Chapter Text
12th November, 10:49
"Let's go over the plan once more," Erwin said as the five of them spent the morning filling buckets with water.
"Don't you want to talk about last night?" Hange asked.
"Not right now. It's not relevant to what we'll be doing later."
"Right," they huffed a humourless laugh. Never mind the information about the last titan remaining or whatever.
They wondered if they were the only one who even cared about the bigger picture behind why they needed to escape in the first place.
"Levi will distract Papa during free time," he continued. "Hange and I will climb the wall and carry out the investigation. Miche and Moblit will be stationed at the window in the storage room. If Levi signals that Papa is coming, Miche will run to us and tell us to call off the investigation, and Moblit will distract him for as long as possible."
"Don't take any risks," Levi added. "Papa hasn't fully caught on yet, but he's not lacking suspicion."
"So we give up completely on the signal?" Moblit asked.
"For now," Erwin clarified. "We have until December 25th. Papa confirmed that to be the next shipment date, right?"
Levi nodded. "If we appear out of control, we'll be done for. He's still under the impression he can best us, but if he thinks we're too much trouble, we'll all be sent out quickly."
"Miche!" Petra yelled, Gunther and Henning close behind as the three five-year-olds ran up to them. "You said you'd come play when you did chores."
"We're almost done," he told them.
"We're going to hide in the house," Gunther said. "You and Moblit come find us after you count to twenty."
"I can count to twenty pretty fast," Moblit warned them. "You better find a hiding spot quick."
The three of them squealed and ran away.
"That's all, really," Erwin said. "If everyone knows their positions, there's nothing more to say."
"Yeah. Good luck."
Moblit and Miche waved as they retreated into the house.
"What happened last night?" Levi asked.
"We didn't get much that would help us in the escape," Erwin answered.
"Well, what did you get?"
"A lot, actually," Hange cut in before Erwin could dismiss him again.
"We should go inside, then," the blonde sighed.
Levi regarded them both for a moment before shrugging and leading the way to his dormitory. There, Erwin gave him the play-by-play of their conversation with Brother Reiner.
"So Brother knows we can break the trackers," Levi said with a clenched jaw.
"It's possible he's already searching for something that could break them to use as evidence," Erwin said. "How fast can you get all the parts and put something together with Hange?"
Levi sighed deeply before moving to his bedside drawer and pulling something out of it. As he faced Hange and Erwin, he put an object in front of his face and pushed a button on it with his finger. A bright light engulfed their vision, making them cringe back and close their eyes.
"Ow! What's that?" They yelped.
"A camera. I'll take it apart tonight. It's got the last part in it."
Hange finished rubbing their eyes and climbed over his bed to take the device from him, inspecting it. It looked extremely similar to the one they had seen in a book in the library just a few days ago, except that it was much smaller and without a stand, as if it was meant specifically for handheld use.
"This is so much heavier than it looks," they remarked.
"Get your filthy shoes off my bed, four-eyes." Levi tore the camera out of their hands.
"Oi!"
They tried to grab at Levi, forcing him into the corner of the room. He hid it behind his back as they glared at one another.
"This alliance is really quite fragile," Erwin mused, distracting them from their teasing. "If Brother Reiner finds this..."
"He won't," Levi said with confidence, and moved towards Eld's bed, pulling the drawers aside and prying a loose floorboard off from underneath it.
Hange peered over his shoulder and saw a variety of toys and devices that they recognised to have belonged to Levi over the years stowed under the floor. "Oh, so this is where you kept them."
"Brother Reiner will probably be sniffing about at lunch, when we're all busy in the dining hall. I'm gonna leave this open with a note that'll catch his interest. He'll spend free time at his room deciding what to do with it all, so you'll be free to go to the wall without his supervision as well."
"You aren't keeping the device in here, are you?" Erwin frowned.
"'Course not. Just the remains of the things I took parts from. I'll take apart the camera now. Go start preparing lunch."
Sure enough, a few minutes after Levi joined them in their lunch preparations, Brother Reiner passed the dining hall and took off upstairs in the direction of the dormitories.
