Armin and Moblit sat at the top of the exit point and helped many of the scouts escape the underground fortress they were trapped in. Once they were above ground, they could see the destruction that travelled for miles on end. A large titan was producing steam at rapid rates and eagerly dragging itself towards the wall.
Each of Levi squad sat inside a cart and followed the rest of the soldiers towards the wall. Erwin planned to get to the titans destination first and form a plan from there.
"Erwin." Levi got the commanders attention.
"Anyone hurt?" He asked.
"Hange took a hit." The captain said as Erwin's eyes averted to the section commander.
"Doesn't look like anything too serious. Excellent work all of you." Erwin stated.
"I've got a whole load of things to report but first-" Levi was interrupted.
"Anything on that titan?" Erwin asked.
"It's Rod Reiss, look forward to hearing your thoughts on this, commander." The captain answered.
"Times short, we can't afford to stand here and chat, head back to the wall."
"You gonna let that thing drags it's fat ass all the way to the interior?" Levi questioned.
"Well, more specifically, we're letting it continue towards Orvue district." The commander elaborated before riding away on his horse.
"If that thing makes it past the wall then we're all screwed." Kaya said to Levi.
"You think you have a shot at getting past all that titan steam?" He asked.
"Titan steam isn't necessarily a weapon, it's a force produced by a living being. I'd only be able to make it a few metres ahead of you guys before the heat took effect." The ghoul thought aloud.
"All right, time to think. First off, lord Reiss was after the founding titan's power and that power currently resides within Eren. Thing is, the founding titan can only be used at full potential by someone of royal blood but then, when a royal does obtain the founding titans power, they take on the first kings ideology. Which means they'll refuse to do anything about the titans. Well, this certainly is a conundrum." Hange strategised.
"So the first king thinks this is true peace huh? I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with him there." The scientist added.
"You know, we still have the option to go back. We just need that titan to eat me, then Reiss will become human again. We could still have a true founding titan, it's possible." Eren looked towards the floor.
"Wait, you don't mean." Mikasa stuttered.
"It's worth considering, once Reiss turns back into a human, we could capture him and undo the first kings brainwashing. Assuming that it can be done, it may well open a path to save humanity." Levi agreed. "Tell me Eren, if that comes out to be our best bet, are you really willing to do it?"
"No." Kaya smashed her fist into the seat next to her. "If Reiss gets the founding titan then there's no hope for us. The founding titan has the power to control titans, but now we know that titans are actually people then we could easily be controlled too. It's too much of a risk to allow that to happen." The ghoul theorised.
"The plan you're discussing is full of flaws, for one, it might not be possible to free my father from the first kings will. And Kaya's right, if he alters everyone's memories then we're finished. Consider how much there is that we still don't know about the founding titan, this isn't worth the risk." Historia agreed with the ghoul.
"They're right, it's not even guaranteed that Reiss would turn back into a human if he did eat Eren, that's just a hypotheses. No ones actually seen it happen before." Armin added.
"So far, we've only been led by destructive people, and if they kept the founding titans powers, that's how it would stay. This is humanities first chance to escape from them. Eren, your father wasn't evil." Historia continued.
Kaya slightly scoffed at the last comment but listened nonetheless. "He was trying to save humanity from the first king. He stole the founding titan from my sister, and then he murdered my fathers wife and children because he had no other choice." Historia said, as if killing children was justified.
"You mean-" Eren was interrupted by Armin.
"Yeah, that's right, the doctor Yeager I knew would only have done something like that if he felt like he had to." Said Armin.
"Agreed, he must have known another way to save humanity without Reiss blood. And that must have been why he left you the key to the cellar." Mikasa chimed in.
"You know that's actually a fairly convincing argument." Levi spoke.
"For whatever it's worth, I think we should stick with Eren too. But listen, are you sure about this Historia? That titans a major threat, it's not like we can just let it wander freely inside the walls. Capturing it isn't an option, it's way too big. Which means that, our only way forward is to kill your father." Hange pointed to the huge titan.
"Eren, I should apologise. Under the Reiss chapel, I really considered turning into a titan and killing you. And honestly, it wasn't to save humanity, I just wanted to believe my father was right. Even more than that, I wanted him to like me." Mikasa glared at Historia. "But it's time for me and him to part ways now."
"Hey, Eren used the founding titans ability once before, if there's a chance he could use it on Rod Reiss, it's worth a try." Kaya suggested.
Eren stood up and faced the titan. "Stop moving now!" He yelled as he punched his arm forwards. "I said stop! Hey I'm talking to you!" The titan didn't react. "Hey asshole, you hear me! Cmon you stupid old bastard. Why won't you listen." He continued.
"Well, that was, something." The ghoul tried to stifle her laughs, she couldn't help it, Eren looked like an idiot. He was just aimlessly punching air, sure he had purpose behind his actions but that didn't make him look any less of a moron.
The rest of the journey was mostly silent, Kaya tried to calm herself by carving shapes into the cart with one of her knives and received a few glares from the other scouts. Once they arrived at their new base, she instantly went to talk with Hange. She needed to tell them the truth, the ghoul had promised.
"Hey Hange. Can we talk?" She asked the section commander.
Hange sat up in the recovery bed and gestured to the chair beside them. Kaya didn't know where to start, this was going to be complicated and could lead Hange to hate her. She took a deep breath before she began her explanation.
"I'm, I'm a ghoul." She managed to say. Hange looked confused so Kaya continued. "Ghouls are a species that can't eat human food and, and they have to make up for that by eating people."
