7 months later…

"Levi!" Hanji cried, flinging her arms around his neck. Levi stumbled back.

"What the hell are you doing?" He growled, pushing her away from him. Hanji pouted.

"I thought you'd be a bit more excited for this mission." She said.

"It's just a mission." Levi replied. Seven months had passed since Levi had joined the Survey Corps. and Erwin had used every opportunity he could find to stuff Hanji and Levi together and send them on a mission or an expedition. However, Levi had to admit that, as annoying as Hanji could be, they worked well together. Neither needed to say anything for the other to know. Their training practice focused on synchronization, and it had improved vastly. Still, that didn't mean Hanji was tolerable to be around.

"We should be leaving now." Levi said, pulling himself up on his horse. Erwin, who stood a couple yards away with another soldier, nodded.

"I wish you both luck on this mission." He said once Hanji had mounted her horse.

"We'll do our best." Levi replied. He drew his feet back, giving the horse a light kick and they took off.

The mission Levi and Hanji had been assigned was to plan a direct route out of the Shiganshina District to set up a temporary base farther out in Titan controlled lands. The base would be hidden, and once set up, soldiers could run back and forth to make reports directly to Erwin, who was temporarily residing in Shinganshina. This would be the stepping stone to the 41st expedition. When planning, Erwin had requested that the base be no more than nine km from Shiganshina, so that if necessary, reinforcements could be sent.

Roughly twenty-two minutes later, Levi and Hanji reached the distance limit and began to look around the area. Except for a few withered looking trees, it was pretty barren. The grass was tall and the ground was composed of rock and dirt. Hanji leapt off the horse and began to look around. Levi followed more reluctantly, resting his hand on his gear. Despite his dislike for Hanji, his insistent monophobia prevented him from going too far from her whenever he was outside of the Walls. It hadn't always been like that of course. But it was his guilt ate away at his solitude, and he still felt at fault he had left Isabel and Farlan on their own, which resulted in their dea –

"Look!" Hanji exclaimed suddenly, cutting off his thoughts. Levi got down from his horse and walked over to where Hanji was standing and staring down at the ground. Instantly, the small portion of breakfast he'd eaten earlier threatened to come back up. A headless corpse lay, face down, its arms spread out and its left leg bent in an abnormal way. It was wearing a Survey Corps. soldier's uniform. Flies buzzed around it, and the corpse was covered in dirt. Levi looked away, unable to hide his disgust. Meanwhile Hanji knelt down to inspect the corpse. Levi looked about and noticed a small rectangular object lying about a yard away. He bent down to pick it up, using his sleeve to brush off the dirt. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that it was a notebook. The cover was torn and beaten from the weather, and pages were stuck together, but after he bent the notebook a bit, they came undone.

"Ilse Langnar." Hanji spoke suddenly. Levi turned to see her pull a fabric strip off of one of the arms. "This is the armband that marks the 34th expedition, conducted a little over a year ago. I remember Ilse…her entire squad was annihilated by a single Titan. Looks like it got her too." Hanji looked about as if she expected a Titan to come running at them. "Let's get out of here now, make our report to Erwin… It's too dangerous here."

Levi looked back down at the notebook he held.

"What do you have there?" Hanji asked, pointing to the notebook.

Levi read over the messy handwriting. "I think," He said slowly. "That this is what Ilse died for."

S2Ep3 comes out soon! I'm pretty hyped, but feel pretty bad for Connie…

BFHwantsblood: Thanks! I'm glad you think so! I appreciate the review.

-LadyMajestic out