Chapter Text
“So what are you going to do about it?”
Levi never bothered with pleasantries. So when he stepped into Erwin’s office, he got straight to the point.
“What exactly do you mean?”
Erwin, who had long since grown used to this sort of confrontation, looked up from the reports he’d been reviewing.
“The cadet turned into a Titan. He sealed the breach in Wall Rose. Thousands of people saw it. And you’re sitting here reading papers,” Levi said flatly.
“And what do you think I’m looking into right now?” Erwin replied, tone as level as ever.
“Fine,” Levi muttered. “Then what are you going to do about it?”
“You mean—what we’re going to do about it?”
“Not in my list of obligations,” Levi cut him off, already dreading being dragged into this mess before it officially became one more of his headaches. He had plenty, thank you very much.
“Neither is obsessively cleaning the barracks and the grounds with the Scouts instead of focusing on extended training, I suspect?”
…Fuck. He couldn’t argue with that.
“They’re filthy,” Levi said, referring to both the barracks and the Scouts.
“We have cleaning personnel. It’s their job.”
“They do it wrong.”
At that, one thick blond brow lifted.
“Fine,” Levi gave in after a pause. “What’s your plan?”
Erwin straightened slightly, that familiar smug calm spreading across his face. The bastard knew Levi would fold.
“The trial is in two days. We’re going to take the kid in—as a part of a special operations unit under the Survey Corps. With any luck, we can use the situation to our advantage.”
Fucking hell. He’s lost it. Not that it came as a surprise.
“And the responsibility for him?” Levi asked, already sensing where this was going.
Erwin looked at him, briefly lifting his eyes from the report.
“No.”
“Only for the trial. You just need to say you’ll keep an eye on him. That if anything goes wrong, you can handle it.”
“Meaning I’m taking full responsibility. And if shit hits the fan, I’m the one who has to put him down.”
“In case something unexpected happens, yes. To prove that he’s controllable. For now.”
“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?” Levi arched a brow.
“I trust your methods.”
Of course he fucking did.
“And what makes you think the Court, the Military Police, and the Senate will hand over a Titan to me? Unless we bribe them—and we don’t fucking have the money for that.”
“First, you’ve proven your value to humanity.”
Levi snorted.
“Second, I’ll be backing the request personally. As Commander of the Survey Corps.” That, at least, sounded more reasonable. “And third…”
Erwin paused.
Levi narrowed his eyes. “What.”
There it was—that slimy feeling in his gut.
“We might have a valuable backup. If things go well. We’ll know tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” Levi repeated, deadpan. He really wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
“The leader of the new Special Operations Squad is arriving. Under Survey Corps command.”
“What the hell is a Special Squad?”
“A team designed to help us study Titans. Understand their physiology, behavior, weaknesses—everything. Ideally, it’ll reduce our losses on expeditions.”
In Levi’s opinion, better training and killing more Titans was a far simpler solution.
“I submitted a request to the Head Military Office months ago. A week ago, they filled the position.”
“How thoughtful,” Levi said, the sarcasm thick enough to cut steel.
Erwin continued without acknowledging it.
“Their name is Dr. Hange Zoë. From the Department of Anatomy at Mitras Academy. The only scientist who doesn’t specialize in humans.”
Levi’s face twitched.
“Hange—as in…?”
“Raimund Hange. The recently deceased Senate member.”
Of course. Of fucking course.
“So let me get this straight,” Levi said through clenched teeth. “You want me to take full responsibility for a potentially dangerous kid—”
“His name is Eren Yeager,” Erwin interrupted smoothly.
“—a potentially dangerous kid named Eren Yeager, and team up with some noble’s daughter who probably never even wiped her own ass?”
“I wouldn’t put it exactly like that, but yes. Temporarily,” Erwin emphasized, “and only if things go according to plan.”
Levi exhaled slowly and pinched the bridge of his nose. Temporarily, his ass.
“We’ll meet Dr. Hange tomorrow. She’ll present some of her core theories—just a preliminary session before she starts working with our Titan data. I’d like you there too.”
This just kept getting better.
“Is that all?” Levi asked, already turning for the door.
“Yes.”
Levi stood, ready to put the conversation—and the day—behind him.
“Levi.”
He stopped. Slowly turned, almost rolling his eyes. “What.”
“Try to be nice.” Erwin tilted his head slightly, not a command—more like a gentle suggestion. The kind he used in rare personal conversations.
“Not happening.”
“Alright. Try to be… less judgmental. From the start, at least.” Now Erwin even sounded a little apologetic.
“Why? They always are.”
