AN:
The last chapter was quite short so I've tried to make it up with this one which is twice as long but twice as fun.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Attack on Titan
Also any reviews are helpful. Even if it's just a short 'I enjoyed it', every little helps.
Chapter 8 – Behind the Curtains
"What? You guys not hungry?" Dante asked as he looked at the others, who hadn't touched their food.
"It's not that…" Connie answered glancing at Dante. Dante blinked and then sighed as he dropped his cutlery and sighed as he leaned back and covered his face with his hands, "Oh my goodness, this is actually getting stupid… I didn't do anything to it. I didn't poison it or anything like that for crying out loud."
"I don't even think we have any poison…" Al quietly muttered to himself.
"That is an unspeakable crime by my standards," Dante continued ranting on. "Besides, the only risk is that...I don't know...that you'd choke on a seed or whatever!"
"Well…" Sasha admitted, "He does have a point…"
Al let out a small chuckle, "Yeah, he's right. He's telling you the whole seed thing from first-hand experience…"
Sasha, Connie and Jean couldn't help but smirk. "You choked on a seed? How?" Jean snorted as the other two tried to stifle their grins.
"No! I absolutely didn-" Dante whirled around, staring at Al, betrayal written all over his face. "What the hell, Al!? You didn't have to tell them that! That was only one time with the strawberries!"
Al only gave him a shrug and raised his hands, "It pays to be honest to our guests…" He grinned at Dante who turned bright pink with embarrassment.
"What they didn't tell you how to deal with food in training?" Connie asked, his face red from keeping in the laughter.
"Oh, Dante just missed that day of training. And he'll regret it for the rest of his life…" Al was grinning now. Dante fixed Al with a murderous gaze.
"I think it's time we talked about him," Levi said aloud, clearly unimpressed and causing everyone to fall silent.
"...Yeah...I think we should…" Dante said in a serious tone but then broke into a wide smile, "What happens when he sneezes with his mask on?"
The room had burst into laughter, "What do you mean? What does happen when he sneezes inside his mask anyway?" Connie asked smiling.
"Truth is I really don't know" Dante smiled, "But I do know for certain that that mask is clamped over his face so it's definitely not pretty. I mean, it had to have happened once. And it does explain why Jay is in a grumpy mood almost all of the time."
"Do you really joke about him when he's around though?" Connie asked nervously.
"Yeah, of course!" Dante smirked and shrugged his shoulders, "I mean, he does get annoyed but at least he understands that I'm only messing around…"
'Why do I doubt that very highly?' All of Squad Levi glanced at one another.
"Hey, speaking of which, where's Jay?" Armin asked.
Dante looked around and it hit him, "Oh, for the love of...Jay's still in the bloody basement, I'll go get him" he stormed off.
"Jay come on! I get the whole lone wolf crap but this is getting ridiculous!" Dante yelled out as he left the room.
"Er...may I be excused as well," Jean asked, standing up.
"Me too," Sasha said quickly.
"And me," Connie chirped in.
"No you three stay" Levi ordered them calmly but with authority.
"It's fine," Al looked at them, "you can all go and do whatever the hell you want so long as you don't tamper or damage anything".
Sasha, Jean and Connie left the dining room, leaving only Al, Mikasa, Eren, Armin and Levi.
"So you want explain to us what exactly The Golden Spear Company is? Levi asked calmly to Al.
"It's actually pretty straightforward," Al sipped some wine, "The Golden Spear Company is made of Jay, Dante and I and we act as a covert group that only select members of top brass know about our existence as a group, well really only Erwin and my father".
"I understand your role but how exactly were you formed without top brass from knowing" Levi kept on asking.
"Erwin wanted a small company of soldiers who would go out on expeditions and do what the main corps do. Of course top brass would initially reject the idea since they'd deem it a waste of time, resources and officers so Erwin took the risk and formed us anyway. Simple as really."
"So what exactly do you even do then?"
Al sighed as he leaned back in his chair, "Along with expeditions, the Commander assembled us as his own personal squad. After the Survey Corps took over, not everyone was happy, not that you guys didn't know. It's especially worse in the North and you can say that they're a little...drastic...with their choice of showing how much they hate the new government… But since the Military Police aren't worth crap, the Garrison are too busy keeping the walls in check, well mainly the South and Survey Corps spend most of their time beyond the walls or stirring up a revolution every now and then...whichever one they feel like…and finally that leaves us…"
Eren shrugged, "So what? If there's a potential threat, you guys find out and fix it?"
