Katya, Year Unknown

"That's terrible!"

This statement was accompanied by a chorus of gasps from the people gathered outside. The young girl named Katya rolled over in her bed, trying to drown out the conversations that were going on all around her, each one of them concerning her but none of them involving her.

Yes, it was terrible. She knew more than any of them how terrible it was. She had been there to witness it, after all. None of them would ever be able to know how she truly felt. They could try and sympathize with her all they wanted, but they had never been in her shoes. None of them had seen their parents murdered right in front of their eyes.

Katya hadn't even lived ten years, and yet her life already felt like it was over. That one man had taken everything away from her, and now she could only wish for the strength to take her own life and leave the cruel world that she had been forced into without a say.

"You must tell me everything, Kat!" shouted the boy who barged into the room. "I can't believe you saw the Ripper with your own two eyes! What was it like? Did he fill you with terror? I bet you wet your pants as soon as you saw his face! How fascinatingly embarrassing!"

Anton Drake was just asking to be strangled.

Katya had barely even gotten a chance to take all of it in, and now here she was, already being used as a political charity case by the Drake family. Lord Tyrus Drake never gave her much of a choice in the matter, and it was not as if she possessed a will of her own. Neither he nor his wife ever showed any signs that they even acknowledged her as a human being.

Her adoptive brother may have been eccentric and often unbearable, but he was different. Anton was the only one out of the four members of her new family to ask her about her own feelings and experiences. He truly cared about her, in his own unique way.

"I've got nothing to say right now, Anton," she said quietly, turning her head to look at him as she continued to lie on her side in the bed that felt all too unfamiliar.

"That's perfectly understandable, I suppose." Anton scribbled a few words in his notebook before depositing it in the pocket of his massive overcoat.

Katya's parents had not always gotten along with the Drakes, but she and Anton had met several times. He was around three years older than her, but from the attitudes of the two children, a stranger might have thought the opposite to be true.

"Franzy, don't you want to come over and talk to Kat?" Anton called to the teenaged girl standing in the doorway. "She's going to be our new sister, so you should get to know her."

"I'll pass," answered Franziska Drake. Those insulting words were the first ones Katya had ever heard her adoptive sister say.

Armin and Hange, Year 850

"Where… Where is he taking her?" Armin asked as Nap disappeared over the edge of the wall.

"That doesn't matter," Hange answered, all positive emotion gone from her voice. "Fourth squad, follow him! Make sure he doesn't get away! Everyone else, help me clean up this-"

The Squad Leader's orders were interrupted by another tremendous roar from the Rogue Titan, who had come alive after Nap was somehow able to subdue it. Eren's Titan body was bent over the decaying form of the Female Titan with its back to them, and pieces of its flesh were starting to burst into flames as they fell off and formed blazing heaps on the ground.

"It's starting to decompose!" That was the only thing Armin could conceivably think of, at least.

"But why?" Hange wondered out loud. "He's still inside!"

Steam rose from the two Titans as the one that still contained Eren began to fall forward, crushing the Female underneath it as the two of them appeared to combine into one singular being. Both Armin and Hange watched the illogical sequence unfold, while another member of their group decided to take action and retrieve the Titan's prisoner.

Petra Ral swooped down out of the air and used a flurry of precise slashes to cut through the nape of the Rogue Titan's neck, freeing Eren's human body from the wreckage that it was trapped inside of. She tenderly carried his steaming form to the roof where the others still stood. As soon as its pilot had been freed, the Rogue Titan cooled down and began to smolder. The bodies of the two Titans soon fused together into a single molten mess.

Armin quickly scuttled over to the spot where Petra landed. "How is he?"

"He's burning up, but he looks okay otherwise," replied the redheaded woman.

"That's good to hear." Hange rubbed her glasses to prevent them from fogging up due to the steam. "Armin, scale the wall and check on Mikasa. Ask her if she-"

The blonde boy's curiosity reached its peak as Hange froze. "Squad Leader Hange?"

