Disclaimer: Only own Seffra and Jonah (and ocs the temp-appear)

Chapter 11: How to Build Trust

Cloud.

Cloud.

Cloud.

Bird.

Cloud.

Blowing leaves.

Cloud.

A long, drawn out sigh escaped Seffra Lyall's lips. She had been in this confining Wall for almost a month now, and in all that time, nothing had happened. Her days went relatively two ways.

Version one, she ditched cleaning time and practice with the soldiers successfully, spend the whole day alternating between napping in the tree branches and walking among civilians until nightfall.

Version two, she ditched cleaning time and practice with the soldiers unsuccessfully, Levi capturing her and making her suffer through hours of hardcore cleaning or worse, sitting through Hange's Titan lectures and ideas.

Honestly, she was starting to get bored. She hadn't been on a hunt for days and the wait until the next expedition was too long in her opinion. Plus, Erwin said she had to learn horseback riding with a saddle. Which Seffra ditched as well. Most of the soldiers avoided her, most likely because she was an anomaly. Not that she blamed them. In their eyes, she was nothing more than an animal walking on two legs and capable of speech.

Ditching had been fun for a while, knowing that she was giving Shorty a headache simply because she dared to defy him though.

"Seffra, are you up there?" And cue minion number one showing up. In response to Petra's call, Seffra only had one response.

*"Quack."*

"Cut the crap you Beast Woman!" And ugly copy came as well. Fan-fucking-tastic.

*"Quack."*

"Damn it, woman!"

*"Quack."*

"Seffra, the Captain isn't going to like this. Please just come down and finish your duties. This is childish."

*"Quack."*

"How long are you going to keep this up?" Sounded like the woman was starting to learn the way of things. Seffra wouldn't respond to someone who acted like an Omega. That pansy 'be friends with everyone' attitude would only get her killed. Especially the way she blindly followed 'Captain' Shorty. If she couldn't think for herself, what would the girl do when she found herself in a situation where she only had herself to rely on?

Seffra could understand following your Alpha and Beta to the ends of the earth, but even a wolf needed to be capable of reacting with their own instincts. Alphas and Betas didn't live forever and sometimes you could be separated.

So, Seffra would keep doing what she was doing with no regard to Petra or Copy-cat's 'request' to come down.

*"Quack."*

The sounds of unbridled fury spurting from Copy-cat's mouth was almost nail grinding music to the red head's ears.

-AoT-

It was weird, watching humans walk around, acting as if there was nothing to fear. Seffra had managed to ditch Shorty's minions earlier after quacking got boring. Since these soldiers mainly relied on their gear to maneuver quickly through the trees, Seffra had the advantage of experience. Poor minions were stuck running on the ground trying to keep up.

Back to the show at hand though. People watching.

"Mommy, can we have that for dinner tonight?"

What was really weird to watch were the humans smaller than even Shorty. Such creatures could only be the pups of humans, or children. She knew of them, but no matter how many days she ended up watching them from alleyways and roof top shadows, Seffra still couldn't believe the existence of something so innocent looking.

Their teeth didn't even look capable of piercing a fish's skin. Even a pup could do that.

"This Wall truly is nothing more than a gilded cage. Those children would die the moment they were apart from their pack."

"And that is why we need to take back Wall Maria. To be one step closer to letting these children grow without the fear of Titans hanging over them."

Seffra didn't allow her body to even twitch, though her heart wasn't so easy to calm. How the hell had this guy managed to sneak up on her?

"Did you need something, Erwin?"

Green eyes glanced through bangs, towards the tall blonde standing beside her. But instead of looking at her in disappointment or irritation, the commander was staring down at the civilians. Children laughing as they ran down the street, mothers looking over the food stalls, and stall keepers shouting out regarding their wares. There seemed to be nothing those icy blue eyes missed.

"You've been missing a lot lately. I've heard that you've been missing training and Levi's assigned tasks."

"*scoff* I didn't agree to be a damn floor wiper. I agreed because I wanted to see what was so damn special. What was it that prompted Jonah to fight for these ingrates?"

Seffra removed the collar from her neck, staring at her name, the only thing she had that proved her existence beyond her memory.

"If you die, you will simply be replaced. These people place no value on your life, so why do you fight for them? That is what I came here to see."

Erwin sat down, leaning against the chimney Seffra had secured as a support structure.

"I want to tear down the Walls. Not just the ones that surround us and keep the Titans out, but also the ones that the hierarchy placed. The ones that have kept us ignorant of the world beyond what we've known."

"That is an unrealistic goal. Do you really believe you can just shatter what these people know and expect things to become sunshine and rainbows?"

Was this really it? Such a pointless goal if that was the end of it.

"No."

Seffra looked over towards the blonde man.

"I don't expect that things will just become simple after pushing back the Titans and leaving the Walls. I'd actually be disappointed if things were that simple after all the sacrifices made towards that goal. But we can't grow and spread our wings until we take that step towards the unknown."

