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Ch.67- "Constituent"
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Hange and Thomasin typically sat at completely opposite ends of the emotional spectrum, so it stood to reason that they would have completely different responses when Erwin told them. Hange's initial reaction, as it so often was, was an exclamation bordering on a scream that set off the ringing in his ears. Shock and fear warred before reaching an uneasy truce, and shock, short lived as it tended to be, petered out…
"Oh god… OH GOD! So that means… if we even attempt to extract it… it starts evaporating the second it makes contact with air! The Reiss family must've used some kind of air-tight device to-- Oh god, I have to make adjustments to that blueprint! FLOCH!! Floch, go find my drafting binder…!"
Thomasin, on the other hand, rarely showed fear unless it was fear for him. This didn't- couldn't- affect him in any way, so when Erwin brought up his theory, and Hange's reaction to it, she paused her knitting just long enough to fix him with a nonplussed look. It was a new hobby- maybe not yet hobby, but certainly a welcomed distraction- begun only a few days ago when a package bearing her name arrived from Avondale. The stack of letters accompanying it, perfectly legible without veering into the territory of "neat", was open on the cushion beside her.
"…if it only took a few drops to change someone, Hange would've been a Titan months ago. There were maybe… four drops on the slide we looked at? All of it evaporated." Erwin nodded grimly.
"That's what I told them, but they're not convinced. They're certain the stabilizers in the Reiss's serum adulterated it enough that it takes a full dose to work, but pure spinal fluid would work instantly regardless of the amount." Thomasin's lip curled with a slight dismay.
"I mean… it's possible, but… if that's the case, it still would have taken liters to turn everyone in Ragako. And even then…"
"It's possible that they did have liters," Erwin argued. "The Beast Titan is massive, dwarfed only by the Colossal. Something that big obviously has more bodily fluids than a Titan the size of Eren's." (the disdain suddenly darkening her expression didn't go unnoticed but ignored) "What if the person in the Quadruped- or even a Marleyan soldier- put a tap in Zeke Yeager's Titan's spine and let the fluid therein run out like beer?" Thomasin set her knitting aside, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms.
"Mmph… Erwin, that-- Even if they did that, it still wouldn't work on an unsuspecting village."
"Why not?"
"Because it would be too diluted by the time it reached them. Think about it like this; you can smell people cooking from quite some distance, right?"
"Generally."
"But not an indefinite distance. Eventually, you get far away enough that the smell doesn't reach you, because it's been diluted by the air. Titan serum has to work in a similar way, otherwise it wouldn't be just one village that was turned. There's never going to be an instance where every single person in a village is outside at the same time; some people have to be inside. Babies and nursing mothers, and the elderly and sick… and based on what I heard from Hange when I was working with them, it had to have happened pretty early in the morning for the Titans to reach your base by noon, so most people would probably have their windows and doors closed, making it harder for any kind of vapor to reach them. There weren't any drag marks or bullet holes or doors broken off their hinges, right?" Erwin nodded. He hadn't seen Ragako personally, but he trusted Hange's reports. The structural damage had been done to walls and roofs, the signs of Titans breaking out, not humans breaking in. "Meaning that no one was dragged out. Meaning that, unless Marley did this in the center of the village and everyone complied with them peacefully, that probably wouldn't even reach the edges of the village. Simple steam can't travel that far…" Her wording piqued Erwin's interest.
" 'Simple' steam?" Thomasin shrugged, picking her gifted needles up once more.
"I mean, it can go further under pressure. It's the difference between water boiling in an open pot and water boiling in a kettle; steam can shoot a pretty good distance out of a kettle, but unless they've got a kettle the size of a canon, that probably still wouldn't work."
"…Thomasin, they have carriages that fly; I think a cannon-sized kettle is well within their ability to craft." Her hands stopped as she stared ahead blankly, her jaw just a tiny bit slack.
