PLEASE READ THE PROLOGUE IN MY HOMEPAGE!

Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long but I just survived the final hell week of the school year so it's unofficially over and I'll have more time for writing. I'll be updating Black Chocolate and starting a new SnK multi-chaptered fanfic called Wings in the days to follow before going on hiatus to finish a Sandman fanfic. In the meantime, please enjoy…

Chapter 1: Chase

Levi spurred his horse faster and the rushing air didn't sting his trained eyes. "Are you sure it's this way, Sasha?"

"Positive, sir!" screamed the girl, still clutching the fine red strand in her right hand along with the reins of her horse. She held it up to her nose for the umpteenth time that morning and sniffed, then lowered it and, as if on cue, the wind blew from the direction they were heading. "And whoever it is is still there, just a few meters away!"

"How do you know?" yelled Connie.

"Quiet! You'll scare away the prey!"

"It's you who's screaming, idiot!"

Levi sighed, already bordering on pissed without his morning coffee. Despite the drills they went through every afternoon, none of Levi's underlings were used to ignoring the sound of the air passing through them and the thundering of their own horses' hooves when riding yet but he knew that it was only a matter of time. For now, he will have to raise his voice every time he talked.

"Both of you shut up," said Levi. There was silence, and he let it settle for a while. "You all know what to do then?"

"Yes, sir!" replied four voices at once, each dripping with eagerness to make up to him and please, even those that belonged to Armin and Jean.

"Good," said Levi. "Disperse."

The wind smelled strangely and it came from the west. The girl lowered her fishing spear and listened. The early morning birdsong died abruptly in her head and for a moment, there was nothing in the void but the beating of her heart. And then she heard them: strange whizzing sounds like compressed air crashing through hollow space, and the unmistakable sound of knives piercing through bark, followed by the scattering of splinters on grass as they parted company with wood. They were approaching loudly, whoever made the noises, and they were making no effort to lower their voices.

By the time the riders had come to her spot, the fishes she had speared were in a hole beneath an inconspicuous rock by the stream. The girl herself had stored away her tool, stashed her now dry clothes into her bag, slung it on, put on her cloak, flipped up its hood, put on her hat, and tree-hopped a good way away and now she stopped to stare at the little party that were passing by the brook on their horses. There were rectangular metal boxes strapped to the side of their thighs that must have been the source of the noises that had given away their position. She let the corners of her mouth lift and crouched lower on her branch.

They were coming closer but she wasn't afraid. The rider on the left with ashen blond hair asked the dark-haired man in the middle a question; he gave him an answer she couldn't hear and beckoned to the blonde rider on his right, who loaded his pistol and fired green smoke into the air. The girl found this funny and smirked wider, then dove off her branch as she tucked her bangs behind her left ear.

Levi took a look at his advance guards' bleeding heads and knew at once that the intruder was in the trees. "Where?" he asked Connie, who had managed to remain conscious.

"Up ahead, sir," slurred the boy before blacking out.

"Jean," said Levi.

"Yes sir!" and in a second, he was within the trees and off.

"Armin."

"It's minor sir!" said Armin, releasing his pinch on the bleeding knot on Sasha's brow and hoisting her up on Jean's abandoned horse to move them to a more secluded spot. "Apparently, they just bumped their heads together. It's Historia who knows about stopping clots but that aside, they'll be fine soon."

"Good. Black, then."

"Yes, sir!" said Armin as he leapt up on his horse, or so Levi imagined as he galloped deeper into the forest after Jean. In a few seconds, a gunshot fired behind him and the wind picked up enough to throw the smell of gunpowder from Armin's flare gun at him.

He unslung the rifle off his shoulder and made sure it was loaded.

The girl flew through the trees, shooting a hook, reeling herself in, and then spooling the wire back into its source with the three different triggers of her grappling gun, relying on momentum and the angle of her shots and gravity to swing herself forward. She had left the bald boy and the ponytailed brunette sprawled beneath the tree when none of them steamed as a message for their comrades. They should consider themselves lucky that she hadn't pulled out her knives on them.

The whizzing, hissing sound returned but this time it was alone. Adrenaline washed over her like morning sunshine. For the first time in ten years, something intelligent was finally bent on killing her and she could only feel excited. If it was a chase they wanted, then she would give it to them.

