A/N: Welcome back readers! Not really much to say in this author's note. Here is Chapter 4 of the story and I am almost finished writing Chapter 5. Enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of its characters. I only own my OC.

Italics: Thoughts

Normal: Talking

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The mess hall was noisy as hell in the morning. Most of the scouts were still giving us dirty looks while we were eating our breakfast. It reminded me of all the black-market auctions back in the Underground. Levi, Farlan, and I were sitting in a far back table, with Farlan looking tense as he looked between Levi and me.

I glare at my tea and Levi refuses to look my way.

"Levi can go fuck himself thinking he could kiss me like that, with his soft lips and- fucking shut up!"

I think that makes seven times I almost decided to smash my cup over the top of Levi's head.

"Do you have any idea where Isabel is, Mikari?" Farlan asks trying to break the silence. I could hear the nervousness in his voice.

"I do."

"Could you uh, tell us please?"

I feel Levi's eyes on me. I look into them to try and figure out what he is thinking but he's like a brick wall.

I glare at him a little but turn back to Farlan, "Some scout came by and told her that she is going to be the first of us to learn how to ride a horse without falling on our asses."

"Oh, ok."

More awkward silence comes after as I still glare at Levi. Farlan looks questionably at Levi, then at me

"What happened with you two?"

My glare never leaves Levi, "Levi is a piece of shit."

"I won the fight, quit being a brat."

Farlan looks between us very confused.

"You cheated," I deadpan.

Levi takes a sip of his tea before looking at me, "As far as fighting goes there are no rules. You also neglected to set any. I won, you lost. It's as simple as that."

I narrow my eyes at him, "Why go so far?"

Levi to my surprise breaks his gaze with mine and looks off to the side.

I don't like losing," he coolly says but I caught the slight hesitation in his voice.

I understand, I know the feeling," I say to him.

In the Underground, I couldn't afford to lose. If you lose there, you lose everything. A lot of the time it was your life.

"I knew you would. Now let's go get our gear on and get to the training grounds. I don't want to deal with Flagon spewing horse shit at us for being late."

"We're still going to get bitched at anyway," I say standing up.

Levi and Farlan follow suit, "You two have an odd vocabulary.

Levi and I glare at him making him flinch, "What the hell is that supposed to mean, Farlan."

"N-Nothing!"

We walk out of the mess hall, still ignoring the dirty looks of the other soldiers. As we are walking down the hall, Hanji runs up to us smiling like an idiot.

"Hey guys," she shouts joyfully at us. "I just needed to tell Farlan over here that he is to practice hand to hand combat first."

"Oh, then you better get going Farlan," Levi says looking at Hanji with an annoyed expression. He most likely wants to be as far from Hanji as physically possible.

"Alright then, where to?" Farlan asks with a smirk and his hands on his hips.

"You will be heading to the dirt lot where these two were letting off some steam."

I looked at her suspiciously. Something about her expression seemed off to me. It looked like it was full of mischief. That is not good.

Hanji looks at Farlan, "I sure did see some interesting things in that fight. At the end, they were on the floor and they were-Hmfg!"

I quickly slammed my hand over her mouth and leaned in as close as I could to her face. Being short sucks sometimes.

"Don't you have somewhere to be shitty glasses?" I question her.

Her eyes widen in joy and she excitedly nods her head up and down. She starts to speak into my hand.

"Ah gemp pu su umph ys graimf!"

I grunt in annoyance when I feel her spit in my hand.

I take my hand off of her mouth and wipe it on her jacket, "You are disgusting, now what the hell did you try and say?"

Hanji laughs and looks between Levi and I.

"I get to see you guys train! Ash told me that when she was chasing Mikari, she couldn't keep up at all. She sounded very upset. Erwin told me that Levi fought him and Miche at the same time! I can't wait to see you two in action!"

I roll my eyes and Levi walks away. I follow after him.

"I'll see you guys at the forest entrance," Hanji cheerfully yells after us.

"She talks to much," I say to Levi. I'm actually quite bored. I really want to go to the training area and shove my ODM skills up Flagon's ass.

"No shit. I'm getting irritated thinking about how much worse it's going to be after she sees us use the gear," Levi says in an almost tired tone of voice. I guess Hanji just does that to people.

