Danger days :Titan Warfare

Captain Hange Zoe

(Eren POV)
We headed into the lab. Dad followed us. Armin snorted as he lead the Recruits down to lunch. Mobit stood holding the hand of a tiny Titan. The swish of the sword being drawing at my side had me shifting in front of my father.
"Relax, he isn't sentient." Mobit stated. "Actually unless I move him, he can't even move." He added. The sword tip slipped under Hange's chin.
"You best start talking, shitty glasses." Levi snarled. The sword didn't phase the captain. She shoved it away.
"I am little runt." She didn't even miss a stride as she walked up to Mobit. "Bean, come to mama." She held her hands out. The thing just stood there. Hange frowned. "We'll work on that." She muttered.
"Hange!" Erwin cried.
"Oh, yes. Well you see as I was listening to the doctors story a few things stuck with me." She tapped her chin as she paced. "If it was actually Zeke in the car with the wife, then he should have died. Drowned before anyone could have saved him." She pointed out. "You said she called crying, that something was wrong with Zeke." It wasn't a question to dad nodded his head.
"OK, hear me out.." We knew this was going to be one of her long winded rants. Pixus had already sat in Armin's desk chair. I dropped into my wheel chair pulling Levi onto my lap. Dad took Hange's chair when Erwin scooted it over to him. The tall lean commander sat on the edge of the Captains desk. She waited until we were all settled.
"I think what was in that car with your wife, no..." She shook her head correcting herself. "I know that what was in the car with your wife, wasn't your son. I'm pretty sure it was one of them." She pointed to the thing still stationary beside Mobit. "You see the material I use for Eren's leg, I helped develop from a formula that was designed forty years ago. They were just missing some key components that didn't, or weren't identified back then. I was able to use them to make it more realistic and life like." She gestured toward my leg then went on with her story.
"It's durable and stretchy. Plus you can grow it into any shape you need. If given enough time you could probably build a real body with the stuff." Her eyes lit up at this.
"Hange!" Erwin called her back to us.
"This is how I believe you wife's final night went. She had dinner with her parents since you were working late. My guess would be they had come to her house. Afterwards she would have bathed your son and put him to bed. Zeke loved his grandfather. If the man had come into his room and said he could, what spend the night with gramps....?" Hange shrugged. "... something to get the boy to leave with him. I'm sure Zeke would have been more than happy to go with him. Once the boy was out of sight, one of his men would have replaced him with a mini Titan. One that was probably like this one. Bean is not sentient, he has no thought or emotions. Basically he is a sculpture that can move if we want to move him." Here Mobit walked forward holding the tiny hand. The child Titan moved with him. He stopped after a few paces.
"OK, so when Mrs. Doctor went to check on her son, she would have seen this in the bed. Maybe the first time or two she just peeked in the door. But when she was ready to go to bed herself she decided to give Zeke a kiss goodnight, tuck him in better, whatever. Anyway she saw it wasn't Zeke but this thing that resembled him." She patted the head of her little creation.
"Freaking out, she wants her son back. So she bundles this thing up, after all she was a mother, and takes it into the car. But you said it was odd for her to have him in the front seat. Probably because she knew it wasn't real. She may have had previous experience with experiments like this growing up. So, she was taking it to her father to demand her son back." Hange moved to her computer desk. She tapped on a few keys as Erwin watched her. Standing back up she turned to face us.
"Levi please stand over there by the door." Hange asked/ demanded sweetly. Cautiously my husband did as asked. Mobit let go of the tiny Titan. The things eyes glowed a deep red color. I had seen this in the field. Tensing I watched. The thing spun it's head looking at each of us. Levi drew his sword. I wasn't sure if that was what caught the things attention, but it's head swung to Levi. It ran.
Little legs pumping hard the tiny fucker was fast. I leapt from my chair. Levi swung the sword at its head, the thing ducked. I kicked it off course. It snarled but sprang back at Levi. It's back was to me. I smashed my fist into the nape of its neck. Severing the spinal cord connection.
"WHAT THE HELL YOU STUPID SHITTY FUCKING GLASSES FREAK!" Levi thundered.
"They're programed to kill us. Or certain ones of us. He programs them to kill me." I whispered looking down at the dough like foam clinging to my hand.
"I think so. You see, I believe Dina's father thought Grisha would be the one to check on his son when he came home. He would have found the doppelganger and awoken his wife. She would have told him what was going on and they would proceed to go get Zeke back together. He wanted to kill you both." She glanced at dad. Hange told Mobit to clean up Beans remains.
"Instead Dina discovered it on her own. Now I told Bean to attack Levi, knowing he had the sword. But...." Now a door opened. Another tiny Titan came out. This one moved swiftly it didn't look around. It came right for Levi and I. Levi sprang to its left, I dodged right. It swung its head towards me. Before I could engage, the sword cut the spinal cord.
