A/N- Sorry for the month long wait or so again, but this chapter did give me some struggles with what to include and what not. But anyway, hope you enjoy!

Nick was going to kill Sasha, or that's what she thought at least, the reason being that she panicked, big time, while heading north towards Ehrmich District Annie woke up and the limbs that were slowly regenerating began to sprout out faster than Sasha could have imagined. This caught her off guard and when Annie threw herself off of the horse and bit her arm when it had almost grown back and successfully transformed into the Female Titan, Sasha bolted it to Ehrmich as fast as possible, afraid of looking behind her at the possibility of Annie chasing her.

Despite the fact she was terrified with her own life now in the balance, she had managed to find Commander Erwin and inform him of the situation, he seemed to take a keen interest in what Nick was doing, like whether or not he was helping the Scouts or not. Either way he handed her a document and sent her to find Section Commander Hange along with his praise for her bravery on the battlefield.

"Important message!" Sasha exclaimed as she opened the door she was told that Section Commander Hange would be behind. "I'm with the 104th cadet corps, oh and my name is Sasha Blouse!"

"No way!" She heard Eren say while facing away from her, not having heard Sasha enter at all.

"Who?" Hange asked, not hearing Sasha enter either it seemed.

"Sorry, this is for you Section Commander." Sasha tried to talk to Hange but to no avail, she was still being ignored.

"You must find her with all haste." Pastor Nick urged. "She is the key. She may know things that we understand but poorly. And with that we come to the end of what I'm free to share. The rest I leave in your capable hands." Pastor Nick finished.

"But if... if she's in the 104th cadet corps, she's at the front lines by now!" Hange realised.

"Then let's go!" Eren exclaimed. "Come on! There's no time to lose!" He started to run off, only to bash into Sasha, knocking her down to the ground.

"Watch where you're going!" Hange yelled after Sasha had been floored by Eren running into her.

"Sasha?" Eren asked, not having realised when she arrived.

"Just where did you come from all of a sudden?" Mikasa wondered the same thing as Eren.

"Ahh!" Sasha exclaimed, reaching for the document that she had dropped when Eren had barged into her. "I was sent to give a message to Commander Erwin, who then entrusted me to deliver this to you, Section Commader!" Sasha finished with a dramatic bow in front of Hange.

"Oh, uh... okay then. Excellent work." Hange complimented, taking the document and replacing it with a steamed potato, which Sasha looked dreamily at before taking a bite, savouring the taste.

"So, who was Nick talking about?" Hange asked the others.

"She was the smallest one in our class." Eren replied, Mikasa helping him put on his ODM gear.

"Golden hair, blue eyes, in fact she's uh... kinda cute." Armin added in.

"The girl who's always hanging around Ymir." Mikasa said.

"Excuse me?" Hange asked, seemingly knowing the name.

A few minutes later the scouts were gathered round a table while Hange discussed with them what they were going to do once they left the district.

"So thats the plan." She said. "Are we clear?" She asked.

"Yes, clear!" Came the chorused reply of the others in the room.

"Right, we have to go. Now!" Eren exclaimed, making his way towards the door.

"Calm down Eren." Levi told him. "I need you all to listen. We're going out seperate ways, it's how it has to be. Erwin has his reasons for throwing this ragtag squad together, but right now it's all riding on you." He explained. "Armin, you and Hange are the brain trust, use your combined knowledge to cook up some kind of solution."

"Right, yes Sir!" Armin responded as Levi turned to Mikasa.

"Mikasa... I don't think I'll ever get why you're so attached to the guy, but, put your skills to good use." He ordered. "Protect Eren at all costs!"

"Sir, I intend to!" She responded.

"And you." He turned to face Eren. "Don't screw this up!" Eren stiffened, knowing exactly what the Captain was referring to. "Check your emotions Eren. Learn the meaning of the word restraint. If you let yourself succumb to blind rage all hope is lost. We can't afford another mistake!"

"Sir!" Eren nodded at the Captain, determined to keep his rage in check.

"I mean it Eren." Levi said to him. "As much as you may want to, Meier is not to be harmed when found. Erwin doesn't want the Scouting Legion disbanded because their secret weapon turned some snot nosed brat from the Capital into his chew toy."

"Yes Sir!" Eren responded again, but he couldn't promise not to hit him when they found him.

