"How did I get stuck with this group?" Nicolette whispered to herself as she leaned against a cannon, watching the others are they halfheartedly worked on their maintenance chores. To her horror she was stuck with Eren, Mina, Thomas and Samuel, but at least she had Connie and Sasha there with her, but Eren? He was one of her least favorite people, for sure. She found him incredibly annoying with his constant swears that he'd kill all Titans. They might have shared a passion against Titans and a strong desire to join the Scout Regiment, but the way he acted about it made him a bother to be around.

Nicolette was in her own little world, just trying to make it through the day without wanting to chuck Eren over the wall. Not to mention it was too beautiful of a day to let this lot of annoying morons ruin her good mood. She was named 7th in her graduating class, she had her omi-directional gear fastened comfortable around her, and she was about to join the Scout Regiment. She wasn't going to let anything ruin this day.

"You're joining the Scouts?" Eren's sudden shocked tone of voice begged for Nicolette's attention and she turned to look over in his direction as he was staring in disbelief at Connie. "But you were set on the Military Police?"

"Yeah, I was but…" Connie started to defend himself but seemed to be lost for any actual works to do so.

"Sounds like your speech yesterday won him over." Mina interjected.

"Mind your own business, I decided it on my own!" Connie shouted defensively.

Nicolette wanted to say something, ask Connie why he hadn't told her any of this. After all, he was one of her closet friends yet he didn't think to share this little tid bit of information with her? She found herself actually upset over the fact, angry almost, that he'd keep something like that from her. But she couldn't say anything, she didn't want to make a scene.

"Don't be embarrassed, you're not the only one." Thomas added, trying to make Connie feel better.

"Everyone," Sasha slowly approached the group, grinning like a fool and Nicolette was frightened Sasha would also proclaim her determination to join the Scouts but instead she opened her jacket to show off a nice hunk of meat she was hiding, "I brought some meat from the officer's storehouse!" Everyone started to tell Sasha she needed to put it back but then as she insisted it was no big deal they all started to change their attitude and insist she'd have some as well.

Everyone seemed to have some awkward new found spirit of motivation as they returned to their work and Nicolette returned her focused on the cannon she was cleaning but then the wind started to pick up. No one else seemed to really notice but something about it seemed to bother Nicolette in an odd way, like something bad was about to happen.

Then came the strike of lightening and before she even had a moment to blink, there was a Titan. Not just a Titan…she had heard the stories enough to know, it was the Colossal Titan. For a moment the world seemed to stand completely still. Everyone had their eyes fixed on the horror before them, with eyes wide and jaws dropped. No one said a word. No one moved. But the Colossal Titan did. Before anyone could even registered what was happening, the wall busted right under them. A blaze of hot steam blew with such a force it knocked them all down right off the Wall.

Nicolette could hear all the gears turning as everyone shot their lines into the Wall to cease their falls, but then Connie screamed, "Samuel!" Nicolette's eyes scanned as fast as they could, trying to see through the steam that was still clouding her to find Samuel, but just as her eyes caught sight of him she saw Sasha running down the wall after him and shooting her line to grip him by stabbing through his ankle. Just as relief came over them all that Samuel was now safe, a new found sense of horror seemed to overcome them as everyone noticed the Wall had been broken by the Colossal Titan.

"The Titans are going to get in!" Thomas shouted. Nicolette held her breath, he was right. She knew she was going to have to face Titans sooner or later, but she never imagined it would be like this. She never imagined there would be innocent lives in danger that she'd have to protect. She looked up at Eren, the same passion he always had burning in his eyes was now in intense flames. He was determined to do everything he could. Everyone else was horrified, but not Eren. He was stern and remained focused. Nicolette may have disliked him, but in this moment she was impressed that he kept his head about him while everyone else seemed too far off.

"Mounted Maintenance Squad Four, prepare for battle!" Eren shouted, getting everyone else's attention as he drew his swords. He dropped down from his stance on the wall, swinging himself as he shouted orders for everyone to target the Colossal Titan. Everyone stared in awe at Eren as he worked his gear to bring himself back to the top of the Wall so effortlessly.

