The people have asked for quicker chapters and more AM, and I am a man of the people! And I threw in some bonus Hanji since they didn't include her in the newest season trailer.
Enjoy!
The campsite was being disassembled at record speed. Pegs were ripped out of the earth, as the ropes and tents were bundled into piles and wrapped up. Scouts darted back and forth, loading up the horses as they prepared to move out.
Hanji watched this all happen with a sense of detachment. It might have been her who had issued the orders to break camp and send out search parties, but Hanji felt like nothing more than a spectator, idly watching as her subordinates rushed about, trying to fix her colossal fuckup.
"Section Commander."
It would be fruitless though, Hanji already knew that. No matter what they did, or how quickly they did it, Hoover would be long gone by now.
At best he had half a night's headstart on them, and from the fact they were one horse down, he could be halfway across Rose by now.
A small part of her wanted to be angry at the three watchers; Mikasa, Armin and Jean for failing in their duties but she couldn't bring herself to do it. After all, the fourth watcher had been Hoover himself, a decision that rested entirely upon her shoulders.
Erwin had told her the main suspects in her party; Bertholdt and Armin, and she had taken a dangerous gamble by putting both on watch. Perhaps naively, she had hoped that the lack of sleep would have left them tired and listless for Eren's arrival. Afterall they needed every advantage they could get to successfully deal with the Armoured Titan, especially if they wanted to capture it.
At the time a sleep-deprived shifter seemed like a worthwhile gamble, but it had backfired massively. By putting the suspects on watch, she had given Bertholdt the perfect opportunity to slip away in the night in between shift changes. Basically handed him a way out on a silver platter.
"Section Commander."
Of course, once she had discovered his empty tent, Hanji had immediately turned to the watchers and demanded to know what had happened last night, and how he had managed to slip past them without raising the alarm.
The answers she got made her want to scream. As the three remaining watchers gave their report of what had happened while the rest of them were sleeping, it was clear that her gamble had worked, just on the wrong people.
Jean had to smother down yawns as he spoke, rubbing his bleary eyes as he attempted to proclaim his own lack of responsibility while trying to avoid blaming his two co-watchers.
Mikasa answered with her usual quiet stoicism as she explained how she had been the last watcher and had spotted nothing out of the ordinary during her shift. Hanji found little reason to doubt her, based on those dark circles she had under her grey eyes, indicating a very late night or early start.
But what really made Hanji want to scream and shout was the fact that Armin, the other possible suspect, according to Erwin, had clearly been affected the most by the lack of sleep. He seemed to still be half asleep with his responses to her questions being slow and sluggish, lacking any of his quick wit and quiet intelligence that she had quickly grown to respect.
"Section Commander!"
So, her brilliant plan had worked just on the wrong bloody people, leaving her with three tired recruits and a missing shifter who had fled in the night.
'Genius, Hanji, truly genius.'
Not for the first time, Hanji wondered why Erwin had entrusted this mission to her. She wasn't made for this sort of thing, the espionage and sneaking about. She had even said so to his face during the meeting, but he had just given her one of his knowing half-smiles and dismissed her concerns claiming she was far better than she believed.
Well, now she could say without a shadow of a doubt that Erwin was wrong and she was right. In trying to be smart all she had done was made a complete bloody mess of this, and now the Armoured Titan was roaming around, Wall's know where, free to do anything he liked to the unprepared humanity.
"Hanji!"
Hanji blinked hard, forcefully yanked out of her downward spiral of anger and disgust by the shout. Turning toward the source, Hanji came face to face with a worried looking Moblit whose hand was outstretched and hovered just a few inches above from her shoulder, seemingly moments away from grabbing her. He must have been calling her for a while.
"Oh, Moblit, I didn't see you there." She lamely tried to excuse herself, embarrassed at being caught unaware. "I was just-"
"Beating yourself up." Moblit cut her off with a small smile. When he saw her raising an eye at his statement, Moblit explained with a shrug. "You always run a hand through your hair when you're stressed, but you didn't punish or even warn the watchers, which means you're blaming yourself for this."
His eyes flickered up as he spoke and Hanji, to her own bewilderment, found that her hand was currently lodged in her knotted hair. Carefully pulling it free, Hanji stared at the offending hand for a moment, before letting it drop to her side.
How long had that been a habit of hers? And how long hadn't she known?!