Al chuckled before answering, "Hmm...If that's the way you put it then, be my guest…although it does depend on your definition of 'potential threat'..."
"Ok suppose there's a squad who hunt down members of the Survey Corps? What would you do with them?" Eren asked.
"Well if you suggesting that this squad is like the First Interior Squad, all members of which are dead, then all it would take is more some intel to be gathered on their whereabouts, routines, target patterns that sort of thing and then we find them...and make sure we leave nothing left…"
"But that would go on to suggest that there's another squad out there then…" Levi pieced together, "The two men on the wall, the whole secrecy thing… And Erwin wants us to be involved…"
Al nodded, "Exactly… And who knows why…"
Armin walked down the corridor and saw Connie hunched over the door leading to Jay's room with Sasha and Jean looking out.
"Hey, w-what are you doing?" Armin called out.
"SHH!" Connie hissed, "We need to find out more about him!" he gestured towards the door.
"We already have his report and Al told us everything! What more could you want!?"
"The chances of him killing us all in our sleep. You heard Levi. Maybe, we can trust Dante and Al but Jay is like wildfire. Besides, we have a problem…ou-" Jean said and looked back, "Cool, Connie managed to pick the lock!"
"Look, I really don't know about...Oh my god…" Sasha breathed out.
They looked across the large room filled with cluttered up papers on the desk. On the wall opposite them were numerous maps, records, drawings pinned up on the wall, red ink splattered all over the layers and layers of pages and red string like an intricate spider web. On the other wall, was a large outline of the human body, various parts all highlighted in bright red. On his numerous shelves mounted on the wall was his mask sitting on a small stand as well as a bunch of other objects all neatly aligned including a ring, a bandana and metal brooch of a sword.
"Quite the hoarder isn't he?" Connie said, as he strode over to inspect of stuff on his shelves. "Why would he need stuff like this?" He picked up the objects and examined each of them. "Jewellery...clothing… what the hell?" He looked at the mask and grimaced as she took a step back. 'No matter where I move, it looks like it's staring at me…' He thought as he saw his reflection in the crimson visor.
Jean let out a humourless chuckle as he carefully strode up to the papers pinned to the wall. His eyes scanned the red ink scrawled all over the pages and even on the walls as he peeled some sheets of the wall and studied them carefully.
"Founded 40 years ago… wooden beams...vantage point?" Jean read aloud, "Roman Caznor… 35… born in Stohess...moved out 11 years ago… Adam Becker...42...born in Utopia..." he continued then chucked the sheets onto the floor, shaking his head. "What the hell was he doing? Why would someone like him be obsessed with old buildings? People? Dates? Hell, to even this much detail? He's practically made an archive of God knows how much from top to bottom… Armin, you have any idea what this could be?" He was answered with silence. Jean's face creased in confusion as he turned to Armin who was studying another wall with the drawing. "...Armin?"
Armin shook his head slightly, his eyes squinted as he looked at the detailed drawings. Jean placed a hand on his shoulder and he flinched slightly. He looked back at Jean, confusion etched all over his face. "I've seen this before…" He stated slowly. Jean blinked and Armin continued, "...Look, I can't remember exactly...But I've definitely seen this before…"
"Er guys…" Sasha spoke out, her voice small.
"It's years ago but trust me… It's familiar…" Armin bit his lip, trying hard to think, "I mean, we all have to have seen it…"
"...Guys…" Sasha repeated, her eyes wide, her voice slightly louder.
"It's has to be something important to him...Think about it, that's practically the first thing he sees before he goes to sleep!"
"Guys!" Sasha finally exclaimed, getting everyone's attention.
"What!?" Jean snapped in annoyance.
Sasha stared at an object perched high up on the shelf in disbelief, "...What… What is that?"
Everyone turned to where Sasha was looking. Jean sighed and rolled his eyes, "What? You haven't seen a knife before, potato girl?"