She slowed down, willing for them to catch her, wishing they would try. She heard the pursuer overtake her from somewhere to her right and move to her front. And they came, rather, he came, the boy with dark blond hair from before, and he had two blades drawn and he was aiming for her. She did what he wanted her to do and backtracked at the last second with a graceful flip and started retracing her path, her three longest left fingers dancing on her gun's triggers and her free hand flicking a few needles in the direction of the long-faced boy's arms. It was just like what she did with Deviants when she was bored: she would let herself get caught, scream even, and wait until she was inside them then hook herself to their nape and slice them slowly from the inside.

A bang rang clear through the air and she stopped the bullet in its tracks with her right hand and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next as she pushed on and when she passed the dark-haired man on his horse with his rifle, she blocked his shots with her foot and legs without looking. They didn't want to kill her, the way they weren't aiming for her middle and later on, they would realize that that had been their first mistake. She wanted to stay and witness the shock on his face but she might begin toying with the idea of killing them if she stayed any longer and that was out of the question. She had a record she didn't want to break it.

These were humans she was dealing with after all, not Titans.

Mikasa 3D-maneuvered her way through the trees as fast as she could without getting ahead of the others, not wanting to lose them from her sight. A black flare meant that their intruder was not only using the gear but had hurt their comrades and she, Eren and Historia had hurried with their rifles the moment they saw the smoke in the sky. "Eren," she said, "Stay with Historia as she heals the others. Don't engage in combat."

"What? Mikasa!"

"Levi-heichou's orders," said Mikasa, hoping that settled everything, knowing it didn't. "Our enemy might be stronger than us, and our goal is to keep you two safe."

Eren hissed. "Heichou's orders…who made you Vice-Captain anyway?!"

"Everyone, Eren," said Historia, dodging a branch that jutted in her way. "Except you. Because the Special Operation's Squad's job is to protect us, Mikasa's more than perfect for the position."

"I know that! But just because I'm not as good as you," he said, glancing angrily at Mikasa as he did a somersault and launched a hook in a fresh spurt of gas, "that doesn't mean I'm useless!"

"I didn't say you were," said Mikasa, relying on her gas alone as they passed through a clearing. "But if you were to get hurt now, you wouldn't be able to fight when we need you the most." She fired a hook to touch down as Armin, Sasha and Connie's familiar figures reached their line of vision.

"Armin! How were they hurt?" asked Historia as she landed next to their two other team mates who were dazed and leaning against a tree with their heads in bloody bandages, her hands already digging deep into her medical kit. Mikasa vaguely heard Armin explain the situation as she made out a trail of green smoke through a gap of the canopy above them.

"That's the signal," she muttered. She covered an ear with a hand and fired her own flare above them.

"If anything goes wrong-"

"Yes, yes, a red flare. Don't worry about us Mikasa, we'll be fine," said Eren. Mikasa observed him for a few seconds before deeming that there was nothing wrong about Eren trying to relieve her of her worries. She felt heat creep up to her face.

"Alright. I take my leave, then. They're coming."

The girl watched the trail of green smoke race through the sky until it was ahead of her with mild interest. Another signal, which meant the fun wasn't over yet.

She sped up until her two chasers were out of sight, then made a sudden turn to the right so that she was out of the path of pursuers from both sides, smirking at the prospect of another painful collision. She went on for several meters before heading back left so that she was dashing along her original path, still going at her top speed.

Furious green orbs roared their way into her sight and took her by surprise but its owner took too long a time to yell at her. She buried her left knee into the brown-haired boy's stomach before he had time to swing down his blades and swung with all her might to the right, then reeled herself upward and let inertia take a hold of her.

She hung on to her grappling gun with her left hand until she was steady, then did a forward flip to land on the branch's top side, unhooking her device as she did so. She had lost them, it was over, and now she leaned against the tree to catch her breath, sweating and pleased.

She had turned to leave – she mentally thanked all of them for the most interesting morning she had in a long time – when something caught her eye. The head of the boy nearest to her was lolling in his chest but he was moaning in pain even though she was more than sure that his spine had been snapped in half by the impact of his crash. Now, though, she couldn't be too sure now that she couldn't see him through his own steam.

Steam.

