Humanity's Strongest Hope

Chapter Thirteen

Erwin led both Eren and Levi to the meeting room. Hange and Mike were there when they both arrived, each with solemn looks on their faces. Eren was still in disbelief about the entire situation.

Annie, Bertholdt and Reiner?

He couldn't even feel betrayed. The shock hadn't worn off yet.

"We've got even more bad news," Mike spoke up in the silence of the room. "Kenny's also missing."

Levi had gone rigid next to him. Eren couldn't imagine how his Captain could be feeling at the moment. He had found out three people from his squad were traitors and that his murderer of an uncle had gone missing, all within an hour. Eren's heart ached for him. The Shifter had to hold himself back from pulling Levi into his arms.

"We can't focus on that right now," Erwin spoke up. "It's possible they might already know we're planning on plugging the wall in Maria, which means, we'll have to act fast. Hange, do you have anything that could help us?"

Said brunette shifted her sights to Eren. "Oh, I have something alright. It involves using Eren's titan form to our advantage. I'd need to conduct some experiments before confirming anything."

"No," Levi quickly declared. "No more experiments. With what Eren's been experiencing lately, the last thing he needs is being your guinea pig."

"It's okay, Captain," Eren said before Hange could reply. Eren held Levi's gaze. "If I can do something, anything, to help, I'd want to."

Levi frowned at him. Eren understood his Captain was worried for his wellbeing, but Eren didn't want to be coddled, not even by Levi. Everything was starting to sink in then and all Eren could feel at the moment was boiling hatred. Hatred for the three people he had considered friends, he had trained with for years. It hurt more than any painful experiments Hange had ever subjected him to.

"We didn't bring Eren here to talk about any experiments," Mike said. The blond scrutinised Eren, crossing his arms. "How would you describe your relationship with the three perpetrators?"

Eren clicked his teeth together to stop himself from scowling. "I wasn't really close with Bertholdt, Annie even less since she wasn't the type to socialise. But Reiner... He was a good friend to everyone. The type of person who looked out for his comrades and made sure everyone was okay. When I heard from the Captain about the rat situation, he would have been one of the last people I would have suspected."

"Did they ever seem interested in military information?" Erwin then asked. "Were they ever pushy with specific questions?"

Eren went to shake his head but paused. He recalled his last conversation with Reiner back in the bathroom of the safehouse.

"I don't know if this will be helpful, but," Eren began slowly. "Reiner did seem interested in knowing about why we had left our base so suddenly."

"Interesting," Hange mused, her nails tapping the tabletop. "That would mean he had no idea about the raid that happened. If we're under the assumption that these three are working together, and Reiner had no idea about the raid, wouldn't that mean they had nothing to do with the discovery of Levi's base?"

"Not necessarily," Erwin intervened, eyebrows pulled in thought. "For all we know, he might have been pretending so we wouldn't suspect. Or, they might not even be working together, although that seems highly unlikely. Another thing to consider is the fact that one of them might be the leader and wouldn't have informed them of the raid, leaving the others in the dark as a precaution if they were ever caught."

"The more we talk about this the more uneasy I feel." Mike sighed out.

"We have to tell our squads." Levi declared. "Like you said Hange, we all need to be on the same damn page."