"The wall…" Other soldiers around them were beginning to stare at the same spot where the Squad Leader was looking, so Armin turned his attention that way as well.

"Holy shit…" Armin hadn't even noticed Miranda land behind him, but her voice snapped him out of the daze that he had entered upon seeing the Titan inside the wall. "That thing looks an awful lot like our Colossal buddy, don't you think, Armin?"

"Yeah, that's true…" He could barely put together a coherent sentence, but the girl's presence had a bit of a calming effect. "But what is it doing inside of the wall?"

"Beats me," she admitted with a shrug. "But I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say that we probably weren't supposed to find out about it."

Another thought took Armin's mind off of the Titan for a moment. "How is Jean doing?"

"He'll be fine. It takes more than Annie's capable of to kill the man of my dreams."

"You're really that into him, huh?" Armin, and just about everyone else for that matter, had a hard time distinguishing between fact and fiction when it came to Miranda Sieyes.

"I guess you could say that," she answered vaguely. "Though this really isn't the time to be going into detail. I'm surprised our superiors haven't handed our asses to us on a silver platter yet."

"Believe me, we still plan on doing so." Hange turned her attention away from the wall and glared at the two children. Despite having barely exerted herself at all, the Squad Leader was sweating bullets. "I guess this explains why Abby was disguising herself, right?"

"That part was my idea!" Miranda said, a bit too proudly for someone in her position. "Nap said it wouldn't fly because she looks nothing like Eren, but they both have the same unapproachable look to them, so I knew nobody'd notice. All we needed were two wigs and a spare eyepatch."

She paused and looked up at the wall again, toward the hole that had been created by the Female Titan's hardened fingers. The face of the Titan inside of Wall Sina was only partially visible, but there was no denying that it was there. Even she hadn't known this much.

"We're getting off topic, though." While it wasn't an urgent matter due to the overcast skies, Miranda knew something needed to be done. "You should probably get someone to seal up that hole, Squad Leader. Since, you know, it would be pretty bad for that thing to wake up."

Katya, Anka, Gustav, and Commander Pixis, Year 850

Dot Pixis chuckled as only Dot Pixis could. "That boy never learns, does he?"

"You're taking this news awfully well, Commander," noted Katya. Gustav and Anka also appeared far less concerned than she was, after hearing news of the action in Stohess.

"If you knew my grandson like I do, you'd be taking it the same way, I'm sure," replied the old man. "Now then, we shouldn't waste any time. Anka and I will head for Stohess. Gustav, inform Captain Hannes of the events that have transpired. Katya, rendezvous with your squad."

"Yes, sir," the Squad Leader said obediently before exiting the room.

The four members of Katya's squad had waited patiently for her. Victor, Ava, Hilde, and Jericho had all been model soldiers for the most part, and though the four of them were still fairly new to the Garrison, Katya had been impressed by the skills that they had picked up under her watch.

Victor Paulus was bold and brash, but he had quality instincts and generally knew what he was doing. Though he was comically short, he had the face of someone you didn't want to mess with and the fighting skills to back it up more often than not. He was the kind of person who placed a large amount of value on loyalty, much like Katya herself.

Ava Miller could always be counted on to tell it like it was. She was as blunt and honest as they came, and that was not a trait that Katya took for granted. At the same time, she was not an ambitious girl, and appeared content to live her life on her own terms. However, it was clear to Katya that she cared deeply for her comrades, especially after what happened in Trost.

Hilde Schultz had the blood of a soldier flowing through her veins, and Katya had no idea how the talented girl had slipped out of the top ten of her class. She had fallen into a bit of a rut after her brother's death, but she was never one to let an obstacle get the better of her. Though she was as humble as they came, she was arguably the most qualified member of the squad.

Jericho Grimm was all business, and he never let anyone believe otherwise. He wasn't overly talented, but he made up for it with his unrelenting work ethic. The boy rarely opened his mouth except when absolutely necessary, and he was not one to goof around or slack off under any circumstances. That was certainly something Katya could appreciate.

