CHAPTER 13 - The Escape Plan

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"Eren." Annie said as soon as she got into Eren's room after she shut the door closed. She rushed into Eren's room as if someone was chasing her.

She ran towards Eren and woke him up by tapping his cheek with her palm over and over again.

Eren felt a familiar feeling that made him hold her hand with his left hand as he slowly opened his eyes while uttering a word. It was too familiar, that made him feel a little happy when he felt it. Annie was shocked, as she felt Eren's palm on her hands.

"M-mom?" He said as he sat up. He saw Annie in front of him, and got confused on why Annie looked flushed, that she could not look at him straightly. He soon realized that he was holding her right hand all along.

He remembered the feeling on how his mom used to wake him up when he was still young. He could not help but to feel sad when he remembered it.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Eren felt his face heat up, as he realized what he had done. He as well could not look at her directly like how she was.

Annie closed her eyes as she mentally shook her head. Keeping herself up together. She could not deny that after those months that she spent with him changed their relationship, or was it just for her?

"Eren, we need to escape now." Annie said, as soon as she got her mind together.

Eren got confused with what she said. He knew that Annie wanted to escape from that place as well, but they were trapped there for almost two years already. He did not expect that a day like that would actually come to their fate.

"H-how?" Eren asked with his furrowed brows and clenched fist.

Annie looked at him with her confused eyes as well. She as well did not know on what they could do in order to escape from there.

"I don't know, but we really have to. The Deviant Titan is planning on something. We need to tell the people inside the walls about it!" Annie said and immediately covered her mouth when she realized that her voice got loud.

"What is he planning exactly?" Eren said as he cleched his fists tighter while his eyes showed anger.

"Eren, we need to escape as soon as possible. Please!" She said with her pleading eyes that made Eren look at her with his eyes that changed into worried ones.

"What's the plan?" He asked, trying his best to calm himself in the situation, even though he wanted to release his fury so much.

The both of them kept quiet, as Annie stared at the thin air, thinking of something. Eren was staring at her and was waiting for her to speak.

She was the one who knew the place where they were. He could not contribute on the plan that they should have.

Annie's eyes grew big for a moment as she thought of a plan, before she turned her head to Eren and told him the plan.

"They will be gone next week, we could go there." Annie said. "And we need to go fast."

-

There was a man who was packing his things up in the middle of the night. Looking around cautiously as he was guarding himself. Trying to see if someone might caught him.

He walked quietly on the hallways of the castle as he tried to carry his things up with him. Trying to avoid every military police that was there.

As he successfully escaped from the castle, he suddenly then, went to the stable and grabbed a horse before he started his journey and left the castle grounds. Going to a place where he had lived for a long a time.

The next morning, the guards suddenly knocked on the queen's bedroom. As Historia immediately opened the door, she saw how her guards faced her with urgency written on their faces.

"What's the matter? Aren't you the guards of Mister-" Historia said before she was cut off by one of the two guards who came.

"I am very sorry to interupt your words my queen, but Mister Thomnas had escaped from his room." He said as Historia's eyes grew big and started to think.

Mister Thomnas was under suspicion and was always guarded by guards ever since the asians were found on the hidden underground cell. Not until they knew who was behind that, they would not let Mister Thomnas be free.

"Tell Commander Erwin and the others about it. Also, search the castle grounds and the insides of the other walls." Historia commanded, before she started to prepare herself.

-

Erwin and the others received the news, making them think that it was really Mister Thomnas who was behind the crime that happened.

The Asians refused to answer their questions regarding the matter, but now that Mister Thomnas had escaped, the answer was clear to them that it was him who was behind it.

"Erwin..." Hanji called as she started to help her husband with his clothes. "What do we do after this?"

Erwin closed his eyes and started to think. "We need to capture him. He must know a lot of things that only him could answer."

Hanji's brows furrowed, as she continued to fix Erwin's uniform. "But what if we couldn't capture him?"

Erwin opened his eyes before he sighed. He faced Hanji and placed his left hand on her right shoulder.