The hallway splits into two parts. One leads to the female barracks and the other one goes to the male barracks.

"Hey Levi," I say and he turns to me. "If you're coming to the female barracks again for some reason, learn how to knock first."

"Tch, whatever, just get ready and get to the training grounds."

I watch as Levi walks away to the male barracks. I shake my head a few times and quickly walk to the female barracks to get ready.

"I'm only close to Levi because I found someone that's like me."

I walk in to get my gear but I notice a female scout with chestnut hair styled in a braided ponytail that reaches to her shoulder blades. She was short (but taller than me) and lightly tanned. She had a small frown on her face when she saw me.

I begin assembling my gear, "What's with that look, scared I'll stab you in your sleep."

"No, I'm just upset that your ODM skills are better than my own," she says with an aggravated sigh.

"So, you must be Ash," I say starting to place the gear on my hips.

"Huh. How did you know that?" she says looking surprised. So it is Ash.

"Hanji."

"Oh, that explains it."

I finish putting on my gear and start to walk out, but I am stopped. I turn around to find Ash had been holding my shoulder.

"What the hell do you want, I can't be late," I say to Ash.

She stands up straight, "I just wanted to tell you something."

I cross my arms and sigh, "Make it quick."

"Look, I don't like you very much, I don't respect you, and I don't want you in the Survey Corp."

I'm about to tell her how she should go and fuck herself when she starts again.

"However, you criminals have skills and just might help the Survey Corp. on this next expedition, I'll be there if you find yourself in a tight spot. After all, I'm not one of the best ODM users in the Survey Corp for nothing."

She lets out a small grin at that and walks away.

"I'll be at the training grounds working the wooden titans for you and Levi," she tells me still walking away. I'm surprised she found it important enough to remember our names.

I'm also surprised anybody had the gall to say that, but I respect it. I wonder if Ash was telling the truth.

"We'll see," I mumble under my breath.

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I walk across the training grounds going to the entrance of the forest where Levi and Flagon are most likely waiting. I look to my right, hearing the sound of a horse galloping around the area. I notice Isabel grinning like crazy on top of the horse. A mousy female scout was watching her with awe.

"I'm surprised. Did someone teach you how to ride a horse?" the scout asks Isabel.

"Nah," Isabel says petting the horse. "But I've always been fond of animals. This guy says he likes me too."

The scout's jaw drops in amazement, "No way!"

"I'm serious," Isabel spurs her horse forward and passes me.

"Hey sis," Isabel shouts out to me as she continues riding.

I shake my head and pick up the pace for my own training. I reach the forest and Flagon scowls at me. Hanji looks like she's about to explode from excitement. Levi rolls his eyes at me, probably for being late.

"Cadet Snow, where the hell have you been," Flagon yells at me glaring.

"I got held up, don't worry about it," I say as I take me gear handles and snap blades on the. I hear Flagon growl at me but he just stands there with his arms crossed.

Levi attaches blades to his grips too, but he holds his right blade in reverse grip. I'm confused because I'm certain that's not how you hold them, but I'm curious so I copy him.

It's a bit awkward but I immediately see the advantages of this position. It provides the ability to give your attacks more force than normal, even more so if you spin with it. If one has enough speed, this technique would be deadly. Levi and I fit that criteria.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing? Do you want to die the moment you step outside the walls?" Flagon said sounding very irritated.

"That just might happen to you," Levi says coolly.

"What did you just say?

Levi steps toward the forest, "All you have to do is slice the titans neck, right? I'll do it my way."

Levi quickly shoots off into the air, heading into the forest.

I look at Flagon and ready my gear, "Don't be upset just because you can't keep up"

I fire my anchors in the big ass trees and zoom off to try and catch Levi. I find him using his gear perfectly looking for fake titan dummies with that calm look on his face.

I pull up next to him and we look at each other. I give him a meaningful nod. He returns it a second later. We were going to show these soldiers not to look down on us.

Suddenly a dummy titan pops out in front of Levi. I pass over it and watch as Levi quickly disposes of the titan with a deep cut to its nape. I grin as I see the priceless look on the titan handler's face.

