A Note from the Author: Thanks for stopping by! I'll state the obvious: I own nothing apart from my original characters. Now that's out of the way, please note that these first couple of chapters mostly serve as background/context for what's to come, so if it seems slow and short, I heartily recommend you stick with it. ;) Thank you for reading - reviews very welcome.

Chapter 1: Borrowed

Mercedes stalked into the training ground. She scanned the Southern Division trainees, who had already begun their morning routines. There was nothing remarkable yet, but at least they seemed livelier than her Western Division comrades; though it remained a mystery to her why she'd been 'borrowed' from her own division, she was determined to make the most of it.

She strode directly for Chief Instructor Shadis. It wasn't clear to her whether he was the one behind the borrowing, or if it came from higher up. Her experience with Shadis hadn't been fantastic but she hoped that more information could be gleaned from him, if she ever got the opportunity.

He spotted her; she tried not to flinch under the piercing gaze. "Carello, you're late!" he barked.

"With due respect, Sir," Mercedes called as she got closer, "you asked for me to be here at 9:15AM. It is now…" she examined her wrist, took a few more steps to reach him, and gave him a salute, "9:15AM. Mercedes Carello, Sir, reporting from the Western Division." She hadn't seen it, but wasn't surprised when she heard stifled giggles.

How it was possible she wasn't sure, but the wrinkles in Shadis' forehead deepened and his eyes seemed to sink even farther back in their sockets. "I didn't ask for a visiting smartass," he bellowed. "Any more of that shit and I'll make you climb the Wall with nothing but a spoon! Are we clear?"

"Yes, Sir."

"I'm glad at least to see you have a watch." He angled his head to cast his voice over her shoulder at the yard, "Shame these other blockheads haven't thought to make that investment!"

Mercedes wondered if he could see that she didn't actually have a watch. Luckily he was already starting to wildly gesture and scream random noises at the other trainees, and they jogged the distance to get closer. She turned to face them, letting a careful but confident smile sit on her lips, and held her wrists behind her back.

"Trainees, we have a guest. Every Thursday Mercedes Carello of the Western Division will be training with you. Now get back to it!"

The group scattered again. Mercedes was expecting a little more direction, but not even she knew that this was going to be a weekly affair. She wandered forward; a glance behind her saw Shadis taking up an unusual post – at the sidelines. No doubt to watch her effect on the group, she assumed, but couldn't guess the desired result. She rolled her shoulders, hearing the crinkle of the leather of her uniform jacket.

There were thirteen of them in the immediate area, working on hand-to-hand combat in pairs as far as she could tell. Other Southern Division trainees were running laps around the field. She wondered if the spare trainee had been deliberately allocated to match her – a girl about her age with two black pigtails, maybe her height but frailer-looking.

"Excellent, a nice warm-up," Mercedes said to herself and headed for her.

"Looks like the new girl's got her sights on Mina," Connie said.

"It's like watching a cat approach a baby bird that fell out of the nest," Reiner noted with a sympathetic expression. "I feel bad that Mina drew the short straw and has to be the one to pair up with her."

"Maybe it'll turn out okay!" Connie suggested.

"Springer! Braun! You can gawp when you're dead!" Shadis yelled.

Nearby, Jean had caught their conversation and between dodging Marco's punches, he stole glances at the new girl, Mercedes, as she and Mina introduced themselves and began to spar. A thick rope of glossy dark hair knocked against the lighter brown of her uniform jacket, which sat over a rust-colored shirt; with her tanned skin she looked like the ground underfoot had risen and was moving. She was maybe 5'4, likely their age, and he couldn't yet decide whether she was curvy or stocky.

Marco scored a punch to Jean's chin, jerking him back to attention.

"Shit! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to actually hit you," Marco froze, his expression almost ridiculously worried.

Jean rubbed the spot. "Don't apologize. I should've been paying attention."

"Why do you think she's here?" Marco asked, looking over at Mercedes as they backed away from each other and sank back into starting positions.

"No idea."

