better way? Lyla didn't know.
"Hey, you three." Hitch looked at Lyla, Armin, and Mikasa. "Weren't you guys in the same training camp with Annie? Aren't you guys her friends? Wait… there's no way she'd have any friends. She never talks or converses with anyone."
Lyla thought for a moment. Well, she did have some people to call friends. And she even had someone who loved her, although it was one-sided.
"After the operation in Stohess, Annie went missing. I never saw her after. Isn't it because she died? Isn't it because she got crushed by the titan or… or eaten?" Hitch cried out.
Levi silently looked at her. Lyla bit her lip. This was going to be painful. Finally, Levi said in a monotone voice.
"No, it was because Annie Leonhart was the hidden titan shifter."
There. That was it. The faces the two made alone was painful enough. First confusion, then disbelief, and finally, betrayal. There was a long silence.
"I can't believe that the Survey Corps murdered someone," Marlo finally spoke up. "Captain Levi, please let me help you."
A/N Sorry it took so long to post this chapter! There's was a studio recital and I had to suddenly take care of a bunch of kids.
And I'm again sorry to say that I won't be updating a new chapter next week. I'm participating in a local competition so I would be busy the whole week preparing for it.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
