Armin woke up to a loud clanging on the bars of his cell, jolting so hard that he could feel the loose chains around his wrist pull and chafe.
Fucking hell he'd forgotten about those.
He looked down at his wrists, eyes still bleary with sleep and unable to truly focus but open enough to see the discoloration of his skin even in this low light and cursed once more. That was really gonna fucking hurt later.
Although he really should have expected it when he moved to get out of bed the face staring at him through his bars startled him to the point where he fell flat back out onto his bed unable to do much but stare at the...woman? Man? Whoever was continuing to stare at him like he was little more than a piece of meat waiting to be slaughtered.
Holy shit, he hoped this wasn't the legal advocate that Erwin had been talking about yesterday.
He sat in a tense silence as he continued to stare at the person, waiting for them to make a move but after a solid minute of silence Armin became impatient.
"Um, good morning…?" He asked tentatively, still not knowing exactly what this person was here for. For all he knew, the courts had decided to make an immediate decision without him and this person was here to execute him, or worse, lead him to become a dog for the Military Police.
Armin had heard of it happening before, where a criminal who was supposed to testify would be referred to as far too dangerous for an appearance in court and would then have their case proceed without them, often spending days in their cell without any news of the ongoing trial.
Sometimes they'd even be publicly executed without even knowing what they were charged with.
It was an unfortunate reality of their legal system, a system which commanded power and avoided criticism by forcing anyone who disagreed into the same fate as true criminals, and while Armin was certainly aware and disgusted by it, it was simply one of the things you had to forget about in daily life less you spend hours fretting over something you can't fix.
Besides, there's not much room for political advocacy when your main focus is not being eaten by a titan.
So to say that he was relieved when the person's face quirked up into a smile and they stepped back into the light to reveal those two wings of freedom would be a bit of an understatement.
"Nice to meet you!" They greeted with enthusiasm, clasping their hands in front of their face as they leaned to the side, their glasses beginning to slide off of their face. "I'm Research Section leader Hanji Zoe, but you can just call me Hanji."
Armin swallowed audibly. Was this some kind of trick? Section leader wasn't exactly a low position, especially within the Survey Corps-Mostly because the Survey Corps at its core was a research branch, although it seemed that most people forgot about that-so to ask to be referred to so casually was almost unheard of.
"Um, yes sir." Armin responded, attempting to go for the safe option, but he didn't miss the small frown that pulled across the person's face at his comment. "May I, um, ask why you are here?"
They smiled once again, finally pushing their glasses back to their original position and enthusiastically replied, "Well, to be honest I'm supposed to be your legal advisor-" Armin frowned a bit at that. He had begun to feel relieved too early. "-but I'm actually here a bit early to ask some of my own questions!"
"Huh? About what?"
They practically jumped at that, placing their hands on the bars of Armin's cell once more. "Why titans of course! According to everything that I've heard you may be something like the titan messiah, but I haven't been able to look over the reports yet because Levi is being mean." They finished with a frown, and Armin had to wonder, was it really a good idea to bar the person who was supposed to be giving him legal advice from the details of his case?
"And so I decided to come directly to the source before we maybe, possibly, probably won't, lose you to the Military Police." They continued to smile, but with every word they said Armin was losing confidence. Why the hell did Commander Erwin choose them to be his legal advisor?
"So what'do you say? Will you tell me everything you know?" Hanji asked, pulling a large and well worn flipbook and pen from somewhere behind them. "Please?"
"Ah…I mean, I don't see why not-"
"Excellent! So to start off, about the Rogue titan-"
It didn't take long into the conversation before Armin realized something, something he didn't really expect or notice at the start but now that he'd noticed it, he was mentally kicking himself.
It was that Hanji was smart, and not in the 'oh I didn't expect this person to actually know what they were doing' kind of way, but rather the 'holy shit I could research for years and still not come to the expertise they have' kind of way.
Hanji had taken the smallest of information he had given them and was able to extrapolate into what was almost a new dimension.
And that was probably why Commander Erwin had appointed them as his legal representative because as they spoke Armin continued to realize more and more about the situation that he could use to his favor.
Or really, the Rogue titan's favor, but considering that his freedom was on the line it was one in the same.
"So the artist rendition that is being passed around is incorrect?" Hanji asked, continuing to scrawl in her flipbook. "But it has all of the correct features?"
"Yes, I mean it's technically not wrong with the prominent stuff like it's weird jaw and ears but the rendition just looks...off." Armin offered, not really sure what else to say.
"Hmmmm." Hanji hummed as they went and rummaged through their back pockets again, pulling out a small crumpled piece of paper. "If I give you a pen could you try and correct the drawing that I have?"
"Ah, well I'm not really too confident in my drawing abilities…" But Armin took the pen and paper anyway, moving towards the right corner of his cell which had the best lighting, but without even seeing the paper properly he could already see some of the big issues with the recreation.
For starters, compared to yesterday's paper this one had a full body recreation and it was just...wrong.