Hange met Levi's eyes, and a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. Told you, he seemed to say.
They stuck their tongue out of him, though they were glad that whatever bait he had set for Brother, it appeared to have worked.
Brother Reiner didn't even come to lunch. They hoped he'd remain occupied with the so-called evidence for long enough that it would bleed far into their free time, and thought nothing else of it.
Hange pelted into the forest the second they were let outside. Erwin was behind them, but they couldn't make themself slow their pace for him, far too excited for what was to come. They were planning to get the inspection over and done with as soon as possible.
When they started making lunch, Erwin had suggested the backup plan of carrying out their investigation regardless of if the signal had been called or not. Realistically, if Levi couldn't keep Papa away for long enough to do the inspection, he'd probably never be able to do so again, so this was their best chance at seeing what was beyond the wall. It wasn't worth giving up just to remain unsuspected of planning to escape, given that Papa already knew the three of them were involved, and Brother Reiner could sell Moblit and Miche out along with Levi's role at any given moment.
Besides, if Brother remained uninvolved as he claimed he would, then the five of them could take on Papa if it really came to it. Which it wouldn't.
Hange was so far ahead that they were already climbing into the tree with the rope hidden in it before Erwin even made it into the clearing. They snickered at him as he caught his breath.
"Nice of you to join me, slowpoke," they called down, and passed two strands of rope down for him to tie together.
They sat in the tree tying their own ends of rope. It would be a complicated setup, but across several branches, they'd have enough momentum to swing on top of the wall. Though it wasn't the safest of plans, they were confide-
"Hange," they heard Erwin say as footsteps approached them.
They looked down and saw him throwing his rope into the bush next to him, and then realised that he hadn't moved from where he stood a few moments ago. They jumped down from the tree without a second thought, and waited for the source of the sound to show themselves.
Papa emerged, compass in hand and a calm smile on his face.
Hange couldn't hide their surprise. It had been no more than ten minutes since free time had started. Had he known the whole time? And where was the signal - had Levi even tried to stop him in the first place? Papa wasn't even running. Miche could have made it in time.
What happened?
"Hey, Papa. What's up?" Hange smiled up at him.
"Ten years," Papa responded, and they knew it was over. "We've known each other so long, and now I can finally talk to you freely."
His voice was void of its usual lightheartedness. Hange could only blink at him, but then Papa chuckled.
"Calm down. There's just us here," he gestured around them. "You don't have to pretend either. What a relief, huh? Right now, it's just the caretaker and the Eldian children destined to be eaten." They took in a shuddering breath. "Don't get me wrong, though! You're still my children, and I love you all the same," he put a hand to his chest. "That means I don't want any unnecessary harm to come to you. So please, for all of our sakes, give up."
"...Give up what?" Erwin dared to ask.
"Resisting the inevitable. I don't wish for you to suffer. You've all lived happy lives here up until now. You've never experienced starvation, coldness, isolation, nor threat to your lives. You're very lucky."
"Lucky? Happy lives?" Hange spat out. "Would you consider what happened to Eren either of those things?"
"Death is quick, and he'll have felt nothing while unconscious. Until then, Eren lived a life full of fun and smiles, which is all we can ask for."
"Those smiles are lies!" They retorted. "I don't want to live an artificial life. I'll decide for myself whether the path I've chosen is the right one!"
"Hange," Erwin warned.
They took a deep breath.
"You can't escape, and it's too dangerous out there for you to survive," Papa continued. "It's full of pure titans, you know. Come back to the house, and live out the rest of your days. I want you to be the happiest you can be. You're good children, so I know you'll make the right decision for our family."
Hange shared a look with Erwin.
It was a horrific thing to hear that titans lay outside in the orphanage ready to eat them. But ever since the revelation of Levi's role, Erwin's plans had centred around the worst possible outcomes. This was but one of them.
"I understand, Papa," Erwin said. "We'll stop being good children, then."
There was no time to think - only do.
"Go!" Hange yelled, and tried to tackle Papa to the ground.