(Ruins of Utgard Castle)

The experience of camping out inside the ruins of Utgard Castle was definitely not something for any of the eleven members situated inside the ruins to brag about. Apart from the fact that they had food and a fire going inside the castle to keep them all somewhat warm inside of the Castle during the cold night. In fact, the officers had barely spoken a word since the unarmed cadets had been told they could safely enter the castle.

In fact, they were given specific orders from Mike Zacharius to not talk to the cadets about anything if possible at all, they had asked why but were given the cold shoulder from both Mike and Nick, but dropped their arguments when they saw the anger that was residing in Mike's eyes. Usually he kept his cool, so for him to get angry was a rare occurence. Although to them it seemed cruel to not talk to the cadets, it was Nick who had suggested it to Mike in the first place, since two of them were the biggest enemies humanity had ever had, it would serve them well as to not tip their habd before they could play it.

This is what Nick had explained to Mike among other things in the hour or so that they had been there before the others had arrived. He was quite confused at first, but after having it explained in greater detail, Mike was absolutely livid, surprisingly not at Nick, but at the Royal Government for hiding these secrets and threatening and killing off people that refused to keep their dirty little secrets.

Once they were all situated with something to eat and drink from the cans that were found in the tower. Mike had suggested that Lynne take a look at Nick's broken nose to make sure there would be no permanent damage, saying "We need to keep the eye candy sweet."

So now that Nick was having his hastily set nose properly looked at by someone who could actually see what they were doing, he was still feeling slightly bercous at the fact there were three people in the same room as them that could kill all the humans, and what's worse is that they would probably kidnap Krista in the process, leaving humanity with some of their best soldiers dead at the hands of the enemy and their only viable source of knowledge on the darkest secrets of the Royal Government dead, and if that were to happen the Royal Assembly would likely call for the disbandment of the Scouts and the execution of Eren, leaving them all to die of a Titan invasion eventually.

He was brought out of his thoughts at the possible impending doom as Lynne forecefully moved the bone of his nose back into place, with it being slightly out of place from what he had done to it earlier.

"It looks better now." Lynne commented as she looked over his nose. "I'll just have to put a bandage on it to keep it in place, it should be fine in a few weeks."

"Thanks Lynne." He thanked.

"It's not a bother, but... I was wondering why Mike looks so angry." She said. "At first I had thought you called him creepy for his habit of sniffing people but he wouldn't be so hung up on that."

"He's not angry at me." Nick explained. "Rather at something I told him, and to be honest, I don't blame him."

"It couldn't have been that bad." She said, trying to remain as optimistic as possible about their current situation. "I thought that maybe you told him you found it creepy how he sniffs people when he greets them." She said, a smile on her face as she continued to bandage his nose.

"While I do find it creepy that he does that, especially to the kids that join, that's not what I said to him." He responded. "And for the record he never actually sniffed me when we first met."

"Actually... Mike told us he snuck into your room one night because he didn't get a chance to sniff you." Lynne admitted, with Nick getting a look of disgust on his face at the thought of Mike smelling him while he slept.

"Did he say what I smelled like?" Nick asked, genuinly curious as to what Mike thought of him.

"Um... well." She scratched her cheek out of embarrassment. "He said you reeked of sex." She said. "His words not mine." She added in.

"I'm... not sure how to respond to that." He replied. "I'm not sure why I smell of sex either, guess it's just his nose or something." He tried to wave it off as it was nothing.

"I think you know exactly why you reek of sex." Frieda spoke up, getting his face to slightly redden to where it was only noticeable by Lynne who decided not to comment on the current situation.

"It's not my fault you're all over me during the night." He responded to her teasing with, trying to put the blame on her instead.

"I don't recall you ever putting in any effort to stop me at any point over the last three years." She replied which shut him up until he decided to respond.

"Anyone who decides to resist you woukd be an idiot." He responded, now getting her embarrassed for a moment.

"You flatter me." She replied. "But I can recall several times in the past month alone where you had your way with me, and a proper lady such as myself has no way to defend herself from the advances of a big and strong soldier such as yourself." She feigned hurt when in fact she was enjoying teasing him as much as she enjoyed his company.

"Well maybe if you weren't so hot I wouldn't have to have my way with you." He flirted back.

"It's quite strange how you would rather flirt with a girl that's inside if your head when there are four other girls in the room with you." She said.

"Well first off, I'm pretty sure Ymir is into Historia so that's a no go. I was also under the impression that Historia would be off limits since she's your half sister." He replied. "And I'm pretty sure that Lynne and Nanaba would get pissed off at me if I tried to flirt with them in this situation."

