Another crystallised fist flew forward from Annie towards Lukas, who took the full force of it onto his face without much of a fight, the punch sent him flying back and onto his backside, part if his face caved in yet again from the force of the punch.

"Why won't you fight back?" Annie yelled in her mind. Thinking back to the time that he had been training with the warrior unit back in Marley, he wasn't this useless, he was always one of the best trainers in the unit, so why? Why wasn't he trying to fight her here and now?

Her first attempted takedown was the first time he had actually lashed out, a knee to her stomach sending her back a little, it was obvious he didn't want it to end up on the ground. "Why isn't he trying to fight me properly?" She racked through her brain for possible answers to the question. "Is he buying time? For Eren probably, but he's long gone now, there's no point anymore."

Then a thought flashed across her mind, did he think that she couldn't handle him in a one on one fight. "You bastard, you actually think you're too good for me." She seethed inwardly. She got so mad that her Titan let out a scream, not to attract Titans, but to let him know she was angry, and now she was going to truly kick his ass out of that Titan.

"You were never one of us." A punch to the shoulder, knocking it out of place for the moment. "We were treated like devils." A kick to the arm, which was heavily damaged by her crystalline shin. "While you were treated like one of them." Another kick to the unguarded knee, full on breaking it. "A Marleyan, with the same blood as the rest of us." She kicked his other knee out of position, sending him down to his knees, kneeling before her. "No armband, no abuse, no threats to you or your family." A devastating knee was delivered to his jaw, breaking the lower half of his face and sending him flying onto his backside once again.

"You were a pretender, you never understood and you never will understand what it's like to be an Eldian." She stepped over him, using his body as a step as she passed over him, but once she passed, her ankle was grabbed, and she was caught off guard by the speed that he had recovered and thrown her across the forest.

Now Annie was more confused than angry at this point, he had fought back twice, and she didn't know why, until her eyes were drawn to movement coming from behind him. Her eyes focused, two Scouts from the Levi Squad were still here, but why would he want to-

"The girl." Annie's Titan growled out in anger once again. "I swear, you stood by while Reiner made me kill Marco, if you fucking fight me if I try to kill her now." Her mind was set, she moved forward, with Lukas expecting to get hit, but instead, Annie blew past him, sprinting straight towards the female Scout.

"Petra! Look out!"

Annie's fist missed the girl by inches, destroying the tree as she was narrowly evaded. Annie reached out to grab the girl trying to fly away, she was close, too close for Petra's comfort as she screamed, never had a Titan moved at her so fast before.

Though for Annie when she was grabbed by the arm and thrown yet again, she was more than satisfied with the way Lukas had answered her question. It was now clear to her, he cared for these people too, he saw they were not devils, but he was dedicated to the mission, just as she was, just in another way.

As Annie got up and raised her fists once again, she was far more satisfied this time when he also did the same. He had gotten the message loud and clear, fight her or she'd kill anyone that was in the vicinity, especially the girl he cared about.

"Shit." Lukas cursed. "She knows, now I'm fucked either way." He grumbled inwardly.

Annie's first attack was blocked, and now that she knew he was actually taking this serious, she began her assault on him, throwing kicks, punches, hardening her skin at just the right time to inflict damage. She even feigned attacks to open his defence even more, her barrage was brutal, and the dust combined with the steam being kicked up made it difficult to see exactly how much damage she was doing, but she was ruthless, and she took great pleasure in knowing he was trying and still losing.

Her attacks ceased and the dust settled, but her eyes went wide when she saw that his body was spotless, not even a scratch was seen on him, just what the hell was his Titan capable of?

Her shin crystallised once more, and a kick was swung at his shin, hoping to sever his leg this time, he stood still, took the blow, but hardened his skin at the point of contact right before, and the crystal on Annie's leg cracked.

"He broke my hardening?" She didn't expect that, and within seconds, she was now under a heavy assault, she tried to dodge, but he knew how she fought, he remembered what she'd do and he caught her chin with a right hook, his hardened fist blowing her jaw right off her face, leaving her with just the upper jaw, tongue hanging out and all.

Annie tried to counter with a hardened punch, but Lukas had other ideas. He met her punch with his own, his hardened fist turning hers into several chunks of Titan meat and a fine paste to go with it.

"No!" Annie stumbled back, his Titan was far more powerful that she thought, her hardening was nowhere near as strong as his was. Her back hit a tree, and it was at that point she turned to flee, but her feet were stuck in place, she couldn't move, and when she pulled, she felt the tearing of skin as something had come out the ground to keep her anchored in place.

"My god." She realised what he was doing, and she resigned herself to losing this fight. "His hardening isn't solely connected to his body like mine is, it's-" Her thoughts were cut off as he punched her once more, an uppercut that severed her head from her body, spiralling up and into the air as her body crumpled to the floor. Head landing with a thud a couple of seconds later.

After a few moments, the weary Scouts of Petra and Eld, now joined by Captain Levi moved in once they were satisfied that the Titan wouldn't turn on them. This White Titan had probably just saved Eren from a gruesome fate being dissected by the MP's if they could find out who the Female Titan was.

"What the hell?" Eld asked as they got close, too close and the white Titan stood protectively over the Female Titan, not getting a proper look at who could be inside.

"Hey! Big guy!" Captain Levi yelled to make sure he was heard. "We don't want you. We want the other one."

"Captain. It looks like it's preparing to fight us!" Petra called out, the three of them were grouped up together, and it was blocking their view of what could potentially be a very exposed nape.

"Split up and circle the Female Titan. Don't get too close though." Levi warned them. "Try and get a good look at the nape. It can't block all our lines of sight at once."

Lukas backed up now, almost standing on Annie at this point, he wasn't trying to get her caught, he just wanted to make sure she understood the Titan she, Reiner and Bertholdt were up against.

"Blonde hair Captain!" Eld called out, and Lukas growled again, and moved one of his hands to cover Annie's nape, but what they couldn't see was that he was opening the tree from the inside and hollowing it out so she could climb in and hide from the Scouts.

He could feel Annie begin to move inside the tree, and he could also feel the glares of three angry and very experienced Scouts, ones that he didn't want to kill and one that he wouldn't even try to kill.

After a few moments, Annie tapped his fingers a few times to let him know she was ready, and he began kicking up dirt and using his hardening to cut himself, that and the steam from Annie's Titan was enough to blind the Scouts for a short while, enough to make them think Annie had ran for it.

Once the steam had settled enough, the White Titan was moving away from them, deeper into the forest, away from the walls more importantly.

"Should we go after it Captain?" Eld was the one to ask.

"No, he's baiting us." Levi answered. "The Female Titan escaped and we didn't see it, he's just a distraction." He explained. "We have what we need. Let's regroup with the others."

"Yes Sir!"

Just out of sight, Lukas had run for a good thirty seconds or so, made sure that they weren't following before he reached back, grabbed his crystal, and he threw it up and into the upper canopy of the forest, hurtling in the direction of where he was actually supposed to be.

When Levi and the two others with him joined up with the formation, they were still moving out of the forest and into the open plains, where they kept moving, retracing their steps through the expedition and picking up any bodies that they had spotted, loading them up onto the wagons.

Though when they reached a particularly open area with no Titans in visible range, Erwin ordered the formation stop so they could properly account for the dead bodies that they had with them.

Dismounting from her horse, Petra scanned the area for any signs of Lukas. "He better not be dead." She thought to herself, she hadn't seen him since the beginning of the expedition, and all she wanted was to know that he was safe.

She walked around for a bit, looking around for him, but she couldn't see him anywhere, and she was beginning to get a little worried because the more she looked, the more she became more and more worried.

"Ow!" Petra recognised that yell of pain, it was one that she was very familiar with, especially after the stunt he pulled joining the Scouts. The sound came from one of the wagons, where she saw Nanaba, one of the veterans helping someone with a bandage onto his head.

"Lukas?" Petra asked if it was him.

"Shit..."

That was a good sign, at least he was still alive, though depending on what he had done, it was still yet to be seen whether he'd come back in one piece.

"What did you do now?" Petra asked as she walked up to both of them, and when he didn't answer, she had to ask Nanaba. "What did he do?"

"Hit his head on a tree after being far too eager to go after the Titans." Nanaba informed her. "Also broke his finger on impact, I didn't see where he landed, but he said he woke up in a bush."

"Did he now?" Petra was now glaring daggers at him, and when she looked down at his hand, she saw his right pinky finger was bent completely to the side, and she could see the finger visibly throbbing in pain. "I'll take it from here Nanaba. You don't need to treat this idiot anymore."

Nanaba held back a laugh at the two of them, because it was quite clear what was going on here, and how much trouble Lukas was in at the moment.

"Petra, I can explain-"

She shushed him with a finger to his lips, examining the bandage on his head that covered what she thought was just a small cut. "No need for an explanation dear." She took a hold of the hand with the broken finger, gently touching the pinky to see if it was as painful as it looked. "Injuries happen all the time on the battlefield, and luckily for you, I'm a qualified field medic."

In an instant, she took his finger and pulled as hard as she could, it wasn't broken, just very dislocated, that was all, so all she had to do was yank it back into place for him.

"Fuck!" He yelled out in pain. "Did you have to do that."

"Yes you idiot." She poked him on the shoulder. "What the hell is wrong with you? You used to be one of the ones who wouldn't go near a Titan, now you can't get enough of them, have you gone crazy or something?"

"I don't know... maybe?" He shrugged. "I just... nevermind." He shook his head. "Doesn't matter now."

Petra sighed, but she moved forwards to hug him, wrapping her arms tight around him, with Lukas doing the same in reciprocation. "I'm glad you're okay." She told him.

"Yeah... I'm glad you're okay too."

"Titan activity nearby!" One of the Scouts called out, and that was the signal that it was time to go.

Arriving back in Karanes after a close call out in the open, with a soldier trying to recover his dead friend with little success and the carts of dead bodies having to be unloaded to prevent the Titans from catching up, the expedition was not as much of a disaster as it could've been, but to everyone looking on, it was just another failure.

"Excuse me, Captain Levi." A man walked out of the crowd to walk alongside the Captain. "Good evening, yes, I'm Petra's father Sir." He introduced himself. "Might I lend your ear before she sees us? I received this letter from her somewhat recently. Apparently you handpicked her yourself, she's very excited I can assure you. In fact it sounds like she's utterly devoted to you in every way. So devoted that, well to be honest, her mother and I are a bit concerned you see." He chuckled nervously, while Levi didn't have a clue how to respond to that.

"You see, I know that fathers can have trouble letting go, but still, I can't help but feel she's far too young to be thinking about marriage, she has so much yet to experience before settling down."

"What?" Levi turned to face him. "I'm not the one she's written to you about, there must be some kind of mistake there."

"No, she clearly says Captain Levi in her letter." Her father responded with.

"Dad! Stop, please." Petra finally managed to catch up to the Captain and her father, albeit not before she was embarrassed anymore. "That's not what the letter was about."

"Petra... why does your dad think you want to marry Captain Levi?" Lukas had heard everything, and he was not happy about it, not one bit.

"Lukas, it's not what you think." Petra tried to reassure him. "It's just a misunderstanding, that's all."

"Yeah, I got that part from the Captain's reply." He answered. "What I don't understand is how that misconception could be made. Unless you never mentioned me in your letters to him, is that what it was?"

"No, I did mention you in previous letters." She protested that point. "I just haven't mentioned you in a while, that's all."

"Excuse me, Lukas was it?" Petra's father spoke up. "I do recall seeing your name in a few letters, but what exactly is your relationship with my daughter?"

"Oh, so you wrote my name, but that was it then?" He turned back to Petra. "Was it not convenient for you to tell him about us?"

"Is that what you did all these years? Stick around but just not mention me to anyone else?" He looked hurt, more than she could imagine. "Like I was some dirty little secret you had to hide from everyone else."

"No, that's not it, not at all." Petra denied. "If you'd just let me explain-"

"There's no need to explain Petra." He cut her off. "As for your question Mr Ral, I don't know anymore." He told him. "Depends on how convenient it is for Petra it seems."

"Lukas, wait." She tried to stop him walking away from her, but he shrugged her off without a second thought.

Petra's hands went to her head, she really had fucked up now.