"I screwed up badly, Moblit. I think some self-loathing is warranted." Hanji fired back once she had processed his words, her tone tight and dark. She knew what he was trying to do but didn't allow it. She wasn't deserving of his sympathy.
Hanji could see Moblit's mouth starting to move in what was almost certainly another denial, but quickly cut him off, preventing his next attempt at dragging her out of her dour mood. "Have we heard anything from the search parties yet?" She asked, looking away and pretending to scan the skies for a signal flare.
Moblit sighed, admitting defeat in the face of his Commander's stubbornness. "Nothing yet, Section Commander, but they haven't been gone long. Perhaps we should wait for a bit longer, they might still find him, or at least some tracks."
Grinding her teeth together, Hanji just shook her head, allowing her messy ponytail to sway in the light morning wind. If they haven't found any sign of Hoover yet, it was already too late.
"No point. He'll be long gone by now, and even if by some miracle he's not, we don't have the numbers or the equipment needed to deal with the Armoured Titan on such unfavourable terms. Call them back." The order left a bitter taste in her mouth - the taste of defeat.
Once more Moblit made to argue but backed down at the sideway glance he received from the morose scientist. Silently, Moblit inserted a yellow flare into his pistol, lifted it to the heavens and fired.
"So what now, Section Commander?" Moblit asked after the ringing in his ears had faded.
Hanji wished she had a decent answer for him, she really did, but the painful reality was that she just didn't know. The things they had done to set up this trap; scattering the recruits, leaving their gear behind in HQ, and camping out in the sticks to avoid collateral damage were now working against them.
The effective combat force she could muster right now consisted entirely of her own squad unless she was willing to make the recruits fight the Armoured Titan without 3DM gear. At that point, it would be more humane to simply line them up against a wall and shoot them. They'd probably have a higher chance of survival that way…
And even if she was crazy enough, or cruel enough, to do that, just finding the shifter to fight would be nigh-impossible without an extensive search over a vast area of ground. And to do that they needed numbers, numbers they just didn't have.
"Moblit, I want you and most of the recruits to head back to base. Get them geared up and prepare the rest corp for a possible attack. If anyone protests, tell them you speak with my authority."
Despite her own misgivings, Hanji was in the upper epsilons of leadership, second only to Erwin. She may not employ the true extent of her authority often, being more interested in research and development than outright command. Still, when she did exert her power, the corp knew to listen, even if her instructions came from Moblit's mouth.
"Most of them?" A confused Moblit asked, looking to where the young scouts were hastily loading up their horses.
"Yeah," Hanji's gaze followed his, briefly pausing on the three she wouldn't be sending with him. "Our three watchers are at least partially responsible for this debacle, so the four of us can face the music together. We'll be riding west with the rest of the squad to link up with Erwin and Eren."
Moblit seemed to hesitate for a moment, and Hanji wasn't sure if it was because she had decided to find Erwin or from the fact she basically bequeathed him the command of the entire Survey Corp until either herself or Erwin relieved him. Probably the latter when she thought about it.
Eventually though, Moblit bowed his head in acknowledgement. "Aye, Commander. I'll make the preparations." He started to turn away, and Hanji was about to let him when something stopped her.
If this went wrong and Hoover did launch a punitive attack today, this may be the very last time she saw him. She didn't like to think in such terms, but everyone in the survey corp knew the grim realities of their service, and Hanji could barely remember a time when Moblit wasn't at her side.
'He puts up with so much crap from me and not once has he let me down. He could easily be a captain of his own squad by now, yet he's never asked for anything or even hinted at wanting that.' Hanji ruminated, wondering why he had stuck by her all these years, and what she had done to deserve such a loyal friend.
"Wait, Moblit," The name was blurted out before Hanji even knew what she was going to say. Her right-hand man paused mid-step and turned back to face her with his bright brown eyes.
"I-I... Stay safe, you hear me? We've still got so much research to do, and I don't want you to miss out on any of it."
Moblit seemed surprised at her words, as his eyes grew wide. Then, another soft smile broke across his face. "I wouldn't miss it for the world, Section Commander." He said before he turned away and walked off towards the horses, once more leaving Hanji alone with her thoughts.
Thoughts which lingered on that smile, and how it made her heart beat just that little bit faster.
"Don't be ridiculous," Hanji mumbled, quickly pulled her gaze away from Moblit's retreating form, feeling like a little girl who had been caught trying to steal treats from the kitchen.