"…oh. Yeah, that might do it." Erwin sighed, leaning back in his chair, his gaze drifting across the ceiling.
"So to err on the side of caution, we're going to need someone immune to the serum to handle the first step of the extraction process." Thomasin turned a sharp gaze towards him.
"I certainly hope you don't mean Levi."
"Of course not." No matter how certain the Assembly members had been, Erwin wasn't willing to put their claims to the test unless it was absolutely necessary, not for the people he couldn't afford to lose… "We'll probably have Mikasa do it, given that she's only half Eldian at most." A cruel smirk played around his lips. "Honestly, I'm tempted to drag Aleister or Clemons out of prison and make them do it, just to see how 'pure' their blood really is."
"That's dumb, Erwin; you can't trust pieces of shit like that not to sabotage you… you shouldn't trust that Ackerman-thing either, but I suppose you've already made your mind up regarding that. What you could do is use them for the initial round of testing."
"If it were up to Zachary alone, we could, but the Queen is still on the fence about human testing in general."
"Well it's not like you can test it on animals first. She needs to pull her head out of her ass- if she's too much of a bleeding heart to let our society catch up to Marley, then she's too weak to rule. What next- is she going to let all the murderers and rapists run free because keeping them locked up is cruel? Test the damn serum on them- problem solved."
Erwin wondered if he should have told her that was precisely the argument- and solution- being touted by the commanders in favor of moving forward with the next phase of testing. Ultimately, he decided not to- there was a limit to what he could discuss with a civilian- but definitely filed her words away alongside the fact that the commander of the Calaneth Garrison was firmly in favor of testing, as was Stohess. Reconstruction in Stohess was still a work in progress… Erwin mentally shook his head to clear away those dark thought, leaning forward to better watch the process of loops of pale yellow yarn move from stick to stick and somehow grow longer as a result.
"What are you making, exactly?"
"Uhh… a scarf, I guess? Marie put instructions for socks in here, too, but that takes four needles and that is way too complicated for me."
"How do you stop it from unraveling when you're done?"
"I don't know!" She exclaimed helplessly. "Honestly, I'm too scared to stop. I'll probably just leave the last row on the needle."
"No, you have to finish it- I can't wear it with a giant needle sticking out the end." The look she gave him, that sidelong stare aghast at the sheer audacity of his words, took years off her face.
"What makes you think this is for your ass?"
"The fact that I want it…?" Erwin attempted, knowing full well he was too old to pull off looking charmingly coy but trying to anyway.
"…you're a Titan."
"And? I still get cold." If anything, he got colder than ever these days. The slightest chill that he wouldn't have even noticed a few months ago had goosebumps raising all along his arms, even the one no longer filling his empty sleeve- especially that one. There was not a shred of pity in her dark gaze.
"Good. You deserve to be cold." Erwin sighed, sliding out of the chair and onto his knees, creeping forward until his chest touched her knee. Leaning forward, he let his head rest on the rounded shell of distended flesh. It was faint, but he could hear soft sounds emanating from within, louder now that they had been even a week ago.
"Do you hear that?" he asked the shifting skin. "Do you hear how cruel your mother is? I know you don't-- OW!" He jerked back just as Thomasin's breathing hitched. His heart was racing as he reached up to touch the still tingling skin on his cheek. "It punched me in the face!"
"It's been listening to your lies since its' inception; it probably got sick of the bullshit it associates with the sound of your voice…" Lowering his hand, Erwin lifted his gaze. Thomasin wasn't looking at him, her attention strictly focused on the yarn in her hands. Those years that had seemingly vanished only minutes ago returned with a vengeance, the tension in her brows working in concert with the dark circles under her eyes to age her a good decade. Levi's eyes were the part of him that always aged the fastest when he was upset, too.
"I haven't left Wall Rose once, Thomasin," he reminded her quietly, watching her jaw tighten as she ground her teeth together.
"Yet. You haven't left Wall Rose once yet. A lot can happen in four months."
