The ghoul awoke to the sound of fists banging against her door, she forgot that she had locked it the night before. Kaya reluctantly got out of bed and answered the door to try and get the person who was violently knocking, to stop. However, the ghoul was still half asleep and didn't realise her strength when opening the door. A loud crash could be heard for miles and the two people stood in the doorway were both in shock. The ghoul had taken the door straight from its hinges.
"Did you have to knock so aggressively!?" She yelled at the captain, pinning the blame on him.
"My knocking didn't make the door fall of, that's on you." Levi said in a monotone voice, that didn't match his shocked face.
"Whatever, I guess you won't have to knock anymore, anyways." Kaya scowled, she needed her privacy. Considering the ghoul had stolen a book that could potentially expose her and hidden it in her room, was risky, if someone were to find it then she would be as good as dead.
"Why was your door locked anyways?" The scout asked her.
"Well, breaking in to someone's room and watching them sleep, tends to make people do that!" She retorted, still angered from being woken from her sleep.
The two continued to glare at each other until Eren came and interrupted. "Is everything alright Captain, a heard yelling and a crash." The titan shifter asked.
"Everything's fine, Oluo's looking for you." The ghoul lied, wanting to avoid conversing with the brat. Eren complied and went to find Oluo, leaving the two shorter scouts to continue their glaring. Kaya didn't want to give up, she was still fuelled by anger and still tired from her previous day.
"What'd you want anyways?" The thief asked, breaking the silence.
"The report, and we need to meet Erwin in an hour." He replied.
The ghouls eyes widened when she remembered where she had placed the report, it was hidden, right next to her book about ghouls. With out her door, the captain would clearly be able to see her hiding spot and if she wasn't careful, he could see the book. Kaya sighed and went into her room, hoping that the captain wouldn't follow her in. To her luck, he stayed in the doorway and waited for her to hand him the report.
The ghoul kneeled over the plank of wood and towered over it, knowing Levi wouldn't be able to see the contents over her figure. Kaya rummaged around and finally located the report and note that she had attached earlier and placed it to her side before quickly covering up her hiding spot.
"Here, I've attached the note." She said while handing it to him.
"What else are you hiding in there?" He asked bluntly, not even fully taking in his own question. "Never mind." He quickly recovered and then left to go to his office. The ghoul slouched against the wall and buried her head in her hands, she was so close to her secret being outed, she needed to find a new place to hide the book. After she found a lack of hiding spots, she settled for another plank of flooring, this time it was under her bed.
Later on, once the amber eyed girl was dressed and had finally calmed down from the rough morning she had, the ghoul made her way to the stables and saw Levi tending to his horse. However, she also saw, heard and smelt a whole new bundle of people. Kaya was aware that recruits were coming, but she didn't expect it to be so soon, if that was the case then she would probably have to share a room with another soldier for space.
Suddenly the ghoul heard the familiar voice of Mikasa Ackerman. "Have they mistreated you in any way, like subjecting you to any evil experiments or some sort of mental anguish?" Mikasa asked the shifter.
Kaya chuckled and went over to where the captain stood to see the expression on the raven haired girls face. "That pipsqueak took things way to far, I will make him pay for it one day." She scowled. The ghoul laughed from behind the captain, causing her to receive a few looks from the cadets in front of her.
"Hey Eren."
"Long time no see." The new recruits continued to greet.
"Oh hey guys, you're all here, wait, if all of you are here then does that mean... your saying that you guys all joined the scouts?" Eren questioned.
"No shit Sherlock." The ghoul retorted from behind him. "Why else would they be here?" She asked with a raised brow.
"So then Jean, Annie and Marco went to the military police?" Eren continued. Kaya had sworn that she had heard the name Marco before, she just couldn't put her finger in it.
"Marco is dead." Came a voice from beside her. The ghoul looked up to see the boy she had met on clean up duty, she had finally remembered where she had heard the name Marco.
"What are you saying? Marcos not dead, you're just kidding around right?" Eren pleaded in hopes of his friends death not being true.
"I wish I could tell you he went out heroically, truth is I don't even know how he went out. He died alone, no one there to see it happen." The chestnut haired boy explained to Eren. The ghoul couldn't help but feel uneasy about the whole situation, however her instincts were sending off alarms throughout her head. She could hear two heartbeats above the others, going at a faster pace and indicating that some of them did know how Marco died. Kaya decided to stay quiet about the situation, still not knowing who the fast beating hearts belonged to.