"Any news of what happened in Stohess, Squad Leader?" Ava asked as Katya approached.

"Nothing yet," lied the adopted daughter of the Drake family. "According to the Commander, it's being handled by the Military Police. He's only going there as a formality."

"I heard they discovered the identity of the Armored Titan," said Victor, daring Katya to answer.

"Like I just said, there's no new information," she replied, slightly agitated. "If anything gets revealed, you'll all know about it right away, I promise."

Truth be told, Katya barely knew anything about the incident herself. The messenger had told the four of them that the Female Titan had appeared in Stohess and been defeated by a group of soldiers from the Survey Corps that included, among others, Nap Pixis. Because of that, the boy's grandfather had reluctantly agreed to travel to Stohess to meet with the district's mayor.

Katya sighed and longed for her precious flask.

Anton and Sergey, Year 850

"...Working in conjunction with a small group of soldiers from the Survey Corps, who had been passing through Stohess on official business, Captain Stendahl succeeded in neutralizing the threat and capturing the unknown pilot of the Female Titan, all while minimizing civilian casualties and property damage. After the enemy was defeated and immobilized, the Captain generously turned custody of the deplorable Titan over to the Survey Corps. Lara Stendahl's ability to adapt to the pressing circumstances must be commended above all."

"Sounds good so far, boss," said Sergey after Anton had finished reading his words.

"My job is not to write a 'good' article, Titan 06," the slender man said impatiently. "I have been tasked with an important role in the survival of humanity. 'Good' will not suffice."

"Maybe you could get some outside help," suggested Anton's subordinate. "I don't know how much money we have left, but you could surely call in a few favors, right?"

"Alas, Sergey, the well has run dry," Anton admitted to the brawny blonde man. "Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks. I have but a few allies outside of our organization."

"That's true. You really aren't very good at making friends."

Normally, such a slight to his character would have caused Anton to fume internally, but he knew Sergey meant no harm. Though Anton had known him for a shorter time than he had known the other members of his team, save for Napoleon Pitstains, he nevertheless trusted Sergey with his life.

The only son of the Drake family had lost track of how long it had been since he used his inheritance money to start up his quirky newsletter. It was something that he had longed for since his childhood, though his parents and his sister had done their best to crush his dreams. Franziska, however, had changed her views in the many years since then, and it was not as though Tyrus and Renata Drake were still around to tell him what to do with his life.

Anton turned back to his work with a renewed vigor. Disappointing Lara was not an option.

Miranda and Armin, Year 850

"I've been meaning to ask you something. What do you think Nap-"

The yawn that emerged from Miranda's mouth drowned out the sounds of Armin's speech, but it was relatively clear what he was planning to ask.

"Sorry, that battle took a lot out of me," she admitted, rubbing her eyes. "It's nice to get some rest, especially with everything that's looming over our heads."

"Yeah, that's true…" Even now that the battle had been over for several hours and the sun was beginning to set outside, Armin was finding it impossible to get any amount of rest. As Miranda had said, there were plenty of things looming over the heads of the soldiers from the Survey Corps. The two of them barely knew where to begin.

"You were asking about Nap, right?" Just saying the word "Nap" made her insufferably tired.

"I was." Armin shifted awkwardly in his seat. Mikasa was keeping Eren company as he remained incapacitated, while Jean was still recovering from the head injury he suffered at the hands of the Female Titan. And of course, none of them had the slightest idea where Nap had run off to. Thus, the two of them were the only remaining members of their original task force.

"The Crimson Arrow wouldn't do something like that without a good reason," she said with an encouraging smile. "He's as dedicated to the cause as anyone, except maybe the Commander. That guy scares me, especially now that he actually has a reason to punish us."

It was clear to Armin that Miranda was changing the subject, and he had expected just as much. He had never gotten to know her very well, but she rarely seemed all that eager to talk about serious matters. And there were plenty of serious matters to talk about at that moment.

