Hello, Reader-Chan. Let me apologize for my procrastination, stupidity, and failure to update. Please don't throw anything at me *ducks behind computer*
I realize, that now is the time to do what I have repeatedly promised. Update. Please forgive me.
It is going to be the one year anniversary of my first actual, multiple chapter fanfiction. For months, I just didn't feel like writing. That was no excuse. I am sorry.
Looking back over this fanfiction...I REALIZE HOW SUCKY MY WRITING WAS BACK THEN. I mean, seriously! These chapters are so short! My descriptions are horrible...but now, I resolve to show you how much my writing has improved. Thank you to everyone who had supported me. I will treasure your reviews forever, but now is the time for me to rewrite this whole thing. Thank you for bearing with me. Please enjoy.
(My writing was so cringy back then…)
"Annie Leonhardt."
The scientist stood in front of the crystal, her nose barely touching its cool surface. Her glasses were off, clutched in one of her hands. The other hand lay flat on the crystal itself.
"Why won't you just come out? None of your friends in training reported you to be a coward, but, of course, if I were you, and I knew what was in store for me, I'd stay in there forever."
She hung her head with a sigh.. It had been over five months since the girl had trapped herself.
"They said you always looked like you were bored. Is that true? Aren't your bored right now? Just...standing there. Doing nothing. Watching the guards change day in and day out. Watching their numbers decrease until there's never more than one. Or are you waiting until there's none at all?"
Hange waited for a reply like she always did. She had some suspicions that she was being heard. And, after all, if was common courtesy.
"Why won't you just come out?"
This time, her voice broke slightly, and she curled her hand on the surface of the crystal halfway into a fist.
"Things are bad now, don't you know? There's so many things you could tell us. We could make a deal…"
Hange stepped back, taking her hand from the crystal and swallowing. She out her glasses back on. The lenses fogged up slightly.
"See you tomorrow, Ms. Leonhardt. We'll get your secrets soon enough."
She said this as she walked out of the room, neither of the occupants believing them.
0~o~0
The past five months had changed Hange. She was more serious. Less likely to blurt out random facts and bother others. Some would say she was growing more sane. They were wrong. Hange knew she was failing and slowly descending toward insanity. Each failure the break the crystal was a blow to her heart. She was failing Eld, Gunther, Olou...Petra.
The only woman in Squad Levi had been quite close to the scientist. They talked long into the night, the day often ending with Petra finding Hange asleep in the most random places and then bringing her back to their room to be tucked in. The ginger haired soldier had a 'mother hen' disposition that Hange missed dearly.
Dragging one hand along the rough, stone wall, Hange made her way back to her room in the Survey Corp Headquarters. She opened the door and looked around to see that Levi had been in there recently. Her bed was made, empty plates and cups had been removed, and the countless papers had been stacked neatly by her worn, oak desk.
Hange took in a deep breath and looked out the window, registering that it was night. Or rather, it was early morning. She had stayed up this late enough times to know that dawn would break in a few hours.
There was one corner of the room that had not been cleaned. A few cansavses turned so whatever was painting on the front to them as facing the wall. Hange felt that intense wave of sadness wash over her again. She had been worried that Petra's appearance would escape her mind. Her head was so cluttered all the time. The scientist had painted Petra over and over again, but each painting was unfinished. Some were pencil sketches half painted in. Some were all painted for one feature. Eyes. Lips. Hair.
Hange shook her head, walking over to her desk and sitting down. She slid her gaze over the stacks of paper, each sheet holding a detailed plan for breaking the crystal.
The fire in her room was fed with failed plans alone.
She reached for a quill and some ink, ready to write today's entry for her journal. In a way, she had two journals. One was bound with leather and made of paper. The other was bound with ropes and chains and an unbreakable material. Talking to the girl in the crystal was one of the things that kept her from falling of the edge of sanity, however hard that was to believe. She found talking to the crystal comforting in the way one might be prompted to tell their secrets to a stranger.
She looked at the quill for a moment before setting it down. Filling in her journal could wait.
Two large chunks of crystal sat in the fire, nestled in the crackling embers like dragon eggs. They had been recovered from the fingers of the Female Titan that Mikasa Ackerman had sliced off. The rest of the crystal had immediately disintegrated along with the two titan forms. (Convenient but oh so infuriating!)
It had been a split second idea of Hange's to store what was left of the crystal in extremely high temperatures, which had surprisingly worked. Unlike titan flesh, the crystal was very heavy, and it took a lot of effort for Hange to lift one of the pieces out of the fire with a large, thick pair of iron clamps, wearing thick protective gloves. She set it on the metal tray on her desk, which was slightly burnt, and then dropped the tool onto the floor haphazardly.