Though they resumed their spar, Jean soon realized that after a while, he wasn't the only one that kept looking over at the fight between Mina and Mercedes; Marco's moves were slowing down too, as were those of first one other pair, then another.

Their spar would start off fair, with the more basic moves, then Mina would try something different or more advanced and Mercedes would easily counter it for a little while, mostly on the defensive. Then, it seemed as though Mercedes got bored – she'd pull back in some way, and rapidly follow it with a single move consisting of a lot of brute force, usually resulting in Mina being overpowered or knocked to the ground. It became predictable to watch.

Luckily Mina handled it good-naturedly, as was her habit, and neither did Mercedes seem to be a bad sport – she smiled, even laughed a little or gave an encouraging word or humbled herself – but Jean couldn't ignore the simple fact that she wouldn't go easy on her or at least act less bored when she was ready to strike her down. Mina wasn't their best hand-to-hand fighter, but this was making her look worse than she was.

Unconsciously, the other pairs were drawing nearer. Shadis didn't seem to notice or if he did, he didn't say anything.

"Break, maybe?" he heard Mercedes suggest.

Mina smiled. "For a minute. Maybe you'd be better matched with one of the others!"

"I can help you put more force behind your blows," Mercedes offered. "It's no trouble."

"I'll give it a shot."

"Yeah! Go Reiner!" said Sasha, jabbing a fist into the air.

Jean and the others looked over at Reiner's voice as he closed in on the two young women. He couldn't help but smirk; the brusque blond was taller than almost all of them, and easily the biggest. However, it irritated him to find that rather than be intimidated, Mercedes merely happily held out her hand to him.

"Carello," she said. She had a smile on her face that Jean didn't like, even though she was having to look up to look Reiner in the eye.

"Braun," Reiner replied as he took her hand. Oddly, neither let go; their grip was tighter than Jean thought it needed to be. It was only when he saw a matching smile on Reiner's face that he realized something had been communicated wordlessly. "Let's see what the West is made of."

"I'll leave it to your imagination," Mercedes quipped. Jean didn't like that either.

The pair backed up. The bulk of Reiner hunkered down a little, his elbows bent and fists raised. Unlike her spar with Mina, Mercedes stood perfectly straight and unmoving, her head cocked a little as though noticing something intriguing about her new partner.

Reiner began to circle, causing the others to back up somewhat. "Quick tip – you probably shouldn't rely on brute strength alone," he said.

"Of course not," she said distractedly, and the shrug was there in her voice even if her shoulders didn't move. Her eyes were still fixed on somewhere other than his face.

Reiner came in from her right with a low blow directed at her ribcage, and thus the dodging of blows began. Neither were doing anything fancy, but the power behind both of their strikes was obvious. Dust flew into the air underfoot. It went on for another minute before Jean noticed the same fleeting bored expression on her face, and Mercedes stepped just far enough out of Reiner's circle so that he toppled past her a little. Before he could regain momentum Mercedes had struck her heel into the back of his knees one after the other. His legs caved; she gave his back another shove with her foot for good measure and sent him onto his hands. She aimed another kick from underneath at his throat and stopped just short. Reiner froze until she retracted her foot.

"Nice," he admitted, getting to his feet but still crouched low. Suddenly he lunged at her legs and picked her off her feet by them; Mercedes dangled awkwardly and Reiner felt it safe to laugh.

Jean had just cracked a grin when Mercedes violently jerked her entire body. She pulled her body upright while he held her using her torso alone – one hand seized Reiner's forehead and pushed his head back, her other hand poised with two blunted knuckles directly in front of his eyes. The laughter was shut off abruptly.

"Also helps to assess your opponent. I'm sure you were going to touch on that next," Mercedes smiled. After a pause, she said, "Can you put me down, now?"

Reiner, as Mina had done, began to good-naturedly laugh, and shortly the others joined in. Jean, however, couldn't share their amusement. Did anyone else find her annoying? Didn't anyone else find this weird?

"Annie – want to give it a shot?" Reiner called.

"Not today," the stoic blonde shrugged.

"I'm not beating you into shape to laugh! Laps, all of you!" Shadis' voice shattered the air.