"Who is it?" Captain Levi's voice came from behind the locked door Marta had rattled a few seconds prior. 'Who the hell locks the door to the dining hall?" She thought to herself before answering, "it's Marta, sir."
The short man gave a nod to the strawberry blonde, Petra and she unhooked the plank of wood from the door, letting Marta in to which everyone gaped at the drastic change in her hair length, even Eren, who had told her to get it cut in the first place. Levi remained emotionless, as usual, but gestured to the empty seat beside him for her to take. She sat down, gratefully taking the cup of black tea set in front of her and sipping on it lightly with a sigh.
"It's safe to assume our standing orders will stretch into next week," Eld told the squad. "Word through the grapevine is we're gearing up for a big mission 2 months from now. One where a bunch of wet behind the ears graduates are slated to be our main backup."
When he said that Eren and Marta shared a scared look for their comrades. Some of them had said they would join the Survey Corps not so long ago, after they first graduated but it crossed her mind now that after seeing the Titans up close and personal, would they join anyway?
Maybe Marta would have no one to worry about after all.
Maybe she was just being selfish again, hoping they all wouldn't throw away their lives joining the Survey Corps.
"That can't be right," Gunther replied. "Why do something like that? The cadets have been through enough with the last Titan attack, why subject them to that kind of danger again?"
"You have to wonder how many of those snivel drop runts peed themselves," Marta felt her eyes narrow at Oluo's comment.
"Surely this can't be the case?" Petra speculated.
"Mission planning isn't my responsibility, but, it is Erwin's. And you can bet the mans obsessed over every detail." Levi assured them.
"That's the truth, especially given how unique the situation is. Consider how many people died on the path to taking back Wall Maria, then hope comes in a form never expected, one that we're not entirely sure how to deal with..." The whole squads eyes were either resting on Marta or Eren after Eld's words.
The weight on their shoulders was heavy, because it was the weight of humanity itself. Marta wasn't sure if she was ready for all of this yet but there was no going back now, so she just stared back at them, accepting her fate.
"Most of us still find it hard to believe," Eld continued, "this whole changing into a Titan trick, really?"
"I wish I could tell you but the fact is my memories not clear," Eren replied, "guess it's kind of like being in a trance. I do know the trigger seems to be hurting myself in some way. Like biting my hand." Eren looked surprised at the words coming from his mouth but Marta just sat back and let him do the unnecessary talking for her.
"You're not going to get anything out of him, apart from what the scribblers have laid out in the reports." Levi gave a hmph before sipping his tea, "not that you know who won't have a go at it."
"Who is you know who?"Marta asked but Levi just ominously said, "you'll be lucky to get out alive if she lays into you. Of course, it's only a matter of time."
"Who?" The two Titan Shifters questioned frantically at the same time.
Turns out the woman rattling the door was none other than Section Commander, Hange Zoe. The other members of the Special Operations Squad left quickly after she entered, giving the two wishes of good luck, creeping Eren out slightly.
"Well, my inquisitive friends, if you insist. Why not lay it all on the table? I intend to get better acquainted with the Titans we lucked upon in Trost." Hange began with a glint in her eye.
"As a scientist, naturally I started with standard background tests we've conducted on all previous captures. First was an attempt at communication, sadly my findings were the same as all other past attempts. No communication seemed possible. That said, my time spent interacting in proximity to these creatures did help me cope with the tediousness of day to day tasks."
Hange was truly an eccentric woman and Marta became more aware of this as Hange told the story of how she came to lovingly name her two Titans. Marta could guess Eren was feeling nothing but confusion about how a Section Commander of the Scouts could talk about Titans like they were nothing but miseducated children.
"The next step involved sensory deprivation, denying them sunlight. Observing that Titans are less active during nocturnal hours, we may extract from this experiment that the sun is likely a key source of energy for them. Nevertheless, I discovered a profound difference between the two, Sawney grew notably slugglish after only an hours lack of sun. Bean, however, still beamed three hours in.
A staggering find, believe me. They don't require food or water to survive, they possess vocal organs but have absolutely no need to breathe. The only thing their bodies metabolise into energy is sunlight, every Titan may have a different threshold for sunlight withdrawal so I have to be careful. Don't wont them dying on me, you know? Several have passed on in captivity, owing it to my ignorance, I'm sad to say. Two in particular perished from decapitation after we accidentally struck the soft spot." Hange looked down in despair as she thought about the past, she was indeed a strange woman.
"Poor devils, Chikatiloni and Albert, their names were. Such adorable ear to ear smiles, what I did to them was terrible. It haunts me," Eren was shocked by the words coming from the Section Commanders mouth and in a way, so was Marta. "I musn't let that happen again, I couldn't bare it."
No one in their right mind would feel bad for killing a Titan, much less talk about their 'adorable ear to ear smiles.'
"Yeah, no, sure..." Eren tried to sympathise with her but Hange was already moving on, grabbing Marta's brother by the shoulders and getting right up in his face. This caused Marta to choke out a giggle at the dramatics while Eren just got more creeped out. "Moving on! Stabbing them was obviously the next step because I just had to know if they experienced pair as you or I!"
Hange looked like she was in emotional turmoil as her mind went back to that very day, "It was the only way to learn if they had any weaknesses, besides their napes, you see. I hated myself for it. Sawney's range of expression is somewhat limited, I think. The only things he knows to do are lunge and bite-"
"Section Commander, with all due respect," Eren interrupted. "But how can you be so light hearted about them?"
"You talk like their badly behaved pets," Marta added.
"It's just they're the single greatest threat mankind has ever faced, they've nearly driven us to extinction. You're a Scout, you know that, you've seen them in action countless times." Eren said.
"True," the Section Commander confirmed, "in fact, more than my fair share of friends have died in the jaws of a Titan right in front of me. When I first became a Scout, I fought the Titans out of pure, white hot hatred. But one day, I came to a realisation. I kicked the severed head of a 3 metre Titan out of spite, it weighed next to nothing. Might as well have been a feather." Marta perked up at this.
"In the realm of improbability, that fact would seem to rank fairly high. Their sheer strength and size argues against it, and such was the case with every Titan. Contrary to the appearance of density and mass, the severed limbs were light as tree bark. I've been given to understand that when you two transform, your Titans materialise as if out of thin air.
"It's so bizzare. In fact, the only way I can describe it is that their appearance is in stark contrast to their true substance. We've been fumbling around in the dark, our prime tactic being based on contempt and fear. We need a fresh one, guided by knowledge and from a different angle from the existing one.
"It could be a complete waste of time... still though.... Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
"I'll help as best as I can, Section Commander." Marta saluted before heading for the door. "Good night."
Little did she know she was doing herself a favour leaving right there and then because Eren looked exhausted when her and the Section Commanders second, Moblit, came through the door to tell Hange that the two test subjects had been killed.
Sure enough, Sawney and Bean were two steaming corpses when the group arrived at the scene. "How did this happen?" Eren asked to no one in particular.
"Let it go, this is now a matter for the Military Police." Levi said before walking off.
"Yes, sir."
Marta scoffed, "a soldier did this for some reason. They ruined some valuable information for us all, Eren." Just as she had finished speaked Commander Erwin was standing in between the two, leaning down into their earshot.
"What is it you think you see?" He asked, "who do you think the real enemy is?" Marta began fumbling around with the idea in her head but Erwin had already brushed himself off. "Ignore me, loaded question."
Eren was taken aback, eyes trailing after the Commander as he followed behind Levi. Marta, however, already began theorising the answer in her head.
Titans were not just the enemy of humanity.
Humanity was the enemy as well.