"This place gives me the creeps. How did you even last down here?"

"I never had to stay underground for long." I remained focused on the path ahead of us as we winded through the maze towards the UnderGround entrance. We had travelled to a deserted area in Wall Rose, where I had an engraved memory of the path that I had taken many times to the UnderGround back in the day. It was now that memory I was relying on to get us down to the hidden city. Steve followed closely behind me, holding another lantern of his own. My other hand held onto a blade, ready for anything. Who knows what you could find down here?

It was another few minutes before a tiny voice in my head began to panic. It had never taken me this long before – did I make a wrong turn?

My prayers were answered when a giant cavern finally opened up in front of us. The UnderGround. Breathing a sigh of relief, I carefully set my lantern down, massaging the stiffness from my wrist.

"So, where to next, boss?" Steve joined by my side, taking in the darkness speckled with lights.

"I-"

"Oi, who's up there?" a voice rang up from further down the stairs, clearly heading to meet us. I grinned as an idea popped into my head, triggered by the voice. More like, who's voice it was.

I silently flicked my head back towards the Maze opening and Steve immediately got the idea, blowing out his lantern and melting back into the shadows. I backed away from my lantern on the ground, letting the partial darkness cover my green Survey Corps wings.

"Oi, I can see your lantern – oh, hello there." A man of roughly my age made it to the landing, his demeanor changing immediately once he set his eyes on me. Luckily, Steve was already hidden before the man got a glimpse of him too. I smiled back politely.

"Hello. Apologies for that, I didn't mean to alert anyone."

"No no, it's fine. Were you planning to go down? Or were you heading up to the Surface?"

I bit my tongue in thought.

"Oh, I'm just heading down to look for my brother. He tends to find his way down here for some…questionable things. Or so I'm told." I chuckled.

"I see. Well then, if you've been here before then you know the rules." He silently held a hand out, the universal sign for payment. My eyes narrowed just slightly.

"But-"

"Look, I'm a sucker for a pretty face so I'll halve the price for a Stair pass. Just for you." He winked at me, making me mentally wonder how two people of the same age can differ so drastically. What a creep.

"That's all right, it's not necessary. I'm actually looking for something else."

There was a pause.

"Sweetheart, you do know you need a pass to go up and down the Stairs, right? There's no other way for you to move between the UnderGround and the Surface. Besides, you're looking for something important, right?"

I raised an eyebrow at the correction assumption. He shrugged.

"Why else would you travel from the Surface to the UnderGround?" he explained. I nodded and slowly revealed myself in the dim lantern light. Game's up.

"You're actually wrong on both accounts." I informed him and crossed my arms. My green cover rustled over my shoulders and the man's eyes zoomed in on them, his face rearranging itself into a scowl. I began to circle him slowly, the man also taking equal steps to keep his distance from me. I held up a finger.

"First, if you are skilled enough, all you need is a 3D Manoveur Gear set to move between the two cities. In that case, stairs are not needed. As you can see - " I paused and shifted my position so the glare of my 3DMG shone into his face. " I have one."

No words were exchanged as the creep pulled out a dagger. i paused in my pacing and did one final check of the man's position.

Perfect.

I ignored the man's dagger and continued. "Second-"

Steve leapt out from the darkness behind the man and tackled, quickly pinning him to the dirt ground, a blade pressed to the man's throat. I leisurely walked around the pair, gazing indifferently down. By now, the offender's scowl was now a mixture of anger and fear. His dagger lay useless on the ground, a metre away.

"It's not something I'm looking for. It's a someone. And you-" I crouched down near the man's head, locking eyes with him. "-are going to help us find them."

Using our new friend's connection with all the other Stair 'guards', we finally came across someone who recalled a group moving down his stairway, with one limping very heavily. Straining to hear the story over the loud chatter coming from the rest of the bar we were in, I leaned forward. Due to their desperate state, the guard admitted to charging my team a hefty fine. With Steve's tight grip on my left arm, barely able to restrain me, I had managed to step up to the one guilty and hold out my right hand for the payment my team had sacrificed.

"Hey, I got that payment fair and-" he stopped abruptly as I swiftly pulled out a blade and pressed it to his neck. His hands shot up automatically, in a surrender position.

"The money, or your head." I growled.

"I told you what you wanted to know. Can't a poor guy keep half of his keep?"

I scoffed. "You take advantage of those who are worse off than you, bullying them into paying for using the stairs, which should be free for all."

"I'm just asking for half, you-"

"- then I'll just ask for half of your head."

"Watch the violence in here! Don't want shit all over my bar, you hear?" bellowed the bar keep, glaring at my blade. A subtle tug on my arm from Steve and I clicked my tongue slowly sinking back onto my stool. I relaxed my grip on my blade slightly.

"Fine. Half."

With a nod in acknowledgement, the man reached into his pocket and dropped several coins onto the table. Steve swiped them up before I could calculate how much my team was charged and blow another fuse. I lowered the blade and re-sheathed it smoothly.

"Seeing as you had scored such a high price from my team, I'm sure you kept an eye on them as they left."

"I managed to memorise the taller guy, in case I ever saw him again. He was wearing dark brown pants, grey shirt, brown tunic…oh, and shiny black boots. I had wondered where he got those boots, as they seemed too out of place for a mere commoner. Now I know." His gaze was pointedly directed at our Wings of Freedom.

"Any idea which way they headed towards?" Steve questioned, crossing his arms.

The man shrugged. "They headed to the north side of the UnderGround but honestly, they could have travelled anywhere from there. There's heaps of- oh, actually, that's him right there."

Steve and I gasped simultaneously and whipped our heads around to the causes of the man's comment. Despite there being Titans out there, there must have also been some sort of entity watching over us, as there stood Jack in all his glory. He subtly grabbed something from his long brown cloak and swapped it for a small bottle of alcohol, tucking it away underneath the garment quickly.

"Jack." My throat choked up at name, my emotions getting the better of me as this incredible weight was finally taken off my shoulders. "Jack."