He was much too big for that, but he still stumbled a little from the force. The compass was balanced in his left hand, and Hange reached for it. If they could get a hold of it and throw it somewhere, Erwin would have time to grab the rope in the bush and hide it somewhere Papa wouldn't get it. Or if they could even manage to break it-
Papa flipped Hange onto the ground with his free hand, put his knee to their torso, and then twisted their calf so roughly it produced a loud crack. Their ears were ringing as their nerves began to recognise the searing pain, and they screamed. A flock of birds, startled by the sound, shot out of one of the nearby trees and soared past the wall.
"Shh, shh. It's alright, Hange," Papa sat them up and cradled them in his arms. "It doesn't hurt. I told you, sweetheart."
Hange couldn't help a few wheezing sobs, their teeth clenched beyond their own control. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. It's awful.
Then, as if he had been prepared to do so all along, Papa took out various medical supplies from his back pocket and began wrapping their leg into a splint. They didn't dare look at it, and groaned at the pain as he handled it.
"Thank you for being sensible, Erwin," he continued. Hange turned their head just enough to find Erwin frozen, bag in hand and wearing a horrified expression that didn't suit him. "It doesn't matter what you know at this point. All I need to do is hold you here until it's your turn to leave. That's our shared purpose."
"Why..." Erwin's whisper trailed into silence. Hange heard the beating of footsteps approaching them.
"Because of that, I'll protect you at any cost. If you don't listen, I have no choice bu-"
"Papa," Levi's voice rang out loud from their other side. "What did you do?" He trembled in a low tone.
"No worries. It was a clean break," Papa smiled.
Levi called him a word Hange hadn't heard before, and it made the man laugh. They turned to the elder boy. Miche and Moblit were stood behind him, breathing heavily with wide eyes.
"It'll heal in four to six weeks. Hopefully in time for your birthday, Levi. For now, I'll put this in a proper cast. You'll want to get used to crutches before tomorrow, Hange."
"Tomorrow?" They whispered, still half-focused on the pain radiating from their leg. It doesn't hurt.
"Yes. I got word from the higher-ups. Congratulations, Erwin. You'll be getting adopted."
It went very quiet. Then Papa scooped Hange up and began walking back towards the orphanage.
Don't leave me with him, they thought desperately, but none of their siblings followed.
Hange didn't look at the other children as Papa carried them back up the hill and into the orphanage, keeping their face pressed flush against his chest. Their leg didn't hurt anymore. Erwin was getting shipped out tomorrow. Erwin would be eaten tomorrow. Erwin would be dead tomorrow.
It wasn't fair. Two weeks ago they were carefree and innocent, and suddenly their whole world was crashing around them. Why? Whatever did they do to deserve this? They didn't understand.
"I'll prepare your medicine," Papa said, laying them down on the infirmary bed. "You'll need your leg to be reset into a proper cast."
Hange screwed their eyes shut so they didn't have to look at him up close. Still, they couldn't fight him when he handled their jaw and forced their mouth open to make them swallow the medicine manually. Instantly, they began to feel woozy and far away, aware that they were losing consciousness.
They couldn't help but draw the similarity with that of Eren's last moments, and hoped that they didn't wake up.
But of course, they weren't the one being eaten. It was Erwin. His right arm was the first of his limbs to be torn off, blood spurting from the wound. Unfortunately for him, he was awake, and screamed, his expression morphing into something even more grotesque than what Hange had seen earlier. Then his legs were crushed as the titan moved him further into their mouth, ragged fingernails piercing his torso. Hange watched him sputter before he ceased to move, and the titan's teeth finally closed around his head, detaching it from his body with a sickening crunch.
They got the sinking feeling that the titan's blonde beard was strikingly familiar before they woke up gasping.
"Hange." Erwin was holding one of their hands tight with both of his own. Two arms. It didn't reassure them, however, because it wasn't just an unthinkable dream. It was tomorrow's reality. "Don't worry. The only bits of rope he found were in the bush."