Feeling the intense heat of the crystal from only a few feet away. The piece was roughly a foot and a half tall and over two feet around, clear with a blueish tint that shifted depending on the lighting.
Hange went through the motions of testing the crystal as she always did, using different tools to try and scratch its surface. As usual, she failed to do so. She removed the second chunk of crystal from the fire, setting it next to the first. This one was slightly smaller and was subjected to the same treatment.
Having expected nothing to happen, Hange didn't even sigh with disappointment. She lay one hand on the larger crystal, knowing that it would only be a few more minutes until she would have to place them back into the fire. Knowing that nothing would happen tonight, Hange used the iron hammer head to hit the larger crustal one last time.
She was rewarded with a high ping. The scientist sat straight up mouth hanging open and eyes widening slightly as she peered at the crystal. That sound. It was of a high pitch than usual. Looking down at the hammer, she hit the small crystal. It too made a high ping.
Hange's heart started beating faster in her chest. She felt like she was on the verge of some discovery. Three months, and nothing had happened. Three months, and she was rewarded with a high sound. What did it mean?
It's brittle, she realized. The surface is brittle.
Her breath quickened. She had never done these tests so late at night. Could this be a common occurrence. Blood rushed in her ears. He heard her pounding heart as he mind raced.
Could this be happening to the actual crystal at this very moment?
Hange let out some sort of strangled cry as she stood suddenly, the chair behind her crashing to the ground. She was about to run from the room when she remembered the two specimens at her desk. She couldn't afford to leave them out of the fire.
Hurriedly, the scientist gripped one with her gloved hands, not caring as it burned her. She dropped it into the flames, not bothering to use the clamps. She then did the same with the other, dropping it nearly onto the first.
As she ran out of the room, Hange did not hear the sharp crack of crystal on crystal nor did she hear the small piece skitter out of the flames and onto the floor.
Her feet pounded down the corridor, most of the torches either burned out or burned low. The hallways were dark and shadowy, but Hange knew them by heart. She had paused to take one from its perch on the wall, and its flames now streamed behind her as she ran, lighting her path.
At last, she reached the cell, deep underground, fumbling with the key to unlock the steel door. The soldier on guard was asleep, leaning against the wall at an awkward angle with his mouth hanging open. Hange barely noticed as she burst through the door, stumbling into the room. She drops the torch behind her, its flame flaring once and then dimming. Shadows surrounded the scientist as she looks up at the crystal, heart beating like a rabbit's.
Hange raises the hammer and brings it down on the surface of the crystal. A high pitched sound resounds around the room. She drops the tool with a clang and steps back, bringing her hands to her head. It was weak. Weakening.
Regular tools would not break it, she knew, but there had to be another way. She had to record this. Immediately. Erwin. Levi. They would have to now. This discovery might not mean anything, but it was a discovery nevertheless. A change. Something to show to the other branches of the military for the past three months.
"You aren't invincible," Hange whispers, her glasses shining in the dimming light.
Not bothering to pick up the torch or hammer, Hange dashes out of the cell, the guard outside oblivious to her, and she oblivious to him.
The scientist reaches her room and skids inside, already thinking the words she will write in her journal, already thinking of what she will tell Erwin and Levi. That's when she saw the glint on the floor. The glint of a small piece of crystal barely four inches long and rapidly disintegrating. Bits of ash and dying embers were scattered around it, evidence that the small chunk had came from the fire.
Hange froze for a moment, her mind trying to grasp what had happened. She crouched next to it, her hand shakily nearing the chunk of crystal. It wasn't hot, but warm. She grasped it quickly and set it into the flames, peering through the fire to see where it had broken off. She gasped.
The bigger crystal had fallen on top of the smaller one due to her carelessness and excitement. The smaller one had a jagged crack running down its side where a piece of it had broken off.
Hange sat there for a few moments, frozen. She was seeing but not believing. This was impossible. She had stumbled upon a solution by accident. Five months of sleepless nights and overwhelming stress. Five months of testing ways to break the crystal and get to the girl inside. Five months of failure.
Crystal could break crystal. This was the solution.
Hange swallowed once and got to her feet as if a trance, not yet daring to leap into the air and jump for joy, but she could not argue with the evidence in front of her. One of the pieces had broken. She had found the answer by accident.
0~o~0
A deep sound reverberated through the cell. There was a pause, and then it sounded again. This pattern repeated itself over and over and had been doing so for the past nine. The stone room was filled with people, all of them soldiers, all of them armed in full 3DMG gear and holding rifles. Curiously enough, none of them were those from the 104th training regiment. Most of them were from the Military Police, a few Garrison, and only two soldiers were from the Survey Corp.
Hange and Levi watched, the former wringing her hands in anticipation and nervousness. They were already blistered from taking part in breaking the crystal, using crudely formed sledge hammers made from the crystal pieces.
