Chapter 9: Plans of the Factions
Within the inner territory of Wall Sina, Ozaki was running along the blue rooftop of King Fritz's palace located in Capital Mitras. He surveys the courtyard in front of the building with the dome-shaped roof and finds several people exiting it. The guards were still posted by the front doors, but Ozaki evaded their sight by entering through a window. He quickly runs through the halls of the extravagant building and checks every corner for incoming guards until he reaches what appears to be some sort of throne room. Ozaki continues exploring the rest of the building until he comes across a room where an official enters with paper documents. After waiting for a few minutes, the official leaves the room just as an MP soldier arrives and escorts the person down the hall. Ozaki then proceeds to open the door, but finds that it was locked. With no lock picking tools at hand, Ozaki pushes the door by the handle and breaks the lock. With the door broken, he enters the room to find a fancy looking office and begins looking through various areas around the room.
At the same time, a man wearing a fedora hat with a white band around it walked in front of the Palace building along with several MP soldiers. They all were equipped with modified 3DMGs, with the swords being replaced by single barrel guns. The man leading the group stops as the official and the soldier approached him from the front door.
"Captain Kenny ?! I wasn't aware that you were coming by," the MP soldier stated.
"Well, I got some tips about some mysterious person sneaking around and I decided to come by here and check for any disturbances," he told him.
The official argued, "I can assure you, Captain. The Palace is perfectly fine without your involvement. I suggest you and your Squad leave and return to your duties."
Kenny smirks at the person and walks right in front of him, "That's some bullshit, you know. Seeing as how someone already infiltrated this place under your careful eye."
As Kenny looks up at the Palace, the official turns around in confusion and sees an open window. Realizing that the Captain was correct in his assessment, the official backed off and allowed him to proceed with his actions. Kenny signals his soldiers to surround the building exits while he casually enters through the front door.
As Ozaki searched nearly every drawer and cabinet, he found various documents that detailed information about the monarchy of the Walls and was surprised to find that the King of the Walls was merely a fake. He reads the profile of the fake King and looks to see a list of future candidates to replace him in the future. There were even letters from the true King himself and some of the things Ozaki read were very interesting. Gathering whatever documents he could and taking pictures of them on his device, he sends them to Gordon and hopes that they could get anything out of it. Just as he opens the window of the office, Ozaki senses incoming danger and moves his body out of the way for an explosive blast. He turns to see Kenny standing by the door and smirks before jumping out of the window. Kenny smiles sadistically and begins pursuing Ozaki by diving out of the window and grappling around the building. Ozaki lands on the Palace's rooftop and starts running as fast as he could until he is surrounded by Kenny's Squad. Kenny lands in front of Ozaki and aims one of his guns at him. However, Ozaki acted casual without a bit of fear within him, surprising Kenny and his allies.
He says to Ozaki, "Stealing official documents from the King is quite...illegal, ain't it ?"
"I didn't steal anything," Ozaki replied, "You can check my pockets if you want, but you're not gonna find anything."'
"Either way, you still broke in and trespassed, but it looks like you still got caught."
"Maybe, but you guys haven't arrested me yet. I do have to say that your gear looks pretty cool, though."
"Hahahahaa ! I like your confidence. The fact that you're not trembling in fear of your upcoming death really makes this encounter all the more fun."
"If you want, you could just let me go and chase me down. That could make things a bit more interesting."
"As much as I would like to hunt you down like a wild animal, I'm not stupid enough to let you get away just like that. Who knows what kind of tricks you have up your sleeve ?"
"Fair enough. I guess I'll just leave on my own."
Ozaki jumps high enough over everyone's heads and backflips over the soldiers behind him, landing perfectly on his legs. Everyone was surprised by Ozaki's action as they all turned to see him acting confidently for what he just did before running away. Kenny smiles as he starts grappling after Ozaki with his allies following his lead. With his enhanced abilities as a Mutant, Ozaki sprints full speed and jumps from rooftop to rooftop, quickly escaping the sights of Kenny and his squad. Amazed by the display in front of him, Kenny uses the maximum gas output of his 3DMG and manages to catch up to the Mutant soldier. He reloads his guns and takes aim, causing Ozaki to react and jump out of the bullet's trajectory. The rest of Kenny's squad arrives and fires their weapons in unison, forcing Ozaki to take cover in the streets and wall jumps from one building to the other. However, this move causes him to slow his speed down just to make up the momentum of his steps on the walls of the buildings as he jumps, allowing his pursuers to catch up again. They reload and continue firing upon Ozaki, forcing him to dodge in midair. He figured that the only option was to face them in order for him to truly escape.
High above Wall Sina, a cloaked ship was flying right over the Mitras Capital. The pilots controlling the ship surveyed the District in search for Ozaki and found him being chased by the Wall's soldiers. Seeing that he was in trouble, they decided to hover above their ally rather than land in order to make a fast escape.
Ozaki continues wall jumping and looks for an opportunity to land an attack on the MP soldiers. Seeing that Ozaki was slow enough for him and his soldiers to catch up, Kenny sensed something was wrong and waited while the MP soldiers fired their rounds. Just before the bullets reach Ozaki, he dives towards the ground and digs his gloved hands into the street, pulling out the bricks and throwing them with extreme precision at the incoming bullets while proceeding to wall jump again. Before getting the chance to reload, some of the MP soldiers were hit by multiple bricks and knocked out of the air. Kenny and his remaining allies dodged as much as they could, often flipping and posing their bodies in certain ways to avoid the projectiles. As they tried to get closer to Ozaki, they were taken out one by one until Kenny was left. Despite having his allies taken out, he was enjoying the challenge of facing the Mutant and began sweating excessively at the fast-paced movement he was performing. Using whatever ammo he had remaining, Kenny tried using his shots wisely and fired only at Ozaki's spot while dodging the incoming bricks. Eventually, Ozaki stops wall jumping and begins running on the rooftops again. Kenny reloads the last of his ammo and aims for Ozaki's legs until he begins to hear some sort of noise coming from above him. He looks up to see the cloaked ship opening its hatch while lowering itself towards Ozaki. The Mutant soldier jumps onto the hatch door and climbs inside, but Kenny grapples onto the ships and reels himself in. Ozaki turns to notice Kenny coming and forcibly removes the grappling hook attached to the ship. Kenny drops and roughly lands on the rooftop before standing up and watching the ship fly away into the night sky. Ozaki and Kenny stare at each other until the hatch door closes, causing the latter to return to his teammates.
Ozaki sits down on one of the ships within the ship and lets out a sigh of relief. His communicator begins vibrating, forcing him to activate it and see the face of his girlfriend, Miyuki Otonashi. He shows a face of confusion as he notices Miyuki with an upset expression.
"Um...Did I do something wrong ?" he asks her.
"Other than the fact that you were chased down by the soldiers in the Walls ? No, not at all," Miyuki replied as she crossed her arms, "How is it that you're the only one out of the others to get caught by the people in the Walls ?"