The events of that day barely seemed real. Annie had transformed into the Female Titan, and against all odds, they had beaten her. Many civilians had lost their lives, but there was no doubt in Armin's mind that it was worth it. At least, it would have been, if they'd actually captured her.

Armin couldn't begin to understand Nap's thinking. He had been the one to lead the charge to take down Annie, and yet he had also foiled their plans at the last minute by whisking her away without an explanation. Hange's squad had been unsuccessful in their attempt to locate him, and Mikasa hadn't been able to offer any sort of explanation, though she did seem more than a little scarred by whatever happened between her and Nap at the top of the wall.

Weighing even more heavily on his mind, however, was the discovery of the Titan within the wall. He and Hange had both hypothesized that the presence of that single Titan meant that Wall Sina was filled with numerous similar Titans, as were the other two walls in all likelihood. Needless to say, this discovery changed his view on things quite a bit.

"Hey, Armin."

Miranda's voice jolted him back to reality, and her extended finger directed him toward the tall woman in the doorway. She didn't appear to be a soldier, but there was no doubt that she had business with the two of them. Her pale green eyes were shielded behind a pair of thick glasses, and her dark brown hair covered the shoulders that were attached to her lengthy arms.

"Squad Leader Hange asked me to check in on the two of you," said the frowning woman, entering the tiny room that they were holed up in. "My name is Franziska Drake. I'm a doctor who works closely with your regiment from time to time."

"A doctor?" Armin's mind was still a bit hazy. "Neither one of us has any serious injuries."

"That's not my only reason for being here." Franziska leaned against the wall on the other side of the room. She had a look in her eyes that reminded Armin a bit of Captain Levi, and it succeeded in intimidating him for a few moments. "I'm playing babysitter until Erwin is done being interrogated. You kids really screwed up, and now he's the one paying for it."

Armin looked down at his feet while the doctor spoke. Even after Nap had told him about the plan to take down the Female Titan, he had doubted the other boy's decision more than a little. The choice to proceed without telling Commander Erwin or any of the other members of their regiment had been Nap's, and Armin had uncharacteristically gone along with it without too much of a fight. He was beginning to regret doing so.

"What the hell were we supposed to do?" Miranda's voice once again broke Armin out of his funk. She was staring at Franziska with a rare look of determination in her eyes.

"Miranda…" Armin said meekly, before she continued.

"You're not a soldier, so you may or may not understand this, but I'll try and explain it to you anyway." Armin couldn't remember seeing Miranda like this ever before. "As a soldier who fights for the good of everyone, you have to make some damn hard choices. I've only been a Scout for a short time, and I've already had to make my fair share of those choices, believe me. There's never any way of knowing whether the choice you make will be right or wrong, but you have to make the choice anyway, because if you don't make the choice, you'll be letting everyone down. Commander Erwin understands that, and so do the six of us, especially Armin over here."

Miranda didn't exactly have a way with words, but Franziska's face revealed that she had gotten the message. The doctor cracked a bit of a smile and nodded her head.

"I understand better than you think," she said in her monotone voice. "My profession isn't just fun and games, you know. I've been through as much shit as the next guy."

"Oh, really?" Miranda asked in a patronizing tone. "Like what, exactly? Give examples."

"I was there on that day." Franziska Drake didn't even hesitate with her response, as she looked directly at Armin during her delivery. "The day that Shinganshina and Wall Maria fell. Judging from the look in your eyes, you were there too, weren't you?"

"Y-yeah…" Armin could barely offer a genuine response. It was hard for even an intellectual prodigy like himself to decipher the reason why this woman was revealing such personal information to a pair of kids she had only known for a few minutes.

"I don't claim to be some expert on tragedy," she continued, "but the simple fact that I'm not a soldier doesn't make me a waste of space, no matter how much I myself may have thought so at one point. I know how it feels to lose people, and for most of my life I've tried to prevent other people from having to feel that same pain. That's just who I am."

