The Adventures of Annieocchio part 6

“You idiot! You’re an absolute idiot…and stop laughing!”

Bertholdt was trying to hold it in, but it was becoming a losing battle. “I can’t help it, it’s hard to take to you serious with wet socks hanging on her nose.”

Annie frowned, despite the slight bit of leniency from Hange she was still stuck as the Survey Corps lacky. Annie sat outside with Bertholdt in the training yard under strict supervision. Captain Levi decided to use Annie as a drying rack for small bit of laundry.

“I’m surprised they even let me out here.” Bertholdt said. “I’m surprised I’m not locked in a cell covered in chains.”

“It seems like, it might make it easier to get information out of us if they treat us with some humility.” Annie said flatly. “I still think you are an idiot. Why did you even say anything?”

“I thought they were going to hurt you….and as I said before, it wasn’t right to have you take the fall for all of us.” Bertholdt said looking at his feet.

Annie’s face flushed a bit. She had always ired Bertholdt’s convictions, even if they got him in trouble sometimes. She still ed him getting beat up as a small child because he didn’t believe in fighting. She also ed how he ended up in the warrior program. His strong convictions having dire consequences.

“It’s not fair Bertholdt…it seems like through all of this…. you and Marcel have seemed to suffer the most.” She said quietly.

He let out a sad laugh, “Does it really matter now?”

Annie didn’t have an answer.

Bertholdt stretched out his long legs. “So, where do we go from here?”

Annie shrugged. “Well, they know about Marely and that we are soldiers. But that’s about it. Honestly, I think Hange enjoyed learning more about the sea.”

“That sounds like her.”

“They don’t know about how titans are created…about how titan shifter powers work?”

Annie hesitated for a moment. “No”

Bertholdt automatically looked at her nose.

“You a**! You’re looking at my nose!”

“I wasn’t…I promise” Bertholdt stammered.

“You know you are also a bad liar too.” Annie said, wanting to storm off but didn’t want the socks to fall off.

She opted to just slowly turn her back to him.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s more like…morbid curiosity.”

“Save it Hoover.”

“Annie….” But he was cut off by Mikasa.

“More socks” she said flatly dropping the basket in front of her. She shot Bertholdt a hostile glare. “Captain says you can fold the dry ones from big nose.”

Bertholdt jumped up ready to confront Mikasa. “Back off Mikasa you-“he stopped when the Scouts aimed their rifles at him.

“That’s what I thought…traitor.” Mikasa spat as she walked away.

As Mikasa walked away, Bertholdt sat back down defeated.

“Annie don’t listen to…Annie what’s wrong?” He noticed that Annie was starting to cry. “Mikasa doesn’t understand what we have been through…”

“It’s not that…she…she called me big nose.” Annie said tearfully. “Even when my nose wasn’t the long enough to be a bird rest, that’s what all the kids in Libero used to call me.”

She put her head into her hands, the clean socks falling to the ground, her nose poking out. Annie felt like she was a young kid again, being teased by all the kids in the internment zone. It was hard for her to handle on top of being looked down upon by Marley citizens and the cold treatment from her father.

“Of all the things they could have done to me…why my nose?”

Bertholdt moved closer to her and wrapped his arm around her. “Annie, I’m really sorry for looking at your nose. Curiosity or not it wasn’t right for me to bring more attention to it.”

Annie leaned a bit into Bertholdt, comforted by his warm embrace.

“Long nose or not, I still think you are…well I still think you are pretty cute.”

Annie snuggled a bit closer to Bertholdt, starting to feel her tears dry up.

“What do we do now?” Mike asked.

The top officials of the Survey Corps sat around Erwin’s desk, discussing the latest development.

“Hange, you got any more of that serum?” Eld asked.

“If his nose grows any bigger, Hoover might fall over” Levi said dryly.

“I don’t know if that’s possible.” Hange said not realizing Levi was being sarcastic. “But I’m out and it will take some time to synthesis more.”

“I hate to it it, but it seems to be a somewhat effective interrogation tool. If they are from another nation’s military, then they would have some form of torture training.” Erwin said. “But not training against public humiliation.”

“It doesn’t hurt that they are so young too.” Nanaba added.

“So, that’s our strategy…just make fun of them until they talk?” Levi asked. “Seems like that might take a while.”

Erwin leaned back in his chair, “Well, what do you suggest Levi?”

“I think we are ignoring the bigger issue here.” Hange said. “We are not the last of humanity. Who knows what other groups of humans are out there.”

“How can we be sure that these people from Marley are even human. They can turn into Titans.” Mike said.

“So can Eren but we’ve determined he’s human.” Hange said. “Maybe Eren has some connection to this Marley place.”

“I want to know if they were sending hostiles over here to cause problems why send kids?” Moblit asked. “Why not send your army or something or sea army?”

Erwin gave Moblit a funny look, “Sea army?”

“Well, they gotta get over that giant lake somehow.”

“I wonder what kind of boat they would use…” Hange pondered as the chatter devolved into water travel.

“We are getting off topic here.” Levi cut in. “We now have the colossal titan and the female, but we still don’t know the identity of the armored titan. I think that should be our top priority. When now he or she are here, and we need to find them before more damage is done.”

“Levi is right, we have no idea what the owner of that titan is planning. Maybe Hoover’s confession was a part of some master plan, or this spy is sending out a rescue message to Marley and then we will have bigger problems to face.” Nanaba added.

********************************************

The door to Marley’s chief scientist opened as Vice-Captain Zeke Jeager walked in.

“Hadfield is it ready yet?”

The scientist turned around, adjusting her glasses. She was tall with short brown hair and had an odd obsession with titans.

“It is Vice-Captain Jeager but I don’t think it is ethical to test on humans…”

Zeke waved his hand, dismissing her. “We’ve got the perfect test subject for you.” He nodded towards one of the Marley soldiers who stepped out of the room for a moment. He returned with a young warrior candidate who was no more than 15 years old. She didn’t show any emotions on her face.

Reminds me a bit of Leonhart.

“This is one of the possible inheritors of the Cart titan, she follows orders and doesn’t put up a fight.” Zeke said.

Hanna Hadfield knew it wasn’t worth the fight, so she led the tired looking girl to a chair. She handed her a bottle of blue liquid.

“Here, drink this please.”

The warrior candidate drank it without question.

They all waited a few minutes until Zeke spoke up.

“Please state your name.”

“Pieck Finger.”

Hanna made a note.

“Ok Pieck, I am going to ask you a question, but I need you to lie.”

Pieck nodded.

“Are you an Eldian?”