The Rogue titan had been drawn slightly pudgy with long arms that led to hands dangling past the knees and a slightly hunched over posture. Once more it looked as if the artist had attempted to fix the titans very much not normal features onto a normal titan body and it was just…
Ugh, it made Armin irrationally angry.
Maybe there was some truth to the claim that he was far too attached to a titan that he had only really interacted with once.
Picking his pen up, Armin began to correct the piece, using sharp angled lines in an attempt to get his point across and all too aware of Hanji staring intently through the bars ahead of him, but no matter what he did the piece didn't look right.
It wasn't as if Armin was some kind of artistic genius, but he at least thought that he could make some basic corrections to get the titan's general shape, but it was just far too different.
He threw the pen down in frustration, the clattering against the tile floor sounding far too satisfying for him to truly regret it as he roughly shoved the product of his work through the bars of his cell and into Hanji's hands.
"Hmmm, is something wrong?" They hummed as they delicately unfolded the crumpled corners of the paper to reveal the drawing within, which at this point was basically nothing but a large ink blotch of several lines all attempting to change how the titan looked.
Armin ran his hands through his hair-holy fuck he needed a showing and probably a brush-and let out a deep breath. "It's just-the Rogue titan was so different. It wasn't like any of the other titans around and it wasn't just it's mouth and ears that made it stand out. I don't really know how to explain it."
"Well why don't you try?" Hanji said as they flipped the paper around to face him. "It looks like you've got some problems with his body, so why don't you start with that?"
Armin closed his eyes, bringing a hand up to his chin to think back to Trost, to exactly what he'd seen, what he was sure so many others had seen. "Well...to start its body looked nothing like a normal titan. It was perfectly proportional, almost as if you'd taken a human and stretched it out to the size of a titan." he placed his arms out in front of him for emphasis. "And it was all muscle! Walls, it looked as if it didn't have a single ounce of body fat, as if it spent every single day of its life bench pressing trees."
He heard a small laugh in front of him and saw Hanji move to cross their legs, placing their elbows on their knees and leaning into their hands. "Him being able to carry the boulder makes a lot more sense then."
"Yeah, I don't understand why this is the official rendition of the Rogue titan. I mean, so many people saw it and it looks almost nothing like this."
"Who knows. I'm personally not privy to how they commissioned the artist, so it could be for a number of reasons." Hanji responded, attempting to wave away the conversation with her hand. "So are there any other differences you noticed? Not just physical ones too, I'd like to know if he acted any different than other titans."
Armin just gave them a flat look. "With all due respect, it was attacking other titans and ignoring humans. I don't think titan behaviour gets any different than that."
"Oh, no I don't mean stuff like that!" They exclaimed, suddenly seeming much more engaged in the conversation. "I mean do you know if he moved to where more people were? Did he attempt to herd titans into an area? By the walls, was he eating the other titans?!" By the end of their statement Armin had begun to back away as they scooted closer and closer to the cell, once more placing their hands on the bars.
"Um, well I'm not sure? It came by the supply depot which had a lot of people, but that could be coincidence and I saw it bite out another titan's nape but I'm not really sure if it was eating it?"
"So he does know about a titan's weak spot!" Hanji shouted as they popped up from their sitting position practically vibrating in place as Armin just looked on helplessly. "Did he have claws? What were his eyes like, did they have the normal round pupils or were they different? You said that his eyes were totally front facing, right? Did you ever see them focus?"
"Uhm, yes? It actually kinda looked back at me as it was leaving the wall-"
"He focused on you? Do you know why?"
That made Armin stop and think for a second. It'd been a small question on his mind, a piece of information that had been digging at him because of its oddness but something he'd never really stopped to think about.
Originally he'd assumed that it was because he'd been following the titan and helping to protect it but that had quite a few holes in it.
For one, Armin himself hadn't actually killed any titans around the Rogue, he'd simply been sending off orders for others to do so and telling everyone not to attack the titan and gave off a small speech at the end, so there was really no reason for it to have specifically looked back at him.
And he knew that the titan had looked back at him, had locked gazes with him and nobody else. He knew that it meant for him to see that.
He just didn't know why.
"Not really." Armin admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'd only spent a little bit of time following it and telling people that this one was friendly and was trying to help us out."
"So you flew around with him, and supported him, right?"
"Well, yeah. If you were expecting that I was controlling it or something I'm sorry to say that that wasn't the case."
"Kind of like a pack." Hanji noted as they began to scribble in their book again.
"What?"
"Look, Armin, when you put all of these traits together what does it remind you of, what type of animal?" They flipped their book around so that Armin could see the, surprisingly neat, scrawl that she had up and down the page listing traits such as front facing eyes, ability to focus on moving objects, and lighter body structure.
Some of the traits certainly rang a bell in the back of his head for specific animals he'd seen and heard about, but by and large he had absolutely no idea what Hanji was trying to get at here and had no problems telling them as such.
"A predator. These are all the perfect traits for a predator, namely one that goes after titans."
Ah.
And just like that Armin's whole view of the titan flipped around.
