So hey there I'm back! Idk if anybody saw my post over on Tumblr about why I went on hiatus but the TL;DR is that I had a lot of shit going on in my life and I couldn't handle writing ALYNA.
I'm moving out of my parents week in literally a week so like FUCK YEAH. Given that I'm back in a good mindset I might have the next chapter up this week but with packing and moving that might not happen. Either way, this brain problem is back.
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[17:56 – Six hours prior]
They had split off into two groups; the Survey Corps chatting as Hanji and Levi field stripped their grapple gear and made sure everything was in working order while the 104th went to meet with Connie and Jean and make their own preparations. With the absence of their younger allies Nanaba was able to drop by in order to work out the final details of their plan and to ensure that they wouldn't raise any suspicion after they separated.
Nanaba was just about to leave when Erwin's phone went off, the caller ID indicating a blocked number.
"Commander Handsome speaking." Erwin put up his hand to indicate that everyone should remain silent. He simply listened to the person on the other end of the line, a frown growing deeper and deeper with every moment that passed until finally he hung up the phone. Silence reigned as Erwin pressed his lips to steepled fingers, frown growing deeper still as he became lost in his thoughts. A few minutes passed before Nanaba finally broke through the silence.
"What happened?"
"I just received a call from a contact with some information regarding the Titans. They've cobbled together some very interesting information from some contacts of their own. Apparently almost every animal that has gotten within a roughly half mile radius of the building where Eren and Marco are being kept has been disappearing. Some of them have reappeared rabid and vicious and were immediately killed, but there have been others found dead as a result of self-mutilation. Given some of the activity in the area another source of theirs believes that there's a lab close by but while there are a great deal of meth labs in the southern palisades nothing has been coming out of that area. I believe that Hanji's hunch might be correct; Grisha Jaeger was working on some sort of experimental serum." A somewhat pained expression crossed Erwin's face before he continued. "We may not have been as careful as we thought when we were hunting down leads about Cronus. They probably think Eren knows more than he actually does."
Horrified silence followed Erwin's words.
"We assumed that whatever the Cronus lab was working on disappeared with Grisha Jaeger and that the Titans were in the same position as us. Now it turns out that they've always been at least two steps ahead of us." Mike's expression was grim.
"I don't want to say 'on the bright side' but we do gain something from this information. We know that whatever they're working on hasn't progressed past animal testing and that it clearly isn't anywhere near ready for human testing yet." Hanji paused and grimaced. "I highly doubt they want human test subjects to kill themselves."
"I don't think this needs saying, but the 104th absolutely cannot know about this right now." Erwin looked around at the others around the table; there wasn't a flicker of uncertainty or disagreement on anyone's face.
[Present: 23:58]
Hanji and Erwin had made it into the building with minimal issue thanks to a man propping a door open as he went outside for a smoke. Rather than potentially raising suspicion, the both of them quietly slipped past him as he turned away to pull off his mask and light a cigarette.
There were far more people inside but given the stacks of crates and ancient machinery from the building's days as a factory they had enough cover to move through the first floor undetected. They still moved cautiously, watching as masked figures moved crates out from the loading dock. Given the relatively open floor plan of the first floor they were able to move through with minimal need for investigation; their only delays were when they had to wait for a Titan to move out of their way.
When they finally made it to the second floor they were relieved to find it deserted but it was no longer an open floor plan. The stairs came out at the t-intersection of two hallways; each had multiple doors leading off.
"So are we splitting off?" Hanji's voice was the first either of them had spoken since entering the building.
"That's probably a good –" Erwin paused as their radio crackled.
"Hawk here. Found multiple crates of explosives. Quantity and class unknown. Over."
"Squad one copies. Over." Hanji turned to Erwin, their face serious. "I take back what I said. Shouldn't Lady Lightning and Nose be out of the tunnels?"
"Give them another few minutes."
They pressed onward, moving cautiously through the hallways and into rooms filled with more crates and machinery. They tried to skirt around people but it was inevitable that they would run into someone. Hanji's quick reflexes with a stun gun and Erwin's ability to quickly move their unconscious bodies behind crates came in handy more than once as they moved deeper into the interconnected maze of rooms. They were going through the last unexplored bit of the second floor when the radio crackled again.
"Hawk here. Primary acquired, secondary is still MIA. Squad two: explosives of unknown quantity and type were found on the fourth floor. Over."
"Squad one copies."
"Squad two copies. We only just surfaced so we'll be moving fast to catch up. Over."
"How do we want to handle extraction? I only have our primary." There was a pause in Levi's transmission before his voice came back now with a slight edge to it. "Please advise."
"Stick to the –" Erwin shook his head and Hanji cut themselves off.
"Have him get Eren out of there now."
"New instructions: Get clear then radio for extraction."
"Wilco. Hawk out."
"You know, Marco might also be on that floor." Hanji frowned at Erwin.
"We're almost done with this floor, we can head up in a moment. We absolutely need Eren clear of this as soon as possible. We can't risk something going wrong and losing him again." Hanji continued to frown but nodded in agreement and they continued to press forward.
It wasn't too long before they came to a dead end; a short and narrow hallway leading only to a storage closet.
"This can't be it." Hanji was frowning at the interior of the closet.
"We can move along the ledge outside to get around to the next room rather than doubling back." Erwin flinched slightly when Hanji slammed their hand against the wall. "I know it's frustrating but we can't alert anyone to our presence – what are you doing?"
Hanji had begun to run their hands along the corners of the closet wall, searching for something unseen in the dark, their face determined as they slowly began to tap lightly at the side walls as well.
"There's empty space behind here. We should be near or at the corner of the building but it ends ten feet short. I'm almost certain it's a false wall. Can you hold the flashlight above me so I can see?" Erwin nodded and took the slim flashlight off of his utility belt. With the additional light Hanji was able to more closely investigate the walls, looking for a seam or anything indicating a way into the hypothetical space behind it. "I can see a crack here. It's too straight to just be a natural crack in the wall. I can feel it give slightly when I push on it but I can't figure out how it moves."
"Maybe it needs a little more force."
"What happened to being stealthy?"
"Hawk and Eren should be clear any minute now. If that lab is behind this wall I really don't care about stealth anymore."
Hanji stood back as Erwin pressed on the wall. It didn't take much more pressure than Hanji had been putting on it before it swung inwards. Only half of the lights in the room were on adding to the eerie atmosphere of the lab. Lab equipment sat quietly in the room, empty beakers and flasks sat neatly organized on work benches – a quarter inch of dust covered every surface.
"Shit. How much did you say that you trust that contact of yours?"
"They hadn't led me wrong until now. I suppose there's a first time for everything" Erwin sighed and rolled the tension out of his shoulders. He turned to see Hanji staring directly ahead of them in horror and followed their gaze. The blinking red numbers of a countdown burned through the gloom.
Five.
Erwin grabbing Hanji's arm.
Four.
Turning away, feet moving.
Three.
Dust swirling as they pushed a table out of the way.
Two.
Breaking the boarded up lab window.
One.
Fire licking heels as they jumped.
Erwin stood on the ground looking up while Hanji remained grappled to the neighboring building. Together they watched the smoke rise from where the lab had been located, the walls partially blown out and a fire beginning to rage within.
Hanji activated their radio channel.
"This is squad one. Come in." They paused and listened to crackling empty static. "This is squad one. Does anybody copy?"