"I technically didn't get caught. They only managed to see my face and that's all."
"Either way, the Walls' government will find you suspicious and risk our chances of working with them. That is, if these documents you sent back to base could prove that they're not trustworthy."
"So let's review," Ozaki suggested as he listed various things with his fingers, "Learning the true purpose of this government and seeing if they're good guys, that's a work in progress. Finding a way to take down the Xiliens, that's a big no so far. Anything else I'm leaving out ?"
"Let's just say that we've detected Xilien activity beyond the atmosphere last night, but they've left for quite some time. Unfortunately, we weren't able to intercept any message they might have sent out, so we're stuck not knowing anything."
"Damn, we got to find Grisha fast," Ozaki said anxiously, "Serizawa is unable to find him right now, so we got to be the ones to do it."
"Did he happen to give us any hints on how to find him before going offline ?"
"He said something about a secret basement or something. That it belonged to Grisha. The thing is, I don't know where it's at."
"That could be anywhere within the Walls, most likely his home in Shiganshina," Miyuki speculated.
"If only we knew which house it was before the whole city got taken down. It'll take us a while to search through all that wreckage."
"Yeah, especially when we have the Xiliens to deal with. They might be returning to Earth any day now for all we know."
"Speaking of which, are the Mechs operational yet ?"
"They'll be ready to deploy soon, but it won't be enough to fight the Xiliens with just three Mechs" she said with uncertainty.
"Considering how long it's been since we last saw them, they must have gathered so many monsters in their army by now."
"Which is why we need Grisha. Once you get back here, we'll discuss with the higher-ups about searching for this supposed basement. If the Xiliens launch some kind of attack before then, we'll have to prioritize the safety of the people in the Walls."
"What about his son, Eren ? You think he might have some idea where that basement is ?"
"Maybe, but we can't speak to him as of right now. We need to focus our efforts on our own problems first and find his father unless we have no choice but to use him as a last resort. We can discuss it further once you get back to base," Miyuki stated as she ends the transmission between them
"That's reassuring," Ozaki stated as he leans back on his seat in the ship.
In the meantime, Kenny walked all the way back to his allies as they began recovering from the attack. The impact from the bricks that Ozaki threw had caused most of their equipment to be damaged, such as their metal chest plates being dented, their 3DMG device on their backs to break apart, and their gun barrels to fall on the floor. Despite the loss they had received, Kenny was unfazed and found an interest in the encounter with Ozaki. The discovery of the cloaked ship had also made him curious about the technological advances that Ozaki and his group possessed and wondered how much power they wielded. He begins laughing, causing his allies to look at him in confusion, as he thought about how much more interesting his life had become.
One of the MP soldiers, who was a blonde haired woman, approaches Kenny and asks, "What's the point in laughing, Captain ? The enemy got away and we are completely clueless on who he is."
Kenny stops laughing and answers, "All I know for sure is that there's some unknown group out there with power unlike anything we've witnessed in these Walls. That man has abilities comparable to experienced soldiers equipped with maneuvering gear and he managed to take out most of us without a sweat."
"It almost seems like this is the type of power you've been seeking."
"It's close, but not exactly the one I seek. Though, I am quite curious to know what other things they are capable of."
"We'll never get the chance again. They're gone for good."
"I have a feeling they'll be back," he reassured her as he fixes his fedora and walks away, "There's something that they're looking for here in the Walls, and we're gonna find out what it is."
The next day, everyone from the assembly that chose to enlist in the Survey Corps were sent to the castle base to begin their training. Under the supervision of Squad Leader Ness, the new recruits learned about Erwin's scouting formation and what their positions, and tasks, were in the formation. At the same time, Eren learns about his and Squad Levi's position in the formation until he is told about the true goal of the upcoming expedition, which was to draw the Titan Shifters out of hiding. Not knowing what the true identities of the Titan Shifters were, Eren hoped that he could put his power to use by capturing them alive and interrogating them.
Later during the day, Eren was cleaning the stables with Oruo standing guard. Just as he finished, Eren notices Mikasa, Armin, and everyone else walking past him. Happy to see his friends again, Eren quickly approaches them with Oruo's permission.
"Armin ! Mikasa !" he shouted as they both turned to see him, "It's been so long since I last saw you two."
"Eren !" Mikasa cried out, "Did they hurt you in any way ?! Did they try to strap you down and experiment on you ?!"
"I'm fine, Mikasa. They've never done such a thing."
"I can't believe that Mom was also affected by this. She doesn't deserve that."
"I know, but with Mr. Serizawa there, Mom will be okay. I trust him."
"I hope so. I just can't bear the thought of Mom being imprisoned like that."
As Eren tries to comfort Mikasa, he turns to notice everyone else and was quite surprised to see some of them join the Scouts, especially when he sees Jean and Marco. He recalls them both deciding to join the Military Police and was shocked to find them enlisting in the Survey Corps.
"I can't believe you're all here. You really enlisted," Eren pointed out, "I thought for sure that some of you wouldn't join."
Jean grunted, "I was convinced, all right ! Marco changed his mind and kept on bugging me to join him.
Marco chuckled as he knew that Jean was lying to hide his true intentions before responding to Eren, "I felt like I could do more by joining the Scouts rather than being in the Military Police. So far, it seems pretty simple and the horses are quite friendly."
"So that means Annie is the only one who joined the Military Police."
"Seems like it," Connie told him, "She's gonna be in the comfort of the Inner Walls while we have to stay in this dirty ass castle."
"I can assure you guys that it's a lot cleaner than it looks," Eren argued as he remembered the harsh cleaning procedure Levi enforced on him.
Sasha added, "Are we at least going to be well-fed during our time here ? It doesn't look like there's much around here."
"Sheesh ! Can you be any more gluttonous ?" Ymir asked with an annoyed look.
"I said 'We' ! I thought of you guys too, you know !"
As everyone was enjoying their reunion with Eren for a brief moment, Ness comes to them holding a fresh set of hooded capes holding the symbol of the Survey Corps. As they all wrapped the capes around their necks and secured it, Eren looked at them in amazement as he contemplated on how much they've changed over the years since training. Eventually, he saw a glimpse of Carla standing in the distance and smiling at him, giving him hope that he and his mother would be free to live their lives again.
Inside a warehouse full of crates and supplies, Eren meets up with everyone else as they try to catch up on lost time. He learns that they will also be participating in the upcoming expedition, but there was something that Jean was concerned about.
"Hey, Eren. What's the deal with Godzilla attacking the Walls ?" Jean asked him, "What really made him do that ?"
Worried about spilling information about the three Titan Shifters, Eren hesitated and lied, "What you probably heard was true. He attacked two captured Titans in the hands of the Survey Corps, but he felt guilty about accidentally attacking us and left. He's definitely not coming back after all of that."
