Chapter Text
7th November, 13:36
The next day, to Hange's annoyance, consisted of having Brother Reiner hovering over their shoulder. They were reluctant even to have regular conversations with their other siblings, not wanting Brother to know anything about them. While he was as much of a stranger as Louise, Brother felt like an intruder in their space, and blatantly stuck out as someone who wasn't in their mental image of what Shiganshina House was.
That said, what irritated them most was how much he did blend in, courtesy of the other children. Many of the younger ones were all over him, and a lot of them had tried to bring Brother Reiner along to Hange so that everyone could talk and play together. They accepted him without question. While it would have been sweet to Hange a week ago, now it was nothing short of frustrating.
Though most of Brother's time was spent interacting with the toddlers, from what they had observed, his attention frequently flitted to the older children, of whom tended to occupy themselves with each other now that there was another pair of hands to entertain the younger ones. He was specifically watching their behaviour, dividing his attention. Obviously, Papa had warned him that some of them must know the truth of the orphanage. Hange once again resolved not to give either man a single slither of a hint that they were part of the guilty party.
As soon as free time started, Hange kicked a ball as hard as they possibly could from the top of the hill. It rolled all the way down into the direction of the forest. They made a sound of despair and looked back at Moblit - who they had been passing the ball between with - apologetically.
"Sorry! It was meant to go straight up, not forward. I'll go get it!"
They ran into the forest, picking up the ball and peeking out from a bush. Moblit looked as if he was trying to spot them, Papa and Brother Reiner weren't in view, and Levi was packing up and heading their way from the tree.
Hange continued into the forest, past the fence and to the wall, where Erwin was already waiting. Once Levi joined them, they were quick to share what they had discovered whilst inspecting Louise.
"I never knew about a mark from the vaccines," Erwin commented when Hange had finished briefing them. Both boys were thumbing behind their ears, presumably in search of a bump. "And it disappears so quickly? Interesting."
"I knew about this mark for a couple of years. I can't believe I didn't associate it sooner. Sorry. We could have already been working on this," Hange bit their lip.
"No, this is perfect. Thank you, Hange," Erwin smiled. "Now we know the rough shape, size and location of the tracker. All that's left is to work out how to break it."
They thought on it a little. "The best way would be to experiment with it by cutting it out and inspecting it, but there'd be no way to put it back in when that happens. I could hide it behind my hair, I guess."
"What, and have Papa see a hole in your ear when he's forced to comb your ratty hair every other day?" Levi raised a brow.
Hange stuck out their tongue at him, but internally admitted to themself that he was, for once, right. Their disinterest in their physical maintenance had ended up a hindrance. It's not like they could change their habits now, or Papa would notice them acting differently, and both boys' hair was too short to cover their own ears, putting such a plan out of operation.
"Anyways, the tracking device doesn't specify who we are, so if we're careful, it'll be fine," the elder boy continued. "If we're far enough away from him and all the other brats are spread out everywhere, Papa won't be able to tell whether we're at the wall or the gate."
"Yet he's so confident he can come after us during a potential escape because of the trackers," Erwin rubbed a hand along his chin. "So much that he doesn't mind us knowing that he can do that. I doubt it's a lie. Unless-" his eyes lit up. "Unless it's a bluff to make us think that the solution is to get rid of them, and something alerts him if the trackers are broken in some way."
"Oh, that could be it!" Hange exclaimed. "That seems like plausible technology."
"What you consider plausible doesn't matter. We're thirty years behind in public knowledge," Levi reminded them.
"Stop whining, shorty, we're getting somewhere. We just need to find a way to stop the trackers from - well, tracking - whilst also not setting off any potential alarms in them. Mess with the readings or something. Electromagnetic frequencies are pretty weak in detail, but work in longer distances, which matches what we know about the trackers so far," they babbled. "They'll get worse the further you go from the main device, but I don't know how much distance we'll need to put between us and any pursuers for that to happen."
"And they'd be searching for us the whole time," Erwin added. "Either we cut them out or nullify them. And having uncompromised hearing when we're out in unfamiliar territory would be preferable."