"We need to prepare for a possible battle." He said as he noticed the fear in Hanji's eyes.

"What do they really want from us? I'm afraid Erwin." Hanji said before she hugged him and buried her face on his chest.

Erwin placed his left hand on Hanji's head as he pushed himself onto her.

"I know."

Hanji was never afraid of titans. She was not afraid of the upcoming battle. What she was afraid of was the probability of losing the people that she loved the most. Before, she did not care at all, for losing men in every expedition they had was normal for them. Everything changed when she finally had a family. She wanted to protect them no matter what it costs. She did not want to lose any one of them, for she wanted to spend the rest of her days together with them.

Her squad, her friends, John and Erwin.

-

"Annie, are you sure about this?" Eren said while they were walking on the hallways of the place where Eren was unfamiliar with.

Annie looked at him before she tried to speak. "What? You wanna be trapped there for another couple of years?"

Eren looked down as he continued to follow Annie. He looked at his feet and started to think about the years inside the room. He was already outside the walls but he was still trapped on a cage. A much smaller one to be exact.

Annie and Eren grew closer with each other for the past years. Eren thought of all the things that he knew about Annie when something suddenly popped in his mind.

"Annie..." Eren called as Annie was carefully watching their surroundings. Seeing if anyone was still there.

"What?" Annie answered before she stopped and pulled Eren, hiding from a large wall as she saw a titan on their way.

"Why did they want me anyways? They did nothing to me aside from letting me stay at a small room inside this big place." Eren said before he looked around the place that actually looked like a castle for him.

"You had the memories of history. The truth is within you." Annie answered as she tried to look if the coast was clear already. Once she did not see any titans, she held Eren's wrist and pulled him with her.

"And? That thing is not that important unless Historia becomes a titan and tries to eat me. It is only applicable to the Reiss' bloodline." Eren said as he started to look around. He knew that they were getting near to the outside of the castle.

"Historia? Who's Historia?" Annie suddenly asked that made Eren realize that she did not know that Christa was a Reiss.

"It's Christa." Eren simply said that made Annie stop.

"I really don't know anything about you guys at all." Annie said before she faced down.

Eren looked at her before he actually thought and remembered everything that Annie told him before. She did not want to kill anybody. She did not want to harm others, but she got no choice but to follow orders. She was a lone wolf, for she did not want to be friends with anyone. She thought it was just a hindrance for her mission. She was afraid that once she tried to make friends with the others, she would not be able to do her mission that she was actually forced to do.

"Let's get going. Before someone might see us." Eren suddenly said that made Annie look at him. Eren smiled before Annie smiled back.

"You're right." Annie said before she started to walk again. "Eren, when I gave you the signal later, turn into your titan form."

Eren got confused on why would Annie tell him that that made him ask her why.

"Our tiny little feet will prolong our journey to go back to the walls. It will be faster when we are on our titan forms." Annie answered that actually made Eren think.

"Annie, where are the others? Why are we the only ones who are here and the other titans who couldn't think at all?" Eren asked.

Annie looked at him and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. The only order I got from them was to guard you because they will meet someone outside."

It's strange. Eren thought as he and Annie was already walking on the grounds on the outside of the castle.

"Eren! Transform into your titan form!" Annie said as she tried to close the gates of the castle to prevent the other titans inside to follow them.

Eren bit his thumb, as Annie turned into a female titan. Eren bit his thumb once more as his eyes gave off the worried image on his face. He could not turn into a titan.

Annie suddenly grabbed him and lifted him up. She placed him on her left shoulder before she started to run towards the woods. There, Eren could see how beautiful the place was. How beautiful the land of the titans was, before he remembered Armin's words. He smiled unconsciously as he remembered the faces of his old friends and felt that finally, he could see them again.

-

"Any news inside wall rose?" Erwin said as soon as he entered the conference room where Mikasa, Levi and Jean were inside, waiting for the others to come.

