1. Wall Rose

"Annie. Hey, Annie!"

Annie cursed. "Will you at least make an effort to keep your voice down, Reiner?"

The elephantine warrior grinned. "We can't all be quiet as snow falling like you. Some of us have real armor," he said pointedly. "What'd you find out?" Bertholdt was trailing behind him, and merely nodded to Annie by way of acknowledgement.

"These men are from the Wall Cult. Apparently, they're after Krista, or at least, they're watching her." She crossed her arms. "Keep calling her 'Historia'. They're up to something."

Reiner frowned. "You'll have to keep tailing them."

Annie blinked. "Excuse me?"

"If they're putting a fellow soldier at risk, we need to know what's going on."

"Fellow soldier?" Somehow, she managed to overcome the two and a half feet between them to look him in the eye. Frustration colored her voice. "Will you cut that shit out already? Or have you forgotten who we are and why we're here? We can't afford to think of them like that or it'll only be harder to do what we have to when the time comes."

His brows rankled with annoyance. "Oh, is that so?"

"Annie." Bertholdt spoke in a low voice. "How about you and Eren the other day? If Mikasa hadn't broken up your match, would you be preaching no attachment now?"

Against her will, Annie felt her neck and cheeks heat up. "That's diff – you know what? I'm not explaining myself to you. And I'm not tailing those deluded pastors because I don't want to, that's why." She pivoted and bean to walk away. "And if you can't at least keep your mind on the mission, you have no business talking to me."

2. Trost

"Is that…"

"Titan lightning. To the east – let's go." Annie pulled the triggers and rappelled up a chimney, leaping from roof to roof as she approached the smoke. If Reiner and Bert couldn't keep up, so much for them. "He must have almost reached that boulder."

Reiner drew level with her for a moment. "This is crazy. Eren Yeager, Grisha Yeager…we've been idiots! It was right in our faces the entire time! If we'd known even earlier, we might have-"

"Save it, Reiner." Bertholdt was catching up. "Eren's our friend. We can convince him to listen to us, at least; maybe he'll even take our side when it's time. It'll be fine. And if we can't, Annie can handle him." He looked at her sidelong. "After all, what really matters is that we acquire the Coordinate, right?"

Annie didn't say anything for a few roofs. "I think we'd all prefer to avoid killing anyone else."

"What if it wasn't Eren?" He was pushing her. She hated when he did this.

"Will you lay off her about the suicidal bastard already?" griped Reiner. "God, Bert, relax your ass and just concentrate on the mission!"

Appalled, Bertholdt almost shouted. "Maybe you should tell her that because she's obviously emotionally inv-"

"Why do you care so much?" Annie interrupted. "It's not as if I'm interfering with the mission at all, like Marry-Me-Krista over here."

"Hey!"

"The same goes for all of us. We do what it takes to get the job done." Fixing Bert with her coldest glare, she was rewarded when he glanced away, uncomfortable. "If I have to kill Eren, I will kill him. Just as you would, or any of us would for anyone else."

Reiner shrugged, but Bertholdt, while silent, still looked as if he didn't quite believe her.

The problem was, Annie didn't know if she believed herself, either.