"Of course," Hange said. "I'll be looking through the library later on for all those books on technology and inventions. Maybe there'll be some clues in there to make a device that breaks the functions of the tracker permanently?"
"You're the crazy scientist," Levi shrugged. "You figure it out."
They grinned at that. It wasn't every day that they got a challenge to invent something.
"That's settled, then," Erwin declared. "Now to find a way to escape with all the children cooperating, or at least not resisting. The main issue here is that everyone loves Papa. He's never done anything to wrong them as far as they know, so it would be difficult to persuade them to leave. They may not believe what's going on even if they're told."
"Even if they did believe it, which I doubt they will-" Levi raised a hand to stop Hange from interjecting, "we won't be able to take care of all the younger brats whilst escaping. The toddlers wouldn't be able to comprehend it, and we have babies who can hardly walk, let alone handle the separation anxiety."
"Well, we can't leave them, can we?" Hange huffed.
"We can't bring them either. We won't be able to herd them all to the wall without being seen, much less keep them alive beyond it. They're a hindrance both to us and themselves."
"Levi!" They scolded.
"You know I'm right."
Hange disagreed. Finally, it seemed a good idea to bring up the idea they'd been toying with briefly the night before.
"I think I have a way. About getting them all to escape." They paused for dramatic effect until they were certain they had both of their attention. "It."
"It?"
"Yes, Levi. It. Do you remember what that is? It's been a long time since you've bothered to join in, so I can't say I'm surprised."
"Shut up. What's the plan?"
"To prepare for an escape we basically need to teach the children how to run and hide effectively, right? And at the same time, we need to do it in a way that's not making Papa or Brother Reiner think we're doing something suspicious. Changing our daily routines would give too much away, so integrating it in a subtle way is our best shot at training them over a period of time. And then I realised that the games we've been playing all these years are teaching us in their own ways - It, and Hide-and-Seek, and even football. Where the daily tests have been training our brains, we've been training our bodies during free time, even if it's not being taught directly to us."
"And stealth and running ability are two of the main things we'd need everyone else to work on," Erwin added.
"Exactly. So, what better than a fun way that they're already used to? Everyone always wants to beat Erwin at It, but they never do, and they never learn how to. If we use that front and try to teach them how to win against an opponent that's both smarter and faster than them, it would prepare them for running away, and Papa would be none the wiser."
"Yes. That's definitely the best way to go about it we've got so far," Erwin agreed. "I suppose we'd need a plan of action for what you want the children to be focusing on while they're playing, then."
"Yeah. I think it would be best if you still played as seeker, just as you normally would. You're the smartest one we've got compared to Papa. Our aims here, whether that's mentally or physically, are to overcome his expectations and become unpredictable. Mentally, that's understanding the enemy, and trying to predict their behaviour instead of them predicting you. I know you well enough to have a go at that," they grinned.
"It's a good start. But when it comes to Papa, we're not dealing with someone we know anymore."
"That's true," they admitted. "But he's shown us a few things over the past few days. It's more about thinking on our feet and preparing for a lot of possible things, though. Adaptability. And even if it's not perfect, it should be enough when combined with the physical training." They turned to Levi, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his usual blank expression. "I think you'd be best at that, Levi. You're the fastest, sneakiest, and probably the strongest, too."
He shrugged.
"Well?"
"Yeah. It's a shame we don't have those monkey bars anymore. Can't do much about the upper strength training to climb the rope."
Distantly, Hange remembered where the monkey bars had once stood at the back of the orphanage. They hadn't ever used them; were probably too young at the time. They can't recall who, but someone had fallen and broken their arm, even with the padded area around it to cushion their fall, and so the monkey bars were taken away.
"I'm sure we can think of an alternative later," Erwin said. "If you're going to work on different things, we can split the children into teams. Escaping in one group would create one large target. Ideally we'd have multiple smaller groups, all with their own formations and taking different routes to throw off any pursuers, and we'd all meet at the wall."
"That's so excessive," Hange teased.
"There are no unnecessary precautions. The more complex, the less predictable."
"Fine," they sighed. "But that's your job. I gotta work through the library's collection tonight."
