Chapter 14

During Eren's trial, almost everyone in the room wanted to put down Eren. Silently, I agreed with them. Their arguments were that he was unpredictable, destructive, dangerous, and a large threat to the walls. All of the prosecutors were yelling and howling their beliefs about the titan boy. I wanted to yell with them and protest against him, but I knew I needed to stay calm, collected, and loyal to the commander's order. Towards the end, Eren started to fight back and get out of hand. His rage started to show to the point his entire body was tense. Everyone shook in fear as the boy started to roar and scream at them, worried he was going to turn.

I furrowed my brow, "Erwin, he's scaring everyone."

Erwin kept his serious expression, "Just as I predicted. Levi."

Levi sighed boredly and jumped over the railing. He approached Eren at his blind spot slowly. Eren kept screaming at the crowd, unaware of the aggressive, little man coming up next to him. With a swift kick to the face, Levi knocked a tooth out of the boy and immediately shut him up. Levi continued to beat him to the ground, not holding back on any of his swings. I grinned a little, taking pleasure in the titan's pain. I crossed my arms and continued to watch the helpless boy. I had never seen such a pathetic, weak monster.

/

A week passed after the event in the trial, and I still heard no news or commands from Erwin. The week felt long, tedious, and stressful. My patience was being tested to how long I had been put in the dark after the incident. Erwin was well aware how much the slayers and I hated the titan boy. It was probably for the best he didn't discuss anything with me. The good thing the week gave me was time to prepare for Rent's next visit. It had been almost a month since he last approached me. He wasn't giving me any news either.

I heard a knock on my office door. The person didn't bother to wait for my reply and walked in. Mira smiled at me and was frantically fixing her ponytail neatly.

"Hey June, let's go for a walk," she suggested.

I glanced up at her and smiled warmly, "I'd love too."

I got out of my chair and followed her out. We strolled side by side through the base. Mira gave a serious sigh.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked me.

"You can ask me anything, Mira. You know that," I replied, "Something wrong?"

She played with her thumbs sheepishly. "I… I really like Levi…"

"Yeah I knew that," I answered with a smirk.

She blushed a deep red, "How did you know?!"

I laughed a little, "I always catch you giving him glances and you my friend aren't subtle."

She blushed more, "I-I-I mean it's just..."

I patted her back and gave her an encouraging smile, "Well if you ask me, I think you have a good chance with him."

"What makes you say that?" she replied.

"Because you and him spend the most time together. You're his partner," I told her.

She twiddled her thumbs again, "I guess..."

Ark and Lavender passed by us, their pinkies holding each others as if no one could see them. I glanced up at them and smiled a little, clearing my throat to catch their attention. They both glanced back at me and turned.

"Oh hello Alpha!" Lavender greeted.

"Strange seeing you out and about like this," Ark commented.

I smiled, "Yes it's been awhile since I enjoyed a nice walk outside."

I looked at their hands and chuckled, "You know, if you want Alph to stop teasing you all the the time you shouldn't be so secretive that it's obvious."

They immediately separated and blushed in embarrassment. Mira and I giggled at the young couple.

"H-Hey you don't need to laugh at us you know," Lavender sheepishly replied.

Ark glanced behind me and his face went completely pale, "Hey, Alpha, you've got a visitor…"

My smile dropped into a scowl as I knew exactly who he was referring to. With a heavy sigh, I turned around to face the scientists. Walking over was Donald Rent and his group of scientists. The slayers didn't dare glance at them. The area turned dead silent at their presence. Rent glanced up and saw me.

"There you are No. 1. You weren't in your office so we came searching for you," he explained.

I walked over to him and kept my hands behind my back, "It has been a while, Mr. Rent. I do hope the results we've been sending to you is to your liking."

He grinned, "More than to my liking. The king has given our project more funds due to our positive results. However, you wouldn't care about that."

I simply bore a straight face so that he could not read my expressions as my thoughts. In reality, I wanted to gut him and his party, but that wouldn't do me or the slayers any good. They'd put us all down like animals.

"Anyways, the king and I have been discussing about the project. We want a new way to create slayers without having to buy orphaned children off the black market and using them as test subjects, after all, if the society found about it, then it'll make us look inhumane," Rent explained.

You don't have to worry about looking inhumane. You ARE inhumane.

"What would you have me do?" I asked him.

Rent grabbed a clipboard from one of the scientists next to him, "You will do nothing. You see, we are curious to see what would happen if two slayers had offspring."

My eyes narrowed a little in agitation at what I heard, "What?"

Rent continued speaking, " After reading all the results you've been sending us we've selected two slayers we want to create offspring, No. 3 and No. 7."

My eyes widened in shock. That was Ark and Mira! I wished the words I had just heard weren't real. I wanted to snap back into reality from this awful daydream. However this wasn't a dream. Mira would suffer from this greatly. She was in love with another person! And Ark was already in a relationship with a woman he loved. I couldn't let this happen to the two of them.

Rent handed back the board, "Alright now that that's settled, I will send a doctor in two months to check on No. 7. If I don't have positive results then I will take that you have not one your job. Until next time."

The group started to walk off. My rage started to boil up inside of me. His arrogant words kept repeating in my head. Society treated us like wild animals with no heart, no soul, no true emotions. They forget we were once just like them. All the hateful words that were spat at us repeated at us, the memories of having to comfort each and every slayer who had been hurt, the faces of those suffering children who had been given to me as another number to the list, it all rushed into my head. My hands formed a fist as I glared at the ground below me.

"No…" I growled.

Rent froze in his tracks. His head lifted in interest as he slowly turned around to look at me. I lifted my eyes and glared at the man, my body tense with anger. He had a surprised look painted on his face.

"What did you just say?" each word came out slow and tense. His casual tone was lost in the now, tense and stern one.

The slayers around me watched intently, shocked that I stood up against the most fearful man to us. I held my ground firmly, glaring at him.

"No… I will not listen to your order, sir," I spat my words like poison.

Rent's expression went angry and cold as he slowly approached me, "You will do as I say No. 1. You have no choice!"

"You're wrong Rent!" I exclaimed, "I'm not your puppet! I'm human. I have free will. Each one of us has free will. We have emotions. We are human and you cannot bring us down and tell us otherwise!"

Rent brought the back of his hand up to cross his chest and slapped it hard against my right cheek. I took a step back in surprise and winced a little at the stinging pain.

"Let me remind you No. 1!" Rent howled, his voice loud and filled with rage so that everyone around us could hear, "If you even THINK about rebelling against me I will not hesitate to put down! I Not only that but then I will put down each and every slayer we disapprove of! Do I make myself clear?!"

I could feel my hands shake in anger. I wanted to kill this man. This man needed to die. He was a parasite to society and we were its cattle.

"DO I make myself clear?!"

"Yes, sir."