Once Levi had put his horse back in the stables, he walked towards the thief and they both accompanied each other to Erwins top secret meeting. Kaya was a little nervous, she hadn't expected to be invited, most of the people in the room were high ranking officers of the scouting legion, while Kaya had only been one of them for a few months.
"Each of you have been selected because you can see past the view of a singular enemy. It has been made clear to us since Eren's transformation that there are others like him, such as the armoured and the colossal." Erwin stated from the head of the table. "If you agree to be part of this then I'll have you know that there will be blood on your hands, feel free to leave now if you wish." The commander said while looking around the room, only a few officers left and from then on, the true meeting was in session.
At the time, Kaya didn't think much of the fact of having blood on her hands, she knew from experience how hard it was, however, the ghoul didn't form many bonds with the soldiers who weren't in her squad. So she felt at ease. Levi took a few glances at the ghoul to see if she was ok to go along with a plan of sacrifice, he knew how she felt about death, meaningless or not.
"You have been told that our next expedition will be to make a new route to Shiganshina, however that was all a fluke. I suspect that someone will try to kill Eren, a soldier from our ranks. In order to avoid this we are going to go off course into a forest where there will be traps set up to capture this other titan shifter, and make another step to uncovering the titans secrets." Erwin said with a smile on his face.
"What about the other scouts." Levi spoke up. "Or Eren for that matter." He continued.
"I doubt Eren will stand idly by when he watches his comrades get killed, we need to make sure that he trusts us enough not to turn titan." The ghoul added to her captains point.
"Then that is what you'll do, build up his trust. As for the other scouts, we can't inform any of them of this plan." Erwin explained. It stayed silent for a while until Erwin decided it was time to leave. "Dismissed, I'll keep in touch with each of you."
Each of them left the office and Kaya hurried back to her room, forgetting about the door until she saw it again. The ghoul sighed and was about to go to sleep regardless until she heard footsteps in the hallways. Kaya stayed calm and went to check it out, but came face to face with Levi.
"Tch, room parings are going to change tomorrow, you'll be with Petra. But you can go there now, since your door has issues." Her captain said.
"I don't think the door is the one with issues." The thief retorted. "But I guess I'll gather my stuff and go over Petra's." She said, making her way back into her room to get all her clothes and uniform to take over her ginger haired friend's room. Kaya was about to duck under her bed to fetch the book when she noticed the captain behind her.
He stared at her, waiting for her to make her next move. As if he already knew she was hiding something. The ghoul was about to say something, but was interrupted by the captain crouching down to try and remove the plank from the floor. Luckily, Kaya had already switched hiding places, but that didn't make her ok with the captain snooping around her room.
"What the hell are you doing!" She whispered loudly.
Levi ignored her until the ghoul dived onto him and tackled him to the ground. She gripped his arms behind him and dug her knee into the lower section of his back. "I said what the hell do you think you're doing." She repeated.
"What are you hiding?" He grunted and he tried to struggle out of the ghouls grip. "What's that important that you'd tackle me to the ground over it?" He asked.
"There's nothing there, I'm just pissed that you were snooping around." She defended, tightening her grip around his wrists.
"So you moved it?" He questioned.
"Moved what?" Kaya lied. She knew that the captain was suspicious of her from the start, but she never expected him to go this far.
"That's what I'm trying to find out." Levi said. The ghoul sighed and got off the floor, putting her arm out to help Levi up. "I bet you weren't even stargazing the other night, were you? And when you just happened to find a dead body. How did you even get into the attic, there was no ladder. Not to mention the fact you can't eat food." He continued to question the ghoul. The thief knew he was perceptive but she never would have guessed for him to figure her out so fast.
"You're delusional. What are you even talking about?" Kaya said in a threatening tone, warning him that if he didn't stop digging then he would have hell to pay.
"Quit acting like I'm crazy." He demanded.
"I don't think you're crazy, just weird. You're pulling all of these meaningless things together and accusing me of god knows what, that's not usually the norm." She reassured. Truth be told, Kaya had never had to act this serious before, she didn't know how to behave or what tone she should use. "What did you expect to gain from this?" She asked.
