Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Attack on Titan, if I did would Levi squad have gotten their asses killed off so soon?

Chapter 1: New Bonds

"Five years ago when the walls first fell," Stated Petra "Could they be using the facts used from the attack to narrow down suspects on the assumption that's when the spy infiltrated us?" Petra had been growing worrisome for Eren. The boy allowed her to feel something she had not in a long time, but she just ignored the feelings for the time being. Her squad had been in the forest after unknowingly baiting the female titan into a trap.

"Does that mean the female titan is the one who killed Sonny and Beane?" Said Eld. He too was a bit suspicious of the entire situation and who just might be the rogue among the corp. The blonde man had thought of the entire situation as a huge clusterfuck.

"The commander asked me something after that happened…" Remembered Petra. The others in the squad who were in nodded their heads in agreement. The blonde woman was not the only who got spoken to by the commander.

Flashback

"What do you see? What do you think the enemy is?" Commander Erwin had said to Erwin very mysteriously.

Flashback end

"Oh so that is what Erwin had meant…he was meaning to try and attempt to see if anyone could be seriously trusted…" Eren was seriously off put on the fact that there was an ulterior motive to their mission after all.

"We might have even been allowed to join the operation if we'd known that answer." Eld was sad that he could not answer that question correctly.

"Well I knew, I just never decided to tell any of you. You know why" Questioned Oluo cheekily.

"Why?" Asked Petra/Eld. All of the others were wondering if he had been serious or not, though most of the time it was all jokes to him.

"I guess you guys like you wouldn't know, huh?" Oluo had asked, mimicking Levi. Petra just looked at him with a look of boredom, but he continued on. "You're nowhere near my level yet after all."

"Seriously, are you still trying to imitate Captain Levi? He doesn't talk like that." Petra said remembering him attempting to imitate Levi in the past.

'If this succeeds, then we might actually learn the truth of this world…' Eren said in deep thought with himself.

"He wasn't in the right, I'll tell you that" Said a horse faced cadet to the blonde haired tactician "If we'd actually been told that a titan had inside info, we would have handled things differently."

"No, it wasn't wrong Jean…" Said the blonde. This had caused a reaction from the now identified Jean.

"Do you know how many soldiers died? We cannot afford casualties, especially with the lack of recruits this year who decided to coward out to the garrison and military police." Said Jean, he couldn't believe the word of his comrade but believed that Armin was going to get to a point.

"Jean," Started Armin "I believe you should look at the bigger picture. If there was a spy, the Commander could not compromise a perfect trap setup with Eren as the bait. It would compromise the entire operation, this could lead to some interesting revelations in the future."

Jean had started to ponder Armin's words.

"Eren," Eld Started "If you didn't know already, you'll soon learn why. Erwin Smith was made commander and put in charge of the fate of humanity for a reason"

"It is why he has Captain Levi's trust!" Continued Petra.

"That's assuming you survive long enough, of course." Oluo said with grave seriousness in his tone of voice, that being a very rare thing that he ever spoke with.

(Time skip through the rest of Armin's little speech and when the female titan called all titans to her)

A blue flare was then signaled for the retreat of all scouts that were still alive. All forces had seen this and returned a fellow signal in the air, confirming and passing off the message. All troops seemed to be relieved to be heading home, some more than others but all were sad for their fallen comrades who sacrificed their lives. They had started moving from the trees and advancing towards their horses.

"Looks like it's over." Gunter commanded "Let's get back to the horses! Prepare to withdraw!"

"You heard the man," Oluo said lazily while getting up "Let's go see what the bastard riding inside it looks like."

"Did they really find out who it is?" Eren asked Petra.

"All thanks to you!" Petra said in her normal enthusiastic attitude.

"Huh? But I didn't do anything." Eren asked her, even questioning himself.

"You trusted us, remember?" Petra said with heart "Things turned out this way because you chose to stick with us. Making the right call is a pretty hard thing to do, you know!"

"Hey, now. Quit pamperin' him, Petra." Oluo said, clearly jealous. "All did he help? All he did was whine like a pathetic little brat. I guess the likes of him even making it out alive are praiseworthy, but only after mission completely finished."

"Yes, I get it already!" Eren said in defeat.

"Oluo! Petra!" Eld called out "For a couple of soldier who cried and pissed their pants during their first battle, you've really grown!"

"Don't mentioned that!" Petra cried out angrily "Are you trying to make him lose respect for me, Eld?!"

'What if what Eld said makes Eren think less of me…wait why am I thinking about losing Eren's respect…no I will leave those feelings to figure out till after we complete this mission.' Petra thought to herself. Petra was ashamed in how she thought of Eren before she got to know him, only thinking of him as a monster. Petra wanted to make it up to Eren, she wanted to risk life and limb for humanity's hope.

