angelic | jean kirstein

chapter thirteen

ANGELIC – CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Annie."

Isabel stood silently beside Armin, trying her best not to show how betrayed she was feeling. She silently thought to herself that they could be wrong and she prayed that they were, she couldn't bear it if Annie was really what they said she was, she wouldn't be able to live with herself.

The blonde jogged around the corner, her face stone cold but Isabel could see the confusion on her face. The silver-haired girl forced a soft smile onto her face and a small wave at the MP, she only hoped Annie couldn't see through her lie. "Looks like you're a fully fledged MP now." Armin said quietly.

"Armin. . . Isabel." Annie whispered quietly as her eyes looked the duo up and down. "Why are you dressed like that?"

Isabel looked down at her long green cloak that easily covered her ODM gear, her uniform underneath. "Why are we in the rain gear, you mean? It's a makeshift disguise, needed to conceal our ODM rig. See?" Armin opened his cloak to show his gear off to her.

Annie eyed him carefully before she turned her attention to Isabel. "What's this about? I thought you said in your letter you were going to the courthouse?"

"We need your help." Isabel said as she slid her hood off her head. "We have a plan for Eren to escape, we can't do it without your help."

She took a slight step back. "Wait, escape to where? Stuck behind these walls where can you possibly hide where they won't find you? Since when have you been best friends with Jaeger? You'd never risk your life - your career to help him escape."

"Things have changed, I need you to understand that I have to do this, I can't just let him die. He's our only hope." She said, averting her gaze from Annie's as she knew if she continued to look at the girl, she'd cave in and share what her real intentions were.

Armin glanced at Isabel for a second before he met Annie's eyes, almost as if he knew he had to take control of talking because she'd slip up. "We need to hide him for a short while. This isn't a mutiny, we have every intention of returning. View this as a few loyal Scouts staging a small act of protest. It's a stall tactic, we need enough evidence to overrun the council's ruling on Eren. That's all we want."

"You're serious about this?" The blonde asked, her eyes eying the duo up as if they were stupid. "How can you be sure the evidence exists? And what is it?"

Armin shrugged. "I can't say. I'm sorry."

Annie sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to decline. My lips are sealed though, best of luck."

Isabel lifted her head as she watched the blonde turn on her heel ready to leave, she inhaled sharply before grabbing onto her wrist. "Annie, please!"

The blonde turned her head and looked down at their connecting hands, nostalgia filled her at the thought of the last time she touched her skin-to-skin, the recruitment drive, but that was long ago, too much had changed and both of them knew it.

"They're going to kill Eren!" Armin whispered loudly, trying his best to keep his voice low to make sure that nobody was listening in on their conversation. "They'll kill him for no other reason than that they fear what they don't understand. They don't see that their fear is pushing humanity to the brink of extinction. Maybe it's too late to change their minds, but what if we can? We have no choice but to bet everything on that chance. I'm sorry, the last thing we want is to cause you grief, but well, the only way to sneak him through the wall checkpoints is with the help of someone in the Military Police."

"You're our only hope." Isabel whispered quietly, eyes pleadingly staring into Annie's.

Annie's face expressed an emotion Isabel hadn't quite seen before, a mix between hurt and guilt. "Do I really look like that good of a person to you, Isabel?"