It was the day after Armin's injection and he still hadn't woken up yet, Lando sat on a rooftop eating some military ration that was brown and tasted like nothing but it kept his stomach fed. The remaining Scouts fought through the night cleaning up the rest of the Titans. Now they were basically waiting around for Armin to wake up so they could check what was inside Eren's basement.
Green smoke arose from the sky.
Everybody rushed over to see how Armin was doing except Lando who took his sweet time.
Lando scaled the wall with his ODM gear, once he got to the top he saw everybody crowded around Armin.
"Are you telling me…" Armin said. "The Scout Regiment…is the ten of us here…and that's it?"
"For the time being," Jean said. "The fighting ended four hours ago. We've been looking for survivors, but…none…yet."
"S-So, we managed to seal the walls of Shiganshina. But Reiner, the Beast Titan, and one other one escaped. Berthold was captured…Then…there was a dispute…about using the injection on Commander Erwin or me…And I…turned into a Titan and ate B-Berthold…" Armin was saying before throwing up in his mouth, Jean handed him some water.
"Here," he said.
Armin grabbed the water and started to chug it until he was satisfied.
"Why… did you pick me?" Armin asked. "No, matter how you look at it, wasn't Commander Erwin the right one to bring back? Captain! Why did you give me the injection?"
"Tsk." Levi sneered.
Levi then kicked Eren in the back.
"I told you to tell him everything," Levi said. "The thing is, it seems your two friends here don't think that way. They stood up to me…Prepared to draw blood. I might've been dead if Lando didn't stop Mikasa."
"Huh?" Armin asked, confused.
"We'll take whatever punishment comes," Eren said.
"You'll be disciplined for insubordination, but…does taking the punishment allow you to do anything?" Hange asked.
"No…" Eren said.
"However…The final decision to choose you was mine. No…I chose this to be the place where Erwin dies."
"I don't understand…" Armin said. "There's no way it's okay to let Erwin die…If the commander is gone how…how will we go on?"
"I agree. I thought it should've been used on Erwin…if we're being brutally honest. No…it's a shame we were put in that position…Anyways, Erwin entrusted Levi with the decision to use it. And Levi ended up choosing you. There's nothing more to say. Erwin's life and a Titan's power rest on your shoulders. No matter what anyone says, that's part of who you are now, Armin." Hange said.
"Does that mean…I need to be…Erwin's replacement?" Armin asked. "No way…I can't…"
"Don't get me wrong," Levi said. "You'll never be Erwin's replacement as Lando already explained."
"Where is Lando?" Jean asked. "I just saw him."
Levi turned around and looked as did everyone else and Lando wasn't nowhere to be seen.
Levi facepalmed and sighed before returning to explain to Armin.
"But…I know you have a strength that nobody else has but you. I won't regret my decision. However…" Levi put his hands on Mikasa and Eren heads. "Don't make these guys regret it. Nor anyone else. And don't regret it yourself, either. That is your mission."
Sasha started to make noises in her sleep afterward causing everyone to be silent except Hange who started laughing.
"We're no match for Sasha." She said, "Well, being the successor of Erwin as commander of the Scouts, we're kinda in the same boat. From here on out we'll have to grin and bear it."
"Right…" Armin said.
"Now then…If it's not a problem for Armin we should get going. Levi, Eren, Mikasa, and I will go investigate. You four others watch from atop Shiganshina wall."
"Roger." Jean and Connie said.
"Eren. Do you still have the key?" Hange asked.
"Yes," Eren said, holding the key. "Right here."
The four of them descended the wall and started walking around the abandoned city toward Eren's basement in silence.
"Hey, where's your house?" Levi asked.
"R-right…" Eren said.
The four started to walk again when they heard loud thuds coming from their right.
"Titans!" Hange said.
The four of them used ODM gear to get on top of a random house and they saw a 6-meter Titan running at something.
"Wait to see what it's going to," Hange said.
They watched as a figure shot up into the sky before spinning, slicing the Titan's nape.
"This kid…" Levi mumbled.
The figure after killing the Titan landed on another rooftop across the way.
"Hey, brat!" Levi yelled. "Get over here!"
The figure using ODM gear came over and landed right in front of them.
"Hey," Lando said.
"That's all you have to say?" Levi asked.
"Floch saw a Titan so I went to kill it.' Lando explained.
"Floch wasn't watching the inside of the walls," Levi said.
"He must've turned around," Lando said. "None of you guys saw him walk over to me?"
Levi looked at the others who shook their heads.
"He would've told all of us," Hange said.
"Floch has barely been talking since Erwin's passing," Lando said.
"So why did he talk to you?" Levi asked.
"Probably because we had the same opinion about Erwin," Lando said.
Hange sighed.
"Since you're already here, come on, we're going to Eren's basement," Hange said.
Lando nodded his head and they took off.
"That excuse isn't going to work," Levi said to Lando as the others walked forward. "You left for other reasons and I want to know why."
"It was a…emotional thing…and I don't do very well in emotional moments," Lando explained.
Levi was about to say something but he thought about it, Lando has barely been in touch with his emotions since Kenny came into his life. For years he was forced to bury his emotions because when you're around a person like Kenny you're forced to. Lando probably didn't understand what he was feeling, it was like he knew it was there but he didn't know how to react to it. So he didn't. He wasn't emotionless or anything. Sometimes he would show something but it was rare, and he only showed that side of himself to Levi. And to top it all off he probably only talked with Kenny for years so his social skills were very underdeveloped, Levi could make an accurate guess that Lando disappeared when it wasn't mandatory for him to be there. He had just done it.
"You can't run away from everything that is emotional," Levi said. "It's not sustainable."
Lando didn't say anything.