Sasha gave a Jean a murderous glare then turned back to the knife, "Yeah, of course I have...It's just that why would he have those over there, I mean, there's a whole armoury beneath us…"
Connie's eyes widened as he saw something glint on the cartridges. Carefully, he plucked them out and examined them. "Er...guys...there's...there's blood on this." Armin leaned past his shoulder to look and stopped dead in his tracks. He recognised those all too well... "Those...those look like...the knife and cartridge Jay got… from those two men...on the wall..."
Connie looked around and stared at Armin, "There's no way. That would mean…"
Connie's face slowly dropped as it hit him like a cannon ball. He felt an ice cold chill up his spine and his blood run cold as he looked at his comrades. Armin's face went deathly pale and he slowly nodded.
"What do you mean? They can't be..." Jean's eyes widened in realisation as he looked from Sasha, to the items and then back to Armin and Connie, "Oh...no way...those are…"
All of them froze. They slowly turned towards the items on the desk and stepped into the middle of the room, "You mean...they're...trophies...of all the people he's…"
"...And we're surrounded by them..." Jean said, too horrified to even blink. Their eyes slowly scanned the shelves, numerous objects all neatly arranged and dusted, all glinting out at them from the dark.
Armin face creased in thought but dropped as he turned to the drawing, pointing at it. "I remember that…" he said, "...from training...all those are the weak points in the human body…"
"And the one thing he chose to pay attention to most of all is that…" Connie shook his head slowly in disbelief.
"Oh God, Oh God!" Sasha whimpered out as she began to rush to the door, "We gotta leave now!-"
Jean's hand snapped on Sasha's wrist and pulled her back, "No, wait. We haven't found what we've been looking for!"
Sasha turned to him and stared at him, her eyes wide and filled with fright, "Don't you see, the second he comes back and finds us here, he'll KILL us!" She averted her gaze as horrible images filled her mind and her voice was trembling uncontrollably, "...He'll turn us into trophies and no one would even know…"
Connie looked fearfully from Sasha to Jean, "What if she's right? Maybe it's not worth the risk! Maybe-"
"Listen!" Jean snapped. "This is why we need to move quickly. There's no way we can just leave now! We need a plan. Armin, stay on lookout, tell us if you hear anything, the three of us need to find out where our things are. Now quickly!"
Sasha and Connie nodded and opened all of the cupboards and flipped over the mattress, as if to scour the room in search of something. "What are you doing!?" Armin hissed out as he stared at his comrades trashing the entire room. "You can't even be in here, let alone do this…"
"Listen alright!" Connie turned and walked straight up to him, "We have a major problem on our hands! We can't talk about it now but we have to keep quiet. Who knows when that psychopath will come back-"
CREAK!
All eyes turned to the door where the noise came from. Whatever it was came from outside. Jean and Armin raised a hand slowly to the others and shook their heads slightly. Connie gulped, trembling on the spot he stood on, his eyes frantically looking around the room. Sasha whimpered out slightly as she took a step back, her shoulder hitting something.
CLANG!
She turned around wildly to see what she had knocked down. Lying on the floor was the stand with Jay's black coat, now sprawled on the floor. All eyes turned to her, a mixture of fright and shock on their faces as she staggered back. They all looked down to see a glint of silver from his coat. Sasha squinted at them but staggered back in sheer terror. There were an array of thin silver blades all wiped clean and stashed neatly in the coat. Sasha stumbled back, her back hitting the desk. She saw something teeter on the edge and fall. Her hand lashed out and caught it. She raised it and looked at it closely, only to realise that it was a framed photo of a drawing created by what seemed like a seven year old. She squinted as she saw something move in the reflection of the glass.
'What the hell?' She thought as she looked up. Instantly her eyes widened and she screamed as she fell back and shuffled away. Everyone turned around and staggered back in shock. Jay was suspended upside down from the ceiling with his gear, staring at each of them.
"W-What!? H-How!? Wha-!" Connie stammered, completely shocked.
