Heartless

Your Back Is Yours To Watch

Why the scouts? The Survey Corps was the worst possible option out of three military groups so why had she chosen it?

As her eyes scanned the forest floor in search of movement amongst the scattered limbs of troops her mind automatically chose desperation as her answer- but that was wrong- desperation had turned her towards the military but it didn't make her choose the Survey Corps.

"What do you want?" She muttered with such a bland distaste you'd think an old acquaintance had popped up to annoy her as if she'd been expecting them, but no, it was the glassy eyes of a titan she was staring into, and no life or understanding lay in those large observing eyes.

She remained in a perfect stance as the great beast reached up for her, unafraid as she knew she was a safe distance from it's grasp and taunted the insatiable being with her presence as she watched it's desperate need to devourer her grow.

"Is Ellie alright?" A quiet voice wheezed, the question coming from a young male who's name she didn't know, only that he was with the latest Cadets to join their squad.

"I don't know who that is to be able to tell you, sorry," She spoke honestly, turning back to look at him. "Was she in our group?" She questioned, moving away from the edge of the thick branch and walking back towards the trunk of the tree where he sat.

"No, she was in the group behind ours?" He frowned in confusion. The formation obviously went over his head, but then again, it went over her head too, so she didn't blame him.

"Her group would have had more warning and time to evade than ours, I wouldn't worry." She shook her head as she lowered herself into a crouch in front of him. "How you feeling?"

"Fine." He winced, his appearance alone telling her the truth of the matter but his fighting attitude gave her some reassurance. "Will anyone come for us?" He then questioned, his worried eyes looking to her with a pleading for hope.

"Depends," She breathed, her shoulders lifting limply to shrug before she cast her eyes to look off towards the edge of the forest. "If the entire scouting party has been decimated then it'd be a no." Her casual attitude seemed like she was a veteran. "But we were in the south-east of the formation when we were hit with no signal from the front, so it's fair to say we were the unlucky ones to bare the brunt of the attack and raise the alarm!" With that she looked back to him and his horrified face.

"W-what does that mean?" He whimpered.

"That the surrounding groups may engage if they too where in danger and once the situation is under control they'll check for survivors." Her answer was a fancy way of skipping around the fact that their rescue was uncertain.

"And if they don't?" The pure panic at the thought of being left alone rose quickly in his eyes. It wasn't a look a teen should have nor was this an experience a teen should have, but the reality was that they were miles from the wall and out of touch with the rest of the scouting party.

"We've sent a flare up, the only thing we can do is wait." She shook her head.

"That's it?" His voice hitched up a couple of pitches in panic.

"No, if no one comes by night fall we'll move away from our stalkers down there!" She nodded her head to motion over the side of the branch. "They are less active at night so we'll have a far better chance at getting free of them. Once safe we can call for the horses if any are close by and ride for the check point." Her smile was small but encouraging none the less and she was glad not to be alone; having someone younger and less experienced there to depend on her cancelled out her own fear of the situation because his was worse.

"Who died and made you boss?" Another voice spoke up and she was wondering when he'd open his mouth. It wasn't normal for him to be so quiet for such lengths of time but she guessed witnessing his friend's limbs get torn clean off would do that.

"Larson." She answered his question simply, turning her eyes up to the higher branch the older male sat on. "But if you have any other suggestions," She motioned towards him, giving him the chance to speak, "Please do share with the rest of the group!" She encouraged, her arm swinging to motion to the three others perched in the tree; all young, all terrified and all looking for leadership.

"Fire another flare!?" He clipped back with aggression to hide his fright.

"Go on then!" She fired back, her brows coming together in a scowl. "While you're at it why not shout encouragement to the poor souls that charge towards eight titans!"

"Fuck you, Hart," He muttered with distaste as he turned his gaze to scowl else where.

"Yeah, fuck you too, Martyn!" She waved with disinterest, before the sound of wires caught her attention as someone came zipping towards them.

With a splinter of wood as a grapple latched into the tree opposite an auburn haired woman soon followed, her feet landing against the truck of the tree with a dull thunk before she looked over with a smile. "Well aren't you a happy bunch?" She stated after looking at each gloomy face before she aimed her second wire towards the tree they were all nesting in and came closer. "Elle, how's the baby sitting?" She greeted as she hopped down onto the same branch while the other woman stood and walked towards her.

"Riveting." she muttered with an eye roll, "How's plan B looking?" She then questioned with a huff.