"Work on it for me," Levi said.
"Alright…" Lando said.
"Let's go see what all of this was worth," Levi said.
The two of them caught up with the others and made their way to Eren's basement. All of them walked for a while through the damaged and aged streets, until they walked up a little stairway and Mikasa and Eren stopped.
"Is this it?" Hange asked.
There was a house with a huge boulder crushing it, it was aged with moss all over it. On top of the boulder, there were two doves.
Mikasa and Eren didn't answer and walked up to the house before stopping right in front of it, most likely remembering their time there.
"Luckily, the fires didn't make it this far," Hange said, walking over to the house trying to keep moving.
Levi and Lando followed her looking for anything, Eren and Mikasa joined them.
Eventually, Mikasa and Eren unearthed a wooden hatch.
"Right here," Eren said. "Under this are the stairs to the basement."
"Good," Levi said.
There was a decently sized rock blocking the entrance to the door so the five of them grabbed 2 wooden beams and used them to move the rock.
Eren pulled out his key and unlocked the door, opening it revealing a stairwell.
"Everything Erwin ever wanted," Lando said. "I was expecting more."
"You wanted a grand entrance?" Levi asked.
"That would be nice," Lando said.
"At least it's not flooded with water," Hange said.
Levi went in first followed by Lando.
"Let's go," Mikasa said, putting a hand on Eren's shoulder.
At the bottom of the stairwell was another locked door that took Eren's key. Eren tried to open it and it wasn't unlocking.
"What's wrong?" Hange asked.
"Eren?" Mikasa said.
"Hurry it up," Levi said.
"Shine the light better so he can see the lock," Lando said to his Dad.
"This…This key…It doesn't go to this door…" Eren said.
"What?" Hange asked.
"You're kidding… that's the key had I'm sure," Mikasa said.
"Move," Lando said.
He pulled out his swords, the blades were so dull it couldn't cut a Titan but it could break a lock. Lando struck the lock as hard as he could with the handle of the blade.
"Hold on…" Hange said not expecting that.
Lando ignored her and kept hitting the lock until it finally broke.
"You're very gentle," Levi said.
"Problem-solving skills," Lando said.
"You're in a good mood," Levi said.
"It seems so," Lando said.
The Scouts walked into the room inside there was a lab.
"It almost feels like there is a laboratory down here," Hange said.
"My dad was a doctor, so…he was always cooped down here mixing medicine," Eren said.
"That makes sense," Hange said.
"Your mom was a doctor, Lando," Levi said. "You recognize any of this?"
"How wealthy were you?" Lando asked, looking at everything. "These are some extremely expensive stuff."
"I guess we were fine," Eren said.
"Right…" Lando said. "You have things I have only seen in books, like this." Lando picked up a vial of something. "Adrenaline this thing came out only a year before the Titans stormed Shiganshina."
"Adrenaline?" Hange asked.
"Not the kind you are thinking of, this helps with allergic reactions and even cardiac arrest but they didn't test it fully on that. It's basically a shot." Lando explained before searching through the cabinet. "Oxytocin, Arsphenamine, Phenytoin, Phenobarbital, Thyroxine, Ergotamine, Metamizole."
"What do all of those do?" Hange asked interested.
"Stop messing around," Levi said. "We came here for a reason."
"I wasn't messing around," Lando said. "There is nothing suspicious here, it is even all labeled correctly and organized, almost too perfect."
"Yeah…" Levi said. "If you're hiding stuff from the Interior Police, you wouldn't want it out in the open."
"Hey, quit standing around brats," Levi said to Mikasa and Eren. "Erwin's hunches are rarely wrong."
"Right," Mikasa said.
Eren didn't say anything but got to looking.
Lando kept looking around but he was mostly looking at all the drugs it fascinated him. Kenny made him learn old and new medicine in case he was ever in a bind and needed to treat himself. It helped that he already had some knowledge of medicine, he even had to use that information one time.
"Eren…" Mikasa spoke out. "There's a keyhole right here."
Everyone crowded around the desk where the keyhole was, Eren put the key in and it unlocked.
"It opened," Eren said.
There was nothing inside.
"It's empty?!" Eren exclaimed.
"Look closer," Levi said.
Levi put his hand in there and lifted a false bottom up.
"There was a false bottom."
There were three books each a different color wrapped in some white fluffy material.
Levi grabbed one while Hange grabbed the white fluffy material.
"It smells like peppermint oil and charcoal," Hange said. "Were these treated to keep moisture and bugs away?"
"We were looking for something…" Levi said. "And these must be it."
Eren grabbed the first book which was green.
"I wonder what it was that my dad wanted to show me," Eren said.
Everyone waited for Eren to open it and Mikasa put her hand on the book as well and they opened it together.
Inside there was a drawing of what Lando thought was and some kid that didn't look like Eren.
"This is…a portrait?" Eren said.
"Let me see that," Hange said.
She took a look at it.
"No…it's far too detailed to be drawn by a person," Hange said.
"That is Dr. Jaegers's handwriting," Mikasa said pointing to the back of the portrait.
Hange read it out loud.
"This is no illustration. Instead, this uses light reflected off a subject and burns the image on special paper. It's called a photograph. I come from a place outside…the walls where humanity lives in elegance. Humanity has not perished. I pray the person who finds this is a fellow patriot."
The Scouts grabbed everything useful and took it back to the walls, including all of Dr. Jaeger's writings.
When they arrived they got cheers, and the citizens celebrated the retaking of Wall Maria, Hange left the part out that only ten survivors came back.
End of Chapter 48.
Somebody asked about my update schedule and I try to get a chapter out every Sunday or even earlier but it all depends on how busy my life is. There could be breaks between chapters or three chapters in five days.