Jay spun around and landed softly on the floor and he began to slowly walk towards Sasha. Sasha shuffled back frantically, terrified out of her mind. Her hand brushed Jay's coat and in a panic, she picked up one of the blades from Jay's coat and pointed it at Jay, her hands shaking and her expression that of pure terror. Jay looked down at the blade unfazed and kept on moving closer, his head tilted in an angle is if in morbid curiosity. The blade slipped from her trembling fingers and clattered onto the floor. Sasha scrambled forward, her hands outstretched for the blade but Jay slammed his boot down, pinning the blade onto the floor with a loud CLANG!
"I'msorry!I'msorry!I'msorry!" She wailed as she curled into a ball and covered her head with her hands, too petrified to even look up at Jay. Jay stared down at her before kicking the blade away, crouched down and picked up the picture and the coat, "So you accuse me of sneaking into your rooms and killing you, while you think you can do the same. The next time you set foot here, I'll slice your limbs off...what do you want?" He snarled as he placed the picture carefully onto his desk and hands up his coat neatly on the stand before glaring at everyone else over his shoulder. Everyone blinked in complete shock. Finally, Jean shook his head and finally regained his senses
"Our equipment. Where are they!?" Jean yelled out.
Armin stopped and looked at him.
"Jean, what are you-"
"Our gears have gone missing! And the only person who could have done it is him!" Jean snapped.
Is this was what this was about? Had Jay really stolen their manoeuvre gear?
"Tell me dammit! You're the only one that spent the entire afternoon at the workbench and the only one with access to our gears!" Jean continued
"Yeah, Jay! Where the hell are they then?" Connie sneered, clearly looking more scared than he wanted to be.
"Guys...don't annoy him!" Sasha warned clearly terrified out of her mind.
"Yeah, I did take them...only because they were in such a crap state… I left them in the basement where I found them..." Jay said flatly.
"You admit it then!" Connie said brashly
"I knew it! I knew we couldn't trust you! Let me guess, sabotage the gear so that it makes us easier to kill" Jean yelled at him.
"Actually I fixed the whole bloody things in order to stop you from dying because of a stupid, avoidable malfunction in your kit because you were that stupid not to fully scrub parts down!" Jay remarked, his voice was calm but had an icy edge to it and was full of authority. Everyone was silent, not even daring to breathe except for Jean who was downright furious.
"Don't give me that b-" Jean began but was silenced instantly as Jay seized him by the collar and lifted him up, causing him to kick around aimlessly in the air.
"You honestly think...you can break into my room, go through my things...and threaten me!?" Jay seethed out, venom in his voice as Jean desperately fumbled at Jay's hands to let go of his collar, "If I were you, I'd keep my damn mouth shut and listen. You'll think you'll survive up here just because of what you learnt four years ago?" Jay asked savagely, "You think that by slaying titan, using your gear in whatever way you can gives you a decent chance of surviving up here!? Now that is a whole of crap! We are in the north now! If you truly believe that you know at least a fraction of what I know about the gear, then you're dead wrong. The way you're going, you're going to die because of the cold or having your throat slit long before you even set foot into titan territory. I did you all a favour! SO QUIT WHINING!"
Jean stared at him completely unnerved, his mouth moving but no sound came out.
"Alright, we get it!" Armin blurted out, "Just put him down and we'll leave! That's a promise...Ok!?"
Jay slowly turned his head to Armin and gave him a blank dark stare. Armin swallowed but stood his ground. Finally, Jay shoved Jean, sending him staggering backwards into the doorway. Jay then turned around and grabbed Sasha's the back of jacket collar. She yelped as she was pulled onto her feet and half-staggered, half -rushed to the doorway.
"Set foot in my room again and it'll be the last mistake you'll ever make!" he growled as he took a half step forward to them. Instantly, everyone rushed out clearly not wanting to know what would happen if they left at that very second. As Jay was about to shut the door, Dante appeared into view, glancing at the four who had rushed out and stood at the doorway, staring at him.
"Jay, what the hell-" Dante breathed out, but Jay glared at him.
"Don't you start. Don't you dare, Blackwood!" Jay pointed at him, clearly at the limits of his patience.
"Do you enjoy this!? Do you seriously think that acting like this will benefit anyone!?" Dante leaned against the door, staring at him in annoyance.
"It's not like I have a choice. They're all just a bunch of idiots. Hell if we weren't forced to team up with them, we could just kill them, make things easier for ourselves…." Jay took of his gear and placed it on the table, "Besides, where's Al?"
