Chapter 14: Revelation


"That should do it," Eren said as he finished cleaning the last room on his side. He and Heidi had decided to implement a 'divide and conquer' strategy to get their floor done faster. He started at one end, she started at the other, and they were supposed to meet up again in the middle... but, for some reason, she seemed to be taking a long time. "Aren't you finished yet?" he called out to her.

"Almost!" she called back, sticking her head out one of the open doorways further down the hall. "You go on ahead, I've still got a couple rooms left!"

Levi shoved the shutters on one of the windows open with a satisfying clatter. The stale interior of the old headquarters was in desperate need of fresh air.

"I've finished cleaning my half of the upper floor, sir," Eren informed him as he entered the room. "Sir, where will I be sleeping in this facility?"

"Your room is in the basement," Levi replied as he turned around to face him, pulling his dust mask down to talk.

"The basement... again?" Eren asked disappointedly as he also pulled down his dust mask.

"Of course," Levi stated matter-of-factly. "You can't exactly control yourself, after all. If you turn into a titan in your sleep, we can keep you confined if you're underground. That's one if the conditions we were given when they placed you in our custody. It's a rule we must follow."

"..." Eren stared at him with a mixture of surprise and disappointment. Levi stared back at him for a moment with a stoic expression on his face before heading for the door.

"I'm going to check the rooms you cleaned," he told Eren on his way out. "You start cleaning here."

"Yes, sir..." Levi heard Eren answer as he turned and started climbing up the stairs. A soft humming was echoing through the empty hall when he reached the upper floor. Levi followed it and found Heidi working on her last room. His eyes widened slightly when he saw what she had done. Every visible surface in the room was gleaming... she had even cleaned the ceiling. Heidi stopped scrubbing the floor and glanced over her shoulder when she sensed she was being watched.

"... Is something wrong, sir?" Heidi asked a little hesitantly, about to get up, when Levi held up a hand to stop her.

"Not at all," he said truthfully. "Carry on." He left to check whether or not all the rooms she had cleaned were like that. They were. Not bad for a Vomit Girl. He turned around and walked down to the other side of the hall to inspect Eren's handiwork. He froze in the first doorway. His good mood was instantly shattered by the appalling state of affairs within. He immediately turned on his heel and marched back to Heidi's room. She jumped, startled when she suddenly sensed an ominous presence, and his hand landed roughly on her shoulder. "Come with me," Levi ordered seriously in a tone that only someone with a death wish would ignore.

As Heidi followed him down the stairs, wondering what she had done wrong this time, she realized she could hear Eren and Petra talking.

"Yes... I thought he was a man who wouldn't take orders from anyone," Eren said.

'They must be talking about Captain Levi..' Heidi thought, eyeing the man in front of her cautiously. He did seem to give off that impression. He didn't even appear to care that they were talking about him.

"I don't know all the details... but at one time, he may have been close to your image of him," Petra said thoughtfully. "I heard that before Captain Levi joined the Survey Corps, he was a notorious thug in the capital's underground streets." Heidi was beginning to get the sinking feeling that her life might be in some serious danger. She really had picked the worst possible person to piss off. "I don't know what happened, but some people say Commander Erwin brought him into the Corps."

"The Commander did!?" Eren asked, surprised.

"Oi, Eren," Levi said sharply as he and Heidi reached the doorway, causing Eren and Petra to both flinch guiltily.

"Y-Yes, sir!!" Eren said nervously, quickly snapping to attention, while Petra began sweeping frantically, avoiding eye contact.

"You call that clean!? Redo everything," Levi ordered sternly with a dark expression on his face and extra creases in his brow. "Show him how it's done, Vomit Girl."

'I really wish he would stop calling me that...' Heidi thought, grimacing slightly at the nickname.

—∞—

"Oh, that smells good!" Petra said as she and Heidi were cooking dinner in the kitchen later that evening. "You're so good at cooking and cleaning... I bet you'll make a great wife someday."

"Thanks," Heidi said modestly. The main reason why she was so good at cleaning was because her aunt and grandpa were both incredibly strict about it. "My grandpa says that, too. Only, he used to follow up with: 'Instead of joining the military, you should get married! I want to see my great grandchildren before I die.'"

"Wow, that sounds like my dad," Petra said sympathetically. "He's always going on about marriage, even though I've told him I just want to focus on my career for now. Sometimes he even confuses my loyalty to the captain and the Corps with love... I mean, naturally, I really respect and admire Captain Levi as a leader, but that doesn't necessarily mean I have romantic feelings for him."