There was hardly time for such silliness.
Armin grunted as he hoisted the tent roll onto his horse's hindquarters. With quick, nimble fingers, he tied it down and secured it to the saddleback as he had done hundreds of times before. He gave it a hard tug, satisfied with his work.
All around him, the others were doing much the same, but with a great deal more confusion and hesitation. They didn't know what had caused Hanji abrupt change after discovering Bertholdt's empty tent, and the complete lack of explanation had led to rumours quickly spreading. At first, most assumed something terrible had happened to their missing friend, which is why Hanji had ordered a search. But when one of the scouts had yelled out, informing everyone one of the horses were missing the rumours quickly changed to desertion, a line of thinking which quickly lead the 104th to quietly mutter the name of another deserter they all knew.
Armin, of course, made no attempt to dissuade or feed this rumour, allowing it instead to run freely and sow further confusion. It was almost too easy.
"Need a hand?" He spoke up, talking to the person he knew was at his back.
"Please," Mikasa answered, despite tying down her own tent roll with well-practised ease. Turning around, Armin swiftly stepped beside her and started to 'help' Mikasa tie down her gear. To anyone watching it was just one friend helping another get ready to move out, and the sight was so common that no one gave it a second, giving the two a perfect opportunity to talk without prying eyes or ears.
"So far so good," Armin breathed out, threading a rope into a tight knot. "Good thinking with the horse."
There was a brief flicker of a smile on Mikasa's face at his praise. "Thanks," She replied, just as quietly.
Letting one of the horses go had been a split-second decision on her part, made while she had been waiting for Bertholdt to succumb to the tainted wine Armin had plied him with. It had only taken a few minutes to free one of the horses and send it bolting into the night with a hard slap on its rump, and now it was paying dividends.
It appeared that Hanji fully believed Bertholdt had escaped on horseback, and judging from the flare Moblit had just sent up, she had realised the folly of trying to search for someone with such a 'headstart' on them. A realisation which suited the two of them entirely.
Thinking back to Hanji's short interrogation, Mikasa let out a small hum of approval. They had both done their part to nudge the scientist's thinking along that path, making her think Bertholdt had slipped away the second Armin took over his watch, but Armin had gone above and beyond, deflecting almost all the anger or blame away from them.
Lightly nudging Armin with her elbow, Mikasa murmured her praise for his performance. "Your act with Hanji was very compelling."
"Act? Only partly." Armin stifled down a bemused snort. He didn't need to use much of his acting abilities to seem tired. "I'd probably be falling asleep if you hadn't made me..." He trailed off, thinking back to the tent they had shared as a pinkish bloom formed on his cheeks. It may have only been for a few hours, but that had been the best night sleep he'd had in a long time.
"Oh." Mikasa, realising what Armin was referring to had a similar reaction, but thanks to her pale ivory skin, her small blush stood out far more.
"...you're welcome." She finished shyly, absentmindedly tugging one of the ropes she had tied under her mount a bit too hard. With a disgruntled whinny at the chafing rope, her horse reared up and shook, nearly sending the tent roll tumbling off.
With this perhaps merciful (or frustrating) distraction suddenly demanding their full attention, both blushing shifters quickly set out to calm the unsettled mare.
"Whoa, Uma. Steady girl," The somewhat flustered Mikasa cooed, grabbing the bridle with a firm hand and lightly stroking her mount's dark brown fur. As she ran her fingers over the soft hair, Mikasa could see Armin chewing his lip out of the corner of her eye. He was staring rather intently at the tent roll as he hastily loosened the upsettingly tight rope, which he must have achieved since Uma let out a small huff and nuzzled her face against Mikasa's hand.
"Sorry girl." She murmured softly as her mind started to wander.
'This is so silly,' Mikasa thought, biting her own lip. 'We've slept beside each other before. Why is this time different? I mean we're twenty… One? Two?' Mikasa had to pause for a moment, to work out exactly how old they were counting back to their date of birth wasn't really applicable to the two of them anymore.
'Twenty-one... or thereabout.' Mikasa eventually settled on after some quick maths. Either way, they were old enough and mature enough that this sort of thing, the timidity and bashfulness, should be behind them… right? Especially for two people who have spent half their lives in the military and even longer as close friends. Why the sudden and random bouts of nervousness around each other?