He'd seen the Rogue titan ripping apart its lesser kin with a type of ease that he previously could have only imagined, but he'd never stopped to think about why that was. How optimized the whole titan seemed for the task.
As if it was created to do nothing but destroy other titans.
"You really think that's what it is? That titans have predators in general?" Armin asked. He'd never heard of the possibility, really hadn't even thought about it.
Titans were just far too ever-present, too numerous and powerful, but when faced with the evidence he'd seen with his own two eyes, it was kind of hard to deny.
"What else could it be?" They reasoned, eyeing their notes once more. "I mean it could be something like-oh"
Hanji looked off to her side and suddenly Armin was aware of another pair of footsteps rounding his cell, much closer than he thought they could have gotten without Armin being able to hear them.
"Hanji, the trial starts in fifteen minutes." Said the man as he rounded the corner, and holy shit was he tall.
All of a sudden, staring up at this new person Armin was reminded of exactly where he was, what he was here for, and what was to come. He'd somewhat forgotten during his talk with Hanji, forgotten that he was here to help determine the fate of an entity he'd seen exactly once and was now inextricably linked to.
"Oh, Armin this is Mike! We'll be taking you to your trial together." Haniji reassured him, as if that would make any sort of a difference for the events that were about to come.
So he simply nodded dumbly, moving back to sit on the bed, mindful of the chains that all of a sudden seemed far too present on his wrists.
The door unlocked with a soft clink, making the heavy slide of bars sound that much louder as they grated against the floor to allow for Mike to enter, gently freeing the chains from around his wrist and ushering him out of his cell.
The newfound freedom was short lived though, as the second he was ahead of Mike he was motioned to put his arms behind his back and a familiar weight was back on his wrists again.
At least this time they were far lighter.
Although Armin had been trying his best to remain neutral about the whole debacle-mostly because he'd rather not give any of his possible opponents anything else they could use against him-he must have made a face because once more Hanji was ahead of him, walking backwards and reassuring him that everything was going to be fine.
Despite it doing absolutely nothing to calm his nerves, Armin appreciated the thought.
The courtroom was huge. Much larger than Armin had ever remembered it being, and with far more people than he'd originally expected to be there.
Small whispers seemed to take up the whole area, just loud enough that Armin could hear them but were impossible to make out from where he was. He knew a good chunk of them were about him though, after all it wasn't as if pointing directly at him and then turning to whoever was next to you was particularly discreet, but he supposed it could have been worse.
Reflexively, he shrunk back, no longer wanting to leave the small bit of comfort he'd built up within the past hour or so, but it seemed like the Military Police guards ahead of him were having none of that.
They yanked him forward by the collar of his shirt and Armin stumbled for a moment before regaining his footing and taking long strides in an attempt to keep up.
He was led to a small chair that sat in the middle of the room and quickly shoved into it, his arms being wrenched back as they were tied to the chair with another chain.
Or at least, that's what Armin had to assume had happened as it wasn't like he could turn around to see exactly what had happened.
He jostled the chains around a couple of times to confirm his hypothesis and although he was almost certain that he was right, something else struck him. He wasn't exactly confined or locked in place where he was.
Sure, his hands were tied behind his back and to the chair but his feet were still on the ground and he could lift the chair off of the floor simply by attempting to stand up. If he really wanted to, he could attempt to make a run for it-though he obviously wouldn't.
But the simplicity of the restraints along with the lack of any notable guards led him to one conclusion.
There was no way they legitimately thought of him as a threat, not at all.
If they'd even had the slightest inkling that he had more power than he was letting on they'd have at the very least chained his legs or feet to the chair.
Armin continued to wiggle around, testing exactly how much movement he had within his current position but also simply fidgeting from the stress of the whole situation as the whispers continued to swell.
The courtroom began to grow louder and louder as people continued to debate, to point and stare at him.
It was infuriating to say the least.
As the volume came to ahead a resounding smack rang out across the room, almost everybody immediately becoming silent as their heads turned to look upwards at the judge, a man that Armin had only ever really heard about once.
General Darius Zackley, an apparently fair but judgemental man.
Now that the background noise was gone the silence within the courtroom was deafening and Armin took a moment to fully take in his surroundings.
Erwin and Levi stood out the most, both standing behind the wooden banister that was present all around the courtroom and Armin wasn't sure whether to be reassured or fearful that the two hadn't looked at or even acknowledged him at any point since he had entered.
Turning to his right he was met by the face of Commander Nile, who actually was staring straight at him, which was quickly making itself the most terrifying part of this whole experience.
Not one for confrontation, Armin quickly looked away managing to lock eyes with, thank the walls, Mikasa and Bertholdt who were both standing next to each other, Mikasa looking extraordinarily pissed and Bertholdt looking anxious as usual.
He guessed that they were there to be witnesses although it wasn't like he had any proof.
While he supposed that he should have been happy, relieved even that at least two of the people within this courtroom were his friends and would certainly be on his side regardless of what happened for some reason he wasn't.