Jean became annoyed and responded, "So much for counting on him to protect us from the Titans. Now you're basically our only hope and you still don't have a clue on how to control it, right ?"
"That's...right."
"So why exactly should we even depend on you then ? Humans were starting to depend on that lizard and look at what happened. What if the same happens to you ?"
Mikasa intervenes, "What are you trying to imply, Jean ? That Eren is not trustworthy ? That he's going to give up on helping everyone ?"
"I understand that you of all people would risk yourself for Eren, but that's something that the rest of us wouldn't do unless we get something out of it. Without Godzilla to protect us, I want to know whether we'll be able to survive now that there's nothing between us and the Titans."
Jean then turns towards everyone else, "Up until now, the Scouts had always survived because of Godzilla's intervention. With him gone, Eren's the only guy to take his place and he might not even be able fulfill that role."
He turns back to Eren and stands close to his face with an anxious look, "Even after everything that's happened, I really do want to believe in your power. Let's hope that we can count on you on bringing us back home alive."
"O-of course, Jean," he said nervously, hoping that he could protect his friends.
The whole conversation between the two frenemies had everyone thinking about the stakes of the expedition. While it's true that almost all of them had no reason to sacrifice their lives, they put their faith into Eren so that they would not have to worry about such a thing. Reiner and Bertholdt, on the other hand, were slightly surprised at how Jean and Eren were once rivals that eventually learned to respect each other. What they've learned from back home was not like anything that they witnessed within the Walls. Though, there are times when they had thoughts like these, they both had to focus on their mission to retrieve the Coordinate.
During the following month, the Survey Corps trained and practiced the Long Distance Scouting Formation while learning to ride horses for the first time. Injured graduates from the Battle of Trost had fully recovered and enlisted in the Scouts, but were trained to handle supplies on wagons due to the lack of horses required for new members. Reiner and Bertholdt meet up with Annie on some nights and explain the Scouting Formation to her so that she knows how to navigate through the Scouts in order to find Eren. Hange started experiments on Eren and managed to learn exactly how he transforms after an incident with a spoon, but was also working on a hidden project under the orders of Erwin.
With the Scouts hard at work for their expedition, there was another group that wasted no time working on their own objectives. Kenny, along with some members of his Squad, surveyed all of the Districts within Wall Sina and Wall Rose for the mysterious organization. They had to resort to extreme measures in order to find any information about them from citizens and merchants, but came up with nothing at all. This causes Kenny to believe that the hidden faction is someplace in the Districts of Wall Maria, or further beyond the Walls themselves.
In the meantime, Ozaki, Gordon, Miyuki, and Miki discuss the Walls' government with their leaders, Naotaro Daigo, Commander Reiko Namikawa, Major General Kunikida, Major Komura, and the Mutants' leader Muasaka. They all sat within a large conference room with printed documents that Ozaki took from Mitras as well as monitors hung up on the walls. After the four explained the information gathered from the Walls and the proposition to search for Grisha's hidden basement, the leaders took in consideration and gave their individual responses.
Commander Namikawa went first, "So...it appears the monarchy is actually under a false rule and the ones running the whole thing are officials from both the military and the nobility. From what Shinichi Ozaki retrieved from the Mitras Palace, the true King of the Walls is a noble by the name of Rod Reiss, who has been sending letters to the officials talking about gaining the custody of Eren Jaeger. Although the reason for wanting the boy is unknown, we do know that he is the son of Grisha Jaeger."
"So why aren't we prioritizing on capturing him and his mother in order to draw that damn bastard to us ?" Muasaka asks, "The Mutants are capable enough to bring them out to our base efficiently and silently."
Naotaro Daigo argues, "We have no evidence that suggests Grisha having any intimate feelings towards his family. It is certainly possible that he is just using them as cover to hide his operations. Until we know for sure that both Eren and Carla Jaeger hold any importance to us, we should focus on searching for this basement."
"And what about Serizawa ? There's absolutely no reason for him to remain within the Walls just to take care of Carla Jaeger. We need to bring him back."
Miki speaks up, "Excuse me, Sir, but I believe that won't be necessary. Serizawa tried so hard to gain Carla Jaeger's trust and it would only ruin his effort to find out more about Grisha if you were to pull him out of his cover."
"He has been spying for three years already and yet he has not brought back anything of value," Kunikida responds, "Not only that, but he decides to cut off communications with us and risks our entire secrecy to the outside world. What if there's an Xilien spy keeping a close eye on him right now and we can't do anything about it ?"
"I'm afraid he's right, Miss Saegusa," Naotaro told her, "Having Serizawa in unknown territory for too long will endanger us all. We must end the operation to scout the Walls and continue building our countermeasures for when the Xiliens return to Earth. Our only hope now is this basement that Serizawa reported."
Namikawa added, "We will retrieve Serizawa once we start the process of searching for that basement. If Grisha is indeed hiding within it, or at least contains information of his whereabouts, then we must find it quickly. Muasaka, have your Mutants assist an excavation team in uncovering the foundations of the Shiganshina District. Miyuki, how is your team's efforts on the biology of the Titans ? Do they have anything that connects them to the Xiliens ?"
"Well, it's quite difficult getting blood results as it constantly evaporates after exposure to air. Although we manage to bypass this using syringes, we can't place them on microscopes to examine them."
"I understand. I believe that the best course of action would be to put a hold on the tests and have you and your team concentrate on tracing Xilien technology underground."
"It'll be done, Ma'am."
"Captain Gordon, Major Komura, you both will oversee the functionality of the Mechs and do test runs to ensure that there are no errors in their systems. We cannot go into battle without proper inspection of these units."
"Yes, Commander," Komura replied.
"Whatever you say, Boss," Gordon replied as well.
As everyone leaves for their designated duties, Miki returns to her room as she thought about Serizawa returning soon. The only issue was what would happen to Carla Jaeger if Serizawa was not there anymore. She's seen footage of Carla's injury and how dedicated Serizawa was to building a prosthetic for her. Miki couldn't imagine leaving a defenseless woman like Carla in the hands of a corrupted government and believes that Serizawa should remain with her until he finishes the prosthetic. Thinking of what to do in the meantime, Miki resumes her meditation and continues strengthening her mind in order to reach Serizawa with her powers.
After a whole month of preparation, the Survey Corps were finally ready to embark on their journey towards Shiganshina. As Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and everyone else gathered their horses, they noticed a familiar face working on the supply wagons.
"THOMAS !" Eren shouts out and catches his former squadmate's attention.
They all approached him with cheerful expressions and surrounded him as they got off their horses to greet him.
"Oh ! It's nice to see you all again !" Thomas said with a wide smile, "How's everyone doing ?"
"We're doing great, Thomas," Armin replied, "I was surprised they let you join the Scouts after your injury. I figured that they would have given you time to rest."
"I felt like I've rested long enough. Besides, I feel much better now," Thomas replies as he turns to Eren with a serious face.