'Whoa Petra really did piss herself?! I don't blame her, we were at the brinks of death. But why is she concerned for my respect? I thought that she only thinks of me as a monster?!' Eren was pondering in his mind and looking shocked at Petra. 'Ah well I guess people who want respect, want respect from those who they care for.'

"It is the truth Eren," Eld said to Eren why Petra was glaring daggers at Eld "Just so you know I never pissed myself Eren."

"You idiot! I'll have you know I have the highest kill count!" Said Oluo while trying to defend himself "I'm the best, you moron!"

"There's more to a soldier's merits than just kill counts!" Eld rebutted.

At this point they were using their ODM gear to soar through the trees.

Then Eren asked a question that made everyone besides Petra and Eren laugh.

"Petra, does that mean it sprayed everywhere in mid-air?!" Eren asked.

Then she looked down in shame and shock with a frown on her face. Eren was about to say sorry before Gunter interrupted them.

"Everyone quite fooling around!" Ordered Gunter "Are you on a picnic or something?! We are outside the walls, you know!... also I never wet myself Eren." At that last statement Eren laughed internally.

Then from an area off in the distance a rogue scout signals a green flare.

'Oh. That must be a message from Captain Levi." Thought Gunter as he saw the signal flare.

"We're rendezvousing with the Captain! Save the chatter until we're home!" Gunter said as he shot a flare in the air.

The rogue had seen this response and headed towards it, preparing for an assault against them.

'Captain Levi is that you? No…It's not.' Gunter thought to himself.

"Who are you?" Gunter yelled, asking the rogue their name.

Next thing was Gunter was killed by the rogue. All the others had now noticed this and started to be on alert, still grieving the death of Gunter.

"Eren don't stop and keep moving!" Oluo said with concern for Eren.

"But Gunter…" Eren only managed to get this out before hearing Petra and Eld.

"Who's that?!" Questioned Petra in confusion and anger.

"Protect Eren!" Eld had yelled.

"What now Eld?" Oluo asked Eld.

"There's no time to get our horses! Head for HQ at full speed!" The blond responded with.

The squad had continued a little further before realizing that the rogue was actually the female titan that was supposedly captured. Then they saw the rogue fall back for her transformation. Thunder then stuck the ground, indicating that the titan form was back.

The others stared in shock as they watched a titan come sprinting towards them.

"The female titan!" Exclaimed Eld.

"This time I will kill her myself!" Eren yelled with hate in his heart and anger in his eyes, while reaching to bite his fingers.

"Eren! Stop, the three of us will take her down! Head to the HQ and don't get killed!" Eld said with concern in his voice.

Just then when he was about to ignore orders and transform, he heard a voice.

"Eren you must have faith in us!" Petra said painfully. When Eren looked at her, she had some tears down hear cheeks.

'I must fight in order to protect those I hold most dear. I will comeback if there is trouble. But I have put my faith in you Petra, Eld, and Oluo! Please just don't die!' thought Eren, thinking that he could come back and save them if needed.

"Okay, I have faith in my squads victory!" Eren exclaimed, when he looked over, he saw Petra smiling at him.

Knowing that the fate of humanity lies in their hands, they had started towards the female titan while Eren zoomed away on his ODM gear. He saw the trio blind the female, then started to cut up the muscles on their arms. Just then Eren remembered what Levi told him about not knowing the correct decision, so then he realized that he abandoned his teammates and made the wrong decision of not fighting.

Eren could see the enemies eye about to come back when Eren yelled to them while coming back as fast as he could.

"Eld, Petra, Oluo, get out of the way, the female's eye is about come back." Eren yelled to the trio. Two of them reacted in time and backed away onto another set of trees.

The unlucky one was Eld, he had been bit in half by the rogue. Seeing this, Eren stared with shock while still moving back to them. When Petra and Oluo saw this though, it broke them. The female charged Oluo and swiped him out the way and killed him.

At this point, Eren had reached them and saw Oluo die as well. He then saw the female about to crush Petra, but before that could happen there was another human being transformed into a titan. It was Eren, he caught the rogues leg before it could kill Petra. Roaring, Eren had alarmed the scouts that he had transformed, reinforcements coming to back him up and recover him.

'Eren…he saved me.' That was all the golden eyed girl could think as she moved to a safe area from the fighting, hoping to support Eren as backup.

Petra watched Eren starting to struggle against the female titan. Petra decided to render certain body parts of the enemy titan, useless. Whilst the female was taken to the ground by Eren with him roaring in its face, Petra had managed to cut the rogue's arms useless. Then Eren tore off the titans legs. All that was left were the females body and head.

When Eren saw this, he decided to cut open her nape with his teeth, deciding that capturing the female titan was more important than killing her. When doing this, he was shocked at what was seen, Annie Leonehardt was crying. This was the moment Levi had arrived with Mikasa, Levi decided that it was the best decision to for him to cut out Annie and Mikasa cuts out Eren. Levi noticed that Petra was still alive and caught a glance from her as she was crying over her fallen comrades.