"Ah, sorry Sony." Hange said looking down at the thing.
"That one I programed to go after Eren." She looked around at us all. "Before you came in. I set it up to attack at exactly 12:15." We all looked to the clock. It clicked over to 12:16 as we starred at it." Hange went on.
"I think the one with Dina was programed to attack once it hit that spot on the road. It was perfect to send the car into the pond."
"My god." Dad swiped a hand over his face holding it before his mouth. He looked like he had seen a million ghosts.
"Your telling us they are like fleshy robots?" Erwin asked.
"Something like that, yes. Zeke was never injured. It would be easy to put his DNA in one of them, or with the old man's money he just paid for it to match. He raised Zeke with these things." Hange pointed out. She patted dad on the shoulder.
"I'm sorry, this must be so shocking for you." She said softly. Dad nodded lowering his hand into his lap.
"So we are killing ourselves out there to destroy murderous dough boy robots?" Levi asked.
"I don't think all of them are." She turned to Mobit again. He was sitting down with a VR helmet on. His hands in the gloves, he reached out. Mimicked opening a door, another Titan came walking out. Mobit waved, it waved. This one was small too.
"Why are they all child sized?" I asked.
"I grew them overnight. To make them bigger I would have had to use a bigger batch and grow them for five to seven weeks."
"That explains some of the lulls we get. He is making more during that time." Erwin stated.
"Some of them are controlled, some programed and some are just set loose randomly?" Levi asked. Hange nodded.
"As far as I can tell, yes. Severing the spinal column from the brain component is the best way to sever the upload link. That way they blow up." She tapped her chin. "I have a few more things I want to work on with this one." She stroked the things arm. "I have a feeling if left alone, they would eventually just disintegrate." She mumbled to herself.
"After causing how much destruction?" Erwin growled. Hange shrugged.
"If Zeke is indeed intent on getting his hands on Eren or Carla, then they may have a life expectancy that would allow them to do that."
"Wait. Where's mom right now?" I demanded.
"In the house. She rode up with me." Dad said. "She didn't feel like waiting outside so she went into talk with Connie and Sasha." He added. We nodded.
"I think we have a few more days until he attacks again. Maybe even a week." Hange told us.
"That would be long enough to get Carla away from this area." Erwin stated.
"Why attack the city though?" I asked.
"Those attacks only started two months ago. Maybe something..." Erwin began.
"Carla and I bought a house in the walls two months ago. We are having it renovated before moving in at the end of the month. She wanted to surprise Mikasa and Eren so we didn't say anything sooner." Dad stated.
"Public records would know who was buying property. All Zeke would need to do is set up a program that searched for your name." Hange stated.
"He knew they were moving in. May not have known about the renovations but decided mom was an easier target than me." I concluded.
"Well, we can't keep you both in the same place." Pixus piped up. "The Garrison will protect your mother. Use your units to protect the walls, and yourself Yeager." He stated.
"Now can we go get some food?" he asked. Hange informed us all that was all she had to show us. We walked out. All of us lost in our own thoughts. Dad went to get mom and bring her down to have lunch with us. I hugged her, she patted my cheek.
"Wow, was it really that bad?" Armin asked when we sat down to eat with him.
"You know Hange. She loves surprising us with her antics." I muttered as I buttered my roll.
"It's weird how well Mobit just fit in with her, isn't?" Erwin asked. We all nodded.
"Like he had always been there." I added.
We ate in relative silence as we were all lost in our own thoughts. As the time ticked away, however, the new cadets grew restless. Church was particularly annoying. He did wait until after my parents left.
"How do you fly?" Those boxy things?" he asked Levi as we were throwing away our garbage.
"The wires come out of there, yes. As does the swords we defend ourselves with."
"Do you need any special talent to learn to fly like that?" I frowned when Church cut me off from reaching Levi's side.
"Balance." Levi muttered. He was looking out at the clear sky.
"Why though?" Church pressed. Armin touched my arm. He had a smirk on his face. Erwin moved to my other side, grinning like an evil Santa. I snorted.
We hung back watching the show. Levi was using less and less words to answer Church's endless questions. Finally, when we thought he wasn't going tot do anything, Levi planted Church in the ground.
"Will you just shut up!" he barked. "You will learn to use the wires, stop pestering me!" He glanced around. The three of us were fighting not to laugh.
"Fucking brat, you let him bother me!" He snarled at me. With a huge grin on my face I walked up to him. Wrapping my arms around his waist I pulled him into me.
"I'm sorry, love, but he had to be put in his place." I kissed Levi's nose. He swatted me on the back of the head. His fingers clutched my hair as he pulled me in for a deep kiss.
"Fuck that's hot." Church mumbled. We both kicked him without breaking the kiss. "Damn." He laughed scurrying out of our reach.