I look forward again and listen for the sound of creaking wood. A titan pops up in front of me from the right. I quickly fly beneath its face and go around the back of the titan near its ankles. I shoot my anchors just below the titan's nape. With a burst of gas, I launch myself toward the nape and release my wires. Using my momentum, I rapidly spin, my right blade still held in the reverse grip. I slice open the nape and straighten myself in the air. I continue to fly forward \, Levi now next to me looking at Farlan who looked almost resigned. I look smugly at Flagon then speed off to slice the nape of another titan dummy.

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Late at night I find myself wandering the halls of the Survey Corp HQ not knowing what to do. Back to the training grounds to get in some solo training when I hear voices talking around the corner.

"If you won't stay behind then we are done talking! We'll wait for a different opportunity," Levi's voice rang through the hall. He stormed off not even noticing me leaning against the wall as he passed me.

"Levi!" yelled Farlan

"Wait, bro!" Isabel called after him.

They soon rushed off to find him. They also failed to see me. I casually walk behind them, not caring if I lose sight of them. I have a fairly good idea where he ran off to anyway. I've seen him there many times before.

I walk up a couple flights of stairs and reach the roof of HQ. Isabel, Farlan, and Levi are sitting at the edge of the roof looking up at the night sky. I walk over to them and sit down right next to Isabel, ruffling her hair. Isabel and Farlan smile at me. Levi looks ahead of him with a frown on his face.

"Quit being so depressed Levi," I say to him as I look up at the sky. "Just look up and enjoy the night. We're not in the Underground anymore."

The moon moved away showing the bright moon in all of its glory as it shines down on us.

"Look! The moon is so bright," Isabel says looking expectantly at Levi. "There's a difference, isn't there?"

"Yeah, like Mikari said, we're not underground anymore," Farlan said.

Levi looked up and followed our gazes. We sit in silence for a while, admiring the view.

"We'll never go back down there," Farlan vowed.

"Yeah, this is what freedom looks like," I say softly. "Tomorrow might be dangerous, but we'll be seeing the outside world. Nothing out there can stop us."

"She's right, bro. The four of us will pull through. It'll be the same with the titans. Let's do this together, "Isabel says smiling at Levi.

"Levi, believe in us," Farlan says seriously.

Levi looks surprised by our words, but he looks at us. He smiles.

"Alright."

"Yay!" Isabel cheers and Farlan chuckles. "Bro sure is a stubborn one, ain't he?

"Let's get to bed, our expedition is tomorrow," Farlan point out.

"Right, you coming Mikari?" Isabel asks me.

"I'll be down later. I'm going to stay up here a little while longer."

Isabel just smiles and Farlan and her head downstairs. Levi and I sit in silence staring at the stars with small and peaceful grins on our faces. I place a hand on his knee and he turns to look at me.

"I'll watch over them too you know, we will watch each other's backs, you and me."

Levi looks back to the sky, "Yeah, you and me. We'll protect them."

"I'll help you kill Erwin also."

Levi looks at me with wide eyes but then scoffs.

"I shouldn't be surprised," Levi says whilst shaking his head.

"No, you shouldn't, I'm the best, remember," I say half serious.

"Tch, like hell you are."

Surprising myself, I laugh, "Let's see who gets the most titan kills this expedition then."

Levi smiles once again. I guess miracles do happen.

"Sure thing, Mikari."

I admire the stars once more.

"The titans won't know what hit them. Neither will Erwin Smith."

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The bell rang loudly as I sat on my horse wearing the green Survey Corp cloak. Keith's voice was loud.

"Open the gate! "Keith shouted. "Today, we take another step forward!"

Isabel pets her horse and I stare forward getting ready for a battle, for a titan.

"Show me the fruits of your training. Show them the strength of humanity!"

I see the scouts raise their swords with a battle cry. I grip the handles of my gear tightly.

Keith shouts louder this time, "We will now begin the twenty-third expedition beyond the walls!"

"Here we go."

"Forward!"

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A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Sorry for posting a bit late but I have been pretty busy with summer school and all that jazz so I haven't had the most time to work on the story. It's a bit shorter than my other chapters but I'll make up for it in my next chapter. After all, we all know what happens in the next chapter…or do we? Find out in the next chapter. Thanks for reading.

Please review!