𝔇𝔢𝔣𝔦𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔢 (𝔏𝔢𝔳𝔦 𝔵 ℜ𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔯)

LV - Valkyrie Of War

"Don't leave my office without dismissal again. Understood?"

***

Knock.

The sound seemed to echo throughout the room on the other side of the door, muffled movement ceasing as the room occupant processed the sound in their head. A short, silent moment passed before a loud crash sounded, followed by three loud thumps of footsteps lead up to the door before I heard the lock being unlatched and a disheveled Hange opens the door.

"Hey, stranger! Come, come! I'm running some tests." I didn't even get time to blink before my jacket sleeve was caught up in her grasp, her eager footsteps dragging me into the lab behind her.

"Woah, what are you testing for you to be so excited about?" I ask matching her pace after a few trips over air and my own feet.

"Look." She says, turning to face me as her eyes gleam at her hand pushed into her pocket. Pulling her hand out, she held a blue crystal like rock. I cocked my head at it, a silent urge to continue with an explanation. "This is a piece of the hardened skin from the female titan." My eyes widened before I reach up to grab it, her hand carefully placing it in my fingertips.

"It didn't disappear?" I whisper, bemusement clear in my tone as I stare at it unblinkingly. It was beautiful, it seemed to illuminate a blue glow from the reflection of the candlelight.

"Exactly! Which is what brings me over here." She says grabbing my wrist and dragging me towards a device I believe she called a microscope. Under the lenses sat a rock, a supposedly normal looking rock, but what could a normal rock have for Hange to seem so invested in it? And what was the relation between the crystal and this rock?

"What am I looking at?" I ask, the crystal still in my hand.

"This, my friend, is a device that I created to be able to observe the structure of substances that the naked eye cannot see. Look into that bit at the top, it should be angled at the rock. Through those lenses you should be able to see the fibers of the rock, and if I change the lenses to this-" She says, digging into a drawer under the counter, pulling out a thicker, denser cylinder of glass. "You can make out the molecular structure of the substance. I found that to make this type of glass, you need to have pure silicon dioxide in order to purify it, hence why everything is so much more focused and zoomed in."

"Wait wait, so this type of thing can identify multiple different things,  but also the similarities between two or more things?" I ask, gazing at the device before back at her.

"Precisely, which also brings me to this thing." She says, removing the current lenses and putting the thicker one in. "Look at the structure of this rock, and then switch it to that crystal." I do as she says, studying this new form of seeing the world from such a minuscule perspective, before I put my hand in to change the rock.

"Ew, is that what my hand looks like up close?" I ask, grimacing at the sight. "Don't let Levi see this, he'll lock himself away in a room full of cleanliness and lemon scented soap."

"Bizarre, isn't it?" She says, purposely ignoring my statement. I switch the rock to the crystal, studying this ones structures, to which they're both very similar. I pull away, frowning at the rock in my hand questioning whether I had actually switched the two.

"They're basically the same." I say, looking up at the glass eyed brunette.

"Exactly! That piece you're holding there is a chunk of rubble from the wall I had taken sample of after we had captured Annie. If it is what I think, then maybe the walls are made up entirely of hardened titan skin, the same stuff Annie used in titan form to enhance her attacks and make them more lethal!" She exclaims.