The Grey Angel (Attack on Titan x OC)

Chapter 19

-Nora POV-

“Section Commander, is something wrong?” asked Eren. Hange was looking troubled at the papers she got from Sasha.

“Heh? Well I was finally able to get my hands on the background report I requested for Annie Leonhard” she answered.
“Annie?” asked Eren.

“Yeah, took longer than I was hoping for. The paper trail is a bit of a catastrophe at the moment. Anyway, according to this there were 2 other cadets in the 104th who hailed from the same region. I have their names. One Reiner Braun and Berthold Hoover” she said and we all fell silent. “Not much survives in the way of records. And thanks to the chaos 5 years ago, what we have on them is unreliable. However, we do know that during the long range Scouting formation their unit was given false intel. They were among those intentionally mislead into thinking Eren was in the right wing”

Armin gasped. “Wait just a minute, that’s the section Annie attacked”
“What? What does that mean?” asked Sasha.
“Well, it’s entirely possible they told Annie where they thought Eren was” said Armin.

“Why would they do that?” she asked.
“Where are you going with this, Armin?” asked Eren. “You can’t just accuse…” he got interrupted by Hange.

“I totally agree. Coincidence doesn’t establish relationship. Bearing that in mind, I’m curious to know how the three of them interacted while training. What can you tell me?” she asked.
“I knew Berthold and Reiner were from the same region as Annie, but I never saw them act friendly” said Armin.

“Same with me. And when they did talk it was pretty curt. Plus, Annie wasn’t very social to begin with” said Eren.
“I’ve got nothing” said Mikasa. “Except maybe that…”

“Guys” interrupted Eren. “What are we doing? These are our comrades we’re talking about. Yeah, sure Berthold never has a lot to say. But Reiner is like everyone’s big brother, you know! I mean, he even asked Nora to marry him more than once”
“Please, don’t remind me” I said.

“What I mean, Nora is do you really think he’s capable of lying to us?” he asked.
“Eren does have a point. Think about it, Reiner fought the Female Titan with everything he had. Almost got himself squeezed to a bloody pulp in the process” said Armin, but he suddenly realised something.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“He burst free of her grip at the last minute. Afterwards, Annie though changed her course. In fact, she ran straight towards where Eren was. I mentioned that you might be rear the centre rank but there was no way she could’ve heard me. She wasn’t in ear shot at the time” he explained.

“You’ve got to be kidding” said Eren.
“Do you recall if he seemed unusually interested in Eren’s location?” asked Hange.

“Oh no” said Armin. “I only brought up his position in the first place. Because Reiner asked me where I thought Eren might be. Something else… once he broke free, the Female Titan stood there, staring at her palm. Possibly transfixed by something he’d carved onto her with his blades. Maybe Reiner…”

I sat down. ‘No… no this isn’t true… it can’t be true…’
“What is wrong with you people? The man has been with us from the beginning. You don’t just…” began Eren.

“Enough!” shouted Hange. “All of you, listen up. If we cross paths with the pair in question. Don’t give them any indication of what we’ve just discussed. And under no circumstances are you approach the topic of Annie Leonhard in their company. Before we can ascertain whether they were co-conspirators, we must find, lure and detain them under ground. That’s the plan, are we clear?”