Eren sees this and says, "Hey, Thomas. You've probably heard of what happened. I understand if you think differently about me."
"Nah. I still think that you're a great guy. Even with these newfound powers of yours, you still managed to use them to benefit humanity. I'll be glad to fight by your side so that I can make up for my incompetence from back then."
"Thanks, Thomas. You can count on me looking after you properly this time."
"I'll be looking forward to seeing you in action. I really want to see your Titan form."
Mina spoke up, "Hey, so how come you're working the wagons ? Figured you would have joined us in the formation."
"Oh, it's because of the shortage of horses. Since there's so many new members joining the Scouts, the reserve horses are currently in use and extra members like me have to ride in the wagons instead."
"Man, so you guys actually get to lay back, right ? I feel so jealous of you," Nac stated.
"On the other hand, I'm quite curious to see if you got a wicked looking scar on you," Connie told him.
"Huh ?! You actually want to look at it ?!" Thomas questioned him.
"Yeah, it must be cool-looking considering it came from a Titan's bite."
"Oh, come on. Don't be shy showing the mark of a survivor, Thomas," Reiner added.
Although the girls were weirded out by the thought of seeing Thomas' scar, they all watched as he reluctantly lifted his shirt high enough for them to see. Surprisingly, the scar was not as grotesque as some of them had thought and was much better looking than expected. The large mark from the Titan bite left a bizarre pattern that flowed smoothly along his torso and worked perfectly with his physique. Despite everyone admiring it, Thomas felt embarrassed and quickly put his shirt down until Levi arrived on his horse.
"The hell are you all doing standing around ? Get back on your horses and move back into formation," he ordered everyone as Thomas continued roping down the supply crates on the wagon and everyone else rode their horses towards their designated position.
The Survey Corps began their travels towards the Karanes District since the shortest path through Trost was blocked off indefinitely. After reaching the front gate of the city, Eren looks around to see children admiring the Scouts and it reminded him a little of his childhood when he did a similar thing. He continues looking around and comes across a mother and a child holding hands. Reminiscent of himself and his own mother, Eren looked ahead towards the opening gate and thought about Carla one last time. Levi moved next to him and noticed his worrying expression.
"Something wrong, Eren ?" Levi asked, "Whatever it is you're thinking about, just don't let it distract you from the mission."
"Sorry, Captain. It's just that…."
"I understand the stakes of this expedition. Not only is your life in jeopardy, but so is your mother's. We've been planning for this all month and as long as you do your part, we'll accomplish our task at hand and free her."
"She shouldn't have been taken away in the first place. She's innocent and….and...it's my fault she ended up in the Military Police," Eren stated as he had no words to describe how bad he feels.
Thinking of the people he lost in the past, Levi speaks to Eren with his own experience, "Your mother made the decision to sacrifice herself to save you and I guarantee that she holds no regrets of what she did. Blame yourself all you want, but at least have some decency to understand that you are her responsibility and that she loves you enough to put your needs before hers. If you really care for her, then clear your damn mind and focus on what's ahead."
Eren looked towards the direction of Wall Sina before turning back towards the gate, which fully opened. As Erwin led the Scouts outside of Wall Rose and into Titan Territory, Eren looked at the distance ahead and concentrated solely on his private task assigned to him, hoping that he could pull it off. However, the Scouts were unaware that they were being followed by Annie, who wore a hooded cloak to conceal herself, and continued on without noticing her grappling around towards the right flank. As she begins reaching into flat land, Annie transforms into her Titan form and starts running after the Regiment. After learning much about the formation from Reiner and Bertholdt, Annie was able to pinpoint Eren's position and awaited the opportunity to chase him down.
With Minilla's intervention with the Titan population, the Scouts were faced with little to no Titans on their expedition and quickly made their way towards an area that many refer to as the Forest of Giant Trees. There was a large pathway where many of the trees had fallen to the ground, or broken into pieces, and was presumed to be caused by Minilla. However, most of the Scouts were questioning the course as it does not correlate with the direction to Shiganshina. Erwin proceeds to order everyone except the center formation to travel around the forest and regroup on the other side, confusing them even more. Nevertheless, they still followed his orders and did as instructed. As Eren and Squad Levi were the last ones to enter the Forest, Annie quickly follows them without catching the attention of other soldiers.
Deep within the forest, Erwin goes to each group in the center formation and orders them to leave the forest in different directions before leaving the forest himself. Levi, at the front of his Squad, looks around as everyone flees the area while he and his group continue going straight. He slowly hears giant and loud footsteps approaching from behind and slightly looks to see Annie's Female Titan sprinting towards him and his Squad. Levi quickly turns his head to the front before slowly his horse's speed enough to reach Eren in the back of the group. He then grabs the lead rope wrapped around Eren's horse, forcing Eren to stand on the saddle on both feet.
"It's up to you two now. Don't screw this up," Levi told him, followed by Petra, Eld, Gunther, and Oruo.
"Good luck, Eren !"
"Better come out of this alive !"
"We'll see you after !"
"Don't do anything stupid !"
"You guys won't regret this," Eren states as he jumps off his horse and grapples along the giant trees. Levi grabs Eren's horses and leaves the forest with everyone else. Annie watches the whole thing and is heavily confused on what they were planning. As Squad Levi disappears out of sight, she sees Eren continue grappling in the same direction and cautiously follows him, wondering what tricks the Survey Corps has for her.
As Eren flies through the dense forest with Annie following him, he looks up to the sky and spots numerous amounts of green flares. Knowing what that means, Eren grapples higher into the air and lands on a rocky surface, causing Annie to stop. She looks around to see if there were traps or soldiers around, but finds nothing except for trees and the rocky object that Eren was standing on. Anticipating a fight with Eren in his Titan form, she prepares herself and puts her guard up in case the Scouts ambush her. However, Eren fires his 3DMG's hooks onto the surface he was standing on and slams the tips of his blades as well. Annie slightly lowers her guard and wonders what was going to happen until she analyzed the rocky object more closely. In a horrific turn of events, Annie finds a large pair of eyes glaring at her and become so shocked that she stood frozen in one place. She was hoping that the object was not who she thought it was, but began to suspect that it might be the head of Minilla.
As she slowly steps back and prepares to run, Minilla opens his mouth and lets out a roar that could be heard by the Scouts outside of the forest.
"SSKKRREEEEOONNKK !"
Annie turns around and runs for her life as Minilla lifts himself up and chases her on all fours. With the 80 meter trees in his way, Minilla spent most of the chase pushing them out of his face. Annie continuously dodges falling trees and large branches as she struggles to find a way out of the forest. Stepping left and right while jumping up and ducking down, Annie began feeling exhausted by the second and saw no way of escaping Minilla's sights. His giant hands slammed down near her with each step he took, but ensured that Eren did not fall off of his snout. With Minilla charging through the forest, Eren closed his eyes tightly as the heavy wind and the chips from the trees flew right into his face. However, Minilla chasing Annie was only part of the plan as the true objective was luring out a specific target.