“I know. But—”
“Save it,” Levi cut off. “You know damn well what I think about nobles. It’s not going to change.”
“I’d still like you to try.”
“Is that an order?”
“No,” Erwin said, looking at him with those bright, calm, irritatingly sincere blue eyes. “Think of it as a personal favor.”
Levi clicked his tongue.
He sighed. “Fine. I’ll be there. I’ll keep my mouth shut. As long as they behave.”
He turned on his heel, already halfway out the door.
“Thank you, Levi,” Erwin said to his back. He sounded almost innocent, using the same voice he saved for older rich noble ladies who may or may not have helped the charming young commander who sincerely believed in humanity’s bright, Titan-free future.
Levi wasn’t going to comment on that.
“Go fuck yourself, Smith.” He shut the door behind him.
A muffled chuckle was the last thing he heard.
What a piece of shit.
Right.
Now he needed his cup of tea. And a good long think.
***
Levi was already regretting agreeing to this.
Erwin sat at the table across the room, calm as ever, sipping tea like they weren’t about to invite a complete disaster into the building.
And on top of that, she was late.
“She is late,” Levi deadpanned.
“Technically,” Erwin said, “we’re early.”
“We’re soldiers,” Levi replied. “If you’re not early, you’re already late.”
The door exploded open.
Levi’s jaw clenched before he even turned. Heavy boots. Disheveled coat. A chaotic snarl of hair shoved back by a pair of ridiculous goggles - that had to be the infamous Dr. Hange Zoë.
She charged in like she’d just escaped a fire, arms full of notebooks, a jar, and what looked suspiciously like a bone.
She had the exact energy of someone who hadn’t eaten, slept, or blinked in three days.
“Commander Erwin Smith!” she blurted, practically buzzing. “Apologies I’m late! Got held up staring at some spinal fragments. They were so—”
She stopped. Her eyes landed on Levi.
“Oh.” Her grin widened. “You must be Captain Levi Ackerman. Humanity’s Strongest.”
Levi didn’t blink. “You always shout in people’s faces after meeting them?”
“Only when I’m really excited!” she said, stepping way too close. “I’ve been waiting months to meet you. You are smaller than I imagined, though—Also cleaner. But I read your injury reports! You’re practically a scientific anomaly. Honestly, with that many near-deaths, you’re a walking contradiction.”
Levi’s left eye twitched. Not worth the energy.
“You read?”
“Obsessively!” she beamed, finally backing off.
“Well, I’m here for Eren Jaeger,” she continued, bouncing on her heels. “He’s the biggest breakthrough in Titan biology in a century! Do you know how much blood he loses when he shifts? Do his clothes stay on, or is he naked? Because that shouldn’t be possible—physics-wise, I mean—and I can’t wait to monitor his transformation, maybe lightly poke him with a needle and—”
“You’re not poking him with anything,” Levi said flatly. “Or cutting him. Or whatever else you psychos do in your labs.”
She tilted her head. “Shame. Pain makes excellent data.”
“Dr. Hange Zoë,” Erwin interrupted at last, standing. “Welcome. Thank you for coming on such a short notice.”
“Of course! I’m honored. This is huge. The idea of studying a live Titan shifter? Do you know how long I’ve wanted to dissect—uh—observe one?”
“You’re not dissecting him,” Levi snapped.
“Yet,” Hange said brightly.
“He’s not a lab rat.”
“He turns into a giant man-eating monster.”
“And then seals a hole in the wall and turns back.”
“Which makes him even more fascinating!”
Erwin cleared his throat.
“Dr. Hange, you’ll be working under Survey Corps command, directly with this unit. Eren Jaeger will be placed under Captain Levi Ackermann’s supervision.”
“Lovely.”
“Shall we begin? Please.” Erwin gestured to the table.
They sat. Hange immediately spread out a chaotic mess of notes, sketches, and a bone. She launched into a speech about Titan muscle regeneration, rattling off data at lightspeed, hands flailing wildly.
Levi didn’t look at her. Just stared at the mess of paper like it had personally insulted him. Then he met Erwin’s eyes across the table with a look that said: You owe me for this.
Ten minutes in, after three close calls with his teacup and something about “collagen collapse during transformation,” he’d had enough.
Sure, Erwin was his commander. He showed up. He tried. But this?
This was not fucking it.
“I don’t know why I have to sit here listening to some lunatic and her crackpot theories—someone who’s probably never even seen a Titan, and spent her life locked in a lab built into her daddy’s castle.”
He stood. Chair scraping. He was halfway to the door when—
“Well—fuck you sideways, then.”
