Chapter Text
Hange’s right shoulder throbbed in pain. A sizable chunk of her skin had been ripped off from where that blonde woman latched her anchor into Hange’s flesh, and the muscle beneath was torn from the anchor’s sharp release. She gritted her teeth and stared at the ground as she made her way to the surface with the help of Moblit and Armin – she just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Soon she would be able to rest and properly treat her wound, but damn if she didn’t want to just sink to the floor and take a long, long rest.
“We're almost there, Section Commander!” Moblit encouraged, strain evident in his voice. Hange simply grunted in response, too physically exhausted for words. The height difference between Moblit and Armin made walking awkward, and the steep incline of the tunnel made that difference all the more apparent.
After a few more agonizing minutes of slow climbing, Hange felt a cool breeze caress her face. She looked up, relieved to see a grassy field just a couple meters in front of them. As soon as her feet touched the soil she let herself fall to her knees, panting loudly.
“Section Commander, it isn’t safe here!” Moblit grabbed her non-injured arm and pulled, urging her to stand up; the rumbling ground gave truth to his statement.
“Just give me a minute,” she groaned. To be honest, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to stand up again – her legs were like jelly, and it felt as if she were melting into the grass the longer she remained on the ground.
Just as Moblit tugged at her again, Armin hushed them and turned to the tunnel entrance. “I hear something.”
The three of them listened intently, at first only hearing the slight susurrus of the wind. But then Hange noticed a faint hissing sound: the unmistakable sound of gas escaping a canister. Levi Squad? Why were they leaving through this tunnel? Were they unable to rescue Eren and Historia? Hange carefully shifted until she was sitting on her rear, facing the tunnel entrance and preparing to greet her companions. But her body immediately tensed as people who were definitely not part of the Levi Squad appeared in front of her.
Hange counted two, then four, and then seven Anti-Personnel Control Squad members fly from the opening, all with their guns trained on the three of them. Her eyes widened and she barely rolled over in time to avoid the first blast. The grass she previously sat on erupted, a small crater forming from the impact. She rolled directly on her bad shoulder to avoid the second shot, the adrenaline flowing through her system preventing her from feeling any pain, but she still felt fear as a scowling man landed in front of her and aimed his gun right at her chest–
“Stop!” The squad members kept their guns trained on the three Scouts, but no more shots rang out. The owner of the voice that had temporarily saved her life soon stepped into view. He was a man of average height with a balding head, undoubtedly making him look older than he actually was. The others seemed to regard him as some sort of leader, yet this man was not Kenny.
“What are you doing?” Hange blurted out, her heart racing as he walked towards her. She had to get them talking, had to keep them from changing their minds and shooting the three of them right then and there.
“Following orders. Kenny said the cavern was going to collapse at any moment and to save our asses. Some idiots stayed behind, but I’m not going to die disobeying him – Kenny knows what he’s doing.” He glanced at Armin and Moblit, but his gaze lingered on Hange, recognition filling his face. “And just what would Hange Zoë be doing abandoning the fight just as it was getting good?”
“I didn’t abandon the fight. We're also following orders.” She clenched her jaw and shifted her gaze to her companions. Moblit had his hands at his blades, tense and ready to spring at a moment’s notice. Armin’s arms rested at his side, but she could practically see his head whirling as he came up with ideas on how to get out of this situation unscathed. They just needed time – time to come up with a plan, or time for their fellow Scouts to save them.
“Looks like you got injured,” the man commented, eyeing the growing bloodstain on her shirt. Hange swallowed down her nervousness, determined not to show any weakness in front of the enemy.
“It’s nothing serious,” she lied. However, as the adrenaline slowly ebbed away, the pain from her wound was coming back even worse than before. She must have exacerbated her injury when she’d dodged those shots.
The man opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when the entire ground began shaking even harder than before. Hange couldn’t keep the shock off her face as the largest titan she'd ever seen suddenly appeared from the ground, only a few hundred meters from where she sat. Huge chunks of solid rock shifted and collapsed into the cavern below, the sight quickly obscured by a plume of dust as the titan moved its arms, slowly dragging itself forward.
For once, her fascination with titans was overshadowed by her worry for Levi Squad. As the cloud of dust thinned, she could see the crystalline pillars where the titan had emerged from: meaning it had transformed while inside the cavern. With a titan as massive as that, the shockwave must have been enormous. Were they okay? Did they retreat in time?
“Shit,” the man spat. “We need to get going. There’s nothing more we can do here – stick to the plan.” He once again turned to the three of them, taking a pause as he mentally weighed his options.
“Take Hange Zoë with us. She'll be an important hostage if the Scouts aren’t completely wiped out. Kill the other two.”
“No!” Hange screamed as guns were aimed at her companions. Moblit narrowed his eyes as he fully drew his blades, and Armin reached for the handles on his as his body caught up with his mind. Hange looked between them with grief, knowing she couldn’t let them die here – they had to survive. “They’re important to the Survey Corps too! Don’t you recognize them?!”
The man sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know every single member of the damned Scouts by face, no. Pray tell, who are these two very important people?” His voice dripped with sarcasm as he looked at her impatiently, but Hange was thankful he was even bothering to listen.
Heartbeat thudding loudly in her ears, Hange pointed at Moblit and said, “That’s Moblit Berner, the Vice Captain of the Fourth Squad, and he’s vital to the Survey Corp’s research! And that,” she pointed to Armin, “is Armin Arlert, childhood friend of Eren Jaeger and brilliant strategist! Trust me when I say they are worth more to you alive than dead!”
She tried not to sound too desperate as she pleaded for their lives, but she couldn’t help but let some emotion into her voice. If she failed, if she heard gunshots, if this was the last time she would hear their voices… She couldn’t think about that.
The balding man gazed at Armin and Moblit for several agonizingly long moments, looking as though he was contemplating her words. Finally, he waved his hand towards his squad members and ordered, “Put down your weapons. We’ll take them all.”
Hange let out a shuddering breath, one of her worries quelled. Moblit and Armin were safe. They would be okay. She glanced at the titan again, and even though it was already a fair distance away, she didn’t see any signs of pursuit from her comrades. Shit. This wasn’t good.
“Knock them out. It’ll be easier to deal with,” the man ordered. Hange barely had time to open her mouth in protest before the butt of a gun hit her in the side of the head one, two, three times, and she slowly fell into unconsciousness.