On some level, Mikasa knew why it was happening, but seeing as that part of her often came in the form of Ymir's smug face and voice, she instead opted to squish it down into the subconsciousness.
"Ackerman! Arlert!" A voice cried, shaking the two shifters from their private thoughts as they turned to face the source of the shout. Sitting astride her horse with her iconic cherry blond hair, Nifa looked at the pair of them expectantly. Beside her on his own mount was Jean, who was looking dead ahead with an expression of resignation acceptance. "Mount up, you're with us!"
A spark of fear formed in Mikasa's heart as she heard this. Something wasn't right, they should be heading back to headquarters with the other recruits. Why the last-minute change?
"Are we not heading back to headquarters, Ma'am?" Armin asked, vocalising Mikasa's concerns, sounding just as confused as she was. This wasn't part of the plan.
"No," The veteran scout answered evenly. "We're meeting up with Commander Erwin, so hurry up. We're moving out."
Despite Nifa's demand for haste, Mikasa turned her head and shared a look with Armin. All traces of their previous embarrassment had been wiped away as they held their lightning-fast silent conversation. Countless questions wordless darted between them;
Was this another one of Erwin's schemes, one directed at them? Had they slipped up somewhere and allowed him to discover who, and what, they really are? Why else would the two of them be brought, unarmed, to face him and likely Eren as well?
And why were they bringing Jean along? Was the corp planning on using their friend as some kind of hostage to ensure their submission?
In a twisted sort of way, it was almost funny. They had taken down Annie in the dead of night with only a tranquilliser and stolen blade and made it look like desertion.
Bertholdt, the holder of the most dangerous Titan in existence, they had brought low, surrounded by sleeping witnesses with a poison they had stolen from Hanji's secured laboratory.
Hell, the two of them had even held the true King of the Walls prisoner for a few hours and tortured him for information, all to fulfil their mission. And they had done it without batting an eye.
But the thought of facing Commander Erwin, a man they feared and respected in equal measure, was enough to make them waver. If anyone could have sussed them out, it would be him...
Mikasa's eyes darted down, just for a second, visually guiding Armin toward the hidden pen knife he knew she had strapped to her thigh. Armin found his breath hitching in his throat at the unspoken question and if it wasn't clear enough from that small glimpse down, the heavy look in her dark eyes when she recaught his gaze was particularly damning.
"Do I shift?"
"No," Armin pleaded with his eyes. "Not now. We can use this, trust me." He was almost ashamed it wasn't just a flat out 'no', but they had come too far for the scouts to intervene now. Not when they could be mere hours away from finally dealing with Reiner.
It was likely Erwin had sent Reiner and the rest of their friends to that ranch the corp owned, as he had done in their first life during the mission to capture Annie. It was just as out of the way and isolated as their current location.
While neither of them had ever been to that ranch before, they knew it was in the west, past Hermina and nearby Connie's and Sasha's villages. Armin was sure they would be able to find it as long as they could get close.
Fortunately, to travel to Mitras they would have to pass through Hermina, bringing them close enough to their intended target. All they would have to do is dutifully ride alongside Hanji until they neared the city, then slip away before anyone else realised was happening and finally finish their mission.
Armin knew they wouldn't have long and that Erwin and Hanji would quickly work out what had happened, and would bring all the scouts they could muster, including Eren, rushing after them.
But at this moment Armin didn't care. They had to face Reiner on their terms, not the corps. It was the only way they could keep them safe.
Reiner had already shown his willingness to butcher their comrades, and he wouldn't hesitate to do it again, especially if he figured out he was truly alone now. And without thunderspears, the scouts had no real way to defend themselves from him. It would be a massacre.
'We were doing this for their sake.' Armin told himself, even as he and Mikasa stiffly mounted up and slowly followed the rest of the squad out of the dissembled campsite.
'They'll understand eventually. They have to...'
The mood of the ride out west could best be described as frosty. Both Armin and Mikasa were on edge and struggled to keep those nerves from showing on their faces as they tore across Rose, pushing their mounts to the limit.
Armin had attempted to make some small talk with Jean, both to put his own mind at rest and to see what he might know about this sudden detour, but Jean steadfast refused to be engaged by any of his conversation starters, only giving curt, one-word answers or grunts. Eventually, Jean stopped replying entirely and just flat out ignored any further attempts at talking.
