Against The Tide

Chapter Four: Hange's Arrival

In the city of Trost, the streets were dark and quiet. It was late at night, many residents already turned in for the evening. Apart from the warm glow of the street lights that went up and down the roads, sitting on opposite sides of each other and creating a warm illuminating glow just bright enough to light the way for late night, weary travelers. A stray Black mouth cur sniffed at some trash cans outside one of the markets, digging his paw at one of the cans, having caught whiff of something he was interested in.

Curfew was becoming earlier and earlier for the residents of Paradis, as the Jaegerists had caused more and more fear and distress. Families retired at dusk into their homes, and anyone brave enough to stay out late either carried some form of protection, such as a firearm or a knife, or they simply hurried home as quickly as they were able to. And while Queen Historia and the government tried their hardest to deal with the ever growing problem, it was becoming evident that this was only going to get worse.

It seemed like everyone was in their homes for the evening...all except for one individual, Section Commander Hange Zoe was exiting a building to retire to where she was staying for the night, having to pass several alleyways on her way. She stretched long once she exited the building, groaning in exhaustion before sighing. She showed no fear or weariness unlike the typical residents, proving her experience as a soldier. After such a long, stressful day of meetings and trying to figure out manners of how to deal with both Marley and the Jaegerists, she was just ready to down a bottle of bourbon and crash in her bed. How she missed the simpler times, when the most she had to concern herself with was learning all she could about how the titans worked. She would much rather be dealing with titans, fighting them or merely just studying them. She greatly missed those long sleepless nights where she could just hyperfixate on them and their biology...but these days, all she wanted to do was sleep, instead of having to deal with the drama and problems with humans.

In one specific alleyway she started to approach, a figure was hidden in the shadows, hoping she would pass him by. He wore a dark gray cloak with the hood up, watching her start to walk by. Hange, who had been rubbing the sleep from her eye, continued her slow walk towards her bunker for the night. Each of her steps remained silent, as her glance turned to pan the environment around her. Something had seemed... off. It was all too quiet, even this late at night there was always some sort of noise. It felt as if nature had fallen silent, hiding from a threat still unknown to her.

"That's odd..." Hange mumbled to herself, turning around to study the shadows for a moment, before her eye narrowed, attempting to focus on any odd shapes lingering within the deep pits of the alleyways. The hidden figure had placed his hand on the side of a brick building, not realizing just how old it was. With a slight shift, a piece of the brick came loose from his hand and hit the cobblestone pavements before he could catch it, creating a loud knock against the stone.

Hange took a step forward, and was immediately froze, hearing the strange noise.

"Who's out here?! Come out with your hands up!" Hange immediately commanded, her voice hitching slightly in her frightened state, as her hand moved to pull a small pistol from her cloak, aiming it towards the shadows.

"I am not afraid to put a bullet in you, whoever you are. Step out where I can see you! Now!" Hange commented further, growing more and more impatient as she gritted her teeth, pulling the safety of the gun towards her, as her finger gently began to squeeze the trigger slightly, ensuring that her shot would be quick, although rather inaccurate.From the shadows came a long sigh of annoyance.

"God damn it..." a male voice was heard, as the cloaked figure finally walked out from the alleyway.

"I suppose I don't have a choice...you've already found me.." he pulled his hood down, revealing long brown hair, green eyes and a blank, almost eerily nonchalant expression.