Hope Beyond The Lies [ATTACK ON TITAN OC FANFICTION]

2.6 Familiar Traditions

It might have just been a couple of days of confinement, but those few days that I spent under punishment was eventful enough. As some sort of precautionary measure, no one but the Survey Corps' captains and Commander Erwin himself was permitted to visit me. I should've known from the Commander's defiance on letting me be interrogated by the Military Police was already a hint on his motives for me.

I remember that small dark room lit by a single candle light with my hands chained to the table while Captain Erwin sits across from me with his eyes analyzing my every move.

"I'm sorry Commander but for both your sake and mine, I cannot answer your questions"

He quickly gets up from the table, clearly frustrated by my tightly knit lips. I start to shrink the moment he turns his eyes back to me with that ever so stoic gaze. However, my eyes cannot help but wonder to his missing limb.

"What do you want in exchange for information regarding the world beyond the walls?"

I froze the moment I saw the light of opportunity spark from his desperate eyes. At that moment, nothing else was inside my head.

Nothing, but the possibility of being with him again.

"In exchange?", I repeated. A bit shocked.

" Tell me what you want and I'll see it done"

However, its all too suspicious for the Commander to offer someone as sketchy as me such a generous offer.

" Why do you want to know about it so urgently? Why not wait until we reach Eren's basement to get your hands around the truth of this world?"

He slowly sits back to his chair with a distant gaze. As if my words just transported him somewhere.

" My father, long ago, told me the possibility of humanity existing beyond these walls. However, the moment he incited that idea inside the head of his foolish son- it signed him to meet his end by the hands of....", he avoids mentioning who they are, but I can see hatred flicker within his eyes.

"Now, I'm trying to discover what my father wasn't able to find out during his lifetime. It is all that I've been fighting for eversince my first salute to offer my heart to humanity. To think that I've come this close- to think that I am sitting before someone who actually knows the mysteries that I've been searching for all my life. Rizabeth, I cannot hold myself back any longer. With this amputated arm of mine, I am reminded of my own mortality and limitations. Who knows if I will be able to return from the expedition or not so I should ask now"

I breathed in as I let his short explanation sink into me. Inside my head, I browsed through the catalogue of memories I have- trying to figure out which I can tell and which I cannot. Actually, who even knows if I'm always correct? Its not like I've actually seen these things myself.

" I want safety -for both me and Bertolt"

He raises his eyebrow at me. " The colossal titan?"

I nodded my head. " In exchange for information regarding the world outside of the walls, I need you to promise that"

Standing up from his chair, I watch him pace around the room in deep contemplation while I was biting my lip, hoping its enough leverage to get the ending I want. The whole world can burn for all I care, as long as Bertolt and I are together... that's all that matters to me.

"How can you be so sure that we can trust him?"

************

"Why do I have to be the one to disguise myself as Eren? I look nothing like the bastard!"