That did little to settle Armin's nerves, especially when he started to consider the possibility that Jean might also be in whatever this was. Perhaps like he had been the lure for Annie, Erwin had picked Jean to do the same to them.
That idea stung more than he cared to admit.
Slunking back, Armin rode alongside Mikasa for the rest of the journey with a heavy heart. If this was a trap he wouldn't be able to help her, unsure if he would even manage a shift so soon after reinheriting his Titan. And even if he could, actually doing so was another matter entirely.
Armin knew all too well the destructive power the change alone could inflict, even if he controlled the explosion. Anyone standing too close to him would be immolated or left crippled from horrific burns and other injuries; the kind of injuries that even a shifter would struggle to heal from if they were too close.
No. There would be no shifting for him this day.
If he had his 3DM gear like they had planned, however, things would be different. He could at least help Mikasa in the coming battle (against whom at this point, Armin could not say), even if he just made himself into a flying, sword-wielding annoyance for their foes.
He hated the feeling of being useless, and it only grew worse as the outcropping of Wall Sina around Hermina came into view. They were so close now; to Erwin, to Eren, to Reiner. So very, very close.
All they had to do was wait until they were in the city, and were swamped by crowds of civilians going about their ordinary lives. Then, when Hanji and the others were distracted, trying to navigate through the hordes of wealthy Sina idiots, they'd just slip away into the faceless masses. Hardly the most complex escape plan he's ever hatched, but sometimes the most straightforward option really is the best one.
They just had to hold out a few more minutes-
"Section Commander! Smoke!" One of Hanji's squad members, a man with a pair of goggles whose name Armin couldn't recall, called out pointing beyond the city to where a plumb of smoke was steadily rising into the sky.
Hanji looked over, and when she saw the vast pillar of smoke rising from the south-west of the city, inside Wall Rose, she ordered a halt and pulled a looking glass from her packsack. Bringing the bronze tube to her eye, Hanji aimed it toward the smoke and inhaled sharply.
"Keiji! Green flare. Now!" Hanji fired off the order without missing a beat, her attention still fixed on the billowing smoke. Keiji fumbled for his flare gun, taken by surprise at the abruptness of the command, and hastily fired off a green flare. As he did so, he shared a look with his squadmates - a look of confusion.
They all waited in silence as the seconds ticked by, many of them holding their breath as the flare reached its apex. Five seconds passed, then ten, then twenty and finally, thirty seconds after the green flare was painted across the sky, a red one was fired back in reply, rising beside the smoke like a splash of blood against a soot-black canvas.
"Change of plans," Hanji grimly informed them, stashing the looking glass away. "Looks like Mike's in trouble. Let's go."
"Mike?" The name of Humanity's second strongest soldier was thrown about between the baffled scouts, but Hanji didn't grace any of them with an explanation. She just kicked her heels and rode onwards, forcing the rest to follow her.
Armin had to admit that if this was a trap for the two of them, then Hanji's squad either had incredible acting skills or were equally in the dark about what was happening. Either way, this was an elaborate setup. A bit too elaborate, even for Erwin.
The first change of plan that just so happened to occur after they dealt with Bertholdt; a fire apparently set where Captain Mike, Historia and Reiner were which led to another change of plans. If this was a trap set for them, it was a truly byzantine scheme. But if it wasn't, and this had been a string of remarkable coincidences, then something must have happened with the other group.
Armin tightened his grip around the reins as he considered what may have happened, and looked over at Mikasa. He could see it in her face, locked in a grim frown that she must have been thinking the same thing.
Reiner must have made his move.
The first thing Squad Hanji and their three young wards saw once they arrived at their destination, not including the smouldering hulk of a building surrounded by vast footprints which they had seen from a fair distance away, was Commander Erwin and Captain Levi in the midst of a conversation.
"You believe she's the one?" They overheard Erwin asking with a calculating look on his face.
Levi opened his reply with an irritated grunt, "I don't believe anything. I just think it's a possibility. Why else would they want her?"
"It's possible," Erwin reluctantly agreed, "We'd need to find her first thought if we want proof."
Whatever Levi intended to say next was cut off by Hanji practically leaping from her horse and sprinting towards the two men shouting Erwin's name loud enough to wake the dead.