"What the hell are we waiting for?" Nicolette shouted to the rest of the group who still all looked way to petrified to dare move from where they were standing. She wasn't going to waste time trying to rally them, Eren was up there facing off with the Colossal Titan and Nicolette wasn't going to make him do it alone. She loosened her wires enough to drop herself with enough force to swing her body up as Eren did and ran against the side of the wall to pick up speed as she flung upwards and released her wires. She landed back down on the top of the Wall just as the Colossal Titan swung its arm and took out the cannons.

Eren was on the other side now after he had maneuvered to avoid the Colossal Titan's strike against the cannons, and he had his wires in the Colossal Titan's shoulder. He brought himself forward to attack but it reached out for him. Eren managed to swing himself around to avoid it, and landed on its arm and started running up towards its neck. What he needed was a distraction, and Nicolette was going to give him one. She ran over to get the Colossal Titan's attention, It caught sight of her but despite her best efforts it still seemed too focused on Eren to even spare her a swing. It lifted its arm to shake Eren off but he released his line and reshot in time to swing himself around and aim straight for the nap of the neck.

Just as Nicolette lost sight of Eren another cloud of intense steam seemed to cloud around her. It cleared faster than the last time, and as she started to see her surroundings once more…the Colossal Titan was gone. She caught sight of Eren as he stared at the empty space where it had been, dumbfounded as he just sort of drifted in midair before it really sank in. "Eren!" Nicolette shouted his arm as he started falling and he regained her attention in time to shoot a line to stop his fall. Just then Thomas and Connie seemed to finally join her up on her wall and shouted down to Eren asking if he had defeated the Titan. While Thomas and Eren exchange words, Connie went straight to Nicolette.

"Are you alright?" He asked her, genuine concern on his face.

"I'm fine, I just wish I could have been more help to Eren, he had a great shot of actually getting something done here…" Nicolette mused out loud as she turned her sights on Eren who had a rather disappointed look about him.

"I'm sorry, I let him get away." Eren almost sounded heartbroken about it.

"What are you apologizing for, we were scared stiff-" Thomas tried to reassure Eren but Connie interrupted.

"Hey, this is no time for that! The Wall has been broken! We have to hurry and seal it before any Titans get in again."

"What are you doing?" A random voice caught everyone off guard and they all turned to see a member of the Garrison Squad leaping up on to the Wall where the Colossal Titan had attack. "The Colossal Titan Response Operation is already underway." He informed him harshly, as if he thought they were all slacking off. "Return to HQ at once! And anyone who came in contact with it, remember to give a report." He ordered them, and after a quick salute, Nicolette and the others headed back towards HQ.

There were screams. Nicolette could barely make out the sound of cannons blasting in the distance over the masses of frightened people screaming at the top of their lungs as if they thought if they screamed loud enough it might scare off the Titans. Nicolette was frightened too, but she wasn't them. She was a solider now and she didn't have time to scream.

Head Quarters was a mad house. All the recently graduated cadets were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They all had one thing in common; they were scared out of their minds. Some did their best to mask their fear, others were sobbing uncontrollably. Nicolette even caught sight of Hanna and Franz sharing a promising moment of young love as they embraced dramatically like they'd never see each other again. Nicolette thought of Reiner…the reason they had avoided being like that so for long was in a way out of fear that one of them not make it long enough for them to truly have what they wanted. She wanted to see Reiner again before they were assigned out, to kiss him again, but she knew that would only make it worse.

The cadets all gathered to receive their orders. From the sound of it, the cadets were basically being entrusted with the middle guard. Everyone seemed to remain level headed as they received instructions, until of course they were told the advance team had been wiped out. Discord seemed to spread like wild fire. The fact Titans had breached the wall wasn't much of a help for their mortality either. After being dismissed there was a stampede of feet as everyone rushed to make last minute adjustments to their gear and fill up their gas.

In truth, Nicolette wasn't ready for this. But she knew she had no other choice. She knew she had the skill in battle to be successful, but her confidence was wearing thin. This wasn't how she wanted to prove her, but she was going to none the less.