Rather than being relieved he felt bitter. Bitter over the whole trial, bitter over the fact that even after what they'd faced, what they'd lost, they couldn't even recover in peace. Bitter that after giving everything they had for humanity and losing a friend in the process they had to sit in the damned courtroom and watch as powers out of control attempted to snatch up another one.
The thought made his blood boil.
How dare they strip them of all individuality and humanity assuming that they could simply put all they had experienced behind them and move on without a second thought, as if they were nothing but chess pieces on a board for them to control.
The more he thought about it the more Armin wanted to scream, wanted to rip himself up from this sad excuse of a binding and tell everybody listening exactly what he thought of their bullshit way of treating the situation.
Heh, Eren would have been proud of him.
Eren was exhausted.
He could feel it pulling at every muscle in his body, his legs threatening to give out beneath him at any moment as he ran, yet he had no intentions of stopping.
Stopping now would mean that the titan who were still hot on his heels would have nothing but a free snack lying on the ground because he was certain that he wouldn't be able to get up.
But to be honest, he didn't even know where he was really running to, after all it wasn't like there was any sort of civilization outside of the walls-or maybe there was, surviving members from the fall of Wall Maria just waiting for someone like him to come along and help them out.
...yeah, as if.
His best bet right now was to find that dense forest he and his father had occasionally traveled to when he was taken along for patient visits outside of their home within Shiganshina. The one that his father always warned him not to play around in because apparently it was crawling with wolves.
(Though he'd certainly done his own fair share of goofing off while his father was hunting anyway)
Regardless, at the present moment something as small as wolves was the least of his problems so he continued to run in the general direction that he thought the forest might be.
Did he mention that he had no clue exactly where this forest was-or where he was for that matter-because that was also a pretty big issue.
And so, without any other real option he continued to run forwards and to his right, praying to whatever was listening that he would find the forest soon, or really any type of cover as while he was certainly much faster than the titans that were chasing him, he was also exhausted and there was no fucking way he was making it until nightfall to fully get away from them.
Actually he wasn't even sure if that was really an option at this point.
He was still unsure of exactly what the side effects of being a titan shifter were, besides the very useful healing and the not so useful temperature difference so it was totally possible that just like any other titan he'd end up conking out without any sunlight, regardless of if he was tired or not.
Come to think of it he usually was one of the first ones to fall asleep in the barracks and he'd been told that nothing short of an acoustic round would wake him up until morning, but at the same time it wasn't as if he was the only one.
With everybody's grueling schedules and training it wasn't uncommon for just about everyone to be asleep within ten minutes of lights out, so he wouldn't exactly call himself abnormal in that regard.
Still the thought tugged at his mind as he eyed the sun which was slowly dipping closer and closer to the horizon.
And so he continued to run, feet striking the ground with a force he was sure could be felt by the wildlife around him for miles as he moved ahead, the action feeling both shockingly natural and horrifically wrong as he moved forward.
From his height titans were relatively easy to spot meaning it was just a matter of turning every so slightly and staying out of their general vicinity as he passed them, something not so difficult but annoying all the same as more than once he'd been forced out of line by a particularly excited titan.
With how bad everything could have been though Eren supposed that the fact that he was far faster than all of the titans around him was his saving grace, but he also couldn't help but think that he was simply outrunning his demise.
At the end of the day he wasn't even sure if he'd be able to find shelter, the forest or something else so for all he knew this sprint was nothing but a pointless endeavor.
And not for the first time, Eren wondered if he should simply let himself be caught by the titans.
Throughout the introductions the trial seemed to move by slowly, as if time had become nothing but a rich honey slowly oozing down from it's container.
It left Bertholdt nervous, moreso than usual, as it began to feel like everyone within the courtroom was simply here to prolong the inevitable, to avoid talking about the possibly world changing ramifications that would come from the simple decision made today.
Or really just world changing for them, as regardless of what the military decided to do with Eren's titan Bertholdt, Annie, and Reiner's plan would stay relatively the same. The Survey Corps would still ride out, they would still attempt to interact with Eren so it was hypothetically a win-win situation for him either way.
Yet there was something about watching Armin, looking small and ragged, being shoved into that small chair, arms pinned ineffectually behind his back, that was just…
It wasn't right.
Bertholdt knew he shouldn't care, that he should just let the case proceed, tell his course of events as needed and be happy with the outcome regardless of what happened but for some reason he just couldn't let it go.
He wanted the Survey Corps to win, to be allowed to capture the Rogue titan, and while he attempted to rationalize his wants with the fact that attempting to capture Eren would hypothetically leave more time for Annie and him to find Eren in case they weren't the first and bit smaller of a possibility of others finding out that yes, there was in fact a human within that titan, they were flimsy excuses at best.
Equally good arguments could be made for allowing the Military police to win, like how they wouldn't have to deal with anyone chasing them once the titans disappeared or how, most importantly, it would take Armin totally out of the equation.