Levi stopped. Turned back. Face unreadable.
“…What.”
“I said,” Hange repeated, crystal clear, “fuck you sideways. And if you insult my research again, I’ll gladly demonstrate it. On you.”
Alright. The lunatic dies today.
Levi moved.
Three quiet, deadly steps brought him around the table. He stopped inches from her face.
She didn’t flinch. Just hugged her papers tighter like they were scripture. Her eyes gleamed. Her grin? Annoying as hell.
“Levi.”
Erwin’s voice. Calm. Firm. Unmoving.
Levi didn’t blink. Didn’t back down.
Eventually, gravity dragged him into the chair again.
Erwin sighed through his nose.
“Let’s keep this civil. Please. Both of you.” He nodded at Hange. “Dr. Hange, if you would continue.”
“Gladly, Commander,” she chirped, flipping her notes like nothing had happened.
Crazy bitch, Levi thought.
He glared at the table.
Sure, he’d kill Titans. Sure, he’d follow orders. But nowhere did it say sit quietly through this shit.
“She’s going to toss out half-baked theories,” he muttered, cutting across her again, “then disappear the moment things get inconvenient. What’s stopping her from turning her back on us?”
Didn’t look at her. Just at Erwin.
He had a good long thought about that yesterday.
“Levi—”
God. The teacher voice. Never a good sign.
“Excuse me—coming from whom, exactly?”
Hange spun toward him again. Too close. Too loud.
“What?” Levi blinked.
“You’re talking about loyalty?” she snapped. “That’s rich coming from the guy who used to run an extortion ring.”
Silence.
„You’re not the only one here able of doing baseless assumptions.“ she added.
Levi clenched his jaw. “What happened to Humanity’s Strongest fan club?”
“Oh, that ends the second someone disrespects my work and judges me for my upbringing,” she said coolly. “You think that makes me less of a scientist?”
He snorted. “I don’t see a scientist. I see a sleep-deprived lunatic with a bird’s nest for hair and goggles that make you look like an owl.”
She leaned in. Grinning like a knife. “I am sorry—can you even see my hair from that altitude?”
Erwin’s hand hit the table.
“Enough.”
Both froze. Hange folded her arms. Levi leaned back, unimpressed.
“I think we’ve made some progress,” Erwin said, obviously lying. Then: “Levi. I expected better.”
Levi rolled his eyes.
Then Erwin turned to her.
“Dr. Hange. Please stay a few more minutes. We need to talk.”
Levi stood. Pushed his chair back with a long, deliberate scrape.
Then walked out.
This was going to be a fucking disaster.
***
After Levi stormed out, the silence felt heavy.
Hange stood frozen, her papers pressed to her chest. The room hadn’t changed—same cold light, same damn table—but something in the air had shifted. She felt it. Like a verdict had been passed.
And here she was, standing under the unblinking gaze of the 13th Commander of Survey Corps, Erwin Smith.
Fantastic.
Honestly? She wasn’t sure how the hell this had spiraled so fast. It wasn’t like she tried to offend Levi Ackerman. She had actually wanted to meet him. Was even kind of excited about it.
But apparently, her excitement translated to let me throw Titan diagrams at your face while grinning like a lunatic—which, granted, wasn’t the smoothest approach.
And now she was here, trying to breathe through the silence.
Gods, how had she ended up in this mess?
She'd never belonged in Mitras. Never once. Too loud. Too eccentric. Too Titan-obsessed. Add a father who occasionally spoke against the monarchy at dinner parties while drunk, and you had a recipe for social exile.
Not that she minded. Well. Maybe sometimes. Like when girls poured tea on her dress “by accident.” She’d peeled it off once—in front of everyone—and walked out in her petticoat. Her governess fainted.
Alright, that part was kind of satisfying.
Still, after her father’s death—Senator Hange, noble, stubborn, kind-hearted and now unfortunately very, very dead—she had bolted. Fast. She had to get out of the political salons and the marble halls and the thinly veiled contempt, and the burned remains of the family mansion.
The Survey Corps had seemed perfect. Dangerous, yes—but distant. And full of unknowns.
Like Titans.
So she’d fought through all the seven circles of buerocratic hell—petition after petition, practically camping in front of the Dean’s office for weeks—to get here. And when they finally approved her transfer, the whispers started.
“The Zoë girl?”
“She’s still alive?”
“Why would she go there?”
Now she knew what they must’ve meant.
Because even here, in this far-flung branch of humanity’s final hope, she wasn’t the right kind of outsider.