"Well, I wouldn't specifically be mad at you if you were to get with Historia." She admitted. "But that would only be if she wasn't just a replacement for me and she reciprocated any feelings that you projected towards her."

"Thanks for the compliments." He deadpanned. "But she'd have to ditch the martyr complex and the Krista personality first."

Sadly yes, she's not Historia at the moment." Frieda sadly admitted. "But hopefully she will go back to being herself instead of using a false identity to hide herself."

"We can only hope at this point." He solemly thought, mainly because there was no reason for Krista to start using her real name again, at least not without a little coercion on Nick's part.

"There." Lynne said as she pulled her hands away from his face. "It should heal in about two to three weeks. You might feel some discomfort for a few days." She added in. "But I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Did any of you guys notice the sign when we came in. It said "Ruins of Utgard Castle", I didn't know there was a historical sight around here." Nanaba commented.

"Hey, take a look at what I just stumbled on." Gelgar said as he entered the room from one of the storage rooms in the castle, holding a bottle of Marleyan whiskey that Nick had tried to hid earlier, evidently not well enough.

"You're kidding?" Lynne asked, almost in disbelief that Gelgar had managed to find alcohol in a place like this. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Uh huh." He nodded and swallowed something. "Can't really read the label though." He commented, squinting at it a bit.

"You're not gonna drink it now." Lynne scolded, looking at him disapprovingly.

"Don't be smart." He caught himself with. "I'm gonna save it for-" He started only to have the bottle yanked out of his hands by Nick as he was shoved backwards into the storage room, letting out a yelp in pain as he landed on his ass right before the door slammed shut behind them.

Lynne immediately stood up and started to make her way to the room, with Nanaba about to follow her until Mike stopped them.

"Stop." He ordered the two. "Let them work out their differences." He smirked. "They've both had a rough day anyway."

"No offense Section Commander." Reiner started. "But is it really a good idea to let Gelgar get his ass beat while we're in this situation?" He asked.

"I agree with Reiner." Krista spoke up. "How is this going to help our current situation? I mean, what's going to happen between them in there?" She asked, not knowing the real reason Nick had forced Gelgar into the room, but given what Mike had been told earlier, he had a pretty good idea why.

Bertholdt on the other hand was getting rather suspicious as he sat quietly and kept to himself. Given that Gelgar couldn't read the label meant it was most likely in a foreign language, but it wasn't too far fetched to assume Nick was taught his native country's language given the fact that he was a noble, and most likely all the nobles on Paradis were not Eldians. Bertholdt could only hope that it wasn't written in Marleyan, because neither him nor Reiner could understand it, and it would mean bad news if he did manage to read it and was able to read where it was made at.

(Three minutes ago)

"What the hell was that for?" Gelgar asked, somehow keeping his cool despite the situation. "Don't tell me it's something to do with the drink?" He asked as he got to his feet.

"It has everything to do with the drink!" He hissed back at him, keeping his voice low enough to not be heard from the outside. "This whiskey was manufactured earlier this year in a brewery in Liberio." He stated while Gelgar gained a look of confusion on his face.

"You can read that?" He asked. "And where is Liberio, I've never heard of that place within the walls." He commented, clearly showing Nick that intelligence wasn't his strong suit.

"Are you really stupid enough to believe a brewery on this shitty island would print a label that only a select few could read?" He asked in disbelief, he had noticed the slip of the tongue but hoped that Gelgar had not.

"Island?" He asked. "What Island are you talking about?" He scratched his head in confusion. "Wait, what did you mean with that?" He asked, now getting concerned.

"Would you keep your fucking voice down." Nick whisper shouted at him. "I'd rather not have anyone else be able to hear this. Especially the three idiots that think I don't know their secret."

"What the hell are you talking about!" Gelgar practically demanded, but still keeping his voice down. "What secrets could they be hiding? Wait... you don't mean what I think you mean?"

"If you're referring to the real reason they were put on standby. Then yes, that's exactly what I mean." He replied.

Gelgar to his own credit didn't go straight for his weapons like Nick thought he would, instead he kept his cool like the situation demanded and spoke up. "What do we do?" He asked.

"Act natural." Nick responded. "Mike will take us all upstairs in a few minutes anyway. I'll explain there."

"Anything else?" Gelgar asked skeptically, not sure if there was more to the story.