Because at the end of the day, Bertholdt wasn't stupid. Compassionate to a fault, yes, but he knew that Armin was the one who was most likely to figure out who they were and what they were after and yet…
And yet he couldn't quite push the image of Armin and Eren huddled up together on the first night of training telling anyone who would listen about their goal to see the ocean, couldn't push away the memory of Armin staying behind during a running exercise simply because he though Bertholdt looked lonely.
As much as he didn't want to admit it, he'd gotten far too attached and god did he know it. Somewhere along the line he had stopped thinking of these people as disposable casualties that would unfortunately be lost but that couldn't be helped and started thinking of them as individuals.
Individuals who had lives and existences beyond his immediate interactions with him.
Trost still weighed heavily on his shoulders, both due to his complete and utter failure to complete his mission and the lives that had been lost and nothing was really going to change that.
So he supposed it wouldn't hurt to help one of them out for once.
Originally Bertholdt had expected for him and Mikasa to be called up to testify after the stakes of the trial had been laid out and had been mentally preparing exactly what he was going to say-after all he didn't want to incriminate himself by giving away information that he really shouldn't have known-but the trial seemed to somewhat fall sideways after introductions.
The judge had gone straight to questioning Armin starting out with a "Why did you defend the Rogue titan?"
Armin seemed to jolt up a bit at that, probably not expecting to be immediately question either and responded, "Ah...well, it seemed like it was trying to help us out so-"
"And what if it hadn't been? How could you have been so sure it wasn't simply waiting for the best possible moment to kill as many people as possible." Came Nile's voice from Bertholdt's side, and shit was this how the trials normally went?
"Sir, the Rogue titan had previously been attacking and killing other titans before it picked up the boulder. It had avoided killing humans so I had no reason to assume it would begin to do so."
With this a small wave of murmurs began to sweep across the courtroom again, mostly those voicing their disbelief at Armin's reasoning to which Bertholdt supposed he couldn't blame them too much.
If he didn't know exactly what that titan was and hadn't seen it himself he probably wouldn't have believed him either.
"It was a titan, that should have been reason enough to be suspicious." Came Nile's retort once more and Armin made a bit of a face at that but didn't respond. The whispers began to swell but the judge took them down with a single slap of his hand.
"Settle down now." He said, rearranging his papers and adjusting his glasses. "That question was simply one to sate my own curiosity."
The room seemed to settle down much more after that but Bertholdt could feel the tension in the air continue to thicken.
"Now for the trial to decide the fate of the Rogue titan along with Armin Artlet's placement, could the defense state their case?"
"Yes sir." Said Commander Erwin as he stepped forward to make himself more visible. "We believe that the Rogue titan could be a definite benefit for humanity, as it has already proven its usefulness in combat and would allow us to begin to take back land that has been lost to the titans."
Well, obviously.
Bertholdt didn't know exactly why, but for some reason he'd expected more from Erwin, expected for the man to start off strong and hard, not giving the enemy even a second to breathe. The stories he'd heard about him were downright terrifying,
Once more the murmurs began to rise throughout the courtroom, an action that Bertholdt was slowly becoming more and more used to, but rather than silence them like before the judge simply continued asking, "And the prosecutors."
Nile stepped up, along with a person Bertholdt could really only describe as his lackey, as they really didn't seem to be anyone important and produced a few papers from a scroll at his side.
"We of the Military Police, along with support from the Church of the Walls believe that the Rogue titan is a threat to humanity and therefore must be eliminated rather than captured." He paused for a second, glancing towards Armin. "Although we propose that the Survey Corps shall be the ones to dispatch this titan we believe that 104th Cadet Armin Artlet should come under our custody in order to obtain as much information as possible and stand in case of an attack from the same, or a similar titan."
"I see."
At this Bertholdt saw Mikasa tense next to him, and he couldn't blame her. It was obvious that the term 'obtain as much information as possible' was simply the nice way of saying 'torture him until we get the words we want' which, yeah, Bertholdt was not too comfortable with himself.
But it wasn't as if he could do anything to help at the moment, hell even if he gave the most skewed description of what happened in Armin's favor there was still the issue of the fact that Armin knew absolutely nothing, or at the very least nothing that mattered.
Which made this whole trial a total farce, simply a bargain in which Armin was betting his freedom on the hope that this judge would see the use in a titan, which they had very little information about.
So the chances weren't great..
All he could really hope for at this time was that either the Survey Corps had a good plan under their belt or that Armin did himself.
Despite knowing for a fact that he was still sitting in the same chair, wrists solidly pinned to its backing, Armin still felt like he was careening towards the floor. As if at any moment he'd blink and then suddenly be making impact with the hard stones in front of him, his teeth rattling as he hit the ground head first.
'Kind of like Eren with his training gear' he thought as a few memories came flooding back, getting him to chuckle internally despite the situation.
After all, it was really all he could do at the moment.
He hadn't even realized that someone had asked him a question until he heard his name echoing throughout the courthouse.
He looked up, with what he was sure was not the most flattering expression on his face, and said, "Huh?"
To his right he heard someone scoff-regardless of who it was he chose to believe it was Commander Nile because yeah-and frowned. Had he really not been paying attention for that long?