"Well unlike you he's actually trying to make friends with the others rather than scare them out of their minds..." Dante muttered in annoyance.
"Why am I not surprised!? So why don't you do me the favour to say that his 'guests'broke into my room, went through my things without any permission and pointed a blade at me and threatened me. Let see him chew on that then because maybe he's too caught up in the moment to realise that trust is a two way thing. So as long as I don't interfere in their business, they have no right to interfere in mine! Tell me how would you feel if they broke into your room and went through your things. Especially if they find all those letters you received from M-"
"Alright! Alright!" Dante blurted defensively as he raised his hands in defeat, "I get the damn picture!"
"Look, I don't know why we were paired up with them and I'm certainly not sure what I should be thinking of them. But right now, the impression I'm getting is that most of them are cowards! Those four are terrified!...The other three can certainly handle themselves but that can easily change and if they even find out that-!" Jay stopped himself before he could say anymore. He shook his head and his voice became quieter and slower, "The less they know about the Mangler and me, the better… for them…"
Dante stared at his friends, "Is that what you keep telling yourself? I don't know if you actually enjoy acting like this or not... But one day, you'll realise that you have no choice but to rely on them to get you out of trouble!" Dante said as he walked out, slamming the door behind him.
Jay let out a short humourless laugh and shook his head. 'Brilliant...Even neither of them get it…' He looked up to his mask, the red visor glinting in the light from the shelf. He exhaled slowly as he stared at the mask, his eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. '...Still...better to have a precaution…' he thought finally as he grabbed his mask and stormed out, locking the door behind him.
"That was too risky!" Connie breathed out, shaking his head.
"You think?" Jean snarled, "He knew we would come into his room, he was expecting it the entire time!"
"What do you think that means?" Sasha asked, still trembling from their last encounter.
"He's playing games with us," Jean growled, clenching his fists, "He's trying to get to us, trying to break our nerves..."
"Don't you get it!? He already has!" Sasha exclaimed incredulously. "We've seen the titans and the first interior squad. But he's completely different!"
"Maybe for you…" Connie muttered, "A second longer and you probably would have wet yourself…"
Armin stayed silent. Just the night before, he would have agreed with them. But there was a couple of uneasy things he had noticed. Connie, Jean and Sasha were already scared of him but why didn't he kill them at that moment. Hell he had plenty of opportunities to kill them, even in this corridor. Then there was their manoeuvre gears. He had tampered with them of course, but what he specifically did to them was still unknown. Al was busy trying to gain their trust while Dante was certainly the type of guy you'd warm up to instantly but Jay wasn't doing anything. To try and win them round, or hell, even doing the opposite. So whose side was Jay on?
"Listen alright," Connie groaned as he entered his room "Let's just get some shut eye and then we'll fo-"
Suddenly they heard a noise coming from the corridor, the sound of metal clinking. They all slowly moved towards the corridor and froze. Only a few feet away was Jay, staring down at the door handle and twisting the key an agonisingly slow rate. Everyone stared at his hands then slowly up to his face which covered with his mask. Slowly he looked up at the door and twisted his head towards all four of them. For what felt like a minute, he just stood there, glaring at them through his red visor, his head tilted and his fixed painted smile dripping with a new coat of red. Finally he spoke.
"...Hello there…" Jay said, his voice monotone. Everyone stood still, just staring at him. "I was just entering my room..." he finished
"...I thought you only had one room...on the other side of the mansion," Jean half growled, half whimpered.
"Oh...that's my main room...but I'm rather fond of these ones as well… there's plenty of room and it's good for providing an easy exit and access to other rooms without anyone needing to know..." Jay tilted his head in reply to their silent stares, "...but...I'll guess I go then…" Slowly he walked away and turned round the corner, fixing them with one eerie glance just before he left…
END
AN:
Definitely a fun chapter to write and to read.
Please leave a review of any kind - it keeps things going - and follow if you want to stay up to date with the chapters that I try to upload on a weekly basis.
Next Chapter will feature a clash between two characters as a result of the main event in this chapter which will be finished; I'll let you figure out who.
Of course if there is anything that you unsure about regarding any of the published chapters then I'm more than happy to clarify anything without giving away too much.
Till next week.