Armin watched Miranda's expression slowly lighten.

"Sheesh, you didn't have to tell us your whole sob story." The blue-eyed girl lazily placed her chin in her hands. "Do you do that every time you meet someone new?"

"You're the one who asked," Dr. Drake reminded her, to which Miranda responded with a grin.

Anka and Commander Pixis, Year 850

"Sorry we're late." The Commander's first words as he entered the room were just about what Anka had expected. "Did we miss anything important?"

"No, you arrived just in time," replied the mayor of Stohess, sitting at the head of the table across from Erwin Smith. "We've only been getting the formalities out of the way."

"That's good to hear. I'm not a big fan of formalities." Dot Pixis took a seat at the expansive piece of wooden furniture, as Anka remained standing behind him.

In addition to the mayor and the two Commanders, there were two members of the wall cult and three other officials from Stohess sitting at the table. Seated across from Pixis was Commander Nile Dock of the Military Police, who had presumably arrived in town only a short while before the two of them. Members of his regiment stood around the room, and seated to Nile's left was Captain Lara Stendahl, the highest-ranking officer assigned to Stohess.

Anka also noticed a small gathering of soldiers from the Survey Corps standing behind their Commander. The group consisted of Squad Leaders Mike Zacharias, Brendan Kikkert, and Akilina Thorne. Nap was likely still recovering from the battle, or so she thought.

"Now then, I believe we should get down to business." The mayor eyed the man sitting across from him with a look that held a dozen different emotions. "I have several questions for you, Erwin. The first and most obvious being this, in my opinion: If you had identified a suspect, why did you not request help from the Military Police before acting?"

Anka still knew very little about the events that had occurred in Stohess on that day, but from the information that she and the Commander had been given, it was obvious that Erwin's plan to capture the Female Titan had been more than a little bit reckless. Even with that in mind, she had a hard time dismissing his actions as ludicrous or unwarranted. She knew Nap as well as anyone, and he was not the kind of boy to blindly follow someone, even someone like Erwin.

Nap's participation in the battle was the main reason why Dot Pixis had been summoned to Stohess, and the main reason why she had accompanied him. In matters such as this one, the Garrison had very little real authority when compared to Commander Dock's regiment.

"I simply reasoned that the Female Titan more than likely had allies in the military," began Erwin Smith. "For this reason, I decided to limit knowledge of the operation to the few soldiers I placed my complete trust in, and the soldiers I knew for certain were on our side."

The look on Nile Dock's face told Anka that the bearded man smelled bullshit, but he said nothing. Instead, that responsibility fell on the shoulders of his subordinate.

"You don't have to lie so blatantly, Erwin," said Captain Stendahl, as all heads turned to her.

"What are you talking about, Captain?" The mayor appeared intrigued, to say the least, and Anka couldn't help but feel the same way. She wasn't very familiar with Lara, thanks to the fact that the Captain had been stationed in the district of Orvud, at the northernmost edge of Wall Sina. In fact, this was the first time that Anka had ever laid eyes on the slightly older woman.

"The Commander personally asked me to assist him in the implementation of his plan."

Anka glanced briefly at Pixis in order to gage his reaction to Lara's eye-opening admission, and she had difficulty telling whether her superior was even taking in the woman's words. Lara's long, creamy brown hair would have been completely impractical on the battlefield, but her feminine mystique was able to capture the attention of more than a few of the men in the room. If Anka hadn't been totally confident in herself, she may have grown a bit jealous of the Captain.

"What did you say?" Nile asked with an absolutely comical look on his face.

"He asked me to help him, and I agreed to do so." Other than Anka and Erwin, Lara appeared to be the only calm person in the entire room. Her hazel eyes stared straight at the Commander of the Survey Corps, and Anka could tell that her mind was completely focused.

"Is that true, Erwin?" asked the shell-shocked mayor.