"You have been asked to confirm that you did in fact have previous contact with titans, mindless or otherwise, before Trost."
"Oh, um, no sir. I did not." responded Armin cautiously, although he was pretty sure that he knew where this line of questioning was going.
"Can you confirm that you were a resident of Shiganshina at the time of the fall of Wall Maria?"
"Yes, however I was able to make it to the boats before I even spotted a titan." he said, already predicting that they were going to attempt to claim that this was proof of him somehow being in cahoots with the Rogue titan. "The first time I saw a titan was earlier yesterday when I was brought up for Wall duty, you could ask Mikasa for conformation."
"Mikasa being one of the other Cadets who was present in Shiganshina at the time and is currently present in the courtroom?"
"Yes sir."
"Mikasa Ackerman of the 104th cadets, could you please shed some light on the situation?"
Armin watched as Mikasa stepped forward, moving to make her normal salute as she stared off into the distance. Walls, he hoped she was okay.
Even though he'd spoken with her briefly before the supply depot plan and she'd seemed fine-err, well fine in a relative sense, but at the very least she still seemed like she would be fine as long as she had plenty of support and time, something that was currently being robbed from her and it showed.
Mikasa looked lifeless, like she had no motivation to do anything, simply going through the motions because someone else told her to do so, and honestly Armin couldn't blame her. If his life and freedom weren't currently on the line he was sure that he would be in a similar state.
"Armin and I were present when the Colossal titan made an appearance. I ran towards my home which was farther from the boats whereas Armin ran towards his. When I met back up with him on the boats he confirmed that he had not seen any titans other than the colossal."
"So there's no true proof that he would not have had any chance to contact this titan then?" Questioned Nile, sounding much too smug for Armin's liking, although he had to admit that Nile was right.
"A lack of proof doesn't mean that I for sure interacted with the Rogue titan, or any other titan before Trost, for that matter." Armin clipped back.
"Yet it does not rule out the possibility of it happening either."
Fucking hell, nothing had even happened and Armin was already sick of this trial. Wasn't this supposed to be about the Rogue titan, whether it could be used as an ally to humanity, to help us reclaim the territory that we'd lost?
Why were they here debating whether or not he could have maybe, possibly, have some sort of relation to this titan when they could be actually focusing on the true issue at hand?
And then it hit him.
They thought that he could control the titan, didn't they? They thought that the Rogue titan's actions were either all due to him or heavily influenced by him at the very least.
That was why he was even a piece of this argument and why the Military Police had a vested interest in keeping him within the walls, either to experiment on him or to simply kill him without any further issue.
While at first this didn't make much sense, as it'd make it much easier on the Military Police to simply say the he was the one in control and then execute him under the pretense that he wasn't even human but as Armin looked around the courtroom, specifically the civilians in the room, he realized that wasn't true.
If they assumed that he could control the Rogue titan, what was stopping them from assuming that he could control all titans?
And that would do one of two things. It would either cause a panic among civilians and the upper class alike, or it would create unbridled support, both of which wouldn't be good for the Military Police's case.
Which was why Commander Nile was attempting to shift the focus away from the real problem and simply make it seem like he had some extra information on this new titan. He knew that if all of the information was out Armin would hold all of the cards, and in some way he already did.
Now, obviously Armin didn't have any abilities-or at least he was pretty sure that he didn't-but here perception was everything. He didn't actually need to prove anything, he just had to leave a bit of reasonable suspicion and let the rest play out.
So as Commander Nile continued to question him, Armin responded in kind, simply continuing to deny what was false and confirm what was true as Nile continued to get more and more frustrated.
Partially because it was impossible to truly prove anything that had happened in the past and Mikasa rarely ever left his side so it was easy to provide an alibi for most situations.
Yet despite all of the questioning and opposition from Commander Nile, Armin's focus kept shifting over to Commander Erwin as he really hadn't said anything since the trial introduction and Armin had no idea why.
At this point he wasn't even paying much attention to the questions he was being asked until Nile was cut off by Judge Zackly who said, "Alright, Alright, I think we've gone through enough questioning about what happened in the past, however at some point we must face the problems in the present. Cadet Armin, please explain your experience with the Rogue titan at Trost."
Ah, well that was one way to bring him back to the conversation.
"Yes sir. Around forty minutes after the Wall was broken I began to hear rumors of a titan that was attacking other titans but I chalked it up to wishful thinking."
"So at this point you had not actually seen the titan?"
"No sir, and I only got true confirmation that it existed once some of my fellow comrades were able to enter the supply depot due to its support."
"Are any of those comrades here today?"
"Ah, yes sir." Armin responded. "Mikasa Ackerman and Bertholdt Fubar were two of the people who informed me of this titan's existence."
Zackly hummed as he pointed to the area between Mikasa and Bertholdt. "Can you two confirm this is true?"
The two nodded, briefly caught off guard by the question as Zackly followed up with, "Were either of you two present during any interactions between Cadet Armin and the Rogue titan."
Bertholdt put his hand up, wringing his hands nervously and stepping forward. "I was present during Armin's interactions with the Rogue titan."