"I really shouldn't have to say this, but stop looking so fucking nervous Gelgar." He said to him. "We're all fucked if they get wind of this now, and I don't just mean us in here are fucked, I mean the rest of the people inside the walls will be fucked, living their lives in an ignorant cycle until the walls come down again." With that Nick spun around and walked out of the room with the glass bottle of whiskey in hand and proceeded to make his way up the stairs with it. "I'll take first watch." He waved off the concern of the others with.

"What's his problem?" Ymir asked. "Don't tell me he's going to drink all that up there."

"Ymir." Krista elbowed her. "He's probably just tired, he wouldn't put our safety at risk by doing something like that."

"You mean he wouldn't put "your" safety in danger." Connie corrected her, earning a glare from Ymir that he saw but ignored. "It's quite obvious that he's more concerned about you than anyone else in this room. Isn't that why he always helped you back in the cadets?"

"He only did that because he's nice like that." Krista tried to wave it off. "Besides I'm sure he does care about all of you as well, at least in some sort of capacity."

Ymir snorted at that, like she would believe that he cared about her, it was more like he cared about Krista because of her sister that he knew, well at least that was what she hoped, there was no way she would lose out to some rich brat on her quest for the attention of Krista.

"Enough gossiping." Mike cut in, slightly annoyed at the comments being made towards their fellow soldier. "I want you kids to try and get some rest. We leave four hours shy of daybreak." He said, before adding something. "The rest of us will keep watch for the night. The Titan's shouldn't be active at night, but you never know." He said, thinking back to how the Beast Titan was able to control the Titan's by giving them orders.

"Excuse me." Krista interrupted, deciding that she should speak up about her worries. "What if it turns out Wall Rose that isn't actually compromised? Where do, uh... where else could they be coming from?"

While Mike was aware that they had not found a breach on their first pass of the wall, he had been told why the walls were not likely to have been breached. The other four though, hadn't been informed yet so they had been asking themselves that question for some time since they had arrived at the abandoned castle.

"Then it's our job to find out." Mike replied after a long pause as he started to walk up the stairs. "Gelgar, Nanaba, Lynne and Henning, we need to discuss a time scale for watch with cadet Meier." He gestured for them to follow him up the stairs.

"I'm just saying, the situation isn't good sure." Krista spoke up to her friends when all the Officers had disappeared up the stairs. "But is it as bad as we think? You never know, right? That's all."

"You're right." Reiner pointed out. "We haven't seen that many Titans out there. You'd think with the wall being busted open there would be more."

"Yeah." Bertholdt agreed quietly. "The only ones we saw were from the initial sighting, and well..." He broke off, glancing at Connie as he did.

"Connie, what about your village?" Ymir asked, noticing the way Bertholdt looked at him.

"Totally destroyed." He replied. "It was crushed to tinder and bits of rubble." He revealed to Ymir and Krista who weren't with their team.

"I uh... I'm sorry." Ymir responded, he may be an idiot, but he didn't deserve that, nobody did.

"Nobody got devoured though." He said, getting their attention once again. "Looked like they all got out. So there's a silver lining at least."

"I thought that you said it was destroyed." Ymir spoke up, having gained her interest that nobody had been eaten despite the village being destroyed.

"Well the houses and stuff were, but the people themselves must have all escaped." He replied, he could take hope from the fact that there was no blood at his village. "I mean that had to have. But the thing is... we didn't see any blood anywhere. Not so much as one drop. That's the only possible explanation."

But there was one thing he couldn't get off his mind, so he decided to share with his friends. "Still though, something I can't get outta my head. There was a Titan on top of our house... just lying there... staring at me. It couldn't move on its own, thank God. But I just... I have no idea why... but it reminded me of my mom. Am I crazy?"

"Connie." Reiner spoke to him. "What did I tell you? It was your imagina-"

"Are you for real?!"

All eyes in the room went to Ymir, as she started cackling like a witch. Like Connie had just said the funniest thing in the world. "You actually think your mom might be a Titan? Oh honey, as itty-bitty as you are, please."

The other four in the room went silent, looking at her in a mixture of shock and horror, it didn't help that the superiors had all gone upstairs as well and would probably not hear them.

"We all knew you were as dumb as a bag of rocks, but this, woah man. This takes it to a whole other level!" She exclaimed, still laughing her ass off.

"Ha ha, yeah have your fun." Connie grumbled, rubbing his palm on his forehead. "Guess I was kinda asking for it."