"Make sure you don't get caught by Papa," Levi told them.
"Obviously."
"Levi and I will work on outlining the training plan, then," Erwin decided. "We'll brief you tomorrow during chores."
Hange was mostly in their own head at dinner, mumbling a response every time Moblit prodded them with his fork during dinnertime conversation, focused on mentally mapping out the library once more. Papa would be in the library for a decent part of study hours, so it would benefit them to get there early and sneak up onto the attic level before anyone else arrived, where the heavier reading material was located. Anything on the ground level might need to wait until free time tomorrow or the next day, they reasoned.
They figured Moblit would forgive them for leaving him to clear their plate up as they raced off the second Papa turned away in order to stake out the library. Doing a quick sweep of the shelves on the ground floor, they found they were correct in their earlier assessment; in fact, none of the genres down here would be very useful for technological research. With that confirmed, they climbed the ladder to the attic level and wormed their way past several bookshelves in eyesight of the front door just as several children started piling in and making their way to the study tables.
Tuning out the mild chatter down below, Hange scoured the shelves that weren't in view of the balcony overlooking the ground level of the library, grabbing a few topical-looking books before settling in the corner and beginning to comb through their contents pages. They folded the corners of every section that looked promising, whether that was with mechanical diagrams or detailed engineering theory, and set them into order of relevance. Erwin would be furious if he knew they were the one that kept ruining the integrity of the books' pages, but they had no intention of telling him after successfully going undetected for this many years.
With their brief scan complete, they set to work trying to refresh and build upon their understanding of mechanical engineering and science technology.
About an hour into their research, they heard the ladder rattling against the half-propped open trapdoor to the attic. They tensed and hurriedly closed what they were reading, picking up the small pile of books at their feet and slotting them all back into whatever spaces on the shelves they could find. They managed to do so before anyone caught them; in fact, when they shuffled back towards the ladder, they found that it was no longer moving at all. Then:
"Hange!" One of the kids whisper-shouted from the bottom.
They opened up the trapdoor and peered down to find Armin with one foot on the bottom rung and his little arms wrapped around the sides of the ladder, pouting.
"Hi! Do you need something?" They asked.
"I can't get up," he said with large, watery eyes.
"You're not supposed to be able to," they grinned. "This is for the older kids."
"But I don't understand some of the questions, and I can't find the section on it in the study books, and nobody else knows the answers either!"
Hange weighed their options. They hadn't really found anything noteworthy in their research thus far. Plenty of it had been interesting, but none of it relevant to what they knew about the trackers. Ideally, they didn't want anyone to know they'd been up here, though, so they'd either have to help Armin up into the attic or come down to assist him with his studying personally.
Presumably, Papa wasn't in the room to help him, but he'd surely be back soon, and would hear them both talking on the upper level, which would get Hange in trouble both publicly for hauling a four-year-old up the ladder and privately for sneaking off to do some personal reading without him knowing they'd been there the whole time.
"Give me a minute," they told Armin, and descended the ladder once he stepped back. "What are you struggling with?"
Armin led them to the study table by their hand, and when they settled down they found he was looking over one of the final sections from the test paper a few days ago, the majority of which had red crosses scanned into them.
"This is algebraic notation," they noted.
"There's no ar-gee-break notation books down here," Armin said with a frown.
"Because it's too hard for people who can't climb ladders," Furlan murmured from across the table, not looking up from his book.
"I got the first one right, though."
"Did you guess?"
"No!"
"Keep your voice down," Nifa said with a finger to her lips.
Armin huffed and looked up at Hange helplessly.
"I can get you a book from the attic if you really want," they said, glancing at his marked test. "But it's pretty difficult to wrap your head around. It might be better if you focus on the other stuff first."
"Yes, please! This is the bit I'm doing the worst at. I get all the other stuff."
"Alright."
Hange went back up to the attic, mildly impressed with Armin's attitude. No one else under the age of six typically went over their tests for the purpose of improving their weak points. On top of that, Armin had only started the daily tests four days ago. The fact that he'd gotten any algebraic question right despite never even hearing the concept before was impressive, given it was by far one of the most advanced sections of the tests.