Two weeks ago
"Minilla ! Please respond !" Eren thought loudly in his mind as he stood in an open field just outside of the castle base.
For the past few weeks since Minilla fled from the Walls, Eren tried his hardest to regain contact with the Kaiju, but wound up receiving nothing on the other end. He returns to base and regroups with Squad Levi, who were speaking with Erwin and Hange about plans to capture the Titan Shifters. Hange suggests a contraption consisting of multiple barrels filled with hundreds of grappling hooks that would be fired in order to restrain only the Armored or Female Titans. The only issue was dealing with the Colossal Titan if he were to appear in the expedition.
Erwin turns to Eren and questions him, "Have you managed to communicate with Godzilla again ?"
"No, Sir. I haven't. It seems that he does not want to talk with us any time soon," he responds to him.
"Can't believe that Lizard's giving us the silent treatment !" Oruo complained, "What the hell are we supposed to do if the Colossal Titan attacks us instead of the other ones ?"
"It's unlikely he'll be the one to pursue us considering his size. We'll be able to outrun him on our horses. If anything, the Armored Titan or the Female Titan should be the ones to look out for," Eld pointed out to everyone.
"No," Gunther disagreed, "We cannot risk the Colossal Titan being loose. He is the only one capable of breaking down the Walls and escaping into thin air using the steam to obscure our vision. Even though the Armored Titan has the capability to break down the gates too, it appears that he can't use that same ability."
Levi added, "That's why we need Godzilla to draw out the Colossal Titan. Once in an open area outside of Wall Rose, the Scouts would be able to spot the person inside the Titan escaping and we'll be able to catch the culprit. That's why when either the Armored or the Female Titan arrive at the Forest of Giant Trees, Godzilla will hide within the trees and chase them down long enough for him to arrive."
"So, in a way, we really do need Godzilla," Petra explained, "Considering that the Colossal Titan lets out a lot more steam than that of a normal Titan, it would already be difficult for us to try and cut his nape."
"Exactly. Once Godzilla deals with him, everyone within the center formation will set up the restraining device at a certain location in the forest and Eren will bait them towards the trap. That will allow us to capture two of the Titan Shifters while pressuring the last one."
Eren asks Levi, "But...how exactly would we find the third Titan Shifter ?"
Oruo quickly replies, "It's quite obvious, Eren. We beat the hell out of the other two, cut off a finger or so, and make them talk. If they ever think about transforming, we'll just stick them in a well like we did with you."
"The thing is, Eren, capturing the Colossal Titan and any of the other two Shifters will only work if you can get Godzilla to talk again," Gunther told him, "This is the time to put your powers to use and convince him to help us again."
"But what should I say ? I'm not even sure if my words are reaching him by this point, or if he's blocking me somehow ?"
Erwin puts his hands together as he instructs Eren on what to do, "I believe you shouldn't try to call him out, but rather appeal to him as a friend."
"Hmm ? What are you getting at, Erwin ?" Levi questions him.
"You two obviously share a bond together. A bond that no one expected to happen and it develops in a unique way that could only be shared through the mind. You're not speaking to Godzilla like he's a tool, you're speaking with him like he's your partner. Do you understand ?"
Eren nodded in agreement and returned outside while everyone else waited for Minilla's response. As he exits the base and sees the sun setting on another day, Eren walks over to a tree and sits at its base, closing his eyes and tries speaking with Minilla once more. Concentrating his mind solely on Minilla's figure, Eren feels some kind of invisible tether connecting him to the Kaiju. Although the figure he had conjured in his head was blurry, Eren decided to speak out to him regardless.
"Minilla….I know that in your heart, you wish to continue helping humanity to preserve your relative's legacy. I'm also struggling to live up to everyone's expectations and I'm worried that...I'll get my friends hurt or possibly killed in battle."
There was no response.
"You never mentioned that there are more of your kind out there. Only the one 'Godzilla'. It seems like you lived a lonely life for so long that having someone like me to talk with brought you joy and fulfillment. It gave you purpose, right ? Otherwise, you….wouldn't know what else to do. You don't feel...free at all."
"..."
"If what I said is right, then consider helping us one more time. One last chance to take down our enemy and allow us to return to the outside world again. Humanity needs us more than they think and how can we prove it to them if we aren't willing to risk ourselves to save them ?"
Eren opens his eyes to see the last glimpse of the sun fading in the horizon until it becomes night. He sighs while getting up and returning to the base to report the news to Erwin. Just as he reaches for the front door, Eren hears the loud deep voice of Minilla.
"What is it that I would need to do ?"
Eren widens his eyes and smiles at the fact that Minilla had decided to return to help once again. He rushes back to Erwin and Squad Levi in order to discuss the details of the expedition to Minilla and the plan to capture the Colossal Titan.
Present
Outside of the forest, Bertholdt rode along with his squad members and heard the loud roar of Minilla from within the trees. He was extremely worried for Annie's safety as he knew that she was following Eren in the forest, but did not expect Minilla to suddenly show up and hide in the trees. As most of the formation regroups on the other side of the forest, the soldiers began talking among themselves about Minilla's sudden arrival and whether Commander Erwin had planned for this. Bertholdt watched as Minilla's towering figure decimated the forest in pursuit of Annie and was growing angrier by the minute. He wanted to help his friend and prepared to bite his hand until he looked at the Scouts. Bertholdt then realizes that if he were to transform right in front of them, he would risk his and Reiner's identities and lower his hand. He was in complete shock on what to do and became stressed out, which caused Reiner to notice his visible uncomfortability.
He rides his horse over to him and loudly whispers to him, ""Keep it together, Bertholdt ! I get that she's in danger, but you need to calm down or they're gonna suspect something !"
Bertholdt hardened his fists and argued, "She'll die, Reiner ! Godzilla might step on her and we won't get the chance to save her at all !"
"But there's no guarantee that you'll beat him ! Especially when he has that fire breath thing that he can shoot out of his mouth !"
"I'll just do what Annie said and target the gills ! That'll give her time to escape and I can take him down for good !"
"What if they all find out that you're missing ?! They'll seriously suspect you and all of our identities could be revealed !"
Bertholdt kept on staring at Minilla's destruction and gritted his teeth before replying, "I-I-I-I….I just can't stand here without doing something !"
"ALL TROOPS RETREAT BACK TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FOREST ! BE CAUTIOUS OF GODZILLA'S ACTIONS AS WE PROCEED !" Squad Leader Ness shouted as he started to lead everyone around the forest.