"Are you kidding me?" Hange yelled, their throat hoarse from how dry it was.
"Your leg will heal soon enough, and he still doesn't know our true plans. It'll succeed."
"You're going to be eaten!"
Erwin opened his eyes - they had been closed the whole time, Hange realised - to reveal dimmed irises, and his mouth wobbled. They knew then that he felt the same as them.
"I'll go and get you a glass of water," he said with a measured tone.
Hange tried to grab his arm but found they couldn't lean forward enough, half their body wrapped in thick blankets, and they could only watch as Erwin walked stiffly out of the infirmary. Hange let out a shaky breath and stared at the ceiling with swollen eyes. They must have been crying in their sleep.
"Stupid, pompous, egotistical, lying idiot," they muttered under their breath.
Someone snorted from underneath them, and they let out a high-pitched screech.
"Shut up," Levi's muffled voice told them. "Or Papa will come running."
"What are you doing?" They hissed, their heart hammering. "You're so awful. I nearly wet myself just now."
"Please don't."
Something heavy was pushed out from under their bed, but they couldn't lean over enough to see what it was. What they could determine was the sound of floorboards being slotted into place. When Levi emerged and stood up, his hair was stuck to his forehead and his clothes coated in dust.
"How's your leg?" He asked as he hoisted a box onto the bed.
"Fine. I had medicine. Who cares?"
"Me. Erwin, when he finally realises that your brain is useful to him. Now, help me put this thing together."
He tapped the box thrice before opening it, tilting it in their direction. At first glance, it looked like a bunch of junk and scrap, but they caught on quickly.
"Are these all the parts?" They asked.
"Yeah. And the notes, too." He pulled out a worn piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to them. "Dunno if you'll need all of it, but it has the materials and mechanisms for the tracker, and the stuff that should counteract it."
"You've done all of this?" Hange asked, wide-eyed.
They glanced over the notes. It was practically a guide for building each part of a device to break the tracker, only not laid out step-by-step, and listed various functions of what they assumed was not only for the tracking device itself, but everything collected in the box. Levi's handwriting varied enough over the notes that they could tell he'd written some of them a few years ago.
"Had plenty of time too," he said. "I'd help, but Papa's gonna be staring at that damn compass all night. Do you think you can make it by tomorrow?"
"With all this and a few tools, of course. Not like I'll be sleeping anyway."
"The tools," Levi sighed. "I forgot. I'll bring them back in a bit. You can give the device to Erwin early tomorrow, and he can use it to escape."
"Yeah," Hange smiled for the first time in hours. Of course they weren't gonna let Erwin get eaten. If he was going to get sent out tomorrow, he'd simply have to escape instead. "Hide the box back so Papa can't see it."
The boy did so, making sure Hange's covers definitely reached the floor on both sides so that it was obscured. Hange continued poring over the notes, tracing a finger over a diagram of the tracker and how the alarm became triggered.
"Ilse," Levi said quietly after a moment.
"Hm?" Hange murmured, and then realised. "Oh."
They thought they remembered the name, but they couldn't put a face to it. They supposed there was a reason for that, but still felt a bit guilty for not remembering all their siblings. It must have been a really long time ago. They figured they would remember if one of the infants or toddlers had gone unexpectedly in the last few years.
Still, they continued to stare at the diagram. Ilse was gone now, and there was nothing that could be done about that. Erwin, however, could still be saved with what was left of her.
"Hang-" The very boy startled as he opened the door.
"We're going to talk about this," Levi gave him no room for argument. "You're not dying. You're going to escape on your own tomorrow."
"I can't," Erwin smiled.
"Tough," Hange and Levi said in unison, and he sighed, closing the door behind him and passing Hange the glass of water.
They began downing it immediately. That medicine must have dried their throat out.
"To be more specific," Levi continued, "you're going to pretend you've escaped tomorrow during free time, and disable your tracker."
"We don't have anything to disable it with yet."
"We will by tomorrow," Hange assured him.