He was so determined to learn more and get as good as he could, as soon as possible. It reminded them of themself when they were his age, only he didn't have the same intellectual competition that they had in Erwin and Levi.
They became more solemn in recounting how they felt back in those days. When the most difficult obstacle in their life had been words on a page and the hand of a clock. Well, they supposed, time is still as formidable an opponent as always. Papa, on the other hand, was much more complicated to overcome than algebraic notation had ever been.
When they came back down with the requested book in hand, Papa had returned, with Armin half-clinging onto him.
"But I can't stop thinking about it," Armin's voice had raised again, much to the annoyance of Furlan and Nifa, who were watching his exchange with Papa with tired eyes. "When I know how to solve it all I'll be fine."
"You'll get it in time," Papa responded calmly. "There's no rush, Armin. A few wrong answers on a test won't kill you."
"But... But-" Armin was clambering for words before catching sight of Hange and running over to them. "Is that it? Thank you!"
"That's okay," they said with a forced smile, trying to pretend Papa's lie hadn't affected them. "Papa's right. If you go through the sections slowly, test by test, you'll come to understand it all eventually."
"What if I don't have time, though?" He bit his thumb, and Hange pulled it away from his mouth and placed the book in his hands. "What if I get adopted before I can get better, like Eren?"
They couldn't help their breath catching in their throat this time. Because the real answer was that he had no hope of ever learning, and that Eren, one of his best friends, was dead, and he'd be dead too if he didn't do as well on the tests he was worried about as he was.
But then they remembered there'd be no more, because they and Erwin and Levi wouldn't be allowing it, and Papa was surely watching for their reaction.
"Don't be silly!" The grin came easier than they thought. "Even when you're adopted, you still have to do tests, because you'll be going to school. You'll be learning for years and years, until you're all grown up. You've got plenty of time."
"Oh, right," Armin said, and looked down at the book. "I still want to get better now, though, so I can learn all the other stuff, too. Can you help me with these questions?"
Hange glanced over at Papa, but he had busied himself with looking over Furlan and Nifa's shoulders. Moblit and Nanaba had also entered the library, they found, and were sitting down at the table opposite the two seven-year-olds.
They sighed internally, and resigned themself to packing in their personal project for the night.
"Of course!" They smiled.
8th November, 10:13
As they'd planned, Hange, Erwin and Levi exchanged their findings and ideas during the next morning's chores. Hange was a little disappointed that they hadn't found anything notable last night, but Erwin didn't seem too bothered by it.
For today's game of It, they were to take it easy and split into two groups to teach mental and physical strategies separately, swap groups after a round, and then mix it up a bit. They were leaving the smaller teamwork until another day, although Hange got the sense the boys had compromised on today's plan rather than agreed. Even the brightest children at the orphanage had a limit when it came to overloading them with information, and if this was to be a subtle lesson disguised as play they intended, it needed to be balanced.
At free time, Hange led half the children into one area of the forest and began briefing them on how to outsmart the seeker, Erwin. They encouraged the younger ones to think about how to use the forest's features to their advantage and increase the effectiveness of any tricks they had to get Erwin to lose sight of them.
At the same time, Levi took the other group of children and taught them how to push their bodies to the physical limit. They swapped over after each round, and by the end of the third game, between faking footprints and running with the wind's direction to maintain maximum speed, the children could last longer and longer without getting caught.
Despite their opposing demeanours, Hange and Levi were actually very similar in their thought patterns and values, so it wasn't hard for one to take the other's abilities into account when teaching skills to their own group. Hange wasn't lacking in physical ability either - they were the third best runner only to Levi and Miche, one of the strongest, and had a decent enough grasp on human anatomy to understand how to preserve the use of their muscles and stamina efficiently. And while Levi always kept his cards close to his chest, they knew he'd played chess against Erwin far too many times not to know a thing or two about lying or outplaying him.
All in all, Hange was feeling pretty good about the progress they'd made in just a couple of hours. If they kept this up, the children would be trained and ready to escape with plenty of time to spare before their deadline, and then they could focus their efforts back on the trackers and actual details of the escape.