Bertholdt and Reiner followed along with their squadmates as they traveled across the grassy land next to the forest. As Reiner rode ahead, Bertholdt turned to see Minilla stopping and roaring at a certain area of the forest. This made him realize that Annie was finally caught and he instinctively turned his horse towards the forest without anyone looking since they were all busy moving forward. Although Reiner was just as worried about Annie, he stayed strong and tried to reassure Bertholdt again, only to find him missing. He gritted his teeth at Bertholdt's unexpected action and kept on riding with the others, hoping that Bertholdt could actually pull off saving Annie from Minilla.
Once Bertholdt was in the forest, he jumped off his horse and grappled to the top of the trees where he could see Minilla's face. On top of the Kaiju's snout, Bertholdt was able to see Eren with his eyes closed and started conjuring a plan to capture him. However, he looks down to see Annie with her back against a tree and angrily glares at Minilla with a killing intent. He slices his hand and becomes surrounded by an electric aura, causing the Kaiju to turn his attention towards his designated foe. Eren even opens his eyes to see the transformation, unable to see who it was, and finds that the plan to draw out the Colossal Titan had worked and shot a yellow flare above the forest, signaling down to the soldiers in the center formation that were setting up the contraptions made by Hange within the branches of the trees. After Bertholdt completed his transformation, everyone outside of the forest quickly fled the area to avoid the path of the two giants. Eren unhooks himself from Minilla's snout and travels along the dorsal plates down to the tail and finds Annie's Titan form sitting on the ground in shock. Annie was visibly shaken from the experience and heard Bertholdt roaring in his Colossal Titan form. She looks up and sees that Minilla was facing Bertholdt before turning her attention towards Eren grappling back into the forest. Seeing one more chance to capture him, Annie got back up and ran after him with whatever stamina she had left. With the surprise attack from Minilla, Annie prepared herself for any other surprises from the Survey Corps and headed into the undestroyed part of the forest.
Bertholdt and Minilla glared at each other in frustration. While Bertholdt was angry at Minilla for trying to hurt Annie, Minilla was upset at not getting the chance to stop Bertholdt and the others. Minilla roars at his opponent before charging head-first at full speed, but Bertholdt releases an abundance of steam to conceal his figure and steps to the right. With Bertholdt being the smaller of the two, he was definitely a bit quicker than Minilla. The only downside was the lack of strength in his arms as they were too thin to deal any physical damage to the Kaiju. Minilla stops in his tracks and backhands with his left arm towards Bertholdt's head and pushes the Titan Shifter back. As Minilla uses his right hand to swipe his claws, Bertholdt grabs his wrist with both hands and throws his opponent down to the ground before lifting his right foot. With one firm stomp to the ground, Bertholdt misses Minilla's head and proceeds to have his leg bitten by his powerful jaws. Minilla stands up while using his mouth to carry Bertholdt by his leg and using his brute strength to throw him outside of the forest. The Titan Shifter lands roughly on the ground and creates a huge imprint of his figure in the soft surface of the dirt. As he tries to get back up, Minilla runs over to him and grabs his small head in order to rip it off, but Bertholdt manages to secretly grab a large rock and slams it on Minilla's gills. This causes him to let Bertholdt go and step back to breathe heavily, allowing the latter to regain his footing and launch another attack on the gills. Minilla falls to his knees and starts gagging as Bertholdt prepares for another attack and swings the rock at the gills once more.
However, Minilla catches Bertholdt's fist with his mouth and crushes the rock within by biting down hard before kicking Bertholdt in the torso and pushing him away. With his jaws locked onto Bertholdt's hand, Minilla removes his arm entirely from his body and forces the Titan Shifter to step back and regenerate. Minilla throws the arm away, locks eyes with his opponent, and angrily growls as Bertholdt becomes worried about his small dilemma of having only one arm to fight with. Until he was able to fully regenerate his limb, Bertholdt had to think of a way to evade Minilla's attack for the meantime. Before Minilla made any move, Bertholdt turned his attention towards the retreating Scouts and decided to use them as leverage, quickly making his way over to the soldiers. Minilla notices his tactic and follows the Titan Shifter before he could reach them. Everyone riding their horses could feel the exponentially increasing rumbling as they saw the two giants closing in on their position. Just as Bertholdt's arm was halfway healed, Minilla jumps towards his foe and tries to tackle him. It was a mistake as Bertholdt releases another burst of steam to blind Minilla and steps to the side, forcing the Kaiju to accidentally land on everyone. The Scouts watched as their whole surroundings became darker and felt heavy wind as Minilla's body was quickly falling to the ground towards them. Feeling imminent despair and the incoming sense of death, the Scouts braced for impact as they believed it was their end.
At the last minute, Minilla stops his fall by planting both of his hands into the ground, standing on all fours once again. The Scouts notice his action and feel relieved that they were safe from harm, but the moment of peace barely lasts since Bertholdt had fully regenerated his arm. Wrapping one arm around Minilla's neck and using the other to repeatedly punch his gills, Bertholdt tries to force Minilla to fall on the Scouts, but the Kaiju resisted as long as he could in order to give the soldiers time to escape.
Back in the forest, Erwin, Levi, Hange, and everyone else in the center formation waited for Eren to arrive, hoping that the Female Titan was following him. They all see Eren grappling towards their position, but their target was not in sight. He lands on one of the branches where Squad Levi were and was just as confused as they were.
Oruo approached him and scolded the Titan Shifter, "All you had to do was draw the target to this spot ! Figured you as bait would have worked !"
"Sorry, but I thought that Female Titan was following me after the Colossal Titan was drawn out."
Petra added, "Maybe Godzilla scared her away ? It must have been frightening to have been chased by a giant monster."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Eld agreed, "They must be expecting another trap and decided to get out while they still can."
They turned to see Erwin, Levi, Hange, and Mike grappling over to their spot. Hange looked like she was the most disappointed out of the four of them, but the serious faces on Erwin, Levi, and Mike felt more intimidating.
"Hey, Jaeger ! Did you bother to look back to see if you were followed ?" Levi asked.
Eren, with his head down, replied, 'No, I didn't, Sir. I was confident that the target was still in pursuit of me, but I never thought to check."
Erwin turns to Mike and asks, "Are you able to catch their scent ? They may be around our area hiding in cover."
"Let me see," Mike responded as he heavily sniffs the air, "The target's close, but the Colossal Titan is clouding my senses. It's basically stinking the whole forest."
Mike sniffs the air again and manages to isolate the Female Titan's scent from that of the Colossal Titan. Suddenly, he widens his eyes and quickly turns towards one of the contraptions as everyone around him becomes startled.
"She's flanking us !" Mike shouts as the Female Titan suddenly slams her fists on one of Hange's contraptions.
She turns to look around for Eren and spots him next to Squad Levi. Still slightly traumatized from Minilla's pursuit, Annie was worried about having to fight Squad Levi again. With her stamina nearly reaching its end, Annie quickly analyzed her surroundings to find the fastest way to catch Eren. She even spots a few more of the traps and other soldiers hiding within the branches. Annie slowly approaches Squad Levi and hardens her nape in case of any surprise attack. Levi, along with everyone else, pulled out their blades and readied themselves for a fight.