The captain didn't stay much longer, instead of answering the thief's questions, he made his way to his office and the ghoul heard the door lock. Kaya had always had a closer relationship with the captain than any other member of her squad, but she really didn't know anymore. It's not like she could tell him 'hi I'm a ghoul, I eat humans and if I don't then I lose control and eat more. You can't kill me because your weapons can't penetrate my skin. Also My abilities are 7 times as enhanced as yours.'
Kaya sighed and rethought her actions, she could tell that people finding out would be inevitable and the ghoul didn't want to suffer the same fate as her parents. After a mental pep talk, the amber eyed girl went under her bed and collected the book, hiding it amongst her clothes to take to her assigned room. Petra was asleep and her door was locked, however Kaya didn't bother knocking and waking the strawberry blonde. Instead, she picked the lock and snuck into the room, then going under her bed to hide the book. Once Kaya had packed away, she retreated into the comforts of her new bed and fell asleep.
.
.
.
The ghoul awoke to Petra stomping around the room, for once, it wasn't the captain. When Kaya and Petra met eyes, she could see the panic building up inside the scout.
"How did you get in here?! I locked the door!" She yelled. The ghoul couldn't be bothered to deal with Petra's confusion, she let out a quick groan before giving a quick explanation.
"My door fell off so I picked the lock and came here, we're roommates now anyways." She summed up.
After Petra's freak out had died down, the ghoul had gotten showered and dressed, before making her way outside to greet her squad. Since it was sunny, most the group decided to eat and converse outside. Kaya made her way to the table next to Petra and Levi, praying that her captain wouldn't bring up anything from the incident the night before.
While Kaya was sipping her tea, a loud explosion went off from behind her and the ghouls eyes widened, prepared for an attack. When she turned around, she saw her squad arm themselves with their ODM swords and surround Eren's titan arm. The ghoul stood in amazement, she had never seen anything like it, but mostly she was amazed at how quickly the squad turned against Eren.
"Dammit why now?" She heard the boy scream over the complaints of her squad.
"Calm down, the situation is complicated. Calm down." Levi said, trying to get his squad to lay down their weapons. The ghoul stood beside the captain as a way of showing whose side she was on and was prepared to defend Eren if needed. The ghouls ears twitched when she heard a crazed voice in the distance.
"Great, four eyes is here." She muttered to Levi.
"Eren what the hell do you think you're doing. No one gave you permission to transform, DID THEY!" Eld screamed at the shifter.
Levi tried to reassure his squad, however kept getting interrupted. "Answer the question Eren, what got into you?" Oluo yelled above Levi's voice.
"Leave it, explanations can come later, first things first. You need to persuade us you're not hostile like your life depends on it. Prove it or we'll kill you, the burden of proof is yours kid." Gunther added.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." The ghoul threatened, taking out her duel swords and preparing to fight.
"So much as twitch an arm and I'll lob your head off, this is the first and only warning you'll receive. I can end you in a heartbeat, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" Oluo continued the threat.
"Oluo, how many times do I have to say-" Levi shouted but once again failed to get the point across.
"Captain, Kaya you need to step away, you're too close." Petra warned.
The ghoul sighed and walked around to see Eren struggling to get out of the Titan body, so Kaya decided she would end their bickering right then and there. She lifted her swords and brought them down right next to Eren's arm. The shifter let out a scream in panic, he thought the thief was going to kill him. Lucky for him, that wasn't her goal, instead she tried to cut the flesh that was wrapped around his arm and had successfully removed it.
"EREN, I wanna touch the arm, I wanna touch the arm." The titan lover said, emerging from the trees. When the steam started to emerge from the body, the maniac began to scream. "Nooooo not so soon, I wanted to put it under the knife." They shouted.
Kaya helped the boy from the decaying titan arm and then looked towards the rest of her squad, they had acted completely out of line, the ghoul was going to scold them for it later.
"Thanks." The shifter said while looking at Kaya. "I'm sorry captain."
"So you feeling ok or what?" Levi asked.
"Not exactly." He huffed before almost collapsing.
The ghoul had been given the 'privilege' as her captain described it, to carry Eren back to the base, and putting him back in the basement for him to rest for a while. Both Kaya and the captain listened as Eren slouched on the stairs.
"That was quite a wake up call. Until their blades were drawn, I had no idea how little they trusted me." He said.