Lev had refused to take part; it was obvious he thought the plan would be a failure.
"I'm not going to get all sweaty and tired from one of your doomed schemes," he said dryly, but excitement buzzed beneath his skin. This could be it.
It was past noon. They had started at 5:00 sharp. Hange had wasted no time alerting Erwin. Sleep seemed like the most trivial thing at this moment.
Hange had thought long and hard before the operation had begun due to Erwin's prompting. Would breaking the crystal kill Annie Leonhardt? That had been what she was afraid of at first.
If we break that crystal, will we find a body inside?
The scientist knew that most of humanity would be satisfied with the fact that they had "outsmarted" the Female Titan. They would be satisfied that they had broken the crystal. Gotten the last word.
Hange would not be satisfied. The desperate quest for the information Annie Leonhardt held was both scientific and personal for her. The information she possessed was crucial. It could save humanity in the current state that it was in.
Levi had refused to refer to the Female Titan by her real name. Only humans had names. Levi had already accepted that he would never extract his revenge from her, and that had become clearer during the past few months. Even if they did manage to get her out of there, a thousand life times wouldn't bring them back.
They had barely made a dent in the crystal, pounding relentlessly against the side of it. Fine, glittering dust littered the floor, giving off steam as they disintegrated. Every fifteen minutes or so, the pieces of crystal they were using would have to be placed in fire and molten iron to heat them up.
A shallow dip in the crystal's surface had been the only fruits of their labor, a few inches deep but wide. Hange stepped forward every hour to measure it and record the information. The twenty-something soldiers in the room were on their guard, clutching their weapons tightly. Sweat trickled down their faces, both from the intensity of the heat and the intensity of the situation.
The tenth hour of the operation approached. The MPs and Garrison grew tired and hot. Only Hange remained dedicated. Only Levi remained stoic.
"We can't stop now," the scientist urged, walking over to the crystal while their crude tools were heating up once more. "We're close. We are going to succeed. We are going to break this crystal. We are going to get to that titan are going to win this victory."
For some reason, the words seemed false to her, but she shook off the feeling, looking into every face in the room.
"You'll be remembered throughout history for this very moment," Hange continued, her voice firm. "See this to the end."
Only a few seemed to be roused by her speech, but the current shift of soldiers who had been tasked with pounding at the crystal resumed the grueling work. They continued for two more hours before being relieved by another pair. The dent in the crystal had barely changed.
0~o~0
It was four in the evening. There had been no break. Hange sighed, preparing to call off the operation for the day.
"Soldiers. We will resume this to-"
A sharp crack echoed throughout the room. Every person's eyes snapped to the crystal as a low crackle vibrated the room. Low murmurings broke out among the soldiers, and they raised their weapons, gripping them tightly with fear.
Levi uncrossed his arms, his lazy gaze intensifying from feigned boredom to a sharp glare.
Hange stepped forward, ignoring one soldier's shout for her to get back.
Another loud crack sounded loudly, rippling through the tense air. The left half of crystal fell to the ground with an earsplitting crash, snapping chains and leather restraints. There was a low groan from the supports holding it up, and then suddenly steam started to fill the room as more of the crystal fell away from the comatose girl inside. One soldier let out a yell, and a single shot was fired.
Hange let out a cry, running to the center of the room. "Don't shoot!" she screamed, waving her arms. "Do not shoot!"
Levi grabbed her collar and pulled her back as the clanking of gear and trembling of metal could be heard, the room suddenly silent and the soldiers tense. Steam slowly started to clear from the air.
Annie Leonhardt was suspended in what was left of her crystal cocoon for only a second before she fell forward and crumbled to the floor, blood starting to pool beneath her left leg. That one soldier had gotten a lucky shot.
She wasn't conscious, her blonde hair splayed around her head, the flush on her cheeks from the sudden, fresh air standing out from her pale skin. One would barely be able to tell that she was breathing; her chest rose and fell slowly. Her body was completely still.
Levi looked at the girl he had nurtured a deep hate for in the past five months. Was it really her? Was his monster lying down on the cold floor in front of him, breathing when so many others wren't because of her.
Hange fell to her knees, head tilted to the ceiling and hands hanging at her side. Tears filled her eyes, and the scientist was suddenly sobbing. Sobbing with relief and happiness and something else she didn't care to think about at that moment.
"I did it," she cried, shoulders shaking. IdiditIdiditIdiditIdiditIdiditIdiditIdiditIdidit…
She was oblivious to the soldiers stepping around her, tears clouding her eyes as they restrained the Female Titan and turned her over.
Hange, however, was not oblivious to the fact that one other person in the room is crying. She wipes her eyes and looks down at her enemy, only to see a silvery tear finish its trek down her cheek.