Work Text:
There was once a young girl, captivated by science. Often, she would help her father manufacture clocks, their families main source of income. Her father had hoped that she would inherit the family business, but she had no interest in doing so.
One evening, before her family sat down for dinner, her mother was disturbed to find jars of dissected frogs hidden underneath her bed. She assured her mother that the frogs she had dissected were ones that were already dead. But, disturbed by her actions her mother sent her to a doctor thinking something was wrong with her. Her father defended her interests, allowing her to pursue dissections in a controlled environment to preserve his wife’s sanity.
“Hange.” The girl continued to daydream.
“Hange Zoe.” Finally, she snapped out of her daydream. She began pretending to write, acting as if she was mentally present the entire lesson, she wasn’t. The teacher sighed.
“This is an important lesson regarding the history of our walls and yet you don’t seem interested.” The teacher spoke in a tone almost as if he was asking a question. Although, he then noticed that the rest of the class also seemed disinterested. Their curriculum was very bland, history mainly, as if the story of their peoples history and the walls were being drilled into them.
“History is just some kind of propaganda.” Hange muttered under her breath, the teacher chose to ignore. It was a crime to insinuate that the history of the walls they resided in was false.
At age thirteen, Hange discovered illegal books hidden inside clocks that her father had made. This led to her discovering that he was the face behind the circulation of illegal history books that had been circulating around wall Maria for years. Those books seemed to cause quite a stir around town as they were forbidden by the authorities and the king himself.
One night, Hange snuck into her fathers workshop to read one of these books. The first book she picked out, wasn’t in a language she knew. Of course there were some dialects around, but most were spoken by a minority of people and briefly covered in schools. This, however, was something she had never seen before. Intrigued by this book, she briefly tossed it to the side hoping to ask her science teacher about it. He was the only one who valued her interests aside from her father, but of course she couldn’t tell him that she was sneaking around in his workshop.
Another book covered the scouts, the creation of ODM gear and exhibitions the public were not aware of. Sort of like secret missions, but they were probably kept from the general public since they contained gory details that would panic many. But Hange wasn’t disturbed, she was consumed and intrigued by new information she hadn’t been taught.
Hange read of how brutally humanity had been diminished by titans, and her blood boiled. She read of the possible theories in which titans came to be. A spawn of Satan himself perhaps, maybe a punishment sent by God, or even that these titans were undead humans.
What was most disturbing, was the theory that there was another humanity thriving outside the world created within the walls. There was also sufficient evidence to prove this. Mysterious people entering the walls with cures for diseases that almost wiped out the population of the walls, or a society working for the titans in an attempt to end the human race and create a new civilisation.
The door creaked open, Hange slammed the books shut and hid them in her duffle bag under the desk. She went back to pretending to manufacture a little clock.
“Evening dad.” Hange said, yawning. Acting as if she had been working on the clock for hours. Her dad laid a hand on her back.
“You know, you don’t have to make clocks, I know you’ll make a great scientist.” His father knelt down to inspect the clock. “Also, the hands are moving anti clockwise.” He chuckled.
Hange’s eyes widened as she watched the hands of the clock move backwards, but then she burst into laughter. The first clock she had manufactured all by herself and the hands aren’t even moving the correct way.
“It’s okay, I’ll fix it.” Her father said.
“No, don’t. I like it the way it is.” Hange smiled at her father.
Finally she left for bed, stuffing the books underneath her wardrobe in hopes to ask her science teacher if he knew anything about it the next day.
Her science teacher wasn’t actually a teacher since they didn’t teach science at her school. In fact, it was a heavily discouraged subject. Her teacher was simply a man down the street who taught her the anatomy of animals and insects, also how to properly dissect animals in a way that wouldn’t disturb her mother. He took a liking to Hange, noticing her talents he hoped to employ her in the future.
The next morning, when she went to leave for her ‘science class’ she noticed her backwards clock on the wall of the kitchen.
“I like it that way.” Her father smiled, gazing towards the clock.
“Are you not eating before you leave?” Her mother queried.