"What did you expect, the suspicious nature was at the top of my criteria. Traditionally, you're not considered a real scout until you come back alive, but out there, there's always so little entail to go on, so many uncertainties and unknowns, it's a miracle any of us come back alive." The captain explained. "You have to be reactive, quick, hit the ground running while anticipating the worst, that doesn't make them heartless though, there not just a bunch of mindless machines."
"By the looks on their faces, everyone looked conflicted at what they were doing. I think they're just afraid, no ones ever seen anything like you before and it just freaks them out. Give them time to adjust." The ghoul added. She knew that Petra was scared from the beginning, however she never expected that they would react so violently.
"Captain Levi, section commander Hange would like a word." Moblit said from the top of the staircase. Kaya bounced from the wall and started to make her way up the stairs, her senses were more heightened than usual, ever since she went to Shiganshina, maybe training to use her kagune had helped her improve more aspects. However, knowing that someone's eyes were constantly lingering on the ghoul wasn't the best sense to have, especially when that person was already suspicious of her.
"Feast your eyes on this." The scientist said once everyone had made it into the room. Hange had placed a spoon only the table and looked at it as though it was a shocking discovery, it was.
"It's the spoon, right." Eren asked.
"Looks like we have a genius on our hands." The ghoul said sarcastically. 'Of course it's a damn spoon' she thought.
"The very one. Your spontaneous titan arm rubbed it into being while holding it, resting in between the thumb and the index finger." The ghoul gasped, seeing Hanges point and nodding her head in agreement. "The world operates on chance so coincidences are expected. But this begs something more, this utensil wasn't warped by the heat or by the pressure. Any thoughts on the matter?" They added.
"All I know is that when I went to pick it up, the arm came out of nowhere." The shifter replied.
"Interesting. This might explain why you couldn't change in the well. I'm certain of it. Slaying titans, blocking canon fire, lifting boulders, in each instance before assuming titan form you had a clear goal in mind. I believe it's possible that self harm isn't the only catalyst of transformation. It appears as though a clear objective is a crucial factor as well." Four eyes explained.
"I think your onto something, but I transformed into a titan just to pick up a damn spoon? It's insane." Eren said while looking at his healed hand.
"So uh, what I'm getting out of this is that what you pulled wasn't something you did on purpose." Gunther said. The ghoul scoffed and rolled her eyes, he was pleading for his life and apologising when he was in titan form, yet they chose not to acknowledge it.
The squad all looked at each other and nodded their heads, Petra looked at the ghoul who was confused by their transaction. Suddenly, her squad brought their hands to their mouths and bit down as hard as they could, each of them drawing blood.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Eren gasped.
"That hurts like a son of a bitch, damn kid, I'm impressed you can sink your teeth in that deep without shrieking." Eld said while gripping onto his hand, most of the squad were looking towards the ghoul and expected her to do the same.
"We made a judgment call today and it was wrong. Consider this our way of apologising, that is if you can find it in your heart to forgive us?" Gunther said with his usual smile. Eren was still shocked by what was happening around him and looked around the room.
"We have to make spur of the moment decisions ok, make the best call we can with what we know. It's our job to keep you in check." Oluo shouted while clenching his fist.
"The fact is, we were scared. No excuse, I know. You have every right to be upset. But, all that aside, we're doomed if we can't trust one another, just as you are if you can't trust us. Eren I'm asking you, trust us." Petra finished.
The ghoul was debating on biting her hand just so they would stop looking at her but quickly decided it wasn't the best idea. One, it would heal. Two, she didn't do anything wrong and she wouldn't inflict pain on herself for no reason. However, Petra's words had struck one of the thief's heartstrings, a squad needed to trust each other, so Kaya made the decision to try and apologise to her captain.
When everyone had made their way to their rooms, Kaya put on her comfy clothes and went under the covers until Petra was sound asleep, the ghouls hearing came in handy when telling if her breathing had steadied. Once she was sure of her security, the ghoul got out of bed and opened the door before walking the hallways over to Levi's room. From what she could hear, the scout was at his desk writing something, so the ghoul decided to test her luck to see if the door was open. It wasn't.
Thankfully, the captain mustn't have heard her attempt at breaking in, so she took out her pin and started to poke at the lock. Within no time, she heard a few clicks and then made her way into the captains room. He stared at her in astonishment.
"What do you want and how did you get in?" The captain asked.
"Hi I'm Kaya, the most wanted thief of the underground." She said sarcastically. "I picked the lock dumbass." She added.