"Hanji?" Erwin span round, taken by surprise. Several emotions flashed across his face; shock, confusion, disbelief, and a split second of frustration before he reconstituted his calm mask. He had of course been expecting someone from the corps to arrive, having seen and replied to their flare, but he had never expected it to be Hanji. "What are you doing here?"
"Hoover… Titan… Gone…" Hanji forced out in between deep labouring breaths. The brutal pace she had maintained during the ride and the final sprint across the field had practically robbed all the air from her lungs, and she had to bend over and clutch at her legs to keep herself upright.
Erwin raised a hand halting the breathless explanation. "Breath Hanji. Then tell me why you're here."
After a few moments of heavy breathing, Hanji righted herself, still red in the face but at least able to talk in more coherent sentences.
"I'm sorry, Erwin, I screwed up." If Hanji's sombre apology surprised Erwin he didn't show it; instead, he merely cocked his head to the side, silently asking for an explanation for what she was apologising for.
Mournfully, Hanji bowed her head, unable to look him in the eye. "Bertholdt is the one we were looking for, the Armoured, but he escaped. I tried to be smart, by putting him on watch hoping it would tire him out for when you arrived, but he must have realised something was up because he stole a horse and fled in the middle of the night." She confessed grimly. "He could be anywhere by now."
There was a moment of stunned silence at her report which Hanji had excepted it to be broken by a furious Levi tearing into her for allowing his squad's murderer to escape justice. But before she could even muster the inner strength to look at Levi and face his surely inevitable anger, the hush was broken by none other than the Commander himself.
Erwin Smith, the ever calm and collected leader of the Survey Corps, turned his head away, closed his eyes, and in the softest voice Hanji had ever heard him use, uttered a single word.
"Shit."
Hanji's head snapped as up, and she almost fell on her arse in shock. Even Levi could not hide his surprise, as his mouth dropped open and he stared at Erwin as if he had sprouted a second head. In all the years they had known Erwin, this was the first time they had ever heard him curse.
Seemingly oblivious to the shock he had delivered to his officers, Erwin opened his eyes and turned back to the wide-eyed Hanji with a tight, hollow smile on his face. "I'm afraid you're mistaken Hanji, Reiner Braun is the Armoured Titan. He's the one who did this." He gestured to the destruction surrounding them. "However, since Hoover claimed to have come from the same village as Braun, it is likely he is, in fact, the Colossal Titan. And now both of them have avoided capture."
"Oh…" Hanji wavered on her feet, as the true scale of this disaster slammed into her. Both the shifters had slipped the net just before it landed on them.
But Erwin wasn't done there. "We have another problem as well. A bigger one."
"There's more?" Hanji choked out with a sense of foreboding. What could possibly be bigger than both the Armoured and Colossal Titan escaping?
'Wait, wasn't Eren and Petra suppose to be with them? Where are they?'
"Where's Eren?" A voice that wasn't hers blurted out. Sharp, fierce, and direct. In a way, it reminded her of Levi's voice when he was angry. In fact, if it hadn't been a pitch higher, and Levi wasn't currently standing quietly next to Erwin, apparently still in shock at the man's choice of word, Hanji would have assumed it was him that said it.
Hanji, Levi and Erwin looked over towards the speaker, to see the already storied Mikasa Ackerman, the pride of the 104th and the reaper of Trost having broken ranks from Hanji's idling group and marched right up to them, indifferent to the looks of incredulity, anger and bemusement she received.
"Mind your tongue, brat." Levi snapped, finally shaken from his stupor at her interruption. "You're speaking to your commander."
What Mikasa did next Hanji would remember for years to come. In the face of a loud, aggressive chastisement from the most fearsome and deadly soldier the corp had, Mikasa hadn't even flinched. She just looked at Levi out of the corner of her eye as if he was two inches tall. No words were spoken, and no apology was given - just a look.
Levi's face reddened in anger, and he made to step forward when Mikasa simply turned her dark gaze back to Erwin in a brazen dismissal and asked the question again. "Where's Eren, Sir?"
'Woah,' Hanji damn near whistled, doubting even she was brave enough to do that to Levi. 'The stones on her…'
"Mikasa!" Armin hissed, hurriedly moving forward, interrupting Levi's mid-step stride as much as the wave of Erwin's hand did. The blond boy looked nervous and tense, but Hanji got the feeling that had more to do with the destruction surrounding them, rather than the possible rebuke the Commander might issue his friend with thanks to her bluntness.