"Well, I don't know if this will work for you, but... the way I got my grandpa to stop trying to rush me was by pointing out I that didn't actually need to be married in order to give him grandchildren. He beat the crap out of me for that, but he never mentioned it again," Heidi said with a wry smile. It had really scared him, hearing that come out of the mouth of a twelve-year-old.

"I-I see..." Petra said, a little taken aback. 'She totally didn't seem like the type to say something like that... I mean, wasn't she just referencing fairy tales earlier?' she thought, sweat-dropping.

—∞—

"We'll probably be ordered to stay on standby for the next several days..." Erd said while they were all enjoying a cup of tea after dinner. "... But I hear they're thinking of launching a large-scale expedition past the wall in thirty days. And that they're rushing to put some recent graduates in the mix."

"Is that true, Erd?" Gunther asked with a frown. "That's awfully soon. The raw recruits just went through a titan invasion!"

"I bet the brats were paralyzed with fright," Oruo remarked.

"Is that true, Captain?" Petra asked.

"Strategizing doesn't fall under my responsibilities. That's his department," Levi answered calmly, obviously referring to Commander Erwin. "He's always thinking a few more steps ahead than us."

"That's true..." Erd said, looking thoughtful. "The situation has changed. On one hand, the Maria recovery route that we sacrificed so much to build was sealed off in an instant... but a completely new hope has sprung up in its place." Heidi didn't blame Eren for looking so nervous as they all stared at him. As their only hope of plugging the hole in Wall Maria, a lot of pressure was being placed on his shoulders... She was only being held responsible for herself, but he was being held responsible for the entire future of humankind. "It's still hard to believe... but what happens when you 'become' a titan, Eren?" Erd continued, asking the question that had been on everyone's mind.

"... My memories of it aren't really clear..." Eren said a bit hesitantly, not really sure how he was supposed to explain something he didn't fully understand himself. "... Anyway, it's something similar to being in a feverish state... I do know that the trigger is self-inflicted pain. I bite my hand like..." He started to raise his hand but stopped. 'Huh? Come to think of it... how did I know that?' he wondered.

"... How did you figure that out?" Heidi asked, furrowing her brow slightly in concern. She wasn't doubting Eren, but ordinarily your first thought wouldn't be to bite yourself, right?

"I-I don't know... I just sort of... knew..." Eren answered honestly, though he seemed a bit weirded out by this fact.

'Hmm... So he just did it on instinct...' Heidi thought, crossing her arms as she leaned back in her chair. 'Sort of like how I gained control after going berserk... even though I managed to pull it off, I'm not really sure how...'

"You should all be aware of this already, but... you may not ask him anything more than what's already in the report," Levi reminded them, taking a sip from his cup. He had a unique way of holding his tea. "Although, I doubt that will stop that person from trying. If that guy screws up while poking and prodding you, it could be the death of you, Eren."

"Eh...? 'That person'?" Eren asked a little apprehensively while Heidi raised an eyebrow. Could he mean...?

KA-CHAK.

"Good evening, Squad Levi!" Hange greeted them enthusiastically, throwing open the door and entering the room without hesitation, almost as if the odd squad leader had been summoned by their conversation. "How do you like living in a castle?"

"That person," Levi said in response to Eren's last question, confirming Heidi's suspicions. Hange had mentioned somewhere in between outlining all the knowledge gleaned from her grandfather's old tome that the curious squad leader's real specialty was titans.

"Squad Leader Hange..." Eren said, completely surprised.

"Thanks for waiting, Eren!" Hange said, as if this was supposed to have been the highlight of his day. "I'm currently handling the examination of the two titans that were captured alive. And I'd like you to assist me with my experiment tomorrow, Eren. I stopped by to get permission."

"Experiment...?" Eren asked, looking a little apprehensive. "But I don't see what I can..."

"Oh, you so can... You can be super zealous, for starters!" Hange told him excitedly with flushed cheeks and gleaming maniacal eyes. It was kind of disturbing.

"Um... the thing is, I can't give you permission by myself," Eren answered honestly. "I don't have any authority over what I can do, so..."

"Levi!" Hange said, head immediately whipping around to glance at his handler. "What plans do you have regarding Eren for tomorrow?"

"... Cleaning the yard," Levi replied with a straight face. He had decided to start Heidi's training first, since she actually came with an instruction manual. There were still a lot of unknowns about Eren's abilities. And that yard was a disgrace.

