Will of the Broken (Levi x OC)

Chapter 81: Separate Ways

After Christa was exposed, everything practically exploded.

Everyone began rushing around blindly. Eren even ran into Sasha when she came in bearing a message from Erwin.

Christa could give us more answers, but how and why? She was just a child, what information did she have that could help?

More questions.

So many more.

We all met up in the same room after a few minutes of chaos. A table rested in the center with a couple burning candles.

It was hardly useful, seeing as the whole room was lit by torches.

"Section-Commander? Something wrong?" Eren asked Hanji in concern as me and Levi took a spot on the far side of the room against some wooden crates.

Gathering around, Hanji looked up from a few pages in her hands.

"Huh? Oh, uh, well I was finally able to get my hands on the background report I requested for Annie Leonhart." Hanji answered, sounding partially distant. Anger welled up in my chest. I had asked Erwin for background reports weeks ago. My suggestion was ignored again in place of Hanji.

"Annie?" Eren questioned. From here, he looked completely confused as to why the blond girl still mattered.

"Yeah. Took longer than what I was hoping for. Olivia's suggestion to the people in question helped me get more leverage and Erwin struggled to get it for us. The paper trail is a bit of a catastrophe at the moment. Bureaucracy, huh?" Hanji poked sarcastically and paused for a moment.

During that short time, my anger disappeared. Erwin hadn't truly ignored me, he was struggling to find the trail. He could have at least mentioned that.

"Anyway, according to this, there were two other cadets in the 104th who haled from the same region," Hanji continued, looking grim. "I have their names. One Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover."

I knew it!

Our scientific Section-Commander let everything sink in before diving into another point of the conversation.

"Not much survives in the way of records, and thanks to the chaos of five years ago, what we have on them is unreliable. However, we do know that during the long-range scouting formation, their unit was given false intel. They were among those intentionally mislead into thinking Eren was in the right wing."

Armin gasped as I shifted in place, I knew there were too many coincidences. Way too many. The fall of Wall Maria, the recapture of Trost, Marco's murder, the test subjects we captured, and the Female Titan. All of them were connected by each other, they all worked together to tear everything apart. They had a relationship, but why?

Why?

It all made my head ache.

They have a commander too.... Is that why their relationship is forced?

Armin gasped. "Wait just a minute. That's the section Annie attacked."

Sasha turned to look at him. "What? What does that mean?"

"Well, it's entirely possible they told Annie where they thought Eren was."

"Huh? Why would they do that?" Sasha inquired dumbfoundedly. I stepped forward and watched the interaction, itching to say my piece.

"Where are you going with this, Armin? You can't just accuse-" Eren interrupted defensively.

"I totally agree. Coincidence doesn't establish relationship. Bearing that in mind, I'm curious to know how the three interacted while training. What can you tell us?" Hanji interjected, cutting Eren off and calming the tension.