"Nothing that could take me away from you." He watched her roll her eyes skyward and then, as if pulling a sheet over her face, her expression went still. Blank. Hidden. That old, familiar mask.
"…you say that when you're dealing with a Titan… something that can pick you up and pop you in its mouth before you can even comprehend what happened, something that holds a grudge against you… That's the kind of bullshit you would teach a child if you had your way…"
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True winter was a few weeks away, but by mid November, snow had already started to creep south in intermittent flurries. The ground was more mud than slush, but it was cold enough to crunch underfoot. Jean and Floch had just set up the table as Sasha and Connie laid out most of the equipment, everything sans the instrument itself. It had taken another week before the changes Hange requested could be tested, but now that everything seemed to be in working order, the section commander had refused to let it out of their sight, cradling it to their chest as though it were their child.
"You're going to have to be exceptionally careful with this, Mikasa. I know iron bamboo doesn't break, but the valves and hose attached to it sure as hell can." The younger of the Ackermans looked like a completely different person these days, her once short bob creeping ever further towards her shoulders, those dark gray eyes sunken slightly within their sockets. She was facing Hange, but her eyes kept darting back towards Eren every few seconds.
"I understand."
"Ah ha ha…!" Hange's mouth curled into a rictus grin as they spared a single hand to grab the recruit by her shoulder, turning her around so that Eren now stood directly behind her. "No, I don't quite think you do. When I say 'be careful with this' what I'm actually saying 'make a conscious effort to turn off your insane Titan strength'. You have the second strongest grip I have ever had the displeasure of enduring. I can forgive you nearly fracturing my hand- if there is a single goddamn scratch on this tapper after you're done with it, there will be no more Orientals within the Walls!"
"If you're that paranoid about it, just let me do it." With his arms crossed over his chest, Levi looked like a petulant child. No matter how many times Erwin explained it to him, he refused to take being passed over for such an important task as anything but an insult.
"We can't take any chances, Levi," Erwin explained for what must have been the ninth time. "If nothing happens to Mikasa, then you can assist next time."
"By your logic, that's not a 'conclusive' enough test. Mikasa's not just an Ackerman- she's a different race. What if Ackermans can be turned into Titans and that immunity bullshit is just some boogieman our ancestors made up to scare the royal family?"
"Didn't Kenny say--"
"Kenny is a fucking liar, what part of that don't you understand!? If that worthless piece of shit said the sky was blue, it was probably orange! Every motherfucker in the Interior is a LIAR! They hate us just as much as Marley does, if not more since they were perfectly content to have front row seats to our demise!"
"The lieutenant is right." Eren's voice was so quiet they could barely hear him over Levi's enraged panting. He wasn't looking at them, his eyes glazed over and unfocused as he recalled memories that weren't his own. "The real enemy isn't limited to strangers on the other side of the sea; it's anyone who wishes for our downfall, even those within our Walls…" He blinked hard and his vision came back into focus as he turned to look at them.
"But Kenny Ackerman was right about this. The king who held the Progenitor before Frieda, he…" he trailed off for a moment, his brows furrowing as his lips twitched. It only lasted a moment, but a long enough moment for them all to notice. "He knew Kenny. He tried to use the Progenitor on him, but couldn't. There's no link; they're not connected, so they can't be turned." Hange's toothy smile stretched ear to ear.
"So you can tell what people are and aren't affected by the Titan serum?! What do you mean by 'link'- connected to what? Can you feel it? Describe it to me~!" Eren drew back as much as he could without taking a step as Hange drew closer, his lips twisted in distaste.
"I can't feel anything- how many times do I have to tell you I can't--" He froze as his eyes glazed over again for just a second, a shiver running the length of his entire body.
"Eren?" Mikasa attempted to reach out to him, but Levi slapped her hand away before she could so much as turn around fully.
"Oi! What'd I tell you? No contact. What's your malfunction, Yeager?"