Something shifted in the girl's head and her stomach flipped in delight. She dropped her backpack and hopped down – she knew how to fall from whatever height she was given – and sauntered towards the boy. Nothing else existed except the shadow of his figure, half-hidden in his little mist. She wiped the moisture off her goggles and shoved his head upwards with a foot. He had a handsome face, she had to admit, but it wouldn't be any use to him when he was dead. She unsheathed her sword and withdrew her foot to trace her favorite weapon against his newly-exposed nape. She wanted to have fun, to carve pretty pictures onto his flesh elsewhere and hear him cry and beg before ultimately ending him, but his screams would only draw unwanted attention. Oh well, she thought. Grinning wider, she started to trace a thin, deep line against his nape and her katana felt sweet against his soft, tender skin.

There was a rushing sound behind her but she twisted her body in time to block the taller girl's swords with her own. The intruder had a scar on her cheek and fury in her eyes and she snarled dangerously as the paler girl raised an eyebrow. "Don't you fucking dare touch Eren!"

Her short, dark hair swayed in the air as she slashed and parried with Shifter's would-be-demise and the ting, ting of steel against steel echoed through the forest. "Eren is it?" asked the other girl, amused and definitely impressed. "Well then." The cloaked girl put more pressure on her hold on her sword as a feint and in one fluid motion, slid down, missing the dark-eyed girl's blades, and performed a round kick on her knees. She flipped in the air and did a flying kick between the former's breasts as her knees buckled, sending her flying a few meters back. It was over in less than five seconds.

Still smiling, the hooded girl pulled on the boy's hair and dumped him in front of his lady friend. "Well then, Eren's-friend," she said, raising her sword in the air with one hand and savoring the way the other girl's black eyes widened in silent horror. She tried standing but she was coughing out blood, blood that was as red as the scarf she was wearing.

"Would you like to watch him die?"

The intruder's sword was an inch from Eren's nape when Levi swung his blades forward with a battle cry. They snapped in equal halves from the impact but sent the enemy's long sword flying. He made for the stranger's heart with one of the sharp stumps of steel in his hands but he only managed make a huge gash on their boot as they retreated with a several back flips.

He righted himself in front of Eren and reeled in his gear's hook when the person didn't attempt to run away. "Stay down, Mikasa," he ordered the girl, facing her attacker and not looking at his comrade. "Krista's tending Jean. She'll be with you in a minute." He heard her utter his name before giving up consciousness.

He eyed the hooded figure with unruffled wariness. If they had been able to hurt Mikasa just like that, then they would definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

"I'll take it your our ginger," he said, sheathing his blades and letting a hand slip into his jacket's inner pocket, channeling the rage that was boiling in his gut into his hands. "Why don't you let me…" he pulled out his pistol and this time, pointed it at the person's head. "…paint the rest of your body red too?"

The gun flew out of his hands by something too quick for him to catch before he was able to pull the trigger and he found himself facing the intruder's fist. He caught them by the wrist before their punch met home and twisted it as he aimed a knee for their stomach and groped for his sword with his free hand. He was impressed by the enemy's primary speed, but now they were just being boring.

Something no finer than a needle pricked several spots in his left arm as his knee hit cold air. The intruder had jumped and was now holding on to his wrist over his surprise, about to plunge their sword into his throat. He scowled. They were good and quick but also completely open. He became aware that his left hand should have found the hilt of his sword by now but his whole left arm was hanging limply by his side, with droplets of blood oozing from where the needles pierced him. The intruder plunged their knee into his chest and, unable to balance himself because of his still airborne leg, he fell. For the first time in literally decades, something cold clawed at his gut and squeezed. In less than a second, he was going to die and not even because of a Titan. Everything went slow and he watched the tip of the person's sword dive towards his throat…

And then it stopped.

The tip of the girl's blade nicked the man's pale skin but didn't sink in. Frozen and horrified, she stared back at the man's piercing grey eyes and her lungs screamed to release the air they hold.

He wasn't… He couldn't be… can't…

"Tom?" she whispered.

For a split-second, his narrow orbs clouded over with confusion. Then, the moment passed and he bucked, and before the girl knew what was going on, her sword had flown off her hands and she was beneath him with her hood drawn back. He strangled her hard and her hands flew to his and pulled. It's me! she wanted to scream. I cut my hair off but it's me! She watched him grit his teeth and realized with equal horror that it wasn't her master – just someone who happened to share his eyes.

He brought his fist down on her head – once, twice, and again – and everything went black.