"Great, then it's settled!!" Hange said decisively.

'No, I don't think that was really supposed to be a 'yes'...' Heidi thought warily, noting the irritation in their captain's eyes. He had been serious about that yard...

"Eren! I'll see you tomorrow!" Hange said determinedly, ignoring Levi's sharp stare, and clasping Eren's hands.

"Ah... Okay..." Eren replied hesitantly, feeling incredibly awkward with the way he was being so nicely yet forcibly coerced into this despite the look Captain Levi was giving them. He seemed annoyed, but he wasn't objecting, so he guessed it would be all right... probably. "But what sort of experiments are you doing on the titans?" he asked.

'Hey! Don't get her started...' Oruo thought, giving him a nudge in the side in an attempt to shut him up.

"Ah, I was wondering about that myself," Heidi confessed, hoping she would be allowed to hear about it, too. The more they could learn about the enemy, the better. She was surprised when Petra suddenly elbowed her in the side and gave her a look that said: 'You don't know what you're getting into!' 'Eh? Did I do something bad just now...?' Heidi wondered warily.

"Uh-huh, I thought so!" Hange said with a grin. "I thought you two looked curious." Levi and the other veterans immediately vacated their seats and left the room without another word.

"..." Staring after them, Heidi was beginning to wonder if she should've followed. Their sudden exodus seemed really suspicious... Did they know something she and Eren didn't?

"Well, if you want to know that badly... who am I to refuse?" Hange continued, sitting down in one of the empty chairs, happy to have found a willing audience. "All right, I suppose I'll have to tell you about those 'kids' we captured. This isn't the first time we've successfully snared a titan. First, I repeated the experiment we tried five times in the past, whenever we had a captive titan: an attempt at establishing communication. Unfortunately, I was forced to conclude that meaningful conversation is impossible," the squad leader said, smiling wryly at the memory. "However, the time I spent interacting with the titans was so fascinating that it made me forget how exhausted I was. Incidentally, I named the 4m-class one 'Sawney'... and the 7m-class one 'Bean'."

'... As in that tribe of cannibals?' Heidi wondered, furrowing her brow slightly. She had heard that gruesome old story from her grandpa, but not too many other people seemed to know about it. She had half thought he made it up to keep her and Jacob wary of strangers, but humans were capable of doing some really terrible things to each other...

"Next, I tried depriving the titans of sunlight. Titans become less energetic as night wears on, so this experiment tested the hypothesis that they derive something from sunlight that gives them vitality. Here, the titans showed individual differences. Whereas Sawney became lethargic after just one hour without sunlight... Bean remained frisky for three hours. I was surprised yet again... They don't need food or water, and even though they have vocal chords, it isn't necessary for them to breathe... all they require is sunlight... I'm interested in what would happen if they were cut off completely from sunlight... but I can't have them die on me. I accidentally killed some captured titans before. During an experiment to cut off their heads, I cut all the way to the nape of the neck. Their names were Chicachironi and Alberto. They had such cute smiles. I really did them wrong. I really don't want to go through that again..." Hange said regretfully. Eren and Heidi exchanged looks of surprise and concern over how down the squad leader seemed about it. Before either of them could say anything, Hange's head suddenly shot back up. "And then! From the second step, I moved onto the next stage, which involved direct contact with the titans' bodies!" Hange exclaimed with a frenetic expression and turbulent eyes. "The confirmation of whether or not titans possessed a sense of pain. You see, I had to see whether the titans have a weak point other than the neck... It was very hard for me to do that..." Heidi could only imagine. Whatever they called it, even without hearing any further details, she knew that meant Hange had basically had to torture the test subjects in various ways, and the eccentric squad leader really seemed to like them. "... But, compared to Bean, the introverted Sawney didn't have much of a reaction at all. He's not very good at expressing himself. All he does is try to bite my head off."

'I'm pretty sure that's because he's a titan...' Heidi thought. 'Well, even if he wasn't, it would be unusual for any living creature capable of feeling pain to just sit there and take being tortured without trying to fight back...'

"How can you be so cheerful around titans!?" Eren demanded abruptly with a furrowed brow.

"Huh?" Hange said, taken aback, glancing at him along with Heidi.

"I mean... titans are our natural enemy!" he said. "They drove the human race to the brink of extinction... Ms. Hange, you must've been in danger from them yourself a number of times..."