"You'll break it, and then hide in the forest until Hange's leg heals," the older boy explained. "We'll carry out the escape plan at the time we were going to originally. We can bring supplies so you don't starve or whatever."
"And if they think you've escaped, no one will look for you inside the grounds. You can investigate whenever, and we'll be able to meet up with you easily enough."
"Security will be sure to che-" Erwin tried to argue, but Levi cut him off.
"Security won't do jack because of how the house works."
"...What are you saying?"
"The house values both the physical and mental health of the children. Physical is important so that when children are eaten, there aren't any diseases or complications transferred. Mental issues can also come into that, but mostly, too much stress or trauma could affect the memory. Also, if the kids get the sense that the orphanage is unsafe or that we're trapped here, anyone who's having special dreams or however they realise they have memories that aren't their own is more likely to keep it to themselves. That makes their turnover inefficient. A lot of work goes into the perfect orphanage facade," Levi stressed. "Making obvious changes to the house grounds would freak the brats out. The most they can do is give us another caretaker because that's logical, and if they do that again, we can just deal with it when the time comes."
"And what if they restrict anything we could use as a rope?"
"Just - just build a ladder when you're in hiding or something!" Levi's frustrations were something that Hange sympathised with, but they were still too out of it to contribute much, no matter how annoying Erwin's excuses were getting.
"And if they install more advanced trackers?"
"We'll know where it is to cut it out, and again, it'll look weird to the other kids. There's no loophole to this, blondie! You don't need to die right now, so I don't know why you're being so stubborn about this. We can get you food, keep you hidden, and there won't be too much security to handle. And I still have more stuff to throw at Papa to ensure everyone escapes. Do you need a pros and cons table drawn out? You can live! You can live and esc-"
"I can't, Levi."
"Why?" Hange gave in to their irritation.
Erwin sighed, and stared at his palms. "If I'm not shipped out, Papa will send one of you instead. That's not an acceptable outcome," he said firmly. "Thank you for your concern, but I'm fine with going tomorrow. They might take my life, but the plan for everyone else to escape will remain, so I won't lose. Being sent out doesn't mean I don't succeed."
What a lie, Hange thought to themself. What was true, however, was that Papa would probably send another of the eldest children out if Erwin wasn't an option. Surely there was a way around that.
"Stop with your stupid ego complex!" Levi spat. "What did I waste all my years doing if you're just gonna cop out of it last-minute?"
"Sorry," Erwin murmured.
Finally, the two of them shut up and sat on the edge of the bed so Hange could think. It was already hard enough with the spaciness they were getting in their brain from the medication. The situation with their leg was truly a pain in th-
"Oh!" They raised their hand up as if in a group study lesson. "Levi, what if you broke your leg as well?"
"What?" Levi frowned at them.
"You said they don't want us having poor physical form. Maybe they'd want to avoid eating us if we had an issue like a broken bone? I don't think they'd ship me out like this, and if you broke your leg too, they won't ship you either. It'll hurt, but that's better than being eaten, right?"
Levi laughed harder than they'd ever heard before. He swung off the bed and turned to face them with wide eyes that shone with amusement.
"That's the best thing I've ever damn heard."
"You have to be sarcastic right now," Erwin's face was blank.
"Shut up, eyebrows. A broken bone is nothing. An arm would be less of a pain to deal with than a leg, though."
"Oh, yeah," Hange chuckled, a bit embarrassed that hadn't been their first thought. "Much easier."
"Just hold on before you do something foolish," Erwin looked back and forth between them. "You don't know that that'll work. Why would a broken bone specifically stop a titan power being inherited correctly?"
"It's called gambling, Erwin," Levi's voice shook with nerve, and the taller boy looked dumbfounded. "I hear you're quite familiar with it."
"If a broken bone isn't enough, we could just get really sick for a bit," Hange supplied. "Having both at once might be annoying, but you can handle that, right, shorty?"
"'Course, four-eyes."
"And if Papa doesn't want us in the same infirmary room, we can talk out our escape plan through string telephones."
"B-but-" Erwin stuttered.
"Whatever stupid thing you come up with, we'll find something else to counter it!" They yelled at him.