"Whole…"
"What?" Erwin was torn between shaking the boy to keep him from drifting off into who even knew how many centuries of memories, and letting him sink into them in hopes that he would continue speaking. But the flow of words seemed to have dried up, so he grabbed Eren's shoulder and gave him a firm jostle. "Eren! Wake up!" His eyes had been open the whole time, yet until that moment, they were closed.
"Huh?"
"Did you remember something? Something new?" Those vivid green eyes locked with his, and Erwin was certain he could see the gears slowly turning behind them.
"…no. Just… old memories of people dying. Same old, same old." Hange's entire body sagged with despondence as they heaved a sigh.
"Oh well… maybe one day." They perked back up immediately. "Welp, we've wasted enough time! Levi, get back with the others."
"The brat just said--"
"I don't care; we're not taking that chance yet. Eren, Erwin- get in position. Mikasa- I'm warning you one more time; your life is tied to the condition of this tapper." With an exaggerated look of pain contorting their face, Hange handed the instrument over to Mikasa, whimpering as it left their fingertips. They covered their face with one arm as they choked back a sob, grabbing Levi's sleeve with the other and dragging him back towards the recruits.
Erwin knew he wasn't the only one rolling his eyes, but a part of him sympathized. This was the culmination of Hange's research and dedication, after all- to not be the one to take that final step towards The Truth… well, he wouldn't know that particular misery, now would he? He inserted a fresh blade into the grip of his borrowed ODM gear, drawing it once he heard that tell-tale 'click'.
"Remember not to open the valve until the hose is properly attached," he warned the girl beside him. Mikasa nodded, but she wasn't looking at him, her gaze fixed solely on Eren's retreating figure. "Mikasa." She turned to face him this time, but it was clear that she was fighting against herself to do so.
"I understand, Commander. Section Commander Hange spent an hour explaining everything to me in excruciating detail."
"And does Section Commander Hange perhaps have any reason to believe you might not be capable of following orders correctly the first time?" Her expression remained as stoic as ever, but her eyes shifted down as her free hand came up, instinctively trying to adjust the scarf that was no longer there.
Confiscating it had been Levi's first act upon her returning to base, the second step to "severing the crazy" as he put it. It had been more than a month, and she still pawed at the exposed skin of her throat, compulsively it seemed. Erwin was reminded of all the times he had seen Thomasin pulling at her sleeves in a similar manner over the years. 'They're not well…' He was hardly in a position to talk. He heaved a breath through his nose, a cloud of steam far denser than one would expect billowing out.
"You have the potential to be such a good soldier, Mikasa. You're holding yourself back."
"With all due respect, sir, I don't want to be a soldier. I want to be with Eren."
"And does Eren also want that?" She flinched this time, hard as though he had slapped her. Erwin didn't have long to pity her as a thunderclap cut through the air less than a second after a blinding light seared their vision.
Fifteen meters of bone and muscle and tendon seemed to weave itself from the very air around them, mist forming something solid, growing darker as it grew denser. The steam coming off the Attack Titan's skin was so thick they could barely see its form through it, only a low hanging, humanoid-shaped cloud approaching. The ground shifted as it depressed under his weight once he came to stop several meters away from them. As normal as the thing looked- at least, when compared to most Titans- there was still something deeply unsettling about watching such a massive, stretched-out version of the human form perform such mundane motions. His torso was just a little too long, those arms only ever so slightly too short in proportion to the rest of the body, and it made the way he moved as he lowered himself to sit on the ground uncanny.
"Lean forward, Eren!" There was no hope of seeing any hint of the spine when it lay beneath coils of muscle thicker than a barrel, but once Eren shifted, the edges of bone pressed ever so slightly against the skin. Sighing, Erwin approached, adjusting his grip on the handle until the blade pointed down. It felt so very, very wrong for his pinky and ring finger to be scraping against the triggers.