Annie hardens her hand, punches into a tree, and rips off a large piece of bark. She aims at one of the contraptions and throws the bark at full force, effectively taking it down and injuring some of the soldiers next to it. With two of them inactive, the Scouts had to ensure that the rest of the contraptions were still functional to trap the Titan Shifter.
"Levi ! You and your Squad deal with her until Hange and the others redirect the position of the barrels !" Erwin ordered him.
"Understood !" Levi responded as he and his squad mates grappled over to Annie and spread out around her.
Since her last encounter with Squad Levi, Annie focused her hardening on the same joints they sliced in order for her to be mobile at all times. This proved effective as each member of Squad Levi had their blades broken on impact at the joints. They never expected her to have hardening abilities since she never utilized them in their first fight. Catching them off guard, Annie runs over to Eren and tries to grab him with her hand. He dodges the hand in time and grapples up the tree he was standing on. Just when Eren thought he was safe, Annie hardens her hands and begins climbing the tree after him. Eren stops grappling and dives back to the ground, causing Annie to drop from the tree as well. As she falls in the air, Annie watches as Squad Levi and Eren surround her body and starts slashing other parts of her body that are not the joints. With their swift movements and coordinated teamwork, Eren and Squad Levi were able to force Annie to constantly regenerate her body in order to tire her out. However, Annie hardens her heel and slams it on a large branch, grabbing it in the process. Once she finally lands on the ground, Annie swings the branch at her opponents and forces them back. She turns to the repositioned barrel traps and runs over to smash another one. Levi charges at her and nearly dodges the swing of the branch as he feels the leaves of the branch brushing against him. He fires a hook on her elbow and flies straight for it, causing Annie to harden that area. Instead, Levi bounces off the elbow and jumps for her eyes. Before Annie could do anything, Levi launches his special spinning attack and blinds her effectively. Annie drops the branch and tries to quickly regenerate her eyes until Oruo and Petra slash her and Eld and Gunther slashed her arms. Levi looks over to Eren and signals him to bring her over to the traps, to which Eren agrees. Grappling above the Female Titan, Eren bites his hand and transforms into his Titan. He lands above her and starts dragging her body towards Hange's traps. Once he was in position, Eren roared at the others to let them know that he was ready. Hange fires the remaining traps and hundreds of grappling hooks covered both of the Titan Shifters, immobilizing them in one spot. Levi slices Eren's nape and pulls him out to another branch where Erwin, Hange, Mike, and Squad Levi regrouped. They all watch as Eren's Titan body evaporates on the ground while the Female Titan is finally captured.
"Hell yeah ! Squad Levi prevails again ! Not even intelligent Titans are a match for us !" Oruo cheered.
"Wow. You guys really handled her and the Armored Titan all by yourselves back then and still won," Petra said as she panted.
Eld added, "That hardening of hers really got us. At least we didn't have to utilize Eren's power a whole lot."
"Will those hooks be enough to trap her though ?" Gunther asked Hange, "She did manage to destroy a few of them."
"It'll be fine," Hange reassured, "We just have to deal with her quickly while Godzilla deals with the Colossal Titan. If we can use the methods we learned from testing Eren's powers, we can stop the person from transforming again until we return to Wall Rose."
"What are we waiting for, then ?" Levi asks as he wipes blood off of his blades, "Let's start making this thing talk."
Annie fully heals her eyes and looks around to find herself trapped. She sees Levi and the others grappling over to her and landing on the top of her head. Although she tried hardening her nape, Annie felt severely tired from the chase and the fight. She tried holding on a bit longer, but could feel her eyes becoming heavy. Turning over to see Bertholdt's head in the distance, Annie realised that there was one more thing she could do and hoped that it would work.
Despite the Scouts having escaped from underneath Minilla's body, Bertholdt manages to force the Kaiju down on the ground. Minilla's gills began bleeding from Bertholdt's repeated punches and had a lot of trouble breathing. Bertholdt prepares to throw another punch until he hears Annie roaring throughout the whole forest. He senses that she is in danger and runs into the forest to find her while Minilla gets back up and glares at the Titan Shifter.
Eren, Levi, Erwin, Hange, and everyone surrounding Annie were startled by her action and wondered why she had done that. They begin to feel rumbling as they turn to see the Colossal Titan reaching his hand towards Annie and pulling her out of the trap. With her in his left hand, Bertholdt swings his right arm at the Scouts and destroys the rest of the contraptions while blowing everyone else away. Eren transforms again and protects Squad Levi, Erwin, Hange, Mike, and several other soldiers from the attack. Bertholdt looks to see Annie slowly removing the hooks from her body and looking up to see him. She nodded gratefully towards her giant friend, who nods back until they both hear a loud humming sound. Just as Bertholdt turned around, his entire head was blasted off by Minilla's Atomic Breath and pushed back by the sudden attack. With his neck covered in steam, Bertholdt started breathing heavily and began healing his head quickly before Minilla could do anything else. He closes his hand to shield Annie from another attack as Minilla charges at him. He grabs Bertholdt by the shoulders and throws him out of the forest before lifting one of the giant trees out of the ground and piercing it through Bertholdt's body. The tree pins Bertholdt's Titan body to the ground and prevents him from getting up, forcing him to drop Annie on the ground. She quickly makes her escape just as Minilla rips open Bertholdt's nape. He feels his surrounding Titan flesh pulled from his human skin and turns to see Minilla's imposing figure. Before Minilla could grab him, Bertholdt releases a heavy amount of steam that quickly makes his Titan body disappear in an instant. Because he was in an open area, Bertholdt was unable to see anything for him to grapple onto and fell to the ground until Annie reached out and caught him. A blue glow covered their surroundings and the steam obscuring the area was blown away by Minilla, who was preparing another beam attack. Minilla opens his mouth and begins to let out his Atomic Breath again, but Bertholdt quickly does another partial transformation of his body and uses his Titan arm to launch a punch into the Kaiju's mouth. Minilla gags as the poorly formed arm hits the back of his throat and stops him from firing another beam. Bertholdt detaches himself from his arm and Annie quickly runs away with him in her hands.
In the meantime, Reiner and the Scouts managed to reach the other side of the forest to safety, but they witnessed everything that had transpired from Minilla launching his Atomic Breath and the Colossal Titan punching him in the mouth. Reiner, however, turned to see Annie's Female Titan running in the distance and deduced that Bertholdt was with her. Seeing as how Bertholdt had risked his hidden identity to save Annie, Reiner knew without a doubt that the Scouts would suspect his friend. In order to continue the mission, Reiner had to pretend that he never knew about Bertholdt being the Colossal Titan. Riding over to Armin, Mikasa, and the others, he tries his best to throw suspicion off of himself.
"Hey, Armin," he says casually, "Have you seen Bertholdt anywhere ?"