Erwin's gaze remained locked on Lara, and it was obvious to Anka that a silent exchange was taking place between the two of them. While the mayor may have been in charge, it was abundantly clear who the two most powerful people in the room were.

"Yes."

The room fell silent as Erwin confirmed Lara's statements.

"Captain Stendahl…" Nile began slowly. "Explain something to me. Why the hell would you proceed with a plan that would endanger the lives of so many civilians?"

"I did everything in my power to keep civilian casualties as low as possible. It's not as if-"

"That's not what I asked!" The Commander of the Military Police slammed his fist on the table and glared at his subordinate. "Why did you go through with this absurd plan to begin with?"

"Erwin won me over, I suppose." Lara continued to retain her unfazed demeanor as she returned Nile's gaze. "He made a passionate argument that I simply couldn't say no to."

If Anka hadn't been skilled at keeping her emotions in check, she may have burst out laughing at the ridiculous act that the Captain was putting on. There was nothing about the woman in front of her that could have been considered weak, and yet here she was, attempting to play the part of an innocent girl who just didn't know better. It helped that the only women in the room besides Lara were Anka and Squad Leader Thorne.

"Explain yourself to us, Commander Erwin," ordered one of the city's officials who sat to the right of Commander Pixis. The man was falling for Captain Stendahl's act, hook line and sinker. "Do you really think that the destruction of the city was worth it?"

"It was neither my nor the Captain's intention to cause such devastation." Erwin's reply was as crisp and calm as Anka would have expected from the man. "I underestimated our opponent, and I sincerely apologize for the damage we caused to Stohess."

"Do you think your apologies will solve anything?" screeched another one of the bureaucrats.

"Please don't be so hard on the poor Commander." Lara's words cut through the air like the wings of a hawk. "It wasn't as if he had a choice. What was he supposed to do, allow the Female Titan to roam free inside of these walls?"

She was playing the men for fools, and they were eating it up.

"If we had done nothing," continued Erwin, "the wall would have been destroyed, and the damage would have been far greater in all likelihood."

The three soldiers standing behind Commander Smith remained quiet. Though Anka was only personally acquainted with Squad Leader Kikkert, she had at least expected the trio to have their Commander's back instead of forcing him to rely solely on Captain Stendahl.

"That's all well and good, but we need proof." The mayor appeared to be slightly more level-headed than his associates. "I need you to convince me that it was worth everything, because right now I just don't see it. I've been told that Annie Leonhardt has yet to divulge any important information, and from my understanding of the Titan shifters and the powers that they possess, any attempt at physical torture will likely result in another catastrophe. Am I wrong?"

Anka's mind began to race as soon as she heard Annie's name emerge from the mayor's lips. She hadn't been informed of this piece of trivia, but judging from the look on her Commander's face, he had already known the Female Titan's identity. Perhaps the messenger had told him in private. Or perhaps, and more likely, Nap had been the one to fill him in.

No matter the case, the revelation of Annie's treachery hit Anka hard. She and Gustav had trained Nap and the girl for two years, and while Anka had always thought of her as a strange creature, she had never once suspected her of being downright evil. Then again, Anka had long since stopped believing in such childish things as good and evil.

"You've come to the correct conclusion," Erwin admitted reluctantly. "We still have not found a way to get Annie to reveal anything that holds any relevance."

"There you go again, Erwin." All eyes turned to Lara once more, as the woman shook her head in disappointment. "You need to stop lying. It doesn't suit a man like you."

"What do you mean?" asked Nile, as Anka could see Erwin's eyes quiver for just a moment. Apparently, this was not part of the plan that they had rehearsed so diligently.

"We have indeed been able to get an important piece of information out of Annie," explained Lara, much to the shock of everyone in the room, including Commander Smith.

"She told us the names of two of her fellow Titans."

Miranda, Year 850

Wiping one last bit of sweat from her brow, Miranda turned the final corner before reaching the room where Jean had been brought after the battle. Dr. Drake had given her the location after several long minutes of begging, and the girl had not hesitated to make her way over there.