"Not bad, five horses have gathered." The auburn haired woman said as she nodded her head back to motion towards the direction she'd just come from as her hands settled on her hips.

"We can manage with that!" Elle nodded in approval.

"Yeah, I say leave the injured!" The auburn haired woman nodded only to have her friend shoot her a rather scathing look.

"Niki!" She scolded and instantly the other woman held her hands up with a laugh.

"I'm just saying, the less we save the less heroic we look and the less we draw attention to ourselves!" she opened her arms with a shrug.

"We can hardly feed them to the titans till there are just the two of us!" Elle narrowed her eyes and gave a shake of her head. She knew Niki far too well to know how heartless the woman was, her cheeky, flirtatious smile covered up a very dark personality.

"Keeping a low profile and not putting our necks on the line for others is how we've survived so long, Elle." Niki stated as she cast her eyes over the group they were now stuck with. "And there are a lot of others here." She then finished when she looked back to her friend.

"You didn't have to come back." Elle shrugged, "You could have taken a horse and saved yourself?"

"Yeah, but that makes my little side quests much harder to accomplish with out you!" Niki huffed with an eye roll.

"You have issues." The other shook her head, lifting a hand to place to the side of her face. She knew what her side quests were and they were nothing more than kiss assing the Commander in the creepiest way possible. For as long as Elle had known Niki she had known about her obsession with the Commander. Niki went above and beyond to help Erwin Smith only he didn't know who it was helping him. She was a shadow that stalked him, her eyes and ears open for anything she could do for him, if he was struggling to get information then she would make it appear in front of him. Information he didn't even know he would need or want, she was there to leave it gift wrapped with naught but a ghostly sign to show it'd come from the same trusted source.

"I have my reasons!" Niki clipped back, giving her friend a quick glance over and Elle trusted that. She knew why Niki had chosen the scouts, the woman had pined after Erwin since before they'd joined the military so it was only too obvious what choice she'd make next, Elle however didn't have that clarity for choosing the scouts.

"S-so what's the plan?" A squeak of a female voice perked up, having watched the two older women speak and now anxious for the details.

Both women looked toward the person that had spoken and as bad as Elle was with names she actually knew hers, it was Rosie. The woman had just been cleared of her Cadet rank and was divinely pretty with gorgeous amber curls and freckles scattered over her entire face that matched the colour of her hair, her eyes were a stormy blue-grey and frame petite, and if Elle was perfectly honest she was surprised she'd survived this far.

"Once it's dark we are going to shake these titans, get to the horses and ride for base." Elle spoke up. "There are only five horses so two will have to share, but the quicker we can get to the horses the more time we have to put distance between us and that lot!" She motioned toward the horde beneath.

Niki stepped forwards. "Tonight's moon is going to be almost full, so depending on cloud cover we should have a pretty clear view, but the brightness may also cause some titans to be a little more lively so do as you're told because I'm not turning back for anyone a second time." She spoke coldly as her deep forest eyes shot each survivor a scathing look while Elle closed hers a moment to recover from her friend's words and prevent herself from cringing.

"We'll all get through this if you can do these two things." Elle said after a refreshing breath and held up one finger for her first point. "Stick to the plan!" She paused before flicking up a second finger. "And look after your own back!" With that she inspected the faces looking at her and their various different expressions; fear, confusion, resistance, acceptance. It was a mixture of feelings. "You can't rely on someone else to look after you because you will not make it, you have to help yourselves!" She then clarified, "Keep your self out of danger and do not be a hero!"

"But what if someone gets caught by a titan?" Martyn spoke up once again with a clipped tone.

"Well sucks to be them!" Niki scoffed.

"The idea right now is to avoid titans, but if one of you splits to try and engage with one then you are on your own, and if anyone wants to join in to help- you are also on your own!" Elle shook her head. She had helped the group as much as she could and she was not going to swing into anyone's rescue a second time.

"So, if we all decide to take down a titan-?" again Martyn chirped up with his snappy theoretical question but Niki quickly interrupted.

"Then we will keep going with out you!" She motioned between herself and Elle. Not one shred of shame was seen between the pair as they stared down the rest of the group and slowly they all bowed their heads in acceptance.

"Your back is yours to watch, trust no one but yourself to save it because others will let you down!" Elle finished before turning to cast her eyes towards the orange sky and willing the sunset to come sooner.