He wondered how Levi could tolerate this, much less perform well with such a grip, before remembering that he hadn't endured three years of a commandant forcing him to stand out in a field, perfecting his grip on a pair of mops for five hours straight every time he did it wrong (it wasn't that Allison Ruzicka hadn't been able to vertically maneuver; she'd just gotten nervous when yelled at. A bad habit for a would-be soldier). Not for the first time and certainly not for the last, Erwin acutely felt the absence of his right hand. It could be so easy to grab that other handle, attach another blade and finish this all twice as quickly. His fingers were twitching, he could feel the knuckle on his middle finger pop, limbering up before settling on the trigger. He couldn't stand that emptiness.
Raising his arm, Erwin inserted the blade about two meters up. Blood and steam were already beginning to flow around the blade, and he hoped it was possible for a Titan to suppress their healing the way a Shifter could in their human form. Pressing in harder, he drew the blade down as quickly as he could while still making a clean cut. He couldn't risk cutting too deep lest he both nick the bone and dull his blade. The heat radiating over him would have been approaching an unbearable intensity if he were still a human, but as this monstrous thing, it was all Erwin could do not to not to creep closer and bask in the blessed warmth provided by this hearth of twitching flesh. Alas, there was no time for that.
Gripping the handle with his pinky and ring finger the way Levi had taught him, he used his remaining fingers to peel the burning hot flesh back. Scalding blood splashed over his boots, soaking through his coat and jacket and shirt as he used his shoulder to temporarily hold the flap in place long enough to skewer it with the blade, detaching it once it sank deep enough into the flesh. Attaching a fresh blade, Erwin carefully cut the remaining skin away from the spine the way he'd watched Nile field-dress a rabbit they'd killed during one of their overnight missions in the Training Corps. It hadn't seemed so… grotesque then, probably because he hadn't been the one covered in blood, the thin layer of fat melting as he wrestled the flap back, causing him to have to dig his nails into the flesh to keep it from slipping.
If Shifters were capable of feeling pain through their Titans, he'd probably have second thoughts about manhandling Eren like this, but if he could have an arm ripped off without flinching, he could endure a few pricks on the back. Skewering the final blade in the remaining skin, Erwin stepped back, wiping the sweat from his brow and smearing it with fresh blood. The deep red fibers twitched, the silvery tendons connecting to the small area of exposed bone glistening in the early morning sun.
"Get over here, Mikasa," he called out as he stepped aside to make room for her. The young soldier's already pale complexion had taken on a slightly greenish hue as she stared at the exposed innards of her infatuation. She knew full well he wasn't in any pain, but-
That's what hurts me
Not This…
Still…
"If you're incapable of assisting with--"
"I'm fine." Inhaling deeply, Mikasa closed the distance between her and the Titan, raising the instrument to eye-level. Compared to the long needle Thomasin had shown them all those months ago, it was easy to see why Hange colloquially called this device the "tapper"; were it not so new and clean, it wouldn't look out of place in a bar. The needle part appeared the same, only scaled up considerably, an iron-bamboo tube slightly longer than Erwin's forearm. At the end where there had simply been an opening in the version meant for humans, this particular model had two valves, a pressure gauge and a length of thick hose attached to a spigot.
Mikasa held the rod steady with one hand as she pushed the sharpened end into the cartilage between the massive discs with the other. When it was halfway in she tentatively released it, ensuring that it was deep enough to stand on its own. She sighed, but her sickly pallor did not abate as she slowly opened the first valve. Enough of the blood on Erwin's hand had evaporated by that time, and he retrieved the testing flasks- well, testing jugs. Considering how quickly it would evaporate, they needed to collect a far larger sample size than would be technically required for their purposes.
He held it up as she screwed the metal end onto the threaded lip of the jug, and they both held their breaths as she opened the second valve. The flow of liquid started as a relatively fast drip, eventually evening into a thin but steady stream. It was difficult to gauge the color through the brown glass, but it appeared clear at least. And hot. Hot enough that Erwin could feel the heat well before the liquid reached the handle he was holding, hot enough that the still-empty part of the jug was growing opaque with steam, hot enough that Mikasa managed to tear her eyes away from Eren's spine as she gave the gauge a worried look.