Not for people like Levi Ackerman.
A quiet cough cut through her spiral.
Erwin Smith.
Of course.
“Dr. Hange,” he said. “You can sit. I don’t imagine Captain Ackerman will be returning anytime soon.”
“Right,” she murmured, setting the papers down, adjusting her glasses. “Commander Smith, I’d like to apologize for… that. I tend to get ahead of myself. Especially when there are Titans involved.”
He didn’t answer right away. Just watched her.
The kind of watch that made her skin itch. Not judgmental. Just… weirdly assessing.
She waited. Something was off.
“So…” she started.
“I imagined you differently,” he said, calm and clipped.
“Oh? Less... messy?”
“No need to get defensive,” he said, one brow lifting. “I don’t share Captain Ackerman’s prejudices against the nobility. Well—most of them.”
Hange blinked. “Thanks? I think?”
“I knew your father,” he added.
That made something inside her freeze.
“He never mentioned a daughter.”
“He... wasn’t exactly the type to bring his kid to work,” she said, awkward, suddenly unsure of her footing.
Erwin nodded slowly. “Why are you here, Dr. Hange?”
She tilted her head. “I just told you. To study Titans.”
He didn’t blink. “Why?”
„Because they’re fascinating. They’re creatures that deserve to be studied—like anything else in this world still unknown to humanity. Why do they look like that? Why do they behave like that? Why is their blood so hot, so light it vanishes seconds after exposure? Where do they come from? Why do they eat people? What’s the world behind these walls?“
She exhaled, warming up again. “I believe Titan research could bring us closer to answering all of that. And I’m eager to discover the truth. I want to figure it out before someone else decides it’s not worth asking.”
Something in Erwin Smith’s expression shifted as she spoke.
That should’ve been enough.
“What I don’t understand,” he continued, “is why the daughter of a respected politician, a top academic—no less—, would abandon all the privileges and a secure future to join what is—pardon the phrase—a goddamn suicide mission.”
And there it was again. Something was definitely off.
“What are you implying?” she asked, her voice sharpening.
“I’m implying,” he said, leaning in, voice quiet but unflinching, “that there’s only one reason someone like you comes here.”
“Which is?”
He stood. Hands on the table. Eyes level.
“Did you come here to spy on us, Dr. Hange?”
Ah. That was a logical conclusion.
She could do logic.
“No, Commander Smith,” she said clearly. “I didn’t.”
“Why should I believe that?”
“Because why would I feed the same hand that burned down what was left of my family?”
Silence.
And then Erwin sat back.
Damn it, she realized—he’d been testing her. He knew this whole time.
He just wanted to make sure if she knew as well.
Commander Erwin Smith was exactly the man her father had spoken about, in every glowing detail.
“Dr. Hange, I’m genuinely sorry for your loss. If I could have prevented it, I would have,” he said, his voice softening. And for the first time since she walked into the room, it felt truly sincere.
“Thank you. But no one could have prevented it,” Hange replied, shifting her tone back to cheerful, as if the tension never happened. “And please—call me Hange. I have a feeling our collaboration is going to take more than a few unexpected turns. Might as well drop the formalities now,” she said with a small laugh.
Erwin smiled back at her —reserved, but real.
“Very well. Then call me Erwin. I suspect we’re not too far apart in age, anyway.” He added: “Welcome to the Survey Corps, Squad Leader Hange Zoë. And this time—I mean it.”
“Thank you,” she said brightly, then glanced toward the door. Her smile dimmed just slightly.
Erwin followed her gaze.
“I apologize for Captain Ackerman. He’ll come around. Eventually.” A pause. He frowned. “I think.”
“Yeah, he’s got a serious stick up his ass. A wonder he can still sit straight.” Hange said, smirking.
“You can tell?” Erwin mirrored her smirk.
Then his expression turned thoughtful. “Which reminds me. After the trial, which, I hope, you would join us for,” he glanced at her. When Hange nodded eagerly, he proceeded:“I’d like you to begin basic recruit training.”
She stared.
“You’d like me… to what.”
“Standard protocol. All active Corps members complete training.”
“But I’m not— I’m— I do math! And biology!”
“Titans don’t care, Im afraid.”
She groaned. “This wasn’t in the brochure.”
Erwin raised his teacup.
“Welcome to the Corps, Hange Zoë. I hope our collaboration will be fruitful.”
“You know what?,” she replied with a grin, sinking back into the chair. “Something tells me, that it just might be.”
Outside, the wind rattled the windows, and somewhere deep in the compound, a bell rang for evening drills.
It was going to be a long week.