"You're both insane," he whispered.
"Death isn't a part of the plan. We're all meant to escape together. Anything's better than you dying."
Erwin had nothing to say to that, so they leaned over with great effort to grasp onto one of his shoulders.
"Say you'll escape with us, Erwin. No one has to die. You can live."
Erwin pushed them off lightly, but shuffled closer so that they wouldn't have to strain themself. It was too late, however; they'd already noticed the way his shoulders were shaking.
He put his head in his hands. "Alright," his voice broke.
They pulled him into a hug, which they stayed in for a short while. Hange even watched Levi slink forward and pat Erwin on the head. They smiled.
"Now," the oldest of them stood up. "Hange and I will work on the tracker tonight. Erwin, tomorrow you'll pretend to climb over the wall and escape. Who's got the binoculars?"
"They're in my cardigan," Erwin patted his left side.
"Good. You can carry out the inspection then, and make a plan from what you see."
"Best to do it before any security changes," he agreed.
"Moblit and Miche are already working on a new rope made out of spare sheets for that too. We all got caught, so it doesn't matter whether they're being secretive anymore."
"What even happened?" Hange asked. "Did Brother Reiner rat us out?"
Levi glanced away. "I don't think so. He's gone."
"Gone?"
"Papa got rid of him. Probably got him eaten." He tutted. "Heartless monster."
"Right..." Erwin murmured. "You said there'd be a way to disable the tracker tomorrow?"
"Yep!" Hange beamed. "Show him, shorty."
Levi pulled the box with the parts out from under the bed for him to inspect.
"None of these things are accessible from what's in the orphanage," Erwin frowned.
"They're from his toys," Hange grinned.
"All of them?"
"Six years' worth," Levi elaborated. "Some of them weren't toys, but things like the camera. The binoculars, though I didn't use any parts from that. But I knew it'd be necessary for inspecting beyond the wall."
Erwin was quiet for a moment. "You collected all of this from different things to build the tracker over such a long time that Papa wouldn't notice," he stated with wonder.
"Well, I had to once I figured out the secret. It was the only opportunity I was gonna get."
"Yes. I have a question about that, actually."
"What?"
"How did you even find out the secret in the first place? It's almost impossible for anyone to find out, unless you go to the gate like we did. And you coerced us into doing that. You've given us so much information, and I doubt Papa would have told you anything himself. But you managed to find out and understand so young, so... how?"
Hange was curious about that too, honestly, but hadn't been willing to push Levi on it when it first crossed their mind, in case it had been as traumatic as what they'd seen. Or worse. But they were trying especially hard not to think about that.
Levi sat down on the edge of their bed and glanced elsewhere. "I didn't exactly find out. I just knew."
"Uh, care to elaborate?" They asked him, his answer not easing their dread whatsoever.
He sighed. "Do you know what infantile amnesia is?"
"When children forget their memories from when they were a baby?" Hange recalled. It had actually been mentioned in a book they picked up a week ago, when they were trying to research memory in relation to the titan powers.
"Mm. How far back can you two remember?"
"Maybe since I was two or three," Erwin answered.
"That's really early," Hange commented. "Three's a stretch for me, but I do have a couple of memories from then. Everything else is just stuff I've been told and kind of remember."
"Maybe mine's anecdotal too," the younger boy murmured to himself.
"Yeah, it's like that for almost everyone," Levi continued. "But there's really, really rare instances that people don't get it."
Oh.
"So- you..." They started, but found they couldn't finish their thought.
"I remember it all," Levi continued. "My first memory was maybe when I was a fetus. I remember being inside a warm liquid without light, hearing a voice muffled from a distance. Probably my biological mother. Stuff like that. It's clear, but in fragments. Enough information that I could piece together a timeline, anyway. I remember the pain of having that tracker put in, and then a bunch of us were split into different groups. No one else came with me, and I was brought through a long, dark tunnel. But I'm pretty sure that's the gate. My sense of time might be distorted."
"You remember the entire year before you came here?" Hange asked breathlessly.