"No sir. We couldn't find Mister Thomnas inside the wall and on the different districts." Jean answered as he stood up and saluted at Erwin. Hanji who was behind Erwin suddenly faced Mikasa and Levi before she asked a question.

"What about in Wall Maria?" Hanji asked the two who were assigned on the specific place.

"We didn't find him there." Levi simply said with his arms crossed on his chest.

"We could not find him anymore sir. I believe we should stop the search for now." Mikasa suddenly said that made Erwin and Hanji's eyes grew big.

"Why?" Erwin asked as he sat on a vacant chair that was for him.

"One of the garrison told me that they saw a 13 meter class titan the other night who climed up the wall and escaped." Mikasa said befire she paused. "I do believe that it was Mister Thomnas who was the titan sir."

Erwin's eyes grew big as he started to stare at a blank space. Clenching his fist before Hanji held his hand.

"So he was a spy all those times?" Erwin unconsciously said before Mikasa answered him.

"Most probably sir." She formally said, making Erwin clench his hand more.

"I knew it." Erwin said before he looked up to Levi and the others. "We have to prepare now. They will attack us anytime soon. Their next target will be the queen."

"What do you mean Erwin? How do you know about those?" Levi suddenly asked as the memories of Erwin's father flashed on Erwin's mind.

He remembered the things that he knew about the government before that caused the death of his father.

"I just... know." Erwin said as his eyes softened and the clenching fist of him was no more.

Levi sighed and looked down at the table.

"Okay. I trust your words." Levi said before he stood up.

"We could continue this meeting when you already made up your mind, Erwin." Levi said before he left.

Mikasa stood up and saluted at the two head officers, before she followed Levi who just left them.

"Captain..." She called. Levi was surprised that made him become stiff for a moment when he heard her voice called him.

It had already been a few weeks since the incident happened. The night she told him that she wanted to go back to the sea together with him. The night he hugged her unconsciously, the night he absentmindedly kissed her on her lips. Since then, he could not look onto Mikasa's eyes directly. He did not know how to face her normally like how he did before.

Each time he rememered the incident, it would always make him feel uncomfortably happy for no reason. He did not know what he was feeling exactly was, but he knew that he was happy.

"Captain..." She called once more. He heard her footsteps stopped before he sighed deeply and decided to face her with his blank face.

"Yes?" He said as soon as he faced her. Looking directly at her eyes before a pfft was released from Mikasa's mouth.

"What?" Levi asked with an irritated face. Confused on why Mikasa held in her laughter.

"I'm sorry sir. But, I just couldn't help myself but to laugh a bit in this awkward atmosphere that we have." She said as she started to return to her usual self.

"What do you want, Ackerman?" Levi said as he twitched his eyebrows when Mikasa suddenly got serious.

"Are you avoiding me?" Mikasa suddenly asked that made Levi surprised for a second before he looked at Mikasa.

"Wh-what are you saying?" Levi said.

"I suddenly felt so distant from you." Mikasa said. Levi only looked down to his feet before Mikasa started to speak again. "What happened? Is it about the-"

"Stop." Levi said that made Mikasa's eyes grew big for a second. "Please, don't make me remember it."

Mikasa felt a little bit of pain with his words. She did not know what to say, she did not know what to do. Running away was not her thing, but staying without doing anything was not either.

"A- I'm sorry. I guess I shouldn't have tried to talk to you." Mikasa said before she turned her back and walked away from him.

Levi's eyes grew big when he saw her eyes. He realized that he was wrong. He realized that his words were wrong. He did not mean it that way. He only said it because remembering it would make him feel the unfamiliar feeling again, and he would be ashamed of himself if he would let Mikasa see him in that state.

"M-Mikasa, that's not what I meant!" Levi said before he followed her, who was already gone in the hallways of their small castle like quarters.

Little did they notice that Jean was there. He saw what happened and heard what they talked about. He did not get the whole thought of their conversation was but, there was one thing he was sure about.

He knew he already lost, and he accepted his defeat.