Seffra watched as Erwin looked from the bustling crowd below them to the clear sky above.

"I imagine that there will be years of struggling, reason being the lack of knowledge we possess, but I believe that every one of us will only be able to prosper after we take that step into the unknown. In these Walls, we are what you describe us as. Ignorant, complacent, nothing more than cattle blindly following those in power. I believe humanity can be so much more."

Erwin's fist clenched, the skin turning pale as blood thinned where the muscles clenched.

"I will use and sacrifice anything if it gets humanity closer to that goal." Blue eyes stared hard into contemplative green.

"Whether it be people from beyond the Wall or from the darkest part of society, I will use them to bring humanity forward."

Seffra almost felt like she was witnessing an Alpha stating his intention to take down an opposing pack. There was no hesitation in his gaze. To Seffra, those eyes almost appeared to be viewing something beyond either of them. Maybe they saw what Erwin desired, humanity's rebirth.

"I know that this isn't what you want to hear, Seffra, but I ask that you continue to be patient with us. We are not free to make decisions as freely as we'd like within here. There are powers that we need to maneuver around. Your presence hasn't been easy for some parties to accept either. There are eyes on us always, so we need to be careful. I promise you though, I am not taking your relinquishing your freedom lightly. I am using you to benefit humanity. There is no getting around that. You do not truly benefit from helping us. So I will so you why these people, these complacent beings, are worth our freedom and lives. It will take time, but one day, you will see it. I give you my word."

That said, Erwin stood up and started walking away, content to let his words stew in the woman's mind.

She wasn't willing to let that be the end of it though.

"Why exactly did you come out here? I doubt you tracked me down just to give a speech."

Seffra wasn't too sure, but she could have sworn that there was a small smirk on the Commander's face.

"As interesting as it is to witness someone capable of actually irritating 'Humanity's Strongest Soldier', I do need to get paperwork done. I merely wished for you to consider taking some time getting to know the soldiers and working with them. I find one can understand their comrades better when they spend time working with them, rather than spending time avoiding them and watching from a distance. I'm not asking for you to completely submit, as per your view, Levi isn't the Alpha, but if you could relinquish a bit of pride and do 'some' work, tempers might cool a bit."

And with that said, the man left.

Seffra sighed before plopping down on the roof, staring up at the sky.

"Guilt me why don't you."

Still, she couldn't prevent the smirk from appearing on her face.

"So Shorty was that annoyed huh?"

TBC…

A.N. Sorry for the lateness and shortness of the chapter. I was cleaning and the many chemicals caused a coughing relapse that had me curled in bed (my lungs are scarred from chronic bronchitis so coughing fits have me curling up in pain) so now I have a good several weeks of random coughing to look forward too now that the worse is over.

No Levi in here cause I want to start building Seffra's trust if not understanding of these people, as she still looks down on most of them. Erwin got some screen time as well, cause he is someone that I believe could help mold Seffra's view of the Wall dwellers in a better light. Also, there's a tribute to Space Duck Krillin here. Till next time.

Special Thanks to that0nelittl3girl, Aku Tora, grim assassin sherlock101, Emmabyx, xxRyuu-himexx, gory pancake, and NiKay9 for Following/Favoriting this story.

aniqa1234: I'm glad you like Seffra scolding of Eren. I have to say I felt some satisfaction from writing that. Thanks for the review.

KiraKiraBlueMoon: Thank you for that compliment. I couldn't stop grinning. I'm glad Eren remained in character. Regarding the cosplay…yes I still ended up as Squall from FF8. I did get three free books though. I hate how easy it is to bribe me.

Mai (guest): Thank you for the review.

And thank you to all who've read this chapter/story. Next chapter will be longer.

Next Time:

She could feel their eyes. These people were cheering for these soldiers, though Seffra doubted that such actions would be as welcoming on the return visit. These humans, they cheered and smiled, but she was almost certain that on the inside, they all had the same thought.

'I'm glad I'm not them.'

The gate before them started to lift, signifying the beginning of the expedition.

"Seffra, we're a team."

Green eyes glanced over towards the smiling Petra.

"We're counting on you as well. Despite what you think, you are one of us. Let's survive this."

The ginger haired woman almost shivered as those green eyes stared at her unblinkingly. It was hard to understand just what went through the wild woman's mind, apart from ripping remarks. Still, the Captain was willing to trust her, at least with fighting, so she was going to as well.

She couldn't stop her body from relaxing when those eyes closed and Seffra returned to facing forward.

"Survive this and I'll upgrade your status from Omega to Warrior."

Petra couldn't help the smile that appeared. Seffra was reaching out.

"Yeah." Both women stared at the endless plain that appeared before them as the gate finished opening.

Erwin raised an arm and signaled for the Survey Corp to move forward.