"Bits and pieces. I always thought about the stuff that stuck out. I guess it cemented those memories in my brain before I could forget them." The hairs on the back of their neck stiffened.
"So, directly outside the gate isn't just... an outside world," Erwin deduced.
"No. They have a sort of camp set up there. I would guess that a bit further out, there's a headquarters or something, where all the different orphanages are linked."
"You think they're all that close?"
"Shiganshina House is only a tunnel away from the place where all the infants are kept. They keep such a routine here that it would make sense for the structure of the other groups to be just as orderly, and identical. For all we know, they could even be on the other side of the wall. It would be a problem if the kids in different orphanages could hear each other, so there's the rule about not passing the fence, just so it keeps the illusion of being secluded and surrounded by a huge forest up."
"Fascinating. We'll have to redo our map."
"Levi," Hange finally brought themself to speak again. "If... if you have abnormal memories like that-"
"I'm not a titan."
They sighed with relief, their terror subsiding.
"I don't have any memories that contradict the life I've lived or the places I could have possibly been. Everything I remember is mine, as Levi. Nothing more. Trust me, if I was, I would have killed all the bastards involved in this by now."
"Is headquarters where you learned words like that? You've said that twice today." They recognised it as what he'd said to Papa at the wall.
"Probably," he smirked.
They tried to mirror his expression, but now that the fear that he was exactly what the people outside were looking for had been dismissed, they were distracted by the fact that Levi hadn't just been suffering with his knowledge since they went to the gate as children. It had been his whole life. Before he was even born, in fact. It was... always.
"What about your deal with Papa?" Erwin asked. "When did that happen?"
"On my fifth birthday." Almost seven years. "By then, I'd done the tests long enough to start seeing patterns in everything, including how often kids were going in and out of the orphanage. It made me understand that the things I was thinking about weren't just weird repetitive dreams, but really happened. I didn't sleep much as an infant, so Papa took me into his office sometimes and spoke his thoughts out loud. I got the gist of the titan aspect of it from that. When I confronted him about it all, he was pretty shocked. But I made my deal with him there. He could ship me out early or use me to his advantage. I had decent scores, so it was in his best interests to keep me alive for longer, and that was that."
"When we've talked about escaping this place, you've referred to it as walls before, not just the singular wall that we know of," Erwin mentioned. "I didn't think anything of it until Brother said the same thing. How sure are you that the other facilities are next to us?"
"Not at all. I would have told you all this ages ago if you met my criteria."
"What do you mean?" Hange frowned.
"Regardless, don't soil yourself over trying to stay low tonight," Levi ignored them. "What's important right now is that you aren't traceable tomorrow, and that Hange's leg heals before we conduct the real escape."
"Right," Erwin nodded stiffly.
"Erwin," Hange spoke in a soft tone, grasping his hand again. "We won't let you die. We're all going to escape together, just like we agreed, alright?"
He locked eyes with them and smiled, nodding. Then the dinner bell rang, and Levi hurriedly drummed his fingers against the box before concealing it under the bed again.
"I'll be back when Papa comes to take your dinner plate away. You'll be on your own overnight, but we can both work on it for at least the first couple of hours. Erwin, could we take your smoke gun for spare parts just in case?"
"Sure."
The stress of the situation had significantly decreased in just half an hour of conversation. It was motivating enough for Hange to get through Papa showering them and dressing them in pyjamas that accommodated for the huge cast he'd put on their leg, as well as when he'd come in and out to give and take away their food. They didn't say a word to him the entire time, their brain already constructing a rough draft of the tracker-breaking device based on what they'd read so far, and turned away from him to feign sleep when they were done eating.
They sat up when three soft knocks rapped against the door. Levi waded in with another box and set it to the floor before dragging the table that was positioned over their bed when they were eating back in front of them.
"I have an hour before I shower. Papa will probably come back after that, so I'll have to move the table back when I go. You're on your own from then."
"That's fine. I can move enough to put the box back under the bed if he comes."
"Good. Let's get to work, then."