Armin replies, "Hm ? I figured he was with you."
"Well….he was behind me when we were riding over here, but he's gone somewhere."
"Yo ! That fight was crazy ! Did you guys see how much bigger Godzilla was to that Colossal Titan ?!" Connie shouted as he, along with everyone else, moved over to Armin and Reiner.
"Seeing Godzilla's blue fire breath thingy was the best thing I've ever seen ! It blew that Titan's head clean off !" Sasha added.
"I thought for sure that Godzilla would have lost after seeing him being beaten at first. It was really painful to see him like that," Krista pointed out.
Ymir responded to her statement, "Don't you worry, Krista. He did manage to recover and drive a huge tree through his opponent."
As everyone continues talking, Marco approaches Reiner and asks him, "Hey, where's Bertholdt ? You two are usually together."
Reiner quickly answers, "Oh...um...that's what I'm wondering as well. He just...disappeared all of a sudden."
"Well, he might probably be around here. Let's go look for him."
"Oh, thanks, Marco. Will you help me too, Armin ?"
"Sure. Let's get everyone to look for him."
Despite Reiner knowing the truth, he tried his best to maintain a facade as everyone helped him look for Bertholdt. Afterwards, the center formation leaves the forest and comes upon Minilla's unsuccessful attempt at capturing the Colossal Titan Shifter. With some casualties in the forest and injured soldiers being treated, the 57th expedition was a complete failure as the plan to capture the Titan Shifters ended up giving the Scouts another major loss. As Minilla watches the Scouts return to the Karanes District, he decides to follow the Female Titan's last known presence and follows the direction of her and Bertholdt's escape. He began breathing much better than before and the blood dripping from his gills had vanished, but the fight felt humiliating for the Kaiju. Because this was his first ever fight with someone nearly his size, Minilla hoped that his future battles would not result in any more humiliating defeats. He slowly walks across the land as he desperately searches for the two Titan Shifters.
Meanwhile, within the Shiganshina District, Muasaka's Mutants lift the debris and rubble from the ground to allow Miyuki's team of scientists to place and activate advanced Ground Penetrating Radars to search for Grisha's basement. After placing multiple of the GPRs all over the city, Miyuki and her team manages to find an abundance of different underground rooms and no traces of Xilien technology. The Mutants searched through the underground areas, only to find a bunch of cellars and other dusty rooms for storage. Ozaki and Miyuki walked together towards a few houses to investigate them for the basement.
"So far, absolutely nothing. The radars showed nothing but small rooms and nothing that looks remotely like a base," she speculated.
"Maybe it's not even here," Ozaki told her as he busts another cellar door and finds wine barrels, "All we know is that some of the people that lived here love their alcohol."
"One thing that's still bothering me is why Grisha decided to live here. You figured he would choose to work over having a normal family."
"Maybe he's just screwing them over like he did with us. You know what he did to Serizawa and Miki and how much pain he put them through. He's definitely a sick bastard. Hopefully we'll find him soon enough and make him pay for what he did."
"Hmm...there's one more spot to check right over there," Miyuki pointed to an area with a wooden hatch door connected to a wooden floor.
Ozaki lifts the large hatch door and finds a set of stairs leading down to another wooden door at the end. He and Miyuki looked at each other before descending down the stairs. The door at the end had a lock of sorts, but Ozaki punches the handle and pushes it open.
"Now this seems more like a hideout," Ozaki remarked as Miyuki activated a flashlight to brighten the room.
"It looks like….a normal office ?" Miyuki pointed out as she and Ozaki explored the room to find shelves full of books, medicine, and a regular looking desk.
Ozaki investigates the desk and finds nothing odd about it until he comes across a drawer with a keyhole on it. He pulls out a toolkit and takes out a small lockpicking device. As Miyuki watches her boyfriend try to open the drawer, a small glow within the keyhole instantly disintegrates the lockpick device and fades.
"The fuck ? What kind of keyhole does shit like that ?" Ozaki complains as he punches the drawer and yells out in pain.
His knuckles begin to hurt as Miyuki investigates the desk more closely. From a distance, the desk seemed like a regular wooden object, but the material was nothing like wood at all. With a few hard taps, Miyuki deduces that the material was more akin to that of metal than wood and arrives at the conclusion that the whole desk was a machine of some kind. However, if a Mutant like Ozaki was unable to leave a dent with just a punch, then the whole machine did not consist of regular metal like iron or steel, but something more. With the keyhole being the only other thing that stood out, she believes that they need to find the real key that could unlock the hidden contents of the machine.
"Looks like we just found our clue, but we obviously can't open it without the actual key in our possession," she told Ozaki.
"Damn Grisha. Where do you think he hid the key ?"
"Hmm...we should head over to the Surveillance group and ask Miki if she saw any footage of a key relating to Grisha or his wife and son. In the meantime, we should let everyone know that we found his basement."
"At least we're closer to getting the guy. Let's hope we're not too late," Ozaki said as he and Miyuki exited the basement while contacting Muasaka about its location.
In an unknown location, a figure stood in front of a holographic video of Ozaki and Miyuki leaving the basement. He closes the video and puts on a black trenchcoat and a black visor before heading outside of a room. He walks down a hallway, passing by a group of Xiliens and reaching a large round chamber with a pillar in the middle where the Controller of the Xiliens views another holographic video of Minilla walking across the land within Wall Maria.
"He really is related to that blasted lizard from back then," he said as he turns around and closes the video, "Sure, he looks different, but he's even got that beam attack. How is it that we keep on missing these guys on Planet Earth ?"
"I'm not quite sure, X. Perhaps our scout ships have failed as we search the whole globe for monsters," the figure concluded.
"Not only is that thing ruining the Titan population, but Facility 11 has failed to do anything about it since they reported it. Once we depart for the invasion, send one of the ships down to Earth and eliminate the staff at Facility 11. While they're down there, they might as well bring along a few more Titans to the Homeworld."
"I'll send the order right away, X."
"One more thing. Capture that 'Godzilla' creature and have your scientists begin implanting it with M-Base. I won't make the same mistake like last time."
"Understood," the figure said before departing to the communications room.
X pulls up a map of the universe and pinpoints the location of his upcoming invasion, a hidden mobile planet disguised as a large asteroid. He orders his fleet to follow the planet while a small group of ships make their way to Earth.
Sorry for the long upload. I tried to make this chapter as interesting as possible since it features certain fights that I've been planning and I wasn't sure how to execute them. Nevertheless, I hope you all enjoyed it and I just wanted to let you all know that I've set up a poll about which version of MechaGodzilla you would like to see in this story. Sorry to those who had to post their answers in the reviews, but I appreciate your reasoning on why you picked that version of MechaGodzilla. I'll post the winner when the next chapter is posted. As always, feel free to leave any questions about the chapter so that I can clear things up and make it better for you to understand. See you all later.