"Can I join?"
Hange was not expecting Brother Reiner to make such a request. His beady eyes were neutral, but his smile was as false as they could get, not nearly as natural as Papa's looked. They were overcome by a short, angry wave of hatred. They didn't like that he kept explicitly trying to force himself into their space. This was their game. He wasn't supposed to intervene. He was ruining it.
"Why?" Levi asked with a clipped tone. He'd give them away, talking like that.
Brother Reiner, however, was undeterred, and smiled down at him with crinkled eyes. "I want to get along with everyone, and you all seem to like playing this game. It would be nice to bond."
Hange glanced at the other two eleven-year-olds. Levi continued to glare at Brother, whilst Erwin looked him over for a moment before turning towards Hange and shrugging.
"Sure," the blonde responded. "I'll join the runners, then. You be It."
The other children looked ecstatic to have Brother Reiner joining their game. It had been a while since Papa had played an outdoor game like this with them, so Hange understood their excitement, as jarring as it was.
As they chattered amongst themselves, Erwin sidled up to Hange.
"This is good practice." He said in a low voice. "It'll work in our favour."
"You think so?"
He hummed in affirmation as Brother Reiner pulled out a tracking compass just like Papa's, and they fought down a grimace. Erwin was right; this was perfect practice for running from Papa, given he'd be using the tracker to locate them during their escape. Hiding within reach was never going to be an option.
Brother Reiner clapped his hands together. "Alright! You have twenty minutes. Try your hardest not to get caught!" He bellowed in an exaggerated tone that made the younger children squeal with glee. Hange, who was reminded of Papa's intended message in bringing out the compass, found it much more menacing.
"He'll probably be targeting the oldest children," Erwin theorised once they were far enough into the forest to be able to spy on Brother without him seeing them. Levi had already run deep into the trees with the others, giving them both directions and reminders of what they had learned. "He'll pick up the younger ones as he goes."
"Right. Let's keep them from being caught, then!" Hange puffed out their chest.
At once, Brother Reiner began charging down the hill at an incredible speed, and the two of them split off in opposite directions.
A few minutes later, they found themself jumping into a bush already occupied by Levi. They hardly waited thirty seconds before Brother appeared in the clearing and scooped up Connie, Franz and Hannah with ease. Just as quickly, he left, and the trio complained loudly as they set back towards the hill.
"That was easy," they mumbled.
Levi tutted and waved something in their face. "He cut shapes into the leaves with his nails and left them in the clearing. Stupid brats got distracted and pranced around in plain sight."
Hange took the leaf and examined it. A rough star cutout was carved into the middle of it, and when they looked back at the clearing, there were similar leaves of hearts and diamonds laying on the ground.
"That's overkill. I'm sure he's proud of himself for getting a couple of little kids like that." It was only a game of It, for crying out loud, and he was a grown man!
"Yeah. But we're still here, so he's chosen not to use the compass."
"Oh. I wonder why?"
But Levi had already slipped out of the bush and sprinted off.
Hange decided it was time to desert the bush as well. Once they were far away from the clearing, they took a moment to collect their thoughts.
If Brother wasn't using the compass but using dirty tactics nonetheless, then he was taking this game seriously and relying on mind games and strategy. He shouldn't know a thing about them planning to disable the trackers, but must be preparing in the event that they did. It was a very Erwin way of thinking, they noted, and screwed their lips together in distaste. They wouldn't get the practice with outrunning the compass that they wanted, yet it was still an opportunity. It would be tough, but they might as well see what the younger children were capable of, as well as themself.
They crept around on their own for a bit, and observed that Brother Reiner didn't look at the compass once on his mission to capture everyone. He did, however, utilise the speed, stamina and brute strength that only an adult of his size could possess to his full advantage, barrelling through hollowed logs the children hid in and catching up to their fastest runners with ease. Hange witnessed Nanaba, Gelgar and Furlan all get caught within seconds of Brother spotting them (though admittedly, Furlan didn't even attempt to run once he knew he'd been spotted).
They wondered if any of the older children beside themself remained.