For a long time, Miranda had had difficulty putting her feelings into words. Her outward expressions were, for the most part, completely carefree and completely false. That is not to say that Miranda Sieyes was not a somewhat cheerful person, but she certainly felt the stress of her chosen career just as much as anyone else. Joking around was simply her way of coping with it.

It was harder than usual to hide her feelings around Jean, and she had already slipped up more than once when in his presence. When she had entered into a foreign world five years earlier, she hadn't expected to grow close to anyone, and she certainly hadn't expected to care as deeply for someone as she did for Jean, but such emotions were difficult to control.

She could do nothing to keep her heart from jumping out of her chest when she entered through the open door and saw him, sitting on the side of his bed, with a bandage wrapped around his cranium. His feet were bare, and they were kicking absentmindedly at the ground beneath them, failing to make contact but never ceasing to try. She coughed loudly, causing him to look up.

"Miranda…" His voice was, fittingly, a bit hoarse.

"Glad you didn't die on me, Jean-boy." She stepped out from the doorway and sat beside him on the bed, the only piece of furniture in the dimly lit room.

Miranda stared at the floor as Jean's feet continued to move back and forth like two pendulums. Sometimes it was hard for her to believe that all of these experiences were real.

"What happened after I passed out?" he asked after several minutes of silence.

"You didn't pass out, you were knocked out," she corrected him snarkily. "Annie got you good."

"Whatever," he scoffed. "Just tell me what I missed."

"Not a whole lot," joked Miranda as her hands gripped the edges of the bed. "Some ginger chick showed up just in time to save us, then Eren went berserk and tore Annie a new one. After that was over, Nap took off with the Titan bitch's body and nobody knows where he went."

"He did what?" Jean practically whinnied as his eyes bulged out of his skull.

"I found it hard to believe myself," Miranda admitted. "I wasn't there for that part, though. I got hit by some rubble that Annie threw at me. I just wasn't as fast as Mikasa."

"Not many people are." He shook his head in disbelief. "What the hell is Nap thinking? Everyone in the military must be looking for him now. They'll probably kill him on the spot if they find him."

"For such a smart guy, Nap can be pretty dumb sometimes," she concurred before sighing. "Still, we beat her. We actually won a battle with one of those damn Titan shifters."

"A lot of good that does us. If we can't get any information out of Annie, this was all for nothing."

"Yeah. That's the way it goes, I guess."

There was a long pause as the two of them gathered their thoughts. Miranda was still quite weary from the battle, and Jean's mind was clearly not entirely present after the head trauma he had suffered. It took her a while to realize that she had begun resting her head on his shoulder.

By some strange miracle, he didn't seem to mind.

Lara and Commander Erwin, Year 850

"I'm curious as to what you were thinking back there, Captain."

"If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not sure you're fit to be leading humanity's vanguard."

"Perhaps I'm not making myself clear." Erwin stopped in his tracks, causing Lara to turn and face him. "I want to know why you planted such absurdly false information."

"False information?" Lara's expression quickly changed as she began to take the conversation seriously. The top of Wall Sina was the only place where the two of them could speak without any prying eyes, and it had taken them almost an entire day to find time to set up their meeting.

"The names of the two supposed Titans," the Commander clarified. "You know as well as I do that Annie Leonhardt is nowhere to be found, so it would have been impossible for her to give you that information. What happens when it's discovered that you were lying?"

"I wasn't lying," replied the Captain as she crossed her arms and stared straight ahead. "Reiner Braun and Bertolt Hoover are, in fact, the two remaining Titan shifters. I'm absolutely certain."

"How did you come to that conclusion?" he asked, as his majestic eyebrows grew closer together. "Not to assume that you're wrong, but what information led you to suspect those two?"