"Commander, is it supposed to be under that much pressure?" Most things shouldn't have been under that much pressure, especially not sensitive (and expensive) equipment.
"No. Seal this off and--!!" His order to remove the needle fell short as the closure around the hose popped loudly, sending out a high-pressured jet of steam and scalding fluid. Another valve popped as Erwin sealed the jug, moving without thinking to push the girl away from the deluge that followed. A scream rang out from behind him, far behind him… but growing closer.
"AHHHH!! My baby!! What's happening!?"
"Hange, no!" Of course, Hange paid no mind to danger when science was on the line, and with no Moblit to hold them back, they charged forth, practically knocking Erwin and Mikasa out of the way.
"No! Nononono!! You can't break before I've stress-tested you!!" They tried to pull the tapper out- with their bare hands, mind- instinctively releasing the hot metal just as Erwin yanked them back.
"Hange, you're breathing in spinal fluid!" They stiffened so much under his grasp that it was a wonder all their bones didn't break from the tension. The single dark eye went almost comically wide before screwing shut, their entire face screwed up in fear, in anticipation of the pain that was surely to come.
"Oh… this is it… Erwin… please try to capture and dissect me before you kill me…"
"…Hange, I think you're fine…"
"Huh?" Erwin reached out, grabbing the needle as close to the base of the Titan's spine as he could and pulling it out. It was burning his hand- he could feel the heat reaching that level of intensity where it was becoming hard to tell if it was too hot or too cold, but the agony that should have been compelling him to instinctively let go was conspicuously absent. Pulling it free, the hole left in the cartilage closed before their eyes as the liquid that had been forming muddy puddles finally dried up completely. The tension left Hange's shoulders very slowly as they stared at the now bone-dry earth. "Well, I definitely got a good long whiff of that, so I guess the spinal fluid is inert in a vapor form, at least when it's raw, but that still leaves the question of ingestion…" They blinked hard, shaking their head slightly as their expression evened out. "Well, that'll be a theory for another day. EREN! Can you hear me!? I think we're done for today, buddy!" They didn't even bother watching the nape split open in a fount of steam, turning back to Erwin, who held out the now defective tapper. They sighed mournfully as they took it, examining the quickly cooling metal.
"I guess having two points of contact weakened the flanges. And the hose was probably too narrow considering how hot the contents were. Maybe a solid nozzle… What am I talking about- the Reeves Company has a winery; I can just ask Flegel about it…"
Revisions would have to be made and new models crafted, but until then, there was work to do. Eren slid down the back of his decaying Titan, landing hard and picking up the hastily sealed bottle sat upon the still-steaming soil. Multiple eyes focused on the contents sloshing within, including the green. The distilled horror that nearly drove humanity extinct, that kept them locked in a pen like cattle… pure liquid torment for all but a few select souls… They currently had in their possession potentially the most dangerous thing on Paradis' soil.
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A/N- Damn, what is with these short chapters? It's almost like I'm having trouble writing for some reason or something. Weird. Oh well. I'd been hearing lots of people talk about how they don't like long chapters, and can't bring themselves to read anything over 1k words anyway, so more people probably prefer these shorter chapters (I mean, not here- I don't hear anyone talk about anything here...)
Remember to keep your mysteries as mysteries by never having anyone ask any questions (or rather, they can ask questions… once. That question will then immediately be forgotten, and the person who asked it potentially killed.) I don't appreciate Ragako being this big deal that's obviously a key piece in the puzzle that's immediately forgotten about as soon as the Clash arc is done. Seriously; an entire village was turned into Titans, even the children… and nobody asks how that happened. Everyone forgets about it immediately… and y'all think I'm joking when I talk about amnesia water.