"Don't stop there, if mother darling's a Titan, then it's only logical to assume that dear old daddy is too. Basic biology." Ymir continued on with. "How else would-"

"Okay I get it!" Connie finally snapped at her. "Just shut up and go to sleep!"

While the Cadets of the 104th were conversating down below whixh ended with Ymir mocking Connie. At the top of the tower the other Scouts present were talking about something a lot different, the main thing was that the wall wasn't breached and that humanity wasn't dying out like they were led to believe, the only other crucial piece of information was that the Colossal and Armoured Titans were directly below them.

"Mike, you seriously don't expect us to believe all this bullshit?" Nanaba asked, who was clearly having none of it while the others also didn't seem to believe him.

"Whether or not you believe me is irrelevant Nanaba." Nick spoke up. "What I have told you is the truth, and I suggest you take this seriously or are we going to have a problem here?" He dangerously asked her.

"You can't just save a superior officer from a talking Titan and then expect people to believe everything you say." She hissed back at him. "Why hasn't this information been made public yet?"

"Because that would mean the downfall of society within the walls." He explained. "There would be a civil war if this information was leaked to the public, not to mention that all the Noble families care about is their wealth inside of Wall Sina. When you get right down to it, it's all down to greed."

"So they kept this information hidden from the public because they want to keep their power." Henning observed, keeping his anger at a minimum.

"That's about right, but on the other hand. Most of them keep it secret to keep their lives."

"What do you mean by that?" Lynne asked, getting involved for the first time.

"When the walls were first constructed over a hundred years ago, the majority of the people here came from a specific bloodline, one that the Royal Family could manipulate, and by that I mean altering their memories." He told them. "The minority that could not be manipulated into forgetting were offered wealth in exchange for their silence on the matter, with the threat of releasing the information the only bargaining chip they had. Those bloodlines would make up the majority of the aristocracy today." He explained to them.

"You said the majority?" Gelgar asked, to which Nick nodded back at him. "Which families didn't become aristocrats."

"That would be the Asian clan and the Ackerman clan. Both families refused to keep quiet to the rest of the population about the truth, so the King had them persecuted for a century." He explained. "But when the new King was crowned twenty one tears ago, he decided that the persecution should stop."

"But King Fritz has had the throne for far longer than that." Nanaba brought up.

"So he has." Nick said, internally berating himself for the slip of the tongue. "I must have misspoke then. My bad."

"Constantly lying to them isn't going to get them to trust you any more than the little trust they have in you already." Frieda pointed out, only to be ignored by him, which was a rare occurrence in itself.

"I have a question about the walls." Lynne spoke up. "You said that the walls are made of Titans right, so I was curious as to how many Titans are in the walls?"

"If you're looking for an accurate number then I doubt anyone could provide that, even the one who made the walls probably couldn't tell you." He told them. "But I can tell you that they are lined up shoulder to shoulder with their feet buried in the ground, that's why the walls are fifty metres instead of sixty. I'm sure someone could do the maths if they really wanted."

"Could you stop being so cryptic?" Nanaba asked, getting annoyed at not being given a straight answer. "It's getting really annoying considering you keep avoiding giving out any straight answers."

"If I were to tell you everything then that would mean that I hold no power anymore." He retorted. "And I'm not stupid enough to give you straight answers either, what I say is what you will recieve. No exceptions."

"Not to interupt your little lovers quarrel." Gelgar spoke up, earning him a glare from Nanaba. "But what should we do about the uh... infestation we have under our feet?" He asked them cautiously.

"There's nothing to be done at the moment." Nick replied. "They will try to maintain their cover as long as they think they have it. But we should still be cautious around them, the Beast Titan will likely return with more Titans soon, when that happens I would suggest not risking your life for them."

"Why don't we just kill them now?" Henning asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to kill them now and be done with it. With the power gone they couldn't break the walls anymore."

"The power doesn't disappear when the holder dies." Nick replied. "The power will transfer to someone else, whether they want it or not. And it would be preferable if we could contain them, it would be a lot better if we could take their powers and put them to use on our side."

"Then how would you suggest we take their power?" Nanaba asked. "We don't even know where the power came from, or how to transfer it."

"You don't have to worry about that now, but if they are about to be eaten by a Titan... let it happen." He replied.

"This isn't a game!" Nanaba hissed, storming up to him and grabbing a fistful of his slightly bloody shirt. "Start giving proper answers or I swear to Maria that I will march straight down there and kill them myself." She threatened, glaring straight into his eyes, doing her best not to recoil at the dead stare he was giving her.