"Huh, what are you saying?" The scientist pressed.
"I don't have a choice, if I don't eat people then I'll lose most my humanity and subconsciously kill others. It's not ideal but I try my best to keep the deaths limited." She looked down.
"Here I was thinking you were a titan, so what exactly does a ghoul do?" Hange questioned.
"Well, they can heal at rapid rates, their abilities can be several times more apparent than humans, they can't be killed with human weapons and they have a kagune. There's a ton more but those are the things I would say are more useful." Hange looked as though they were in deep thought over the situation.
"From what I understand, you had no choice. But why did you stick with the scouts? You could have left anytime you wanted." They wondered.
"Guess I found a family here, I've only known you guys for a few months but I'd say that I've become closer to my squad than anyone I'd met in the underground." The ghoul looked outside the window and saw the scouts scurrying around and forming plans to deal with Rod Reis. "Promise you won't tell anyone? I'd rather it come from me, that way I can at least try to justify my existence."
Hange stood up and gripped onto the ghouls shoulders, Kaya was shocked when Hange engulfed her into a hug. The thief had never been shown any physical affection for years, it was a nice change, it would have been nicer if Hange took a shower ever so often.
"Don't ever say something like that again. You don't need your existence to be justified, nobody does. We all have our flaws and I think you are one of the strongest people I've ever met, not just physically, but emotionally. You've had to live your whole life keeping this secret. I'm sorry." Hange's words echoed through Kaya's head, she'd never heard anything so kind and caring.
"I don't exactly know what to say to that." The ghoul smiled and placed her hand on the back of her neck.
"You don't have to say anything. By the way, what exactly is a kagune?"
Kaya smirked before activating her kagune, she stood up in her usual form and slowly outstretched the remaining spike towards Hange. She softly patted the scientist on the head before deactivating it and landing on her feet.
"Tada." She bowed. Just as she finished her quick demonstration, Levi walked into the room , clearly expecting to see Kaya there too.
"Did you tell them?" He asked.
"Well if I didn't then you'd have pretty much ratted me out." Defended the ghoul. "Anyways, yeah. Hange is officially a part of the circle." She joked.
"Huh, you knew about this?" The scientist asked Levi.
"I figured it out on my own." Levi answered in triumph.
"You call that figuring it out? I had to explain every aspect to you, I could have easily just made up some excuse." Kaya disagreed. "Besides, I was planning on telling you since our first encounter with the female titan."
Hange looked devastated that they weren't the first one informed of ghouls, they were rather close with the thief. "You were going to tell Levi before me?!" They accused. "Oh now I see~" Hange teased.
Both Levi and Kaya looked at Hange with confusion plastered on their faces. "Calm down, you're going to reopen your wound." Levi ordered.
"You're not denying it~" They added.
"Denying what?" The ghoul asked, completely ignorant to what Hange was getting at.
The scientist then pointed at Levi and Kaya and made a love heart symbol in their hands, Kaya gasped once she understood. Levi on the other hand, didn't seem too shocked.
"Let's go, we have to head to a meeting with Erwin and the other squads." Levi said, snapping Hange out of their fantasy. Kaya and Hange were quick to follow him and stood behind him once they were in the meeting room.
"Once you're queen, you can punch that smug runt right in the face." Mikasa leaned over and whispered to Historia.
"Now that's something I'd like to see." Chimed in Kaya.
"Sir's, we have determined the Reiss titans location, it's south west approaching Orvue district. At this rate, it'll reach the walls before dawn."
"Right understood. Commander Erwin, I'm sure everyone here would like to hear your plan. How can we evacuate the people in such short time?"
"That's not part of the plan." Erwin answered.
"What's that?" A higher up questioned.
"The people of Orvue district will need to stay exactly where they are." He said again.
"What the hell are you thinking Erwin? If we don't get these civilians out of the city, they'll die by the thousands. That hoking monstrosity will be a stone throw from the wall by morning." The higher up gripped onto Erwins jacket, attempting to appear more threatening.
"That titan is an abnormal." Hange stated.
"Right, and what the hell does that even mean?"
"Wow he is dense." The ghoul muttered.
"It means it behaves differently. Unlike most titans we encounter, it's only attracted to large groups of people. Hence the word, abnormal. Put simply, given a choice between a few soldiers right next to it and a distant but densely populated city, it'll choose the city. So if we were to evacuate the districts people to the interior of wall Sina right now, the titan would change its course. Destroying the wall and anything else in its path. Left unchecked, it would make for the city with the greatest density of people, the rampage would deliver a devastating blow to humanity." Hange continued.
"As we rode for Orvue, we had Eren Yeager attempt to utilise his recently discovered power to control titans, Rod Reiss' titan didn't react in any way." The section commander finished.
"If we're to stop this thing, we'll have to be outside Orvue district. For that to happen, we require the citizens here to act as bate. However, this doesn't change the fact that our first and foremost duty as soldiers is to protect the people. In the event that we're unable to holt the target, we'll take measures to minimise civilian loses. We'll announce a district wide evacuation drill tonight, the people will be gathered away from the outer wall, ready to escape if the battle is lost." Erwin elaborated.
The higher up looked angry at how well thought out Erwins plan was and his words made that obvious. "It seems there's no other choice."
"The body of this titan is the largest we've seen yet. As such it presents itself as an easy target. Our wall mounted canons should prove highly effective. But if we can't bring it down with artillery, the scout regiment will throw everything we have at it." Erwin looked towards Eren.
"Can't we catch a break?" The ghoul groaned.