"You're right," Hange said calmly. "I've seen my comrades get slaughtered by the titans right before my eyes more times than I care to recall. When I first joined the Survey Corps, I relied on my hatred to get me through battles with the titans. And then, one day, I realized something. It was when I kicked and sent flying the freshly decapitated head of a 3m-class titan. The titan's body... was improbably light."

"Eh?" Eren said, taken aback.

"Ah, that's true..." Heidi said thoughtfully. "If you think about it, normally a body that huge wouldn't be able to stand on just two feet, much less walk."

"Yes, Every titan is like that," Hange agreed. "A severed hand that should have been quite heavy, in reality was almost weightless. And I heard that when you transformed into a titan, Eren, that titan body of yours just formed up out of nothing." Eren's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "What I think is happening... is that what we can see and the true nature of what actually exists... are completely different things. For decades now, we've made an effort to thrive on hatred and move aggressively. I want to try looking at titans from a different angle than the predominant view. I may just be spinning my wheels, but... I'm going to do it," Hange stated determinedly. Silence fell over the room. Heidi glanced between the stunned Eren and the eccentric squad leader. Personally, she thought Hange possessed something very important for a scientist: the ability to move from thinking subjectively to objectively.

"I also hated the titans, at first..." Heidi said quietly as she stared into her teacup. Eren and Hange both glanced at her. "My uncle was in the Garrison, so even before joining the military, I knew a thing or two about them. They don't have digestive tracts, but they eat humans. They hadn't eaten any humans for a hundred years, but as far as we can tell, none of them have died of starvation. If anything, there's more of them now. And we still have no idea why. Why do they only kill humans? If they're starving, then any meat should do, right? Why bother going through the trouble of eating meat in the first place if they don't need it to survive? I thought it was unnatural..." Heidi furrowed her brow, frowning. "But then, I realized something. Humans are the same."

"!" Eren started. "What are you—"

"We're also capable of killing each other for no reason," Heidi continued. "There are some humans who will hurt others just for fun. They enjoy it. It's true, titans are our natural enemies; they've replaced us at the top of the food chain... But you know, they're just acting on instinct. Most of them don't even have enough intelligence to dodge attacks. Humans, on the other hand, we know right from wrong... and we hurt each other anyway. Before the titan's showed up, humans were their own natural enemies. In fact, we still are. I think what makes titans so frightening isn't just their immense size or the fact that they eat us... it's because they look like us... and seeing one 'human' completely devour another like that scares us on a primal level like nothing else."

"..." Eren stared at her, stunned. He couldn't deny that what she was saying made sense on some fundamental level.

"I see... You've also given this quite a bit of thought," Hange said.

"Yes..." Heidi replied sadly. "I thought I hated titans, that I couldn't forgive them for killing my mother... but I came to realize the one I was most upset with, the one I really hated... was myself, for not being able to save her." It wasn't just her mother. She had lost her aunt and her uncle that day, too. "That being said, I'm not just going to roll over and die, either. I still have people left that I want to protect." That feeling of being so hopelessly powerless to protect what was most important to her... She never wanted to go through that again. But life wasn't that kind. She knew it was likely to happen again whether she wanted it to or not. That's why she joined the military, to fight back.

"Heidi..." Eren said. He had no idea she felt that way about herself. 'Ever since I joined the Survey Corps, it's been one surprise after another,' he thought. 'It's not just Ms. Hange. This organization is full of oddballs... like a haven... for eccentrics. But... they're a group of people seeking reform. That's what the Survey Corp is!'

"Eren... adding you as a component in the experiments may teach us something new," Hange said tentatively. "And if it does, that may become a step forward for all of us. It's possible I'm just being a pain in the ass and expecting too much of you... but I'm having fun. No one has ever been able to do what you can before."

"Ms. Hange..." Eren said. "If you don't mind, I'd like to hear more about your experiments," he finished determinedly. Heidi smiled slightly, glad to see he was still on board.

"I would as well," she said.

"Hm?" Hange said, surprised. "Really?" the squad leader asked with cheeks that had a hint of happy blush glowing on them. No one ever came back for seconds!

"I think I should know as much as possible to be fully prepared for tomorrow's experiment," Eren answered with a smile.

"And the better you know your enemy, the better chance you have at defeating them," Heidi added.

"R-Right," Hange said, glad to see how well they understood the need for this kind of research. "True, I did leave out a lot in my explanation... Okay, I'll explain everything in greater detail. It might take some time, though..."