"Braun and Hoover share the same hometown as Leonhardt," she explained. "It was a simple task to have some of my associates run background checks on the surviving members of her trainee group, and as it turns out, all three of them claim to be from a town that doesn't exist."

The "associates" she was referring to were, in fact, Anton and his band of misfits. They had dug up enough proof to convince anyone of Braun and Hoover's guilt, though Lara was surprised that Anton hadn't been able to locate the fourth and fifth Titan shifters among the members of any of the military regiments. Thus, it would be impossible for her to topple all four of the remaining Titans at once. She would have to settle for these two.

"I see." Erwin paused to take in this information before responding. "Your body of work in such a short time is impressive. However, if you and I are going to work together, you can't undermine me like you did during our meeting with the mayor and the other Commanders."

"Undermine you?" The look on Lara's face would have frightened a fully grown bear. "Let me be clear, Erwin Smith. I allowed you to take partial credit for a mission that you had no part in, and that is the only reason why you still have your job. If you want to tell someone not to undermine you, it should be Nap Pixis, who I'm told your regiment has yet to locate after almost a full day."

Lara had said her piece, and she knew that she had won this battle. She examined the Commander's face for any signs of weakness. To her utter shock, he began to smile.

"You have a lot to learn, Captain Stendahl. It should be fun working with you."

Katya, Year 850

It was fairly often that Katya wondered whether she or her brother's girlfriend was a heavier drinker. If she had been a betting woman, which she was, she would have put the money firmly on herself. Then again, Lara Stendahl may have had her number.

She sat at the bar, the same one she had visited so many times with Rico, but on this day she was alone. A full day had passed since the incident in Stohess, and she still had no idea what truly happened during the battle that had involved Nap and, in all likelihood, Lara and Anton.

Of course, they had to have played some role in this. It could not be a simple coincidence that this event had occurred so shortly after Lara's transfer from Orvud. Perhaps this was another step in the master plan that Anton had boasted about during their last encounter. Or perhaps it was simply a situation that the opportunistic Lara had taken advantage of.

Katya had never cared much for the woman her brother had chosen to spend his life with. She had no idea why she found Lara so distasteful, but the Captain simply rubbed her the wrong way. Katya trusted her instincts, and they were very rarely wrong.

It had been a long time since Katya's life had taken the drastic turn that normally accompanies the deaths of one's parents. She barely remembered the faces of her real mother and father, and she found herself thinking less and less about them as the years went by. Before the Battle of Trost, she had almost forgotten them entirely. Now, their smiles were more clearly etched in her mind than ever before, and she knew exactly who she had to thank for that. And because he had given her a reason to live, she would certainly repay him tenfold.

Among members of the Garrison, there was a running joke about Katya's youthful appearance. Her face had not changed at all since she was a teenager, but despite her inexperience she was actually one of the older Squad Leaders in the regiment. Though she had been in the same trainee class as Anka and Gustav, she was, in fact, older than them as well.

The pub was virtually empty on that day, with only a couple of other soldiers from the Garrison sitting a few seats down from her. A pair of officers from the Military Police had stopped by earlier, men whom Katya had recognized as Caleb Lynch and Dennis Ebringer, but they had left rather quickly. Since the invasion of the Titans, Trost had understandably become a significantly less popular destination for anyone who could conceivably avoid the city.

She put down her drink and sighed, just as a soldier from her regiment threw open the door.

"Squad Leader Drake!"

"What is it, Phil?" she asked, turning quickly to examine the man before her. He wasted no time in delivering the urgent declaration.

"Titans have been spotted within Wall Rose!"

The severity of this news hit Katya quickly. Phil had told her that Titans had been spotted within Wall Rose, meaning that they had not simply breached one of the outlying districts. No, they had officially invaded the land between the two walls, and it was only a matter of time before they forced the entire population to evacuate to the interior of Wall Sina.

Katya took one last sip of her drink before picking herself up off the barstool. While a moment like this could potentially allow her to erase her debt, it had come at an inconvenient time.

"I'm getting too old for this shit."