"Tell them." Frieda urged him. "You aren't doing yourself any favours by keeping it to yourself. And don't forget Historia is down there with them, she could get hurt if they were to transform." She reminded him.

While there was absolutely no doubt in his mind about how he felt about Frieda, there were some times that he hated that she was right most of the time, and this was one of those times.

"I'll give you a straight answer on the condition that nobody hears about this except for Erwin, Hange and Levi." He eventually replied to Nanaba. "Anyone else finds out and It'll spell disaster for us."

"Deal." Mike quickly answered, shooting his squad a quick glare to get them to shut up and deal with it.

"Very well. If a Titan were to ingest the spinal fluid of a Titan shifter, like Eren for example, they would then transform into a human with the abilities of the person they ate." He told them. "That is all I will say on the matter. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get some sleep." He said, walking down the stairs and towards where the others were resting.

"I can see why he didn't want to tell us." Henning pointed out. "Nobody would want to hear that, especially in our situation."

"Thats... that's... I don't know what to say." Lynne trailed off.

"To think we've risked our lives killing Titans, only to now find out that they could be human like us." Nanaba said.

"I doubt it's as simple as that." Mike spoke up. "He said that there are less than ten Titan powers in existence earlier today. We're probably putting them out of their own misery."

"Is that why they eat humans?" Gelgar asked. "So that they can turn into one?" He clarified.

"He wouldn't say when I asked why they eat people. Only thing he said was that it was their natural instinct." Mike replied. "But still, it's horrifying to find out the truth about the Titans from someone who's barely out of his teens. Makes you think about how ignorant the rest of us really are."

"And that's not even counting what he hasn't told us." Gelgar added in. "He said something about a place called Liberio. I've never heard of it but he said the whiskey was made there. The way he said it made it sound like it was made outside the walls."

"At this point that's more than likely the case." Mike pointed out. "The first day he joined the Scouts he said that the enemy would have been kids when Wall Maria was breached, said that no child plans to commit genocide, that they were told to by somebody. Erwin was considering the idea that there were people living outside the walls but had no way to confirm it."

"So... what now?" Lynne asked.

"There's one more thing we need to discuss." Mike said to them. "The small blonde, Krista I believe her name was."

"What about her?" Nanaba asked.

"Before he said a word to me he demandes that she be withdrawn from the frontlines if we happened upon her by chance." He told them. "I asked why but he wouldn't say, only that she was important, far more important than the rest of us."

"The other girl, Ymir I think, she wanted to withdraw with Krista, but got scolded for suggesting that." Henning replied. "Takes more than guts to say something like that in our situation."

"He doesn't think it's that though." Mike sighed as he prepared to tell them. "He thinks that she has a martyr complex, and that's why she's so caring towards others, so that she'll be remembered as a good person."

"You mean that she joined the Scouts so she could become a martyr?" Gelgar asked, shocked that she would do something llike that.

"His words were that she was neglected as a child and her mother constantly wished that she wasn't born." Mike explained, gaining looks of horror from all four. "But given the circumstances we were in, I agreed to his request on the condition that we be in a losing fight against Titans."

"She won't want to leave though, if he's right about her martyr complex, she'll be the first to sacrifice herself." Henning pointed out.

"We both agreed that someone would need to carry her away. Knock her out if necessary." Mike replied with.

"Who will take her then?" Nanaba asked. "It's not like we can draw straws or anything."

"We'll work that out if it comes down to it." Mike replied. "But in all likelihood, we all know who's the most valuable one of us that is currently wearing ODM gear."

For the past two hours, Nick had been out like a candlelight after he had came back down fron the tower and taken off his ODM gear to get some sleep. After he had fallen asleep, they hadn't dared to make too much noise, because they had all heard the stories of Thomas being thrown out if the top bunk after waking him up by mistake while he still slept next to him.

Ymir however, had taken to scavenging for leftover food that hadn't been opened or eaten yet, but all she had come across so far was empty cans and some items of clothing, that was until she heard the door open from behind her as Reiner stepped in.

"Ymir. What're you doing?" He asked her, keeping his voice low as to not wake the others.

"Huh, seriously, what're you doing?" She asked in return. "Here to ravage me? Don't take this the wrong way, but I didn't think you were all that into girls. In fact, I know a hot guy in the other room who doesn't seem to take a great interest in the female population." She mocked.