“Oh, I would but I have to go, I’m already late.” Hange was not late, she was just tired of her mother’s cooking. It wasn’t her fault the food was bad, most food in wall Maria was awful since it was so heavily rationed.
“Fine.” Her mother shoved the plate to the side in some attempt to make Hange feel bad, it didn’t work.
“You sure, you need food for brain power, scientists need brain power don’t they?” Her father teased.
“See you later dad.” She waved him off. That morning, she skipped excitedly down the street.
“Morning Pepin.” Hange spoke, with a big smile.
“Hange.” He greeted her, nodding his head and stepping aside to let her into his home.
Prepared were some spiders laid out across the table, but that was not Hange’s interest today. The books she was intrigued by were stuffed in her duffle bag waiting to be read.
“You haven’t seen these spiders before huh?” Pepin said, expecting a reaction from Hange. But that was not her interest that day.
“Pepin?” She asked, placing a hand on her duffle bag. The scientist looked at her, a horrible feeling deep within his gut consumed him, but he looked her in the eyes and she continued. “What would you make of these?” She slid the books across the table towards him.
Pepin scanned over the books, both had blank green covers. Odd, he thought, but hesitantly he turned to the first page. The first book he opened contained a scarily familiar language, his eyes widened.
“How did you?” Pepin looked into Hanges eyes, they were gleaming with excitement surrounding her new discovery. “Never mind...” Pepin closed the book, hoping never to see what he had just gazed upon ever again. He wished that this was all just a bad dream, almost wanting to pinch himself to wake up.
The next book was clearly illegal, from the first page. Information that was private, hidden from the general public. It was written in hand writing clearly recognisable as Otto Zoe’s, Hange’s dad, but he hoped it wasn’t true.
“Hange, where did you get these?” Pepin asked, the smile faded quickly from the young girls face.
“My fathers workshop... why?” She asked. Suddenly the realisation dawned upon Pepin. The reason Otto had sent his daughter to him specifically, the missing letters, the origin of the circulation of these illegal books.
“I’m sorry Hange, remember that your father is and will always be a good friend of mine.” He promptly left, her eyes followed Pepin as he excited. Suddenly, she was filled with a sense of guilt and simultaneously dread, as if she had done something wrong.
An hour passed, she decided to head back to her home. As she walked the street, the skies were grey, but they had been so clear earlier. The door to her home was open, but only an inch. There was a muffled crying sound as she pressed her ear to the door, it was her mother’s.
The door flew open, authorities surrounded her parents, each of them turned to look at Hange as she stood at the door. Pepin was amongst them, a solemn look upon his face. Her father was wide eyed, her mother crying as the guard covered her mouth.
“Hange...” Her father sighed, lending her a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be fine.” He attempted to reassure her, but to no avail.
“I wouldn’t say that.” The guards laughed, sadistically.
“Don’t.” Pepin spoke, prompting the guards into silence.
“Whats happening dad, mum?” She asked, addressing her mother whomst she hardly spoke too. Then, her mother’s eyes turned bitter.
“You did this to us. You did this to us!” She broke down into tears, Hange took a step backwards. Her mother hadn’t yelled in a such a way since she discovered the dissected frogs. But this was different, she was distraught, scared and betrayed.
“Alright, we’ll see what the higher ups make of you two.” The guards began leading her parents away.
“Wait, where are you taking them?” Hange panicked, grabbing one of the guards arms. He shook her off.
“The afterlife.” The guard spoke. It dawned upon Hange, that this may be the last time she saw her parents alive... and it was all her fault. There were no words left for her to say, tears filled her eyes, she found herself falling to the floor in despair.
“Hange, become the best scientist these walls have ever seen.” Her father spoke, the last words he ever spoke to her.
She watched as the guards left with her parents, Pepin knelt beside her, not knowing how to comfort her since this was his own doing. But he had to protect himself, and he would protect Hange at all costs now that she was alone.
“You betrayed them.” Hange muttered through her tears as Pepin placed a hand on her back.
“You betrayed them... and I’ll never forgive you.”