It seemed like both of them cared far less than they should about proper military protocol, and Hanji wondered if it had something to do with their position as the first and second place in their cadet corp.
Ever since her own cadet days, Hanji believed the system often fuelled a certain sense of arrogance and entitlement in whichever recruits achieved the highest ranks as they are placed on a pedestal above their compatriots and find news doors being opened to them because of it. The scouts rarely got the highest-ranking cadets, so she had never been able to test that theory until recently when Armin and Mikasa joined them.
Admittedly, she had only known the two of them for a brief period, and Mikasa only in passing, but arrogant and entitled were definitely not the words she would use to describe them.
Quiet and reserved, absolutely. The two were undoubtedly quieter and more mature than most of their fellows but with their past as orphaned refugees from Shiganshina, that was to be expected. Even if she found the way the two seemed to know exactly what the other was thinking slightly uncanny, Hanji would never call them arrogant and certainly not entitled!
Putting the scientific part of her mind to work Hanji came up with another theory to explain their behaviour. 'Maybe this is how they react under stress. They focus more on material risks rather than immaterial scolding. Not a bad trait for survival, but not so good for the chain of command.'
The scouts may have been the division of oddballs and weirdos like herself, but they were still a legitimate arm of the military. She would have to work on that if- no, when, Erwin placed Armin in her squad.
Armin placed a hand on Mikasa's arm, a gesture of both caution and comfort, which the girl seemed to relax into, just a fraction. Apparently confident enough that Mikasa wasn't going to stick her foot in it any further, Armin faced the Commander with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Sir, Mikasa didn't mean to interrupt. She's just concerned about Eren. We both are."
Erwin gave the young recruits an inscrutable look as if he was debating something in his head. Whatever it was he had been considering he must have settled it, as he opened his mouth and a simple question spilt forth. "And why do you think there's a problem with Eren?"
The question seemed to catch Armin off guard, but he quickly collected himself. "Hanji mentioned that Eren had gone with you to the Capitol, Sir. A-and with all these footprints around and the fire, it seems something must have happened here. We just wanted to know if he was okay. We haven't seen him much since Trost..." He tapered off, seemingly choked with emotion.
Hanji knew that none of the 104th recruits liked talking about Trost, and it looked like that sentiment was shared by even the highest-ranking cadets. Not that she blamed them of course, she didn't like to talk about her first battle either.
Before her mind could turn to that blood-soaked day, Hanji felt Erwin's eye land on her. He was clearly checking Armin's words, so she gave a small, frustrated nod in return, remembering that she had in fact mentioned Eren being with the Commander during the ride. She really ought to stop sharing sensitive information like that with recruits, even if they were one of her favourites.
"I see," Erwin answered slowly, looking back at Armin with a still unreadable expression. "Well I am sorry to inform you both, but Eren's whereabouts is the other issue we are facing."
"W-What?" Armin stammered, his hand slipping from Mikasa's arm, the girl having visibly tensed up again, even as the hand fell away. For a split second, Armin's fearful blue eyes flickered toward the south and the distant Wall before snapping back to the Commander with a wordless plea.
The cynical part of Hanji wondered if Armin thought his friend had deserted humanity and fled over the Wall. She wouldn't blame him if he did, seeing as she had the very same thought. Mayhaps Eren hadn't been as loyal to humanity as he suggested in his trial.
But, in a tone of voice that sounded like he was just announcing some unfavourable weather, Erwin delivered perhaps the worst news any of them had received this day. News so grim and disheartening that it even managed to outshine the fact both enemy shifters had escaped for a few painful moments.
"Approximately two hours ago, Eren, alongside Lieutenant Ral, were kidnapped as we passed through Hermina by an unknown party. Their current location is unknown."
One could have heard a pin drop.
"Oh..."Hanji muttered dimly, feeling years older than she was, as the full, horrifying picture came into focus. Eren hadn't run away, he had been taken. Taken just as the two enemy shifters had disappeared.
Now that curse made a lot more sense.
Looks like AM are growing paranoid and may have started to slip. Will this come back and bite them in the arse at some point? Undoubtedly!
So obviously this chapter came out a lot quicker than usual (2 weeks rather than a month) and I wanted to know what you thought about it since I didn't let myself get bogged down as much in the editing and re-writing which usually what causes the delays.
Hopefully, the quality is the same, and if not, then I hope it isn't so bad as to be unreadable.