Pretty Little Liar (Aruani Element Shifter AU) ✔️

Part Two: Thirty Two

The girl ran, and ran, and ran. She didn't know what else to do, and had no idea where she was. The best option was to run, as fast as she can.

The forest was dark and she was scared. She didn't know where she was going to go, or what she was going to do, only that she had to find someone who could help. She had heard from the doctor that there were others like her, and she had to try and find them.

The blue emblem on her hand hurt, following weeks of endless experiments and tests from the doctor. She tried to ignore the pain, and continued to follow the horse footprints on the ground. Her conclusion was that if she followed where the footprints had come from, then she'd find whatever had them running away in the first place.

Amazingly, her conclusion was right, as she stopped right in front of two people, each with emblems on their skin; one man with an emblem identical to hers, and a girl with a fiery red one.

She looked at both of them, scared and confused.

They seemed to be arguing when they saw her. Her ears were ringing and she couldn't hear what they were talking about. The man looked at her with surprise, and tried to walk towards her.

"Hey, hey, it's okay."

She panicked, taking a few steps back.

The other girl stared.

"We didn't get a signal about her," the man turned to the angry blonde girl.

The blonde girl walked over to her and grabbed her arm. Her emblem had been cut into, stitched and harmed so much to the point it was almost unrecognizable.

"The Council," the fire shifter smirked, letting go of her wrist, then turning to look at her. "What did they do to you?"

She was still panting. "The doctor, the doctor!"

"The doctor?" The blonde stared impatiently at her.

Regaining her breath, she tried to find the words. Only, nothing came out, and instead she pointed frantically at her arm, hinting that the doctor had done that. The other two nodded in acknowledgement.

The walked towards her carefully. "Come on. You're safe with us. We're going to take care of you."

The black-haired girl then remembered something important, and took out a pile of folded pages from her torn pocket. She held them out to the man, wanting him to take them.

"What are these?" The man flattened the pages out and read what was on them. "They're pages from a book."

"My mother. Very important. Big book," the girl tried to explain.

The blonde continued to watch as the man looked them over and under carefully.

"Hold on," he read the pages closer. "They're from a book Armin gave me. It was an old book about our history. Yeah, these are from the back."

Upon hearing Armin's name, the blonde girl's red eyes flashed brightly. She was standing further away now, leaning against a tree and smirking.

The man turned to the black-haired girl.

"What's your name?" He tried. She was still unsure, and kept backing away in fear with every step he made. The blonde girl scared her with her strange, red eyes.

She tried to say her name, but couldn't. She was too scared.

The man smiled sympathetically, then looked down at the pages in his hand.

"Why did you give these to us? How did you find us?"

The girl pointed at where her emblem was, and then at his. "M...my p... people..."

The man nodded. "Yes, you're one of us. Don't worry. You're safe. Your mother gave you these, yes?"

She nodded.

The blonde girl spoke up, walking towards them. "She's been captured by the council. While I was in Geneva the coven there told me there was a group of scientists that do tests and shit on shifters to try and take their powers. They don't get on well with some council members here. Look at her emblem."

The man stared at the bleeding, that had definitely been caused by a knife. "And you escaped?"

The girl nodded.

The blonde girl turned away, watching the man's expression carefully.

"What do we do with her now?"

The man thought about it for a minute. "See what she knows."

* * *

Hanji sat in her office, staring blankly at the floor.

Her eyes averted to the lab underneath her, through the window, at where the girl had been locked up and at the new serum that had been created.

Her trail of thought was interrupted by a large crash as Levi walked straight in. He looked angry and burnt in patches. His arm was wrapped in bandages.

"Hello Levi." Her voice was calm and bored.

"Don't," he started, waving his hand in the air to stop her and walking over to stand in front of her. "Erwin told me about the girl. And about your plan. Just tell me how many men you need and when we're doing this."

Hanji grinned. "I'm glad we can see eye to eye," she said, then walked around to face a whiteboard in the corner of the room.

"Three days. We capture the girl and use the serum on her. Then we can put an end to all of this. I'll need the first legion."

Levi furrowed his brows, then walked towards the door. "Three days. Don't fucking let me down." And he slammed the door, leaving her in the room staring after him.

"I won't," she muttered.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the trainee camp a few miles away from the council building recovering in the hospital, three trainee members all sat on a bed talking. They had just woken up after being injured in the battle.

After a minute or so of silence, the girl, Sasha, spoke up to Jean and Connie.

"Did that air shifter look familiar to you?"

Jean bit his nail. "Definitely." He was the one that cut Armin's arm open, and the thought had been in his head all night.

The other one, Connie, shrugged. "There's so much kids our age in this city. It could have just been someone who went to our school."

They were silent, thinking about the boy with dirty blond hair and white-silver eyes.

"I don't know," Jean gave up, lying back down in his bed.

Sasha and Connie looked at each other, each thinking the same thing. It had been a while since they'd finished school, but they'd definitely seen that boy before.