Reiner however, wasn't one to let Ymir's petty insults get to him. "Really? Well since we're on the subject. I didn't think you were all that into guys." He jested back at her.

"Huh, if you must know, I'm scavenging for leftovers like a street urchin." She replied with. "I prefer not to meet my maker on an empty stomach."

"Look, the whole thing earlier with Connie. Were you teasing him to get his mind off things?" He asked her. "It'd be great if you could keep that up. The less he dwells on his family right now the better."

"What're you talking about?" She asked, seemingly not hearing what he said. "Huh, this might be good." She mused as she found a can that wasn't opened yet, all the others had been opened with the label torn off. "Herring's not my favourite but whatever."

"Herring huh?" Reiner asked as he walked over to her. "Can I see?" He requested.

"Help yourself." She replied, handing the can over to him so she could keep looking for other cans.

"I can't believe there's canned food here." He replied, but noticed that he couldn't read the writing on the label. "What the?" He asked, shocked. "Wait, what is this? I can't read a word of it. How do you know it says herring?" He asked, causing her to freeze up. "This uh, label, it's in another language." He pointed out. "Ymir, how can you-"

"EVERYONE WAKE UP!" Lynne yelled, waking up everyone who was asleep and saving Ymir from something she really didn't want to explain. "GET TO THE TOWER IMMEDIATELY!"

Once they had all assembled at the top of the tower, they all noticed the dozen or so Titans that were making their way towards the tower. Among them was the Beast Titan who was lumbering around, being ignored by the other Titans in the area, with their focus being solely on the tower. If he hadn't been given prior knowledge, Nick would have thought that the Beast Titan was an abnormal, but he had his mother to thank for that, she had thought it best to tell him about the reality of the false world they lived in after the first time Frieda had snapped at him and called him a sinner when he was only eleven.

"I couldn't see them in the dark." Lynne mumbled out. "But with the moonlight-"

"Don't mope. Focus." Nick interrupted her. "How many are there?" He asked.

"I count at least fifteen." Mike stated. "But I can smell the rest, too many. All in the forest, hopefully they can't move like these ones can."

"How can they move?" Gelgar asked in shock. "This shouldn't be happening. The sun went down hours ago."

"What's going on?" Krista asked no one in particular, as she too was shocked that the Titans were able to move in total darkness.

"Hey guys." Connie called out. "The hell is that?" He asked, pointing towards the Beast Titan. "It's gotta be a Titan. But have you ever seen one that big? Look at it! It's more like some kind of beast!"

"How do we-" Connie stopped himself as he looked over to Reiner and Berthold, who were both staring at the abnormal, but whether it was in terror or admiration he couldn't tell, something Ymir also noticed. "Wait, is it? It's heading for the wall!" He yelled out as it changed bearing and headed directly towards the wall.

Just then, a fifteen metre rammed itself into the tower, knocking everybody off balance for a moment as a few smaller Titans mover forwards towards the closed door of the tower and began trying to bash the door down to get inside the tower.

"He- hey!" Gelgar yelled as he looked down to the entrance. "Back off! Don't be coming up here!" He meekly got out. "Aint you got nothing better to do?" He asked, not really expecting an answer from them. "Bother someone else, I should be drinking right now damnit! You're standing between me and a tankard of ale!" He yelled, drawing both of his swords as he did. ""I've earned the right to get trashed!"

Nick was the first to rush forward, drawing his blades and hopping up onto the battlements of the tower, he was about to drop until Mike stopped him.

"Wait." He said, pulling him back and turning to Lynne. "Lynne, you and Nick help the others secure the inside of the tower." They were about to protest but he held hos hand up. "There's no point in us fighting out there if they get inside anyway. We'll keep them out as best we can, you two kill any Titans that get inside."

"Yes Sir." Lynne responded while Nick had to agree with him, it seemed that he wasn't a Section Commander for nothing.

"The rest of you with me." He commanded, jumping onto the battlements. "Defend the tower with everything you have! You all know what's at stake!" He yelled as he prepared to jump off, with Nanaba, Gelgar and Henning all with him. "Attack!" He yelled as he jumped off, the others following suit. "Give your hearts for humanity!"

A/N- sorry if this chapter doesn't have any action, but there will be plenty in the next chapter, which I hope will be done faster than this one. But Nick isn't telling them everything, which makes sense since he would lose any negotiation power if he freely gave everything up, which would ruin his plan. But until next time!