Their thinking time was cut short when Brother Reiner began sprinting towards them from their side. Hange turned a sharp corner and came face to face with Marco and Armin, the latter of which waved and called an enthusiastic, "Hange!"
If Hange didn't pick them up and drag them along with them, they'd both be caught instantly. Their decision was made subconsciously.
Running with them in their arms, however, appeared to be a little more difficult - Marco weighed significantly more than Armin, and they found themself leering to one side as they pelted through the trees.
They didn't mind the difficulty, as it was a necessary experiment. Both of the boys they'd run into happened to be two of the slowest, so they needed to know whether it was possible for the strongest and eldest children to escape whilst carrying them. Honestly, it was surprising that the two four-year-olds had even lasted this long. Though they were both fairly smart, so Hange imagined they'd survived by deliberately keeping away from the others to avoid Brother's attention.
It became quickly apparent, however, that they didn't stand a chance at outrunning Brother Reiner. He was simply too fast: his legs were twice as long as their own, and he seemed pretty familiar with navigating the forest's environment.
They took cover in a rocky area populated with trees and bushes that disguised their hiding spot, and, after making sure the boys' mouths were covered with their hands, tried to silence their gasping own breaths. Their glasses had steamed up from the exertion, so they couldn't even see if Brother was in the area.
They didn't wait long before finding out.
"Running with two children in your arms is quite ambitious," he taunted. "You're strong, but you're surely tired out by now."
Hange didn't respond. It was silent, save for Brother's footfalls circling the area. They sounded louder as the seconds stretched by.
"Worth a shot. It's admirable to try to help out others at your own expense. But if it doesn't work, you don't get a second chance. I know where you are now."
There won't be a next time. You need to be able to do it right the first time, Levi's words from the other day rang clear in their mind.
Shut up, they told the conjured voice telepathically.
"Come out, won't you?" His voice was really close now. Hange closed their eyes. "I won't eat you. Not yet, anyway."
They couldn't help the horrified gasp that came out of them then, and their eyes snapped back open. Unlike Papa, who subtly hinted towards the truth, that had been an upfront and direct reference to the titans. Brother had even suggested that he was one of them, which was confusing and horrifying to them in multiple ways.
Hange suddenly felt far too out of their depth, unused to the mannerisms of this man that wasn't Papa, that didn't pretend he'd always harboured unconditional love for them. Maybe they should have read more fiction while they had the chance. Then they'd know about how normal adults - or even a different kind of abnormal adult - thought and acted.
"If you saw what happened the other day," Brother Reiner continued, "I'm on your side, okay?"
Hange's glasses cleared up in time for them to be startled at Brother's head looming upside down as he leaned over the back of the rock they were huddled behind. Marco and Armin let go of their mouths and shrieked with laughter, completely oblivious to the one-sided conversation.
They had been tagged.
When Hange made it back to the hill, they were disappointed to find almost everyone else already waiting there. What wasn't surprising was that Erwin and Levi were still yet to be caught, though it didn't fill them with much hope concerning the situation at hand.
It was worrying that they only made it ten minutes. This was the sort of foe they'd be up against during the escape, made even easier without the use of the compass, and yet they'd been caught so quickly and easily, just because they weren't willing to leave Armin and Marco behind and use them as a distraction to save their own skin. As much as they wanted to remain optimistic, the exercise had demonstrated clearly to them that it would be extremely difficult to carry out an escape with everyone getting out of the orphanage alive.
However, their spirits were lifted slightly when, over ten minutes later, both Erwin and Levi emerged from the forest without the smoke signal, a glowering Brother Reiner following them. Erwin walked with his usual good posture, and Levi waved his pocket watch halfheartedly in acknowledgement, but Hange knew both of them were smug at surviving the time.
All the other children in the orphanage cheered for their success; Hange the loudest of all. It felt really good to know that, even if they had been personally defeated this time, they had two brothers they could rely on to conquer the task at hand.
If they all worked together, with their combined skills and strategies, they could probably overcome anything as a unit. And if they could do that, there was a fighting chance that the same could apply to the rest of their siblings, right?