Beginnings | Attack on Titan Alternate History Novel | Book One

Chapter Fifteen: Crime

Hans lifted his body off his sleeping bag, yawning as he walked downstairs passing Petra.

"Good morning!" She greeted kindly as Hans smiled and nodded.

"Hans!" Levi shouted to him.

He turned around to see him behind him.

"Have you seen Eren?!" Levi hissed as he shook his head. "Find him."

"Yes, sir," Hans responded wearily with a salute.

He entered the dining room, noticing Eren walk out, his face sulked beyond recognition.

"Captain Levi's looking for you," Hans stated. "I'd head up before he lops your head off."

"Ok," Eren responded lifelessly.

"What's wrong?" Hans asked him. "You look like you've been through hell and back."

"Hange kept me up all night," Eren mumbled. "She wouldn't stop talking about her pet Titans, Sawney and Beane."

"Thanks for listening, Eren!!!" Hange exclaimed, walking out the door as if nothing was wrong.

Hans stared at her in shock.

A whole night up and not a single sign of fatigue.

Suddenly, Hange's assistant Moblit burst through the door.

"Section Commander Hange!!!" He exclaimed. "Come quickly! The test subjects! They're dead! Both of them killed!!!"

Hange's eyes widened as she rushed out the door.

They ran after her, jumping on their horses riding alongside Levi's squad arriving at the holding facility, where the two steaming skeletons of her captured Titans simmered under the midday sun.

Hange dropped to her knees, screaming out in agony.

"SAWNEY, BEANE!!!" She cried. "How could this happen?! Somebody tell me this isn't real!!!!"

She continued screaming as if someone killed her child in front of her.

"They were valuable specimens," Gunther stated, looking down in disappointment. "Is this a soldier's work?"

"Yeah," Eld replied. "But they haven't pegged the one responsible yet. They were killed right before dawn, apparently. By the time the guards got here, the bastard cleared out on ODM gear."

"Whoever it was must've had a lookout," Gunther observed. "To warn him about the guards."

"SAWNEY!!!" Hange screamed at the top of her lungs, sobbing over herself like a small child.

"Oh dear," Oruo laughed at her. "Someone's gone stark raving mad, haven't they?"

Petra elbowed him in the gut, causing him to yelp in pain.

"How did this—," Eren gasped in shock. "How did this happen?"

"Why would someone do this?!" Hans huffed in frustration. "There was more we could have learned!"

"Let it go," Levi answered them. "This is a matter for the Military Police."

They nodded as Levi walked away and they felt a presence as someone leaned over their shoulders, placing their head between them.

"What is it you think you see?" Erwin whispered, as they looked up at him in shock. "Who do you think the real enemy is here?"

They stared at him in confusion.

"Ignore me," Erwin added. "Loaded question."

He walked away as they stared at him speechlessly.

On their way out, Hans spotted Sasha peeking in to see what all the fuss was about.