"Well why?" Levi asked once again.
"I wanted to talk about the other night, I'm sorry for acting so secretive and out of line." She said while scratching the back of her neck.
"I'm sorry for being so invasive." He replied. Kaya knew that he was the one it of line, but she felt he deserved at least a snippet of reasoning from her.
"Truth is, I've recently discovered something about my parents deaths." She admitted. The captain raised a brow and motioned her to sit down. "Turns out, a guy called Dr Yeager came and threatened them before their disappearance." The ghoul added.
"As in the brat." Levi asked curiously.
"Yeah, I think it's his dad or something. Anyways, I snuck out the other night and found the object that made my parents feel so threatened, the thing that caused them to leave me to rot alone in the underground." The ghoul recalled.
"So that's why you came back late, and why you didn't want me snooping around." He said, his thoughts processing through his own words. "It doesn't explain the dead body you found." He pried.
"I told you I was looking for the window that led to the roof. That bit was true." She defended.
"Well, I guess now that's all cleared up, I can tell you what Erwin told me to relay to you." He said while crossing his legs to get more comfortable.
"You seriously withheld information because you felt like it?" The ghoul deadpanned.
"No, I withheld information because I couldn't trust you. Anyways, we can't talk about Eren's position in the formation, Erwin's making sure that everyone's copy of it is different." He replied.
"I'll never understand how that man got to be so damn smart." Kaya thought aloud. "He's thought this through, every single angle. It's almost frightening." Kaya knew that double crossing Erwin Smith was definitely not a good idea, he would have probably already predicted it before the ghoul even knew herself. One of the many reasons why she would remain a loyal scout.
"He also asked me to confiscate all your pins and whatever it is that you use to pick locks. Someone's been stealing from the pantry recently." Levi said with his palm opened. The ghoul looked at him with a 'is he serious' expression.
"Levi you know I can't eat?" She asked, curious to see if he had processed any of what she had told him a few weeks prior.
"I can't exactly tell Erwin that's the reason it's not you." He scoffed.
"It's probably one of the new recruits, none of the food was ever stolen before they arrived, right?" She assumed until her ears twitched. The captain had brought to her attention that they needed to catch the food thief and fortunately, her ghoul instincts had subconsciously responded.
"Levi, why don't we head down to the pantry and try catch them in the act." The ghoul smirked.
The captain stood up and they both silently made their way to where their food was stored. The ghoul could smell the culprit from quite a distance down the corridor and had already distinguished that it was indeed a new recruit.
"There she is." The ghoul whispered while nodding her head in the direction of a brown haired girl.
"Try to stay quiet when bringing her down, we don't want to wake anyone." He advised.
Kaya took her back from the wall and moved amongst the shadows to try and catch the brunette by surprise. Luckily for the ghoul, the food thief was too occupied munching on some potatoes, all she had to do was get the girl away from the food and then restrain her. Easy, right?
She was dead wrong. As soon as the ghoul started to drag the brunette away from the potatoes, the recruit began to scream, and claw at her hands. In order to limit the screams, Kaya put her hand against the girls mouth, big mistake. The food thief was new chewing on the ghouls hand and eating her as if she were a piece of bread. The ghoul gasped and looked towards the captain for help.
He did nothing but hide his mouth behind his hand to try and limit his laughter. Kaya was angry, she grabbed a potato and shoved it in the brunettes mouth before dragging her over the Levi and storming to his side.
"I'll never forgive you for this." She scowled, hiding her hand behind her back while it healed. "Is this chick a goddamn titan? She tried to eat me!" The ghoul whisper yelled.
"Let's just get her back to her room and reassure Erwin that your not stealing the food." The captain said while walking away, expecting the ghoul to drag the new recruit with her.
"If it was me, you wouldn't have even known It'd been stolen from." She added. Kaya had always talked about Erwin as though he was one of the smartest alive, however this incident was an exception. How could he be stupid enough to think that the notorious fox of the underground would be so careless when stealing, she found it as an insult.
Once Sasha was dropped of at her shared room with Mikasa, the two shorter scouts ordered the raven haired girl to keep an eye on the food thief and made their way back to their own rooms. Before parting ways, they each said their goodbyes and the ghoul was secretly grateful for his understandings from earlier. Kaya opened her door and quietly snuck into bed without her new roommate noticing, she let out a sigh of relief and returned to her sleep.