In Between The Ends

Chapter Ten

"The Jaegerist who helped us escape the Capitol?" Jean asked in confusion.

"Yes! She told me that she planned on becoming a doctor if her residence here on the mainland was granted. Armin, didn't you vouch for her during her hearing?" Connie turned to him expectantly.

Armin nodded but then frowned, trying to bring back details buried in three years of worth of information. "The last thing I remember was her gaining access to training at the Medical Technology Centre down the street from there. The Azamabito mentioned that she was contributing amazing things to the world of medicine, but I guess I just lost track of her after that..."

"So now we must convince an ex Jeagerist refugee to not only bribe an incredibly grumpy ex war hero into coming with us on an objectively impossible mission, but also to go with us on said mission, back to the land she risked her life to escape?"

Pieck's words hung in the air as they digested what they would be asking of Arya should she agree. Armin thought about all she had done for them, of her desire to live a free life of helping others and knew what they were considering was too much to ask from one person. He knew that he should shoot down this line of thought immediately, but just as he had known to trust her back then, he now had this feeling deep in his stomach that she was important to this, somehow. That her role in helping them escape Paradis would become a piece of the bigger picture they so desperately needed to see. It was this feeling that he now addressed to the company.

"Just as you all were, Arya is free and justified in turning us down. You're right in saying this is too much to ask of her, but it's a request we still have to make. There is something at work here that is once again too big for us to understand yet. But if she can be of any help to us, we must try all the same."

Nodding their heads in agreement, Pieck and Connie rose to follow Armin as he made his way out of the room. Jean shook his head sadly. "Armin's famous last words." He muttered, trailing after them.

Despite the thoroughness of their questioning, they were having very little luck at finding any solid information about Arya or her whereabouts. They had made their way four blocks down to the Medical Technology Centre and had been given permission to speak with the personnel, yet even though a great many of the people they spoke to knew of her, no one seemed to know where she had gone. It had been more than two years since she had finished up her training at the MTC, so the truth was that she could be anywhere.

Their search had led them to a wing labeled "Tissue Reconstruction and Prostheses", a sterile set of corridors with large windows that looked in on both medical training rooms and supplies storage. They were about to loop back to check the other side of the center when a metallic flash caught Connie's attention from within the windowed room they were passing. He stopped to examine the strange metal objects that were resting on the top of the table directly under the window.

"Are those what I think they are?" They all stopped and peered inside with a sense of wonder.

"If you're thinking that they are steel-crafted appendages, then you would be correct." A tall, willowy blonde woman was just emerging from the room they were staring into. She smiled kindly at their flabbergasted expressions.

"I know, I thought the same thing when I first saw the prototype for them."

"How would that even work?" Pieck asked, gawking at what was indeed a metal leg built from the knee down and several steel hands.

"Well, without getting into it, it has a lot to do with skin grafts, nerve extensions and physical therapies. It won't operate the same way as a flesh and bone arms or legs, but it would provide significantly better mobility and comfort to a person missing limbs." The woman smiled again. "You've gotta hand it to Halbrand, she sure knows her stuff."