And as soon as Bertholdt spoke Armin began to feel bad for him because he was sure that Bertholdt was attempting to get the spotlight off of him as soon as possible-the poor guy already looked like he was going to pass out and he hadn't even had to answer any difficult questions yet-that was not the right thing to say.
The background murmurs that had stayed relatively quiet since the introductions began to rise again as Bertholdt looked around, stopping on Armin and silently asking for help but Armin had none to give.
"Could you please give the court an account of all of his and the titan's interactions?"
"Ah…well he didn't actually really interact with the titan at any point?" Bertholdt offered, looking down at the floor. "After we took back the supply depot we came across the Rogue titan, and it looked to be um, kind of passed out. He and I debated whether it was dead or not for a moment and then it just um, got up and left. Armin took off and I followed him while he told other people to protect the titan and gave his speech but we never really, uh, interacted with it much."
Huh?
Bertholdt wasn't wrong in any of the things he said but Armin did notice that he was missing a very vital part of his statement, a part that Armin had kind of been betting on in order to shake the metaphorical pot a bit.
He didn't mention that Armin had suggested that they try to get the titan to carry the boulder, and Armin highly doubted that Bertholdt had forgotten about that.
So why not mention that, even just briefly? Was Bertholdt trying to help him?
"Armin Artlet, is that true?" Came Niles' voice once more, although this time it sounded much more unsure. "You did not have any true chances to interact with the titan?"
"No sir."
"So you defended a titan you knew nothing about, an uncontrollable beast which you trusted based on what, your feelings. What if it had simply been biding its time, its true plan to harm humanity?"
So this was the route Nile was going to go now. Although it may have seemed like Nile was attempting to degrade him on the surface, Armin could easily see past it.
He'd realized that Armin really didn't have much to do with the case and ultimately wouldn't be the final deciding factor so destroying his reputation wasn't' worth it. He had to destroy all faith in the Rogue titan itself, had to make others understand his point of view. Had to make others see that this titan was dangerous and in some ways Armin empathized with him.
Not enough to truly feel bad, but at least the sentiment was there.
"Sir I had good reason to believe that the Rogue titan would benefit humanity so I acted accordingly. We've never seen a titan like this before so there was no precedent for me to act upon."
"But we have, haven't we?" Nile sneered. "We've certainly seen titans that are different before, hell one of them was even responsible for the hole in Trost itself."
Armin's blood ran cold. Although he'd previously made the connection himself, to be honest he'd forgotten about them and Nile did have somewhat of a point. The issue was that he hadn't been there while Armin watched the Rogue titan rip through its kin with a type of rage he'd never seen before.
Commander Nile hadn't been there, and neither had Judge Zackley.
"But I-"
"If I may interrupt." Came Erwin's voice, startling Armin. He'd kept Commander Erwin and Levi in the back of his mind, but up until now he'd simply assumed that they were going to let the trial play out, let Nile ask his questions and then propose an ultimatum at the end.
Looks like that was certainly not the case.
"Although at a first glance due to their differences from other titans it is very easy to assume that the Rogue titan may be similar to the only other two exceptions, our resident titan researcher, Hanji Zoe, has recently explained to me how the two are distinctly different and exactly why the Rogue titan is likely to be on our side."
Armin's eyes widened. So he had been right to assume earlier that Hanji had been sent by Erwin for some extra information before the case starts. It hadn't just been curiosity that led them down there, it had been a calculated move to create a better and more informed defense.
"Oh pray tell."
"According to the descriptions of the Rogue titan given by Armin and his fellow soldiers who were present during the Trost battle the titan has quite a few features not shared with its Armored or Colossal counterparts, such as two of its most striking features, it's jaw and ears. Both are highly irregular for a normal titan, meaning that it is certainly not one of those, and neither are those features present on our previous two exceptions, these are unique to the Rogue."
Erwin paused, taking a moment to pull a scroll out of his back pocket, unraveling it to reveal the artist's rendition Armin had been shown the morning. "Assuming that you all have seen this depiction, this is most likely what your general view of the Rogue is, and while it does contain two of the titan's most striking features those are not the only features that are unique to the Rogue."
He pulled a paper from behind the one he was holding and Armin immediately recognized it. It was his Walls awful rendition he had tried to make earlier this morning and holy shit was it even worse now that he was looking at it.
"From the accounts of Cadet Armin we have also been able to learn that the Rogue titan also possessed a far more muscular body than its kin, as well as rudimentary claws, which were spotted during the battle of Trost being used to tear titans apart. But aside from that its arguably most important traits for our purposes are focused within the titan's eyes. The Rogue titan has front facing eyes, which are not at all unusual for most titans, however what is unusual is that its eyes have been spotted with slitted pupils which were also able to focus on individual objects."
"So you believe that this titan is a sort of new breed?" Zackley questioned, although Armin was sure that he already knew the answer.
"Yes sir, and with all of the evidence we believe that this titan may actually be the biological predator of the mindless titans we are familiar with."
The courtroom erupted in shouts, both from skeptics and believers alike who couldn't believe what they had just heard. After all nothing like this had ever been seen before, never even had been thought to be a possibility, and now here, in one of the biggest court cases in, well, quite a while, here Erwin was, claiming that it was possible and did in fact exist.
Rather than wait for anything to quiet down Erwin simply continued explaining, "Almost all of these traits are present in nature's other predators, such as the claws and eyes being present in the common housecat and the large ears being similar to a wolves' in nature. With all the information being presented we have more than enough reason to believe that this titan is a predator."
Commander Nile seemed to be the first to regain his bearings, for better or for worse and asked, "And if it is predator to titans, if that is even possible, what makes you think that it will only attack titans. What makes you think it still doesn't have a vested interest in humans."
"Cadet Mikasa Ackerman is proof enough that it has no interest in humans, isn't that right?"
"Ah, yes!" She responded, seemingly shocked at her sudden calling. "When I ran out of gas and was on the ground it ignored me in favor of attacking the titan ahead of me."
"And how would you plan on utilizing this fact to humanity's advantage?" Judge Zackley asked and Nile continued to sputter.
"Sir you can't possibly be thinking of-"
"Along with its other traits that have linked it to common predators we also have reason to believe that the Rogue titan holds pack bonding instincts which we could manipulate. That way anything that we consider to be important or an issue will become important to the Rogue titan as well."
The judge seemed to think for a minute, writing something down and humming under his breath. "And if it doesn't work? I assume you have a plan in case you are unable to control the Rogue titan."
Levi stepped forward. "Regardless of the shit's species, a titan is still a titan." He held up one of his hands, miming holding one of his swords. "It'll be no match for me if it comes down to it. I'll kill the Rogue titan without a second thought."
"Understandable. And do you truly believe that this titan will benefit humanity?"
It took Armin a moment to realize that Zackley was talking to him, asking for his final confirmation.
"Yes sir, I really do."
He took a moment to sign a paper before harshly slapping a hand down onto his desk. "It is done then. Cadet Armin Artlet you are hereby ordered to travel outside the wall and Support the Survey Corps on their mission to capture the entity known as the Rogue titan."
There was a kid pointing at him. Pointing with a blank stare as two men stood behind him, and despite the fact that he could understand nothing,the words becoming nothing more than a thick slurry in his head, he could feel the fear gripping him like a vice.
These people were bad news and despite the overwhelming fear he couldn't help but feel betrayal and sadness beginning to inch their way in, even moreso as the kid turned and walked past the men once they began to move forward.
He was grabbed roughly by the shoulders and despite every bone in his body screaming that he was in trouble, that he had to get away he couldn't move.
They pulled him away, locking his wrists in chains that were far too tight and pulling him by the collar of his shirt forward into some sort of carriage that certainly wasn't meant to fit as many people as it had.
As he was shoved in he caught a glimpse of someone, a blond woman who was crying along with him as he got an overwhelming urge to tell her that everything would be okay, that he would protect them and that these people were not match for him, but something in the back of his mind told him it wasn't true.
He couldn't do anything and he had no idea why.
The ride was short and cramped and despite the small bit of fresh air he got as they pulled him back out of the vehicle he didn't feel comforted or even the least bit grateful. Instead the small bit of comfort that he had gained while sitting had left him leaving nothing but terror to take its place and suddenly he was drowning in it.
He didn't want to move, honestly didn't think he could. The ground seemed to sway beneath him as he continued to stare downwards, not daring to lift his head but he was soon being urged forward by a cylindrical object pointing at his back.
Step after step he moved closer to the building, no, the compound that was ahead of him, not even allowed to look back and see that woman suffering what was surely a similar fate.
Once inside they strapped him to a chair, the bindings rubbing his skin raw as he struggled to get free. This couldn't be happening, no there was no way that this was happening. Certainly he'd wake up and look to his side and see his family, safe and sound and not at all here.
That this wasn't happening to him, wasn't happening to her.
One of the men in front of him was speaking again, now with gloved hands and face coverings within the dim lighting he was struggling to see if it was the same person or a different one, but at this point he supposed it didn't matter.
They were asking something, probably something important but he couldn't hear them through the cotton in his ears, everything sounding far too distant and quiet.
He tried to tell them to speak up, to just ask a bit louder but then the hair on the back of his head was gripped as his head was forced up and down in a jerky facsimile of a nod. He wanted to scream no, that this wasn't what he wanted, that he didn't even know what was going on but the nod seemed to be enough for these people.
A knife was held up to his face, just close enough to graze his nose and allow him to feel exactly how sharp he was and he was struggling again, pulling his head and arms back, doing whatever he could to get away, but there was no need.
The knife was removed as he breathed a sigh of relief but as quick as it was taken away the knife was back, digging into his knuckles with a force that was much more intense before.
He jerked, the knife staying put as it continued to dig further into his flesh, and just for a moment the cotton cleared as he heard a very clear.
"Just